Appraisement of geographic information systems as tool supporting energy management in the cities

Abstract

Polish international obligations, in particular the European Union and European Commission directives, pose a real challenge for Poland to radically reduce emissions of atmospheric pollutions and significantly increase the usage of energy coming from renewable sources in the overall energy balance of the country. These goals seem to be difficult to achieve, nevertheless the development and implementation of innovative concepts is always a step forward. Nowadays the renewable energy sources seem to be the panacea for the problems of pollutions and energy saving. Many inventors and scientists work on concept of smart grid technology. The basic concept of this technology is producing energy directly in the cities. It seems to be a good idea but often in urban areas there is no place for new installations or cost of land is the barrier. Therefore to produce and manage energy directly in the cities, we have to take into account many aspects such as cost of land, location, available renewable energy sources, number of inhabitants, electrical network, terrain obstacles, and local plans. Here is the good place to use geographic information system technology which can help us to analyze all these issues and combine spatial, satellite, and statistical data to create one coherent concept of managing various sources of energy in the cities. The aim of this study is to consider opportunities of using geographic information systems in supporting process of energy management in the cities. It was taken into account many important elements: solar conditions, impact of cloudiness on value of solar radiation, spatial data, buildings and electrical network, obstacles, and number of inhabitants. It is all for identify the advantages and disadvantages of geographic information system in the analysis of solar energy potential in the city.

A GIS Open Source Software application for mapping solar energy resources in urban areas

“…The solution proposed in this paper is a summary of the previous work described [17]. The authors proposed the r.sun module modification, which involves the cloud cover parameter calculated based on meteorological data for Wroclaw city and Linke turbidity factor, whose value was obtained from literature sources.…”

Management Challenges and Opportunities for Energy Cloud Development and Diffusion

“…An opportunity to be disseminated is the implementation of support for the mobility of energy management systems, which makes it possible to manage energy systems using mobile devices [115]. Similar to the other layers, it is also important to implement continuous improvements in algorithms that help in decision-making by users [116].…”

The Potential to Reduce Pollutant Emissions from Individual Household Sector by Involving Citizens as Project Stockholders

“…At the same time, society expects actions from the government and selfgovernments. The role of society in effective air quality management and its improvement is enormous; individual heat sources (home furnaces), passenger cars, and the structure of energy consumption are important factors affecting air quality (Pietras 2012, Pietras-Szewczyk 2017. Therefore, government and self-government programs aimed at air quality improvement have little chance of success without public commitment.…”