Photovoltaics and green roofs: Holistic analysis in built environments

Laura Jo Houchmand, Marcel Macarulla Martí and Santiago Gassó-Domingo

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2025, vol. 207, issue C

Abstract: The European Union has emphasized policies promoting photovoltaic (PV) energy generation to achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals 7 and 13. Notably, building roofs suitable for PV panels also present opportunities for passive energy-saving methods, such as green roofs. Both approaches impact beyond buildings to the urban level; PV panels intensify the urban heat island (UHI) effect, while well-irrigated green roofs mitigate it. In the Mediterranean region, where cities face challenges from extreme weather events and droughts leading to water restrictions, a comprehensive analysis of the influence of these approaches at both the building and urban levels becomes crucial. This work addresses this gap by employing dynamic simulations of a typical Mediterranean roof, an extensive green roof and a summer-irrigated green roof, all with and without PV panels, under Mediterranean climate. While both green roofs and PV systems prove beneficial at the building level, only irrigated green roofs effectively reduce the UHI impact. Unirrigated green roofs show no benefit on the UHI, whereas PV panels consistently amplify it. Combining an unirrigated green roof with PV panels has the highest UHI impact among all analyzed roof types. Summer irrigation of the extensive green roof can compensate the additional convective heat flux by PV panels, and moreover enhancing heat loss through the roof—a beneficial aspect at the building level during summer. The findings underscore the complexity of defining strategies that meet goals for renewable energy and UHI mitigation, highlighting the need for further research in this area.

Keywords: Building energy demand; Urban heat island; Photovoltaic panels; Green roofs; Mediterranean climate; Dynamic building simulations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032124007135
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:207:y:2025:i:c:s1364032124007135

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2024.114987

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().