The effect of roof-mounted photo-voltaic modules on the urban microclimate and indoor thermal comfort (EUPHORIC)

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The proposed project aims at investigating the effect of area-wide photovoltaics (PV) deployment in urban areas on the outdoor and indoor urban microclimate in terms of thermal comfort and air quality. We want to take a step forward to understand how PV panels can affect the urban microclimate in the context of climate change and electric energy production needs in order to dissolve the conflicting effects found so far. For this purpose, we want to implement a new parameterization for roof-top PV panels in the Large-Eddy Simulation model PALM and use the model to simulate and analyze the effects of the area-wide deployment of PV panels under realistic atmospheric conditions. The LES approach will enable us to give novel and unprecedented answers both regarding the general effect of urban PV deployment, but also on the size of the footprint of such effects, and the dependence on building distribution and configuration. Moreover, the embedded building surface model, allowing for diverse building physics configurations, allows us to systematically study effects of the interaction between PV panels and sub-panel materials. Sailor et al. (2021) pointed out that the feedback between building envelope and PV panel depends strongly on the building materials. Simultaneously, we will estimate the potential production of electric energy by PV modules in cities and relate this production to the changes in energy demand of the buildings. In order to reach these objectives, we need to further develop and implement and validate a PV panel parameterization in PALM that captures all thermodynamic and radiative interaction processes of PV panels. For the validation task, we will make use of panel-scale measurements at a newly built test facility for PV panels at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Braunschweig and a roof-scale field experiment at an urban rooftop solar power plant in Dresden, which provides relatively idealized conditions like horizontal homogeneity of the surface within the footprint area of the measurements, that are usually not met in urban environments.