Irradiation and DC yield potential of solar highways in the Netherlands
Carlotta Ferri (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
Olindo Isabella – Mentor (TU Delft - Photovoltaic Materials and Devices)
Hesan Ziar – Mentor (TU Delft - Photovoltaic Materials and Devices)
Arno Smets – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Photovoltaic Materials and Devices)
Giorgio Agugiaro – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Urban Data Science)
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Abstract
With cities getting more densely populated and more energy demanding, infrastructure integrated PV technology has gained more interest from researchers, companies and governmental institutions. Among the many urban surfaces that have been studied to be used to generate solar energy, roads are one of the most enticing but controversial as well. It is first of all crucial to understand if their energy potential will be sufficient to make solar road installations a reasonable investment to begin with. As rooftop irradiation maps start to become the hotspot in the branch of solar energy modelling, the same attention should be directed to solar roads. This research aims to develop a modelling methodology to easily and quickly estimate the potential of solar roads and provide the first irradiation and DC yield potential map of solar highways in the Netherlands. The map could serve as a useful tool for advisory of research, private industry and governmental projects that helps to individuate optimal sites for solar road installation in the Netherlands. The average irradiation along highways is found to be around 880 KWh/ m2/y, 35% less then the potential of an optimally tilted conventional PV installation in South Holland. The most irradiated highways result to be A31, A5 and A200, with an average irradiation between 980 and 1000 KWh/ m2/y. The analysis of the sky view factor along the highways, discloses that in most of the cases highways are in almost free horizon conditions. This makes them an appealing location for PV installations. The DC yield potential of solar highways is obtained assuming three different technologies: mono crystalline silicon, poly crystalline silicon and CIGS. The scenario of having the entire Dutch highways network renovated into solar roads is considered unrealistic. Therefore, a glueable solar road technology is assumed. Solar highways can generate on average a DC yield of 138 kWh/m2/y in the Netherlands if poly crystalline silicon is assumed. This value can increase up to 174 kWh/ m2/y if mono crystalline silicon technology is implemented. In total, covering the entire Dutch highways network with solar road modules could generate between 3.4 and 6.6 TWh/y of electricity. This could be used to power 36% of the national street lighting demand. In addition to that, a model is developed that aims to address another compelling question regarding solar road feasibility: what is the impact of traffic? Two case studies are conducted on two of the four busiest roads in the Netherlands, the A12 and A16, based on real traffic data. It is found that traffic accounts for an average of 3% reduction of solar road irradiation potential, with maximum reduction of 7% in particular locations, such as bridges and in the nearby of ramp roads. The value does not drastically impact on the output power but still needs to be taken into consideration when designing the PV system of a solar road.