IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i12p3687-d578760.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rooftop PV: Potential and Impacts in a Complex Territory

Author

Listed:
  • Diana Bernasconi

    (Prysmian Group, 20126 Milan, Italy)

  • Giorgio Guariso

    (Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bionngegneria (DEIB), Politecnico di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy)

Abstract

When developing a sustainability plan in a complex and heavily urbanized territory, one of the most relevant options available is installing rooftop photovoltaic (PV) panels. Thus, it is essential to determine the amount of available surface and the potential impact of such installations on the energy and emission budget of the area. Instead of processing remotely sensed imagery, which is a long process and does not allow considering the buildings’ ownership, this study develops an approach based on a cluster analysis of the urban/morphological characteristics of the municipalities. Once a clear group diversification is obtained, the roof surface of the center of gravity of each cluster is extrapolated to all similar settlements. This, together with the information of local solar irradiation, allowed us to compute each cluster’s potential solar energy production and its capability to respond to the local energy demand, a key parameter to decide about the possibility of a local smart electricity network. Finally, the emissions avoided thanks to solar PV development are computed in terms of carbon dioxide and other relevant pollutants. This approach is applied to the residential rooftop of Lombardy, a Northern Italy region with a wide variety of urban morphologies and landscapes. The potential production of rooftop PV exceeds the estimated electricity consumption of residential buildings and would allow sparing almost 4 M ton of CO 2 equivalent or 5% of the overall regional emissions.

