Estimating the Potential for Rooftop Generation of Solar Energy in an Urban Context Using High-Resolution Open Access Geospatial Data: A Case Study of the City of Tromsø, Norway ...

• Main Authors: Rees, Gareth, Hebryn-Baidy, Liliia, Good, Clara
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2025
• Subjects: Arctic; Norway; Tromsø
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.116232; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/380739

An increasing trend towards the installation of photovoltaic (PV) solar energy generation capacity is driven by several factors including the desire for greater energy independence and, especially, the desire to decarbonize industrial economies. While large ‘solar farms’ can be installed in relatively open areas, urban environments also offer scope for significant energy generation, although the heterogeneous nature of the surface of the urban fabric complicates the task of forming an area-wide view of this potential. In this study, we investigate the potential offered by publicly available airborne LiDAR data, augmented using data from OpenStreetMap (OSM), to estimate rooftop PV generation capacities from individual buildings and regionalized across an entire small city. We focus on the island of Tromsøya in the city of Tromsø, Norway, which is located north (69.6° N) of the Arctic Circle, covers about 13.8 km2, and has a population of approximately 42,800. A total of 16,377 buildings were analyzed. Local ...