A Procedure for Complete Census Estimation of Rooftop Photovoltaic Potential in Urban Areas

Abstract

Rooftop photovoltaic solar systems can be an essential tool to support the energy transition of Europe. The assessment of solar power generation potential in urban areas, necessary for smart grid planning, requires the processing of data of different types, such as building cadastral information, a detailed description of available roof areas, and solar irradiation data. We introduce an algorithm for the fast calculation of the building’s shadows and a procedure for the integration of solar irradiation in time. We therefore develop a methodology that allows a fast evaluation with minimal computational resources, and we apply it to an urban scenario of a medium-sized European city obtaining an estimate of the complete census PV power generation potential, with a spatial resolution of 1 m. We validate the results by comparison with a reference procedure, obtaining minimal deviation with a much lower demand for computational resources.