High resolution global spatiotemporal assessment of rooftop solar photovoltaics potential for renewable electricity generation.
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Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34611151.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-25720-2 and PMC identifier 8492708.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Rooftop solar photovoltaics currently account for 40% of the global solar photovoltaics installed capacity and one-fourth of the total renewable capacity additions in 2018. Yet, only limited information is available on its global potential and associated costs at a high spatiotemporal resolution. Here, we present a high-resolution global assessment of rooftop solar photovoltaics potential using big data, machine learning and geospatial analysis. We analyse 130 million km<sup>2</sup> of global land surface area to demarcate 0.2 million km<sup>2</sup> of rooftop area, which together represent 27 PWh yr<sup>-1</sup> of electricity generation potential for costs between 40-280 $ MWh<sup>-1</sup>. Out of this, 10 PWh yr<sup>-1</sup> can be realised below 100 $ MWh<sup>-1</sup>. The global potential is predominantly spread between Asia (47%), North America (20%) and Europe (13%). The cost of attaining the potential is lowest in India (66 $ MWh<sup>-1</sup>) and China (68 $ MWh<sup>-1</sup>), with USA (238 $ MWh<sup>-1</sup>) and UK (251 $ MWh<sup>-1</sup>) representing some of the costliest countries.