IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v18y2025i9p2366-d1649919.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Accelerating Solar PV Site Selection: YOLO-Based Identification of Sound Barriers Along Highways

Author

Listed:
  • João Tavares

    (Department of Physics, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Carlos Santos Silva

    (IN+/LARSyS, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

Abstract

The exponential growth of the installation of solar photovoltaic systems has been a significant step in the energy transition toward reducing dependence on fossil fuels and mitigating climate change. This growth has raised concerns about land use, particularly in regions where large tracts are allocated to solar farms. Highway infrastructures such as sound barriers occupy large land surfaces which are under-utilized and could therefore contribute to renewable energy generation without increasing the land use. This study proposes the application of the YOLO object detection algorithm to automatically identify and analyse the locations of sound barriers along highways using video or image data, and to estimate the potential energy output from photovoltaic systems installed on these barriers. The model has been trained and tested on sound barriers along Portuguese highways, achieving a mean average precision exceeding 0.84 for YOLOv10 when using training datasets containing more than 600 images. Using the geolocation of the images and the identification of the number of sound barriers from YOLO, it is possible to estimate the potential generation of electricity and inform decision makers on the technical–economic feasibility of using this infrastructure for energy generation.

Suggested Citation

  • João Tavares & Carlos Santos Silva, 2025. "Accelerating Solar PV Site Selection: YOLO-Based Identification of Sound Barriers Along Highways," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(9), pages 1-22, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:9:p:2366-:d:1649919
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/9/2366/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/9/2366/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhong, Teng & Zhang, Kai & Chen, Min & Wang, Yijie & Zhu, Rui & Zhang, Zhixin & Zhou, Zixuan & Qian, Zhen & Lv, Guonian & Yan, Jinyue, 2021. "Assessment of solar photovoltaic potentials on urban noise barriers using street-view imagery," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 181-194.
    2. Raihan, Asif, 2024. "A review of the potential opportunities and challenges of the digital economy for sustainability," Innovation and Green Development, Elsevier, vol. 3(4).
    3. Zhai, Xiangyu & Li, Zening & Li, Zhengmao & Xue, Yixun & Chang, Xinyue & Su, Jia & Jin, Xiaolong & Wang, Peng & Sun, Hongbin, 2025. "Risk-averse energy management for integrated electricity and heat systems considering building heating vertical imbalance: An asynchronous decentralized approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 383(C).
    4. Yiqing Dai & Yan Yin & Yundi Lu, 2021. "Strategies to Facilitate Photovoltaic Applications in Road Structures for Energy Harvesting," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-14, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Caixin Yan & Zhifeng Qiu, 2025. "Review of Power Market Optimization Strategies Based on Industrial Load Flexibility," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-41, March.
    2. Jiang, Wei & Wang, Teng & Yuan, Dongdong & Sha, Aimin & Zhang, Shuo & Zhang, Yufei & Xiao, Jingjing & Xing, Chengwei, 2024. "Available solar resources and photovoltaic system planning strategy for highway," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    3. Dibin Zhu, 2022. "Advance Energy Harvesting Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-3, March.
    4. Sakthivelnathan Nallainathan & Ali Arefi & Christopher Lund & Ali Mehrizi-Sani, 2025. "Microgrid Reliability Incorporating Uncertainty in Weather and Equipment Failure," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-23, April.
    5. Xie, Jixing & Tang, Haida & Lyu, Yuanli & Liu, Wenjie & Tian, Xiangning & Li, Chunying, 2024. "Energy, environmental and economic performance of bi-facial photovoltaic noise barrier applied in city scale," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(PA).
    6. Kaikai Wang & Yao Wang & Jin Gao & Yan Liang & Zhenfei Ma & Hanyue Liu & Zening Li, 2025. "Multi-Objective Optimization of Energy Storage Station Configuration in Power Grids Considering the Flexibility of Thermal Load Control," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-20, May.
