Page 14 - European Energy Innovation - spring 2018 publication
P. 14
14 Spring 2018 European Energy Innovation
ROOFTOP PV SYSTEMS
PV systems the PVGIS PV assessment
tool was used ,[11] giving an estimate of
the energy produced by PV systems at
any location in Europe. These results
where then corrected for the lower
productivity on typical roof-top PV
systems (compared to free standing
systems).
The capacity was calculated under
the assumption that 1 kW capacity
would require 7 m2 to accommodate
the PV system including all the
necessary access paths for servicing
and maintenance, this results in a
conservative estimate for the possible
capacity.
Using these assumptions the total PV
capacity was calculated that could be
installed on roofs in each NUTS region.
The results are shown in Figure 4.
Fig. 4: Potential PV capacity per NUTS2 region Looking further into the future, these
calculations show that if all suitable
local decarbonisation and clean air The rooftop area available for PV rooftop area could be used for
programmes, for instance under the systems in the different NUTS2 PV generation this would result in
Covenant of Mayors initiative [9]. regions was calculated using the more than 1500 TWh of electricity
gridded population statistics of generation. This represents a
The next step is to determine the Eurostat, which are available in 1 km contribution of just over 35% of
relationship between the total roof- resolution, as the input variable in the energy from PV in a possible 100%
area and that suitable one for solar PV model [8]. This dataset permits a more Renewable Energy supply scenario .[12]
installations. For this we use very high detailed overview on spatial pattern This scenario, produced by the
resolution Digital Elevation Model of population, delineates different Lappeenranta University of Technology
data for a number of cities, where the degrees of urbanization (cities - with an open source model, gives
resolution is high enough to detect densely populated areas, towns and a breakdown of the percentage of
buildings and trees. In this way we can suburbs – intermediate density areas, electricity produced by different
calculate details like surface slope and rural areas – thinly populated areas). renewable technologies and electricity
orientation as well as shadows from demand in the different Member
trees and neighbouring buildings. The available solar rooftop area per States.
capita was then calculated in a
We then combine these data with 1 km2 resolution as a function of the Compared to the available potential,
Open Street Maps (OSM) layers to population density. The results show the 380 TWh electricity needed from
get the exact location of buildings. that the available area per capita varies PV systems to reach 35% renewable
In this way we may calculate the PV between 4 m2 in the most densely energy use by 2030 requires only
energy output for each roof including populated cities to 175 m2 in scattered a quarter of the total area. The
an estimate of how much things like settlements. The total available rooftop percentage of the total available
shadows and non-ideal installations area for PV installations per NUTS2 rooftop area in each country for the
will influence the energy production. region is shown in Figure 3. 2030 scenario was calculated and is
More details can be found in a recent presented in Figure 5.
technical JRC report .[10] To calculate the energy production of
With the exception of Belgium,
Luxembourg and the Netherlands,
where more than 60% of the suitable
rooftop area is required all other
Member States have an area demand
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