PV Potential of the Public Building Stock of the Basque Country

Abstract

The energy consumption of buildings is constantly increasing and not only impacts on resources, but also emits polluting gases into the atmosphere. For this reason, there is a great commitment to integrate renewable energies, as well as to renovate and hybridize the energy facilities of existing buildings. Spain has a large potential to exploit solar energy and this is reflected in the PV integration in buildings, as PV self-consumption has risen to 1,203MW installed. However, buildings still have a high potential for improving photovoltaic applications and can help to increase the exploitation of renewable resources. Following European recommendations and Spanish directives, the Basque Government is analysing how to conduct the renovation of the existing public housing stock to achieve more sustainable housing and take into account the quality of life of the users. To this end, the project Plan ZERO-Plana, led by ALOKABIDE "Public institution of the Basque Government", was developed to, among others, increase renewable energy implementation for selfconsumption. This work takes a step forward and analyses the photovoltaic potential of the public building stock of the Basque Country based on a GIS application. The objective is to, on the one hand, account for the PV potential in each of the public housing units themselves and, on the other hand, to analyse the possibility of implementing energy communities in the Basque Country to supply the energy use of these buildings, as well as to compare the viability of both options.