An unmanned aerial vehicle based investigation of roof patch suitability for solar panel installation

Abstract

This study presents a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) based approach to determine suitable roof patches of buildings for solar panel installation in Harran University (Şanlıurfa) campus area. Initially, the Solar Radiation Potential (SRP) of the study area was calculated using a UAV-based Digital Surface Model (DSM) in GIS. Then, a correction process was applied to this theoretically calculated SRP by using an adjustment coefficient derived from 5-year measurements of the Solar Power Plant (SPP) located in the region. This coefficient was used to adjust the calculated SRP and compared with the SPP measurements at a concurrent period. The rooftop objects were segmented by textural analysis to determine the suitable panel installation patches on the buildings. Then, the obtained suitable patches are divided into four different classes considering the adjusted total SRP to find panel installation priority. Finally, the calculated electricity potential of the suitable roof patches could meet approximately 65% of the yearly consumption of campus buildings. This paper reveals that in GIS-based SRP studies, it is necessary to detect the rooftop objects to obtain the solar panel installation area more accurately, and a correction should be applied to approximate the theoretically calculated SRP values to the actual values.

Keywords

• Solar radiation potential
• Unmanned aerial vehicle
• GIS
• Image processing

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