A Novel Geographical Information Systems Framework to Characterize Photovoltaic Deployment in the UK: Initial Evidence

Abstract

Globally, deployment of grid-connected photovoltaics (PV) has increased dramatically in recent years. The UK has seen rapid uptake reaching over 500,000 installations totalling 2.8 GWp by 2013. PV can be installed in different market segments (domestic rooftop, non-domestic rooftop and ground-mounted "solar-farms") covering a broad range of system sizes in a high number of locations. It is important to gain detailed understanding of what grid-connected PV deployment looks like (e.g., how it deployed across different geographic areas and market segments), and identify the major drivers behind it. This paper answers these questions by developing a novel geographical information systems (GIS)-framework-the United Kingdom Photovoltaics Database (UKPVD)-to analyze temporal and spatial PV deployment trends at high resolution across all market segments. Results show how PV deployment changed over time with the evolution of governmental PV policy support. Then spatial trends as function of local irradiation, rurality (as a proxy of building and population density) and building footprint (as a proxy for roof-area) are analyzed. We find in all market segments, PV deployment is strongly correlated with the level of policy support. Furthermore, all markets show a preference to deploy in rural areas and those with higher irradiation. Finally, local clustering of PV in all market segments was observed, revealing that PV is not spread evenly across areas. This work reveals the complex nature of PV deployment, both spatially and by market segment, reinforcing the need capture this through mapping.

Land Suitability Analysis for Solar Farms Exploitation Using GIS and Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP)—A Case Study of Iran

“…A new assessment framework based on GIS was developed in [17] to characterize PV deployment in the UK. They investigated the temporal and spatial expansion trends for various PV market sections, including domestic and non-domestic rooftop and grid connected solar farms.…”

Assessing the impacts of photovoltaic penetration across an entire low‐voltage distribution network containing 1.5 million customers

“…However, both demand and PV deployment have different characteristics across market segments. For instance non‐domestic PV systems tend to be larger in size and also more geographically dispersed than domestic ones [12]. Similarly, demand profiles differ across customers: for example, a large office (non‐domestic customer) may use much more energy than a domestic customer on an annual basis, as well as a greater proportion during the daytime (when building occupancy is the highest), whereas a domestic customer would be expected to use more electricity during the evening.…”

Measuring and modelling the land‐use intensity and land requirements of utility‐scale photovoltaic systems in the Canadian province of Ontario

“…Most of the U‐PV systems deployed in Ontario are located on agricultural land (Figure ). This is not surprising, given that agricultural land has qualities a solar developer might look for: well drained land that is already cleared and in close proximity to existing infrastructure (Westacott and Candelise ). Recently enacted government regulations in Ontario prohibit development of U‐PV systems on “prime” agricultural land, restricting them to “low‐quality” agricultural land.…”

“…Taken together, previous research suggests that the scale and spatial pattern of land-use impacts associated with U-PV can be explained by interdependencies at the nexus of technology change, regulatory change, and regional geography (see also Westacott and Candelise 2016). In other words, results from research on the land-use impacts of U-PV systems in one region cannot be directly extrapolated to another.…”

“…The Canadian Geographer / Le G eographe canadien 2018, 62(2): [188][189][190][191][192][193][194][195][196][197][198][199] Solar energy land use 195 surprising, given that agricultural land has qualities a solar developer might look for: well drained land that is already cleared and in close proximity to existing infrastructure (Westacott and Candelise 2016). Recently enacted government regulations in Ontario prohibit development of U-PV systems on "prime" agricultural land, restricting them to "lowquality" agricultural land.…”