PV-TONS: A photovoltaic technology ontology system for the design of PV-systems

The impacts of climate change, the increasing demand for energy and the diminishing fossil fuel resources have resulted in the development and use of a large number of renewable energy technologies in building development. These technologies are generating a huge amount of information which often overwhelms interested users and thus makes it difficult for them to make informed choices about their applications. The emergence of Semantic Web technologies, the next generation of Web technologies, promises to considerably improve representation, sharing and re-use of information to support decision-making. This article investigates how the emerging Semantic Web enabling technologies can be used to both represent information and knowledge about renewable energy technologies, and facilitate system decision-making in recommending appropriate choices for use in different situations. Based on a review of literature, a prototype Semantic Web system known as the photovoltaic technology ontology system (PV-TONS) for managing knowledge about PV-systems is developed to demonstrate some Semantic Web capabilities. PV-TONS includes Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) that provides a reasoning mechanism to facilitate system decision support. To validate PV-TONS, a green building that uses PV-systems to generate its energy was employed as a case study.