Riga Solar Map

Introduction

BUILDSPACE

This project is a product of the program BUILDSPACE Horizon 2020.

The BUILDSPACE project aims to develop innovative applications to support buildings' energy efficiency and cities' resilience and sustainability.

The project will utilize cutting-edge technologies, such as satellite data analysis, digital twins, virtual and augmented reality (AR/VR), and drones equipped with thermal cameras. The BUILDSPACE project will provide services to enable users to interact with a building's digital twin and the city's stakeholders to effectively monitor the energy performance of the city's buildings to develop strategies for the sustainability and resilience of cities against the risks posed by climate change, with an emphasis on the analysis of the urban thermal environment and flooding.

BUILDSPACE's services will be implemented in four European Union countries, Greece, Latvia, Slovenia, and Poland. The project, which will last three years, is financed with €3 million by the EUSPA European Program. More information is available here: Home | BUILDSPACE

National Technical University Athens, EPU of the Decision Support Systems Laboratory School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is one of the main partners for the implementation of the BUILDSPACE project. More information about EPU can be found here: Home | EPU-NTUA

Through the utilization of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), EPU’s team was able to contribute to Service 3 of the BUILDSPACE project by creating a Solar Map of the municipality of Riga, Latvia. Service 3, relies on a mix of Copernicus and Internet of Things (IoT) data to infer visualizations related to energy demand, and assessment of energy building blocks at city scale, facilitating decision making for increased resilience of building stock The aim of the Solar Map is to be used as a decision supporting tool for both policy makers and citizens alike, by offering insight into the installation and utilization of Photovoltaic (PV) technology.

Riga Solar Map

Latvian pilot at the city of Riga involving the regional authority (RPR) focuses on the testing of the building energy demand forecast service at city scale. On that regard, the Solar Map of Riga, represents an estimation of the PV potential on a city scale. The aim was to create a friendly map interface of the city, where the user will be able to find a building block of interest through a search bar or by clicking and instantly receive information regarding the estimated available space for installation, the annual PV electricity production potential of the rooftop, electricity savings, CO₂ reduction estimation and Payback Period of the investment.

How to use this map

The solar map presents a cadastral group of the municipality of Riga.

Explore the Map

Use the left mouse button to explore the map and click on any location of interest, such as rooftops, represented by different colors.
Find address or place option:

Legend Option

Open the Legend option to explore the different feature layers of the map, as well as, the information of each layer:

Layer Interface

Use the Layer interface to make invisible or visible each available layer:

Customize Basemap

Use the basemap option to choose between a variety of basemaps available by ESRI:

Zoom in the map to explore the available rooftops in greater detail. By clicking on a rooftop, the user may explore information regarding the chosen building and different PV related information such as the sum of available PV Panels, max kWp potential installation, and PV electricity potential production in MWh/Year.
In future updates, the user will be able to acquire information regarding the self-consumption of PV electricity produced, the Payback period of PV installation, and CO₂ Mt averted due to the PV installation and use.

Tools and References

For the implementation of the Solar Map of Riga, Latvia, the following databases, and GIS tool were used:

Databases

Cadastral data from the National Address Register Information System form the Latvian Open Data Portal (Latvian Open Data Portal) protected by CC BY 4.0 Deed | Attribution 4.0 International | Creative Commons.
Digital Elevation Model, contributed by RPR of the Riga Municipality.

GIS Tool

ArcGIS Pro 3.1 by ESRI.
PVGIS tool (JRC Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (PVGIS) - European Commission (europa.eu)).

Assumptions

Spatial Resolution of the Digital Elevation Model was of 1m.
Cadastral data accuracy relies heavily on the Open cadastral data of the municipality of Riga.
The annual Solar radiation was calculated from 01/01/2023 to 31/12/2023.
Time zone: Eastern European Standard Time.
Rooftop areas with angle slope higher than 45 degrees were excluded.
Rooftop areas with Northern aspect were excluded.
The standard overcast diffuse model was used. The incoming diffuse radiation flux varies with the zenith angle.
Diffuse and Transmittivity ratios were calculated using PV GIS (JRC Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (PVGIS) - European Commission (europa.eu)) and Global Solar Atlas (Global Solar Atlas), on a scale 0 to 1.
Suitable rooftop area (m²) was calculated according to the mean roof slope and the optimal PV slope placement for Riga, Latvia.
Systems loss were calculated around 20% and mean kWp Installation cost around 906 EUR/kWp.
Riga local government provided the annual electricity consumption of 375 public buildings. The electricity consumption was used as input to calculate the Bill cost reduction and CO₂ averted of the potential PV installation

Use the Map

Click on the photo to use the map:

Disclaimer

This project was created as the final technological release deliverable for Horizon Europe European Commission project BUILDSPACE.

Creator : Iason C. Dimitriou, DSS Lab, NTUA.

Contributor : Dr. Apostolis Arsenopoulos, DSS Lab, NTUA.

Licensed under: License Creator's Report-Non-Commercial Use-No Derivative Works (CC BY-NC-ND).