Solar energy simulator
Authors: Alexander Severinsen
Abstract: The Solar Simulator estimates the solar energy production potential of a roof or any given area. You can also explore existing solar panel installations, including both roofs and solar parks. Additionally, you can activate map layers to display solar power potential across East Africa. This app is a collaborative project between Engineers Without Borders (EWB) and WWF. Please note that the application is currently not officially endorsed by WWF and is available at RENEWABLE ENERGY TOOL solely for the Shiny contest. The app will be migrated to a WWF server in the autumn. It is an open-source project developed by EWB volunteers. Contributions or feedback are greatly appreciated.
How to Estimate Solar Production Potential
- Search for an address or zoom in on the desired area on the map.
- Select the “Draw a polygon” tool from the map menu.
- Draw the area for which you want to estimate solar production potential.
- The calculation will be performed automatically based on the marked area.
Note that the automated calculations involve some assumptions, which you can easily adjust by changing the parameters after the initial estimation. It is assumed that 70% of the marked area is available for solar panel installation. A standard solar panel covers 1.6 m². For example, if the roof is 100 m², then 70 m² will be available for panels, allowing for approximately 43 panels (70 m² / 1.6 m² per panel). This forms the default for the system’s total peak power (kWp).
Data Sources
Solar Simulator
The Solar Simulator utilizes the PVGIS (Photovoltaic Geographical Information System) API for all calculations. PVGIS provides solar radiation and weather data for locations worldwide, excluding the North and South Poles. For more information, visit PVGIS (JRC Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (PVGIS) - European Commission).
Power Potential in East Africa
The solar potential map layers in the Solar Simulator are sourced from the Global Solar Atlas. This service is provided by The World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, with data prepared by Solargis under contract to The World Bank.
Solar Parks
The solar parks displayed in the Solar Simulator are obtained from the TZ-ZAM Solar Asset Mapper. For more details, refer to the TransitionZero Solar Asset Mapper.
Phillpott, M., O’Connor, J., Ferreira, A., Max, S., Kruitwagen, L., & Guzzardi, M. (2024). Solar Asset Mapper: A continuously updated global inventory of solar energy facilities built with satellite data and machine learning (1.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. Solar Asset Mapper: A continuously-updated global inventory of solar energy facilities built with satellite data and machine learning
Existing Solar Panel Installations on Roofs
This overview is based on data from OpenStreetMap (OSM) and may not be complete, as it relies on voluntary contributions to enhance the OSM map. The data was collected using https://overpass-turbo.eu/.
Shiny app: RENEWABLE ENERGY TOOL
Repo: GitHub - AlexanderSeverinsen/solarsimulator
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