SOLAR ENERGY POTENTIAL OF CITIES IN TURKEY; A GIS BASED ANALYSIS

Recently, photovoltaic systems have been developed and production of electricity directly from the sunlight has gained importance and become widespread. Photovoltaic systems will obviously be more important in the near future with their low cost, compared to other energy production methods. For example, in some European countries, municipalities produce solar potential maps to determine suitable spots for photovoltaic systems. However, in Turkey, there is no production of the solar potential maps for this purpose. Every rooftop in an area may not be suitable for installation of photovoltaic systems. This is because there are some parameters (i.e. insolation time and shadow effect) affecting the efficiency of energy production via photovoltaic panels. Therefore, performance of solar potential analysis may be of help before the installation of photovoltaic panels. In this study, Karadeniz Technical University campus, which is situated in the city of Trabzon, has been selected as the study area. Solar analysis module (r.sun) of open source GIS software GRASS has been used to determine solar energy potential. Solar analysis has been performed using a very high resolution DEM (Digital Elevation Model) and DSM (Digital Surface Model), which were produced by using the photos taken from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Global solar irradiation maps have been generated to specify suitable areas for installation of photovoltaic panels. Karadeniz Technical University campus has been found to have solar energy potential. We believe that solar potential maps are significant for urban planning and these maps must be taken into consideration in urban planning processes.