Global energy boost predicted from rooftop solar photovoltaics

The first detailed global assessment of the electricity generation potential of rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV) technology was carried out by researchers at MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine at the University College Cork (UCC), in collaboration with research partners. The findings have been published in Nature Communications. 

Rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV) technology, including roof mounted solar panels used in home, commercial and industrial buildings, is currently the fastest deployable electricity generation technology and is forecast to supply 25-49 per cent of global electricity needs by 2050. Despite these predictions, a global assessment of the technology's electricity generation potential and the associated costs remains a challenge, the team said.

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The research team, including lead author Siddharth Joshi, together with UCC colleagues Professor Brian Ó Gallachóir, Dr Paul Holloway and colleagues at Imperial College London, Columbia University, and Ahmedabad University, assessed the electricity generation potential of rooftop solar PV globally and the associated costs. The authors mapped 130 million km² of global land surface area to identify 0.2 million km² of rooftop area using a novel Machine Learning algorithm. This rooftop area was then analysed to quantify the global electricity generation potential of rooftop solar PV.