Spatio-temporal modeling of roof-top photovoltaic panels for improved technical potential assessment and electricity peak load offsetting at the municipal scale

Abstract

a b s t r a c tIntegrated spatial and energy planning has become a major field of interest to meet the current renewable energy share expansion and CO 2 emissions reduction targets. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) play a considerable role in supporting decision making in this field. Solar potential maps are a popular strategy to promote renewable energy generation through photovoltaic (PV) panel installations at city and municipal scales. They indicate the areas of roofs that would provide the maximum amount of energy in kW h per year. These are often used to suggest ''optimal locations'' for PV-panels and/or recommend system sizes to achieve a certain level of yearly autarchy. This approach is acceptable if PVs have only a minor share in the local energy supply system. However, increased PV-penetration can lead to instability of the local grid, create hazards for the security of the supply, and considerably escalate the storage and system back-up requirements. To obtain a proper understanding of the consequences for the local energy balance when selecting or rejecting a certain installation, examining the hourly and intra-hourly time series of the potential energy generation from PVs is necessary. This paper introduces a GIS-based procedure to estimate the potential PV-electricity generation time series for every roof-top section within a study area using open source software. This procedure is complemented by a series of strategies to select suitable PV-installations considering the time series analysis of supply and demand. Furthermore, thirteen technical indicators are considered to evaluate the PV-installation sets selected with every strategy. The capabilities of the procedure are tested using data from a German rural municipality. The proposed procedure constitutes an efficient and accessible way to assess solar potentials at the municipal scale and to design roof-top PV exploitation plans, which are more appropriate to fulfill the local energy requirements.

Evaluation of the photovoltaic potential in built environment using spatial data captured by unmanned aerial vehicles

“…20-23 (b) Obtaining the geometrical information for existing building roofs and calculating the PV potential using Remote Sensing Digital Ortho-photo Map (RSDOM). [32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] (e) Using the image three-dimensional (3D) geometrical reconstruction to obtain geometrical information, which involves the building only and lacks consideration of its surroundings. [28][29][30][31] (d) Developing a point cloud model for target buildings using light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and Geographic Information System (GIS) to calculate the PV potential of the building roof and elevation.…”

Technical, Economical and Social Assessment of Photovoltaics in the Frame of the Net-Metering Law for the Province of Salta, Argentina

“…On the one hand, there are studies where the PV yield is calculated by merely multiplying the total solar energy cumulated in a surface in a year by a certain efficiency factor (see, e.g., [35]). On the other hand, there are cases where the yield is calculated in high temporal resolution, considering effects of shadowing, ambient and roof-top temperature (see, e.g., [36][37][38]). …”

“…The instantaneous PV power output is calculated following the set of equations proposed by [36] in the adapted version adopted by [38]. This equation also requires, apart from the global irradiance, the panel efficiency, a temperature correction factor, an efficiency reduction factor due to installation type, the area of the plant, the nominal operating temperature of the PV modules and the ambient temperature.…”

Recent Developments of Photovoltaics Integrated with Battery Storage Systems and Related Feed-In Tariff Policies: A Review

“…A further limitation to such a spread may be the inability or high costs associated to the excessive generation with respect the demand; to face a surplus of generation, it is useful to mention the strengthening of the distribution networks and the widespread installation of small/limited storage systems at LV grid levels. The examination of the hourly and intrahourly time series of the potential energy generation from distributed PV systems is recommended and necessary in order to obtain a proper understanding of the zonal energy balance [11]. The frequent variation of the solar radiation on PV modules and the frequent variation of speed and direction on a wind turbine make these two sources, that is, sun and wind, too intermittent and unreliable.…”