USING OPENLY SOURCED 3D GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS) IN DETERMINING THE PHOTOVOLTAIC POTENTIAL OF QUEZON CITY HALL IN TERMS OF RECEIVED DIRECT SOLAR RADIATION

Abstract. For the past few years the United Nations have been standing strong in advocating the 17 sustainable development goals. One of those goals focuses on affordable and clean energy, which includes renewable energy. This study focuses on the application of geomatics on renewable energy, more specifically solar energy. The research aims to determine the photovoltaic potential of Quezon City Hall in the Philippines by calculating the amount of direct solar radiation it receives through a process that uses only openly sourced 3D GIS (Geographic Information Systems). The methodology mainly consists of (1) generating a building model composed of points that contains heights derived from a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) based NDSM (Normalized Digital Surface Model) through the combined use of Python and QGIS, (2) determining the intersections between the building model and the sun’s light rays, incorporating shadow factors and integrating solar irradiation values using Python, and (3) visualizing and gridding for analysis through the combined use of Blender, QGIS and a Spreadsheet software. Results have shown that Quezon City Hall has good photovoltaic potential since: solar irradiation values in 2017 has shown that the city hall receives 800 W/m2 to 1000 W/m2 on average from 08:00 to 16:00, and all faces of the building receive solar radiation. This means that all sides of the building can be proper candidates for solar panel or for Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) installations.