Limited Roof Space

PV technology is constantly evolving, leading to more efficient energy production. In areas where available land or rooftops may be limited for new PV installations, it may be effective to replace existing PV sites with newer technology to improve net PV-based energy output.

This is a relatively new issue in the industry due to the fast pace of improvements in PV technology. Upgrading existing solar sites has been lower priority than developing new sites. This is noted as a growing issue in Germany, which has some of the largest and oldest solar arrays. There does not seem to be a lot of analytics yet deployed on this issue, but it is broadly theorised as a potential pathway for greater solar energy production.

There may be opportunities to leverage satellite imagery and other geo-information data to assess solar power potential of existing solar plants based on geographic variables, then compare to actual production of older PV sites to determine replacement ROI.

Users identified 4 specific needs, each requiring one or more specific geospatial products (geo-requirements):

1.        User Need 3.1: Identification of high potential utility-scale solar sites

2.        User Need 3.2: Assessment of quantity of available land for new solar plants (to assess alternative to upgrading existing sites)

3.        User Need 3.3: Assessment of quality of available land for new solar plants (to assess alternative to upgrading existing sites)

4.        User Need 3.4: Assessment of quality of existing solar plant production (potential v. actual)

5.        User Need 3.5: Maps indicating the highest ROI for new construction v. upgrading (Euro per new GW energy available)