Solar access of residential rooftops in four California cities

Journal Article · Fri May 14 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Solar Energy

OSTI ID:986493

Levinson, Ronnen; Akbari, Hashem; Pomerantz, Melvin

Shadows cast by trees and buildings can limit the solar access of rooftop solar-energy systems, including photovoltaic panels and thermal collectors. This study characterizes residential rooftop shading in Sacramento, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Diego, CA. Our analysis can be used to better estimate power production and/or thermal collection by rooftop solar-energy equipment. It can also be considered when designing programs to plant shade trees. High-resolution orthophotos and LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) measurements of surface height were used to create a digital elevation model of all trees and buildings in a well-treed 2.5-4 km{sup 2} residential neighborhood. On-hour shading of roofing planes (the flat elements of roofs) was computed geometrically from the digital elevation model. Values in future years were determined by repeating these calculations after simulating tree growth. Parcel boundaries were used to determine the extent to which roofing planes were shaded by trees and buildings in neighboring parcels. For the subset of S+SW+W-facing planes on which solar equipment is commonly installed for maximum solar access, absolute light loss in spring, summer and fall peaked about two to four hours after sunrise and about two to four hours before sunset. The fraction of annual insolation lost to shading increased from 0.07-0.08 in the year of surface-height measurement to 0.11-0.14 after 30 years of tree growth. Only about 10% of this loss results from shading by trees and buildings in neighboring parcels.

• Research Organization: Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: Environmental Energy Technologies Division
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 986493
• Report Number(s): LBNL-3843E
• Journal Information: Solar Energy, Journal Name: Solar Energy; ISSN 0038-092X; ISSN SRENA4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
CALIFORNIA
DETECTION
INSOLATION
LOS ANGELES
OPTICAL RADAR
POWER GENERATION
ROOFS
SHADING
SOLAR ACCESS
SOLAR ENERGY
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
TREES