Evaluation of Two Solar Radiation Algorithms on 3D City Models for Calculating Photovoltaic Potential

摘要

Different algorithms are used to calculate solar irradiance on horizontal and vertical surfaces of the 3D city models. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the hourly solar irradiance calculated by two widely used algorithms in order to assess photovoltaic (PV) potential of the 3D city models. Both algorithms are implemented in an open source software infrastructure consisting of PostgreSQL database connected with PostGIS, Python, etc. The results show a significant variation of solar irradiances on horizontal, vertical and tilted surfaces. Finally, the justification of a particular algorithm to assess citywide PV potentials is made.