Extending solar potential analysis in buildings to vertical facades

The assessment of local photovoltaic (PV) potential plays a critical role in the development of planning policies and financing schemes for the successful deployment of PV systems in cities. Considering the significant area available on facades in modern urban landscapes, the solar potential analysis at the local or municipal scale should be extended to take into account the irradiation on vertical walls. Starting from three different sets of information of a site, solar radiation model for roofs, ground and facades, 3D buildings model and a DSM derived from airborne LiDAR data, a methodology was developed in a GIS environment in order to fuse the datasets and allow for spatio-temporal analysis for solar energy quests. The resultant 3D database enables spatial visualization of the answers to the most interesting questions regarding new solar energy systems on buildings. The GIS database can be used as a tool to support municipal/local decision planners since statistics for the solar potential of each building can be easily inspected. In order to optimize solar collection, this system is particularly suited to identify which parts (roofs and/or facades) of a building are more favorable for the installation of solar arrays as well as the area available for the installation.