Suggested Citation

  • Diana Bernasconi & Giorgio Guariso, 2021. "Rooftop PV: Potential and Impacts in a Complex Territory," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-17, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:12:p:3687-:d:578760
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/12/3687/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/12/3687/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guariso, Giorgio & Sangiorgio, Matteo, 2019. "Multi-objective planning of building stock renovation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 101-110.
    2. Hosenuzzaman, M. & Rahim, N.A. & Selvaraj, J. & Hasanuzzaman, M. & Malek, A.B.M.A. & Nahar, A., 2015. "Global prospects, progress, policies, and environmental impact of solar photovoltaic power generation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 284-297.
    3. Hofierka, Jaroslav & Kaňuk, Ján, 2009. "Assessment of photovoltaic potential in urban areas using open-source solar radiation tools," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 2206-2214.
    4. Peng, Jinqing & Lu, Lin, 2013. "Investigation on the development potential of rooftop PV system in Hong Kong and its environmental benefits," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 149-162.
    5. Thomas Huld & Ana M. Gracia Amillo, 2015. "Estimating PV Module Performance over Large Geographical Regions: The Role of Irradiance, Air Temperature, Wind Speed and Solar Spectrum," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-23, June.
    6. Müller, Jonas & Trutnevyte, Evelina, 2020. "Spatial projections of solar PV installations at subnational level: Accuracy testing of regression models," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    7. Zhang, Yuhu & Ren, Jing & Pu, Yanru & Wang, Peng, 2020. "Solar energy potential assessment: A framework to integrate geographic, technological, and economic indices for a potential analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 577-586.
    8. Chow, T.T., 2010. "A review on photovoltaic/thermal hybrid solar technology," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 365-379, February.
    9. Bódis, Katalin & Kougias, Ioannis & Jäger-Waldau, Arnulf & Taylor, Nigel & Szabó, Sándor, 2019. "A high-resolution geospatial assessment of the rooftop solar photovoltaic potential in the European Union," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    10. Hong, Taehoon & Lee, Minhyun & Koo, Choongwan & Jeong, Kwangbok & Kim, Jimin, 2017. "Development of a method for estimating the rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) potential by analyzing the available rooftop area using Hillshade analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 320-332.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Georgiou, Giorgos S. & Rouvas, Constantinos & Nathanael, Demetris, 2022. "Enhancing expansion of rooftop PV systems through Mixed Integer Linear Programming and Public Tender Procedures," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 347-361.
    2. Álvaro Rodríguez-Martinez & Carlos Rodríguez-Monroy, 2021. "Economic Analysis and Modelling of Rooftop Photovoltaic Systems in Spain for Industrial Self-Consumption," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-32, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gassar, Abdo Abdullah Ahmed & Cha, Seung Hyun, 2021. "Review of geographic information systems-based rooftop solar photovoltaic potential estimation approaches at urban scales," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    2. Liang, Hanwei & Shen, Jieling & Yip, Hin-Lap & Fang, Mandy Meng & Dong, Liang, 2024. "Unleashing the green potential: Assessing Hong Kong's building solar PV capacity," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 369(C).
    3. Primož Mavsar & Klemen Sredenšek & Bojan Štumberger & Miralem Hadžiselimović & Sebastijan Seme, 2019. "Simplified Method for Analyzing the Availability of Rooftop Photovoltaic Potential," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-17, November.
    4. Elham Fakhraian & Marc Alier & Francesc Valls Dalmau & Alireza Nameni & Maria José Casañ Guerrero, 2021. "The Urban Rooftop Photovoltaic Potential Determination," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-18, July.
    5. Prina, Matteo Giacomo & Casalicchio, Valeria & Kaldemeyer, Cord & Manzolini, Giampaolo & Moser, David & Wanitschke, Alexander & Sparber, Wolfram, 2020. "Multi-objective investment optimization for energy system models in high temporal and spatial resolution," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    6. Hong, Taehoon & Lee, Minhyun & Koo, Choongwan & Jeong, Kwangbok & Kim, Jimin, 2017. "Development of a method for estimating the rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) potential by analyzing the available rooftop area using Hillshade analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 320-332.
    7. Guglielmina Mutani & Valeria Todeschi, 2021. "Optimization of Costs and Self-Sufficiency for Roof Integrated Photovoltaic Technologies on Residential Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-25, July.
    8. Carlos Beltran-Velamazan & Marta Monzón-Chavarrías & Belinda López-Mesa, 2021. "A Method for the Automated Construction of 3D Models of Cities and Neighborhoods from Official Cadaster Data for Solar Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, May.
    9. Kong, Minjin & Ji, Changyoon & Hong, Taehoon & Kang, Hyuna, 2022. "Impact of the use of recycled materials on the energy conservation and energy transition of buildings using life cycle assessment: A case study in South Korea," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    10. Assouline, Dan & Mohajeri, Nahid & Scartezzini, Jean-Louis, 2018. "Large-scale rooftop solar photovoltaic technical potential estimation using Random Forests," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 189-211.
    11. Thai, Clinton & Brouwer, Jack, 2021. "Challenges estimating distributed solar potential with utilization factors: California universities case study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(PB).
    12. Bódis, Katalin & Kougias, Ioannis & Jäger-Waldau, Arnulf & Taylor, Nigel & Szabó, Sándor, 2019. "A high-resolution geospatial assessment of the rooftop solar photovoltaic potential in the European Union," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    13. Sredenšek, Klemen & Štumberger, Bojan & Hadžiselimović, Miralem & Mavsar, Primož & Seme, Sebastijan, 2022. "Physical, geographical, technical, and economic potential for the optimal configuration of photovoltaic systems using a digital surface model and optimization method," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    14. Hossein Yousefi & Hamed Hafeznia & Amin Yousefi-Sahzabi, 2018. "Spatial Site Selection for Solar Power Plants Using a GIS-Based Boolean-Fuzzy Logic Model: A Case Study of Markazi Province, Iran," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-18, June.
    15. Chen, Han & Chen, Wenying, 2021. "Status, trend, economic and environmental impacts of household solar photovoltaic development in China: Modelling from subnational perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 303(C).
    16. Joo Hee Lee & Seong Geon Hwang & Gwi Hyun Lee, 2019. "Efficiency Improvement of a Photovoltaic Thermal (PVT) System Using Nanofluids," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-16, August.
    17. Chen, Zhe & Yang, Bisheng & Zhu, Rui & Dong, Zhen, 2024. "City-scale solar PV potential estimation on 3D buildings using multi-source RS data: A case study in Wuhan, China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 359(C).
    18. Luis Ramirez Camargo & Judith Franco & Nilsa María Sarmiento Babieri & Silvina Belmonte & Karina Escalante & Raphaela Pagany & Wolfgang Dorner, 2016. "Technical, Economical and Social Assessment of Photovoltaics in the Frame of the Net-Metering Law for the Province of Salta, Argentina," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-21, February.
    19. Kosmopoulos, Panagiotis & Dhake, Harshal & Kartoudi, Danai & Tsavalos, Anastasios & Koutsantoni, Pelagia & Katranitsas, Apostolos & Lavdakis, Nikolaos & Mengou, Eftihia & Kashyap, Yashwant, 2024. "Ray-Tracing modeling for urban photovoltaic energy planning and management," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 369(C).
    20. Walch, Alina & Rüdisüli, Martin, 2023. "Strategic PV expansion and its impact on regional electricity self-sufficiency: Case study of Switzerland," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 346(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:12:p:3687-:d:578760. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.