Optimizing Ideal Locations to Implement Solar Panels in SAGA

General Context

The implementation of renewable energy sources for residential and commercial use has gained much interest over recent years. Although, many factors must be taken into account before moving on with such project, in this tutorial the focus will be towards establishing optimal locations to implement solar panels in Vancouver. An important aspect to take into account before installation is to measure the potential incoming solar radiation on rooftops. This can be done in SAGA GIS through the use of ‘Sky View Factor’ and ‘Potential Incoming Solar Radiation’ geoprocessing tools.

Explanation of used tools

The ‘Sky View Factor’ (SVF) tool computes the ratio between the radiation received/emitted by a surface and the theoretical total hemispheric radiating environment. Measured by a ratio of 0 to 1, pixels with higher SVFs signify that these surfaces emit more radiation and vice versa. The SVF output is a pre-requirement to be able to use the ‘Potential Incoming Solar Radiation’ tool.

The ‘Potential Incoming Solar Radiation’ tool computes the insolation, a measure of solar radiation energy received on a given surface in a given time. The settings for this tool allows adjusting according to location and time period. In this case, the insolation is measured over a period of a year, at every 5 hours of a day with a 5 day time step. The solar radiation is measured in kWh/m2 (kilowatt-hours per square meter), where irradiance below 900 kWh will be dismissed since it is considered to be too low for solar production.