    7. Giuseppe Rausa & Maurizio Calabrese & Ramiro Velazquez & Carolina Del-Valle-Soto & Roberto De Fazio & Paolo Visconti, 2025. "Mechanical, Thermal, and Environmental Energy Harvesting Solutions in Fully Electric and Hybrid Vehicles: Innovative Approaches and Commercial Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-54, April.
    8. Vasileios Kilis & Georgios Anastasiadis & Nikolaos Ploskas & Giorgos Panaras, 2025. "Optimization of Renewable-Based Multi-Energy Systems in Residential Building Design," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-20, March.
    9. Zhang, Kai & Chen, Min & Yang, Yue & Zhong, Teng & Zhu, Rui & Zhang, Fan & Qian, Zhen & Lü, Guonian & Yan, Jinyue, 2022. "Quantifying the photovoltaic potential of highways in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    10. Guoping Huang & Qiao Shi & Wenqing Li & Qing Zhang & Junfeng Liu, 2025. "Second-Order Ripple Current Suppression Based on Virtual Impedance in the Application of Dynamic Voltage Restorer," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-18, April.
    11. Jiang, Wei & Zhang, Shuo & Wang, Teng & Zhang, Yufei & Sha, Aimin & Xiao, Jingjing & Yuan, Dongdong, 2024. "Evaluation method for the availability of solar energy resources in road areas before route corridor planning," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 356(C).
    12. Jiang, Mingkun & Qi, Lingfei & Yu, Ziyi & Wu, Dadi & Si, Pengfei & Li, Peiran & Wei, Wendong & Yu, Xinhai & Yan, Jinyue, 2021. "National level assessment of using existing airport infrastructures for photovoltaic deployment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    13. Zhang, Kai & Wang, Dajiang & Chen, Min & Zhu, Rui & Zhang, Fan & Zhong, Teng & Qian, Zhen & Wang, Yazhou & Li, Hengyue & Wang, Yijie & Lü, Guonian & Yan, Jinyue, 2024. "Power generation assessment of photovoltaic noise barriers across 52 major Chinese cities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 361(C).
    14. Luca Viscito & Francesco Pelella & Andrea Rega & Federico Magnea & Gerardo Maria Mauro & Alessandro Zanella & Alfonso William Mauro & Nicola Bianco, 2025. "Physical Model for the Simulation of an Air Handling Unit Employed in an Automotive Production Process: Calibration Procedure and Potential Energy Saving," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-25, April.
    15. Nithesh Naik & P. Suresh & Sanjay Yadav & M. P. Nisha & José Luis Arias-Gonzáles & Juan Carlos Cotrina-Aliaga & Ritesh Bhat & Manohara D. Jalageri & Yashaarth Kaushik & Aakif Budnar Kunjibettu, 2023. "A Review on Composite Materials for Energy Harvesting in Electric Vehicles," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-19, April.
    16. Colberts, Fallon & Bouguerra, Sara & Wieclawski, Arnaud & Paesa, Marta Casasola & Brand, Wim & Mullenders, Sven & Ahmed, Hareim & de Jong, Richard & Vavilkin, Tatjana & van de Wall, Wim & Mass-Protzen, 2025. "Performance study and LCA of a ZigZag PV noise barrier: Towards mass-customization of IIPV applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 378(PA).
    17. Mohammad Hassan Tanha & Zahra Tanha & Ali Aranizadeh & Mirpouya Mirmozaffari, 2025. "Sustainable Wind Energy Security: Assessing the Impact of False Data Injection on Wind Turbine Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-27, May.
    18. Ye, Yuxuan & Zhu, Rui & Yan, Jinyue & Lu, Lin & Wong, Man Sing & Luo, Wei & Chen, Min & Zhang, Fan & You, Linlin & Wang, Yafei & Qin, Zheng, 2023. "Planning the installation of building-integrated photovoltaic shading devices: A GIS-based spatiotemporal analysis and optimization approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    19. Elinor Ginzburg-Ganz & Eden Dina Horodi & Omar Shadafny & Uri Savir & Ram Machlev & Yoash Levron, 2025. "Statistical Foundations of Generative AI for Optimal Control Problems in Power Systems: Comprehensive Review and Future Directions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-54, May.
    20. Marius Minea & Cătălin Marian Dumitrescu, 2022. "On the Feasibility and Efficiency of Self-Powered Green Intelligent Highways," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-32, June.

    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:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:9:p:2366-:d:1649919. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.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.