IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v12y2021i1d10.1038_s41467-021-25720-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

High resolution global spatiotemporal assessment of rooftop solar photovoltaics potential for renewable electricity generation

Author

Listed:
  • Siddharth Joshi

    (SFI MaREI Centre for Energy Climate and Marine
    Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork
    School of Engineering, University College Cork)

  • Shivika Mittal

    (Grantham Institute–Climate Change and the Environment, Imperial College London)

  • Paul Holloway

    (Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork
    University College Cork)

  • Priyadarshi Ramprasad Shukla

    (Global Centre for Environment and Energy, Ahmedabad University)

  • Brian Ó Gallachóir

    (SFI MaREI Centre for Energy Climate and Marine
    Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork
    School of Engineering, University College Cork)

  • James Glynn

    (SFI MaREI Centre for Energy Climate and Marine
    Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork
    School of Engineering, University College Cork
    Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University)

Abstract

Rooftop solar photovoltaics currently account for 40% of the global solar photovoltaics installed capacity and one-fourth of the total renewable capacity additions in 2018. Yet, only limited information is available on its global potential and associated costs at a high spatiotemporal resolution. Here, we present a high-resolution global assessment of rooftop solar photovoltaics potential using big data, machine learning and geospatial analysis. We analyse 130 million km2 of global land surface area to demarcate 0.2 million km2 of rooftop area, which together represent 27 PWh yr−1 of electricity generation potential for costs between 40–280 $ MWh−1. Out of this, 10 PWh yr−1 can be realised below 100 $ MWh−1. The global potential is predominantly spread between Asia (47%), North America (20%) and Europe (13%). The cost of attaining the potential is lowest in India (66 $ MWh−1) and China (68 $ MWh−1), with USA (238 $ MWh−1) and UK (251 $ MWh−1) representing some of the costliest countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Siddharth Joshi & Shivika Mittal & Paul Holloway & Priyadarshi Ramprasad Shukla & Brian Ó Gallachóir & James Glynn, 2021. "High resolution global spatiotemporal assessment of rooftop solar photovoltaics potential for renewable electricity generation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-25720-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25720-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25720-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-021-25720-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Li, Weilong & Han, Mengyao, 2023. "Mapping renewable energy transition worldwide: Gravity trajectory, contribution decomposition and income levels," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 1265-1274.
    2. Ding, Feng & Yang, Jianping & Zhou, Zan, 2023. "Economic profits and carbon reduction potential of photovoltaic power generation for China's high-speed railway infrastructure," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    3. Alharbi, Abdulaziz & Awwad, Zeyad & Habib, Abdulelah & de Weck, Olivier, 2023. "Economical sizing and multi-azimuth layout optimization of grid-connected rooftop photovoltaic systems using Mixed-Integer Programming," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    4. Zhixin Zhang & Min Chen & Teng Zhong & Rui Zhu & Zhen Qian & Fan Zhang & Yue Yang & Kai Zhang & Paolo Santi & Kaicun Wang & Yingxia Pu & Lixin Tian & Guonian Lü & Jinyue Yan, 2023. "Carbon mitigation potential afforded by rooftop photovoltaic in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Femke J. M. M. Nijsse & Jean-Francois Mercure & Nadia Ameli & Francesca Larosa & Sumit Kothari & Jamie Rickman & Pim Vercoulen & Hector Pollitt, 2023. "The momentum of the solar energy transition," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    6. Liu, Junling & Li, Mengyue & Xue, Liya & Kobashi, Takuro, 2022. "A framework to evaluate the energy-environment-economic impacts of developing rooftop photovoltaics integrated with electric vehicles at city level," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 647-657.
    7. Cuenca, Juan J. & Daly, Hannah E. & Hayes, Barry P., 2023. "Sharing the grid: The key to equitable access for small-scale energy generation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 349(C).
    8. Mao, Hongzhi & Chen, Xie & Luo, Yongqiang & Deng, Jie & Tian, Zhiyong & Yu, Jinghua & Xiao, Yimin & Fan, Jianhua, 2023. "Advances and prospects on estimating solar photovoltaic installation capacity and potential based on satellite and aerial images," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    9. Jiang, Hou & Zhang, Xiaotong & Yao, Ling & Lu, Ning & Qin, Jun & Liu, Tang & Zhou, Chenghu, 2023. "High-resolution analysis of rooftop photovoltaic potential based on hourly generation simulations and load profiles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 348(C).
    10. Carla Cristiane Sokulski & Murillo Vetroni Barros & Rodrigo Salvador & Evandro Eduardo Broday & Antonio Carlos de Francisco, 2022. "Trends in Renewable Electricity Generation in the G20 Countries: An Analysis of the 1990–2020 Period," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-21, February.
    11. Hu, Wei & Bradbury, Kyle & Malof, Jordan M. & Li, Boning & Huang, Bohao & Streltsov, Artem & Sydny Fujita, K. & Hoen, Ben, 2022. "What you get is not always what you see—pitfalls in solar array assessment using overhead imagery," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 327(C).
    12. Jiang, Hou & Lu, Ning & Yao, Ling & Qin, Jun & Liu, Tang, 2023. "Impact of climate changes on the stability of solar energy: Evidence from observations and reanalysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 726-736.
    13. Chen, Xie & Zhou, Chaohui & Tian, Zhiyong & Mao, Hongzhi & Luo, Yongqiang & Sun, Deyu & Fan, Jianhua & Jiang, Liguang & Deng, Jie & Rosen, Marc A., 2023. "Different photovoltaic power potential variations in East and West China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 351(C).
    14. Keiner, Dominik & Thoma, Christian & Bogdanov, Dmitrii & Breyer, Christian, 2023. "Seasonal hydrogen storage for residential on- and off-grid solar photovoltaics prosumer applications: Revolutionary solution or niche market for the energy transition until 2050?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    15. Jianxiao Wang & Liudong Chen & Zhenfei Tan & Ershun Du & Nian Liu & Jing Ma & Mingyang Sun & Canbing Li & Jie Song & Xi Lu & Chin-Woo Tan & Guannan He, 2023. "Inherent spatiotemporal uncertainty of renewable power in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-25720-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.