Evaluation of solar energy potential for residential buildings in urban environments based on a parametric approach

Building integrated photovoltaics is an important measure to promote low-carbon urban growth. The residential buildings, which play an important role in cities, have a great development potential to utilize solar resources. However, the solar utilization performance of buildings in a block is influenced by the shadings from surrounding buildings with diverse layouts and heights. Therefore, this study proposes a parametric approach to evaluate the solar energy potential of residential buildings by randomly generating 6730 block environments. We quantify and prioritize how block parameters influence the solar energy potential, and provide photovoltaics (PV) utilization strategies for the roof and façades of the building in diverse urban environments. The average photovoltaic installation ratio of roof, south and west façade can reach 98%, 46.3% and 38.5% when the target building height is higher than 24m. Among all the block parameters, the target building height and its interactions with other parameters can collectively contribute more than 80% to the solar potential of building surfaces. Correspondingly, the two most influential parameters on the PV generation and installation are obtained for PV utilization strategies of building roof, south and west façade. The proposed framework and findings are expected to offer inspirations for solar design in urban buildings.