With the help of Lyon as a case study, an international research team simulated the effects of photovoltaic coverage on the roof (PV) in an urban area on three levels: 25%, 60%and 100%. The results have shown that solar panels can increase temperatures during the day by a maximum of 0.72 ° C, while the nocturnal temperatures are cooled up to 0.42 ° C. Moreover, the demand for air conditioning during the day has fallen by approximately 5%.
A research team led by scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia investigated the effects of photovoltaic solar panels on the roof on urban temperatures, energy balance sheets and cooling demand. Their studies focused on Lyon, France, with the help of high -resolution simulations with the Weemer Resunies and Forposting (WRF) model.
“In the light of the various and sometimes conflicting findings in literature, it is clear that the environmental effects of RPVSPs in urban environments are versatile and are strongly context -dependent,” the researchers noted. “With the help of a realistic urban configuration for Lyon, this work is intended to improve the concept of how RPVSP integration influences both thermal and energy dynamics during day and night cycles.”
The team used WRF with a nested domain strategy with three domains: an outside domain with a resolution of 3.5 km, a second domain at 1.17 km and an inner urban domain on approximately 390 m. Land -cover data combined points of the Copernicus Global Land Cover (CGLC) data set.
The scenarios investigated coverage levels of 25%, 60%and 100%. In all cases, the PV panels were modeled with an albedo of 0.11, emissivity of the upper face of 0.79, downward emissiveness of 0.95 and conversion-efficiency of 0.19. The cell depth was set at 6.55 mm, with a temperature coefficient of 0.0045 ° C. Simulations were carried out during two periods: 14-20-20 August, 2023 and 26-31 March 2023.
Results showed that with 100% roofing PV systems on the roof-localized day heating caused during the day, causing the air temperatures in the neighborhood to 0.72 ° C with a coverage of 25% and 60% increasing, Steg 2-meter air temperatures with 0.2 ° C and 0.48 ° C. Air temperatures near the surface fell by a maximum of 0.42 ° C below full coverage, 0.3 C at 60%and 0.27 ° C at 25%.
“As far as building performance is concerned, PV systems on the roof of surface temperatures reduced during the day with an average of 2.09 ° C under full coverage, which translated into almost 5% reduction in the demand for air conditioning during the day,” the scientists explained. “Lower nocturnal radiation cooling of the night, however, led to a slight increase in surface temperatures of 1.61 C, marginally increasing night cooling loads. More importantly, electricity generated by RPVSP’s consumption of RPVSPs considerably offset, with the coverage of the cover of the coverage of the cover of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage of the cover of the coverage of the coverage of the coverage. from 265.10% of the total daily air condition of 265.
The findings appeared in “Urban photovoltaïsches reform radiation -Convective fluxes and the demand for cooling energy in cities“Published in Solar energy. Researchers from the Australian University of New South Wales, French University Savoie Mont Blanc and India’s University of Calcutta participated in the study.
This research confirms what was reported by other scientists in 2024 and 2025.
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