Estimation of roof-top photovoltaic potential using satellite imagery and GIS

With an estimated 247 million households and a dedicated National Solar Mission, India has a promising roof-top photovoltaic potential. The present paper focuses on developing a strategy for estimating the macro-scale rooftop photovoltaic potential for an area from the satellite imagery for that area, provided by Google Earth™, with inputs from micro-level simulations. A standard categorization and nomenclature system for the imagesenables macro-scale application. Micro-simulations for rooftop photovoltaic system sizing and design have been carried out in PVsyst for different types of buildings and conglomerations. This gives generic factors which enable expansion of the micro-scale results to the macro-level. The procedure has been illustrated for the IIT Bombay campus; extrapolation to macro-scale is in progress.