Effects of Urban Environment on Solar PV Performance

Ahstract- The modern urban environment is challenging for the deployment of solar Photovoltaic (PV) technology. Large structures and compactness limit the available rooftop area and create unpredicted shading patterns. While modern applications such as geographical information system (GIS) software provide a useful tool to calculate solar potential, the majority of small and medium size domestic systems suffer from inefficiencies. In this paper we present our preliminary results that show significant performance losses that can reach 15% for systems that are located in urban areas compared with systems located in rural and sub urban areas.