The high cost of power from solar photovoltaic (PV) panels has been a major deterrent to the technology's market penetration. Moderate solar irradiation levels in the UK have also contributed to the reduced number of solar installations. The built environment accounts for more than 40% of total energy consumption, with over 60% of this in the domestic sector in the UK. Considering that an estimated 90% of its population at 2008 is based in urban areas, with an annual rate of urbanization at 0.5%, it is clear that most of the energy consumption in the UK is domestic urban based. With Energy prices escalating and CO_2 emissions reductions high in the agenda adopting solar energy in urban zones appears as an essential and practicable strategy to foster sustainable development. This paper, explores the basics of Photovoltaic (PV) technology, reviews the latest scientific approaches to evaluating solar irradiation in the urban environment, and assesses the potential for PV applications in the urban environment - with a case study of the Broadwater Farms Estate London. False color images of annual cumulative irradiation on the site serve the basis to a subsequent proposal for a hypothetical grid connected PV system. Finally, a cost analysis assuming a feed-in tariff is undertaken to evaluate the economic viability and payback time for the proposed system (Iweala, 2009; Iweala and Brotas 2010).
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