Solar Suitability Survey of Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Solar Suitability Survey of Eau Claire, WisconsinKiernan JohnsonGIS III, 5-7-15Objectives of the projectThe goal of the project is to investigate the suitability of rooftops in Eau Claire for the installation of solar panels.Collect and process LiDAR dataCreate suitability modelAnalyze resultsRooftop Solar Power

Rooftop solar arrays are a practical means of harnessing an alternative and renewable energy sourceRooftop placement of these arrays avoids land use and environmental problemsRooftop placement also allows for the utilization of an empty space in densely populated urban and suburban areas.LiDARLight Detection and RangingActive remote sensing systemUses lasers and other forms of sensing technology to send and receive pulses.Collects point clouds in several returns

Extremely accurate elevation dataVertical5-15cmHorizontal50-100cmAPPLICATIONSEnvironmental:Assessing vegetation density and typeFlood zone mapping

Urban Planning:Utility linesBuilding ExtractionExternal LiDAR ExampleStudy Area

Data

LiDAR Data

Point cloud files in tiles, combined to form a LiDAR DatasetProvided by Eau Claire City GovtBuilding Layer

Polygons provided by Eau Claire City GovtModelStudy area LAS DatasetLAS to Raster toolBuilding Polygon LayerStudy Area Elevation RasterRooftop DSMHillshade Re-classAspect Re-classSlope Re-classRadiation Re-classRaster CalculatorRaster Re-class

Raster Re-class

Extract by maskRaster Re-classRaster Re-class

Hillshade RasterAspect RasterSlope RasterRadiation RasterAspectSlopeArea Solar RadiationHillshadeSuitability Raster

LAS DataExtracted LAS RasterBuilding PolygonsLAS RasterModel pt2Study area LAS DatasetLAS to Raster toolBuilding Polygon LayerStudy Area Elevation RasterRooftop DSMHillshade Re-classAspect Re-classRadiation Re-classRaster CalculatorRaster Re-class

Raster Re-class

Extract by maskRaster Re-classRaster Re-class

Hillshade RasterAspect RasterSlope RasterRadiation RasterAspectSlopeArea Solar RadiationHillshadeSuitability Raster

Solar Radiation IndexAspect Index

Slope IndexHillshade Index

Optimal sites for solar placement

Sources and AcknowledgementsI would like to thank Martin Goettl and Christina Hupy for the time they dedicated to guiding me through this project over the course of the semester.

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Nguyen HT, Pearce JM, Harrap R, Barber G. The Application of LiDAR to Assessment of Rooftop Solar Photovoltaic Deployment Potential in a Municipal District Unit. Sensors. 2012; 12(4):4534-4558.

Kucuksari S, Khaleghi AM, Zhang Y et al; An Integrated GIS, optimization and simulation framework for optimal PV size and location in campus area environments. Applied Energy 2014113: 1601-1613

Yang, B., Xu, W., Dong, Z. (2013). Automated Extraction of Building Outlines From Airborne Laser Scanning Point Coulds. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, Vol. 10, No. 6.