Deep Learning Method for Evaluating Photovoltaic Potential of Rural Land Use Types

Zhixin Li, Chen Zhang, Zejun Yu, Hong Zhang () and Haihua Jiang
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Zhixin Li: School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Chen Zhang: Wuhan Natural Resources Conservation and Utilization Center, Wuhan 430014, China
Zejun Yu: School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Hong Zhang: School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Haihua Jiang: Beijing Institute of Architectural Design Co., Ltd., Beijing 100045, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 14, 1-17

Abstract: Rooftop photovoltaic (PV) power generation uses building roofs to generate electricity by laying PV panels. Rural rooftops are less shaded and have a regular shape, which is favorable for laying PV panels. However, because of the relative lack of information on buildings in rural areas, there are fewer methods to assess the utilization potential of PV on rural buildings, and most studies focus on urban buildings. In addition, in rural areas, concentrated ground-mounted PV plants can be built on wastelands, hillsides, and farmlands. To facilitate the overall planning and synergistic layout of rural PV utilization, we propose a new workflow to identify different types of surfaces (including building roofs, wastelands, water surfaces, etc.) by applying a deep learning approach to count the PV potential of different surfaces in rural areas. This method can be used to estimate the spatial distribution of rural PV development potential from publicly available satellite images. In this paper, 10 km 2 of land in Wuhan is used as an example. The results show that the total PV potential in the study area could reach 198.02 GWh/year, including 4.69 GWh/year for BIPV, 159.91 GWh/year for FSPV, and 33.43 GWh/year for LSPV. Considering the development cost of different land types, several timespans (such as short-, medium-, and long-term) of PV development plans for rural areas can be considered. The method and results provide tools and data for the assessment of PV potential in rural areas and can be used as a reference for the development of village master plans and PV development plans.

Keywords: rural land use; solar potential; photovoltaic potential; deep learning; distributed rural energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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