Estimating the Photovoltaic Potential of Building Facades and Roofs Using the Industry Foundation Classes

Photovoltaic energy generation has gained wide attention owing to its efficiency and environmental benefits. Therefore, it has become important to accurately evaluate the photovoltaic energy generation potential of building surfaces. As the number of building floors increases, the area of the facades becomes much larger than that of the roof, providing improved potential for photovoltaic equipment installation. Conventional urban solar potential evaluation methods are usually based on light detection and ranging (LiDAR). However, LiDAR can only be used in existing buildings, and the lack of semantic information in the point cloud data generated by LiDAR makes it impossible to evaluate the photovoltaic potential of facades (including details such as windows) in detail and with accuracy. In this study, we developed a method to accurately extract facades and roofs in order to evaluate photovoltaic potential based on the Industry Foundation Classes. To verify the feasibility of this approach, we used a building from Xuzhou city, Jiangsu province, China. The simulation results indicate that, out of the total building photovoltaic installable area (8995 m2), that of the facade is 8240 m2. The photovoltaic potential of the simulated building could reach 1054.69 MWh/year. The sensitivity studies of the grid resolution, the time interval and the computation time confirmed the reasonability of the determined conditions. The method proposed offers great potential for energy planning departments and the improved utilization of buildings.

Estimation of the Potential Achievable Solar Energy of the Buildings Using Photogrammetric Mesh Models

Estimating the potential achievable solar energy in urban buildings is significantly important for the long-term planning and development of environmental protection strategies. Nevertheless, conventional methods based on LiDAR data are often costly and require more than one platform to obtain complete building surface information. The development of oblique photogrammetry technology enables fast and accurate acquiring of the 3D information of the surface. In this paper, we propose an efficient method to estimate the potential achievable solar energy of building surfaces based on photogrammetric mesh models. In this method, we use photogrammetric mesh models as the input data and then propose a hierarchical algorithm for shadow analysis. Combined with the solar radiation model, we then obtain the potential achievable solar energy of the building surface. We further investigate the performance of the proposed method and it is shown that this method outperforms the multi-source LiDAR data.

Mapping and modelling urban solar energy pontentials using geospacial data: A Case Study Of Ryerson University Campus

Determining the solar energy potential on a surface depends on geographical location, prevailing meteorological conditions, size, shape and orientation of a surface. In urban areas shading is an important parameter, given the density of buildings and must be considered in an evaluation of available irradiation. This thesis develops an integrated workflow for modelling and mapping solar energy potentials in urban areas. This was accomplished through a case study of a typical large urban centre - The City of Toronto, using 3-D building models and selected software tools. The developed workflow was applied and successfully modelled the solar energy potential of buildings in the selected case study area. The results allowed for further characterization of the main factors affecting solar energy potentials on building surfaces in urban areas. This preliminary study indicates that, in comparison to HVAC systems and green roofs, shading may be a less important factor to consider when estimating solar energy potentials in some urban settings.

Mapping and modelling urban solar energy pontentials using geospacial data: A Case Study Of Ryerson University Campus

Determining the solar energy potential on a surface depends on geographical location, prevailing meteorological conditions, size, shape and orientation of a surface. In urban areas shading is an important parameter, given the density of buildings and must be considered in an evaluation of available irradiation. This thesis develops an integrated workflow for modelling and mapping solar energy potentials in urban areas. This was accomplished through a case study of a typical large urban centre - The City of Toronto, using 3-D building models and selected software tools. The developed workflow was applied and successfully modelled the solar energy potential of buildings in the selected case study area. The results allowed for further characterization of the main factors affecting solar energy potentials on building surfaces in urban areas. This preliminary study indicates that, in comparison to HVAC systems and green roofs, shading may be a less important factor to consider when estimating solar energy potentials in some urban settings.

Intensification of loosening of asbestos fibers by means of hydromechanical processing

Acceptance of high-quality aqueous suspensions based on chrysotile asbestos is an urgent technical task in a number of industries. Asbestos-cement mortar is used as an asbestos-cement crust for insulation of walls and other building surfaces, due to this composition of the treated surfaces perfectly retain heat, resistant to moisture, and most importantly - asbestos fibers contribute to the smoothness of the surface and crack is not formed. No less popular is the use of asbestos-cement mortar with a high content of asbestos in the insulation of ventilation ducts and pipelines. This composition of asbestos-cement mortar is used to strengthen the joints of asbestos-cement pipes, as well as as a filler in the laying of cast iron pipes to give the joints additional elasticity. Asbestos-cement mortar has plasticity, resistance to stretching and reinforcement of asbestos, as well as strength and versatility in the use of cement. Due to these properties, asbestos and cement perfectly adhere to each other to obtain a durable, strong, frost-resistant, virtually waterproof and fire-resistant building material. The result of the microscopic examination is reason to believe that from the technological process of production of slate can be removed electromechanical mixer for the preparation of a solution of asbestos + water + portland cement. In this case, given the fact of continued loosening of asbestos in the preparation of the mold mixture of asbestos + water + portland cement, it will be sufficient to ensure the degree of loosening of asbestos in the ripper at the minimum required level (for example, not more than 85%). It is assumed to obtain a mold mixture with a high degree of homogeneity of the components with reduced costs of Portland cement due to its physico-chemical activation by hydraulic fluxes.