Automatic identification of utilizable rooftop areas in digital surface models for photovoltaics potential assessment

The considerable potential of rooftop photovoltaics (RPVs) for alleviating the high energy demand of cities has made them a proven technology in local energy networks. Identification of rooftop areas suitable for installing RPVs is of importance for energy planning. Having these suitable areas referred to as utilizable areas greatly assists in a reliable estimate of RPVs energy production. Within such a context, this research aims to propose a spatially detailed methodology that involves (a) automatic extraction of buildings footprint, (b) automatic segmentation of roof faces, and (c) automatic identification of utilizable areas of roof faces for solar infrastructure installation. Specifically, the innovations of this work are a new method for roof face segmentation and a new method for the identification of utilizable rooftop areas. The proposed methodology only requires digital surface models (DSMs) as input, and it is independent of other auxiliary spatial data to become more functional. A part of downtown Gothenburg composed of vegetation and high-rise buildings with complex shapes was selected to demonstrate the methodology performance. According to the experimental results, the proposed methodology has a high success rate in building extraction (about 95% correctness and completeness) and roof face segmentation (about 85% completeness and correctness). Additionally, the results suggest that the effects of roof occlusions and roof superstructures are satisfactorily considered in the identification of utilizable rooftop areas. Thus, the methodology is practically effective and relevant for the detailed RPVs assessments in arbitrary urban regions where only DSMs are accessible.