Assessment of the photovoltaic potential on noise barriers along national roads in Italy

Implementation of photovoltaic noise barriers is an interesting application for large scale PV installations with cost sharing and no land consumption. In this work, a GIS based analysis of the theoretical potential to be installed on noise barriers along Italian national roads has been carried out. Estimation of the road extent to be equipped with PV sound barriers has been obtained by provisional algorithms, on the basis of traffic flow, global radiation, meteorological conditions, geometrical and morphological configuration of the surroundings. The results reveal the presence of many suburban road sections acoustically affecting built-up areas with a favourable exposition to solar radiation and the existence of a large market where photovoltaics can be efficiently integrated into acoustical mitigation interventions.