Encouraging households to adopt solar power generation is essential for a cleaner future, but investing in large-scale solar applications is what will truly shift the needle toward net-zero emissions. This is revealed by a new study from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University) in Australia.
Geospatial researchers used the city of Bendigo, in the state of Victoria, to conduct the case study. They estimated the solar electricity generated over a year in the city, which has 17,000 residential solar panels. In comparison, the study evaluates the solar potential of 21 government-owned airports across Australia.
The findings revealed that large-scale installation could generate 10 times more electricity than the 17,000 residential panels. In addition, more than 151,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions would be avoided annually.
“We cannot rely on small residential solar panels to get us to a zero-emission economy, but installing large panels at sites like airports would get us much closer,” says Dr. Chayn Sun, a geospatial scientist at RMIT’s School of Science. She hopes the findings will help guide the country’s energy policy.
The goal is for the generated energy to not only make airports self-sufficient but also allow surplus power to be fed back into the grid.
Chayn explains that “airports have good sun exposure because they are not shaded by tall buildings or trees, making them a perfect location to harness the sun’s energy,” but this potential is currently being wasted. She estimates that tapping into this renewable source would prevent 63,000 tons of coal from being burned in Australia each year.
Methodology
Lead author Athenee Teofilo, a master’s student in geospatial science, mapped the buildings at all federal airports—excluding unsuitable structures. The study determined the optimal tilt angle for solar panels at each airport to maximize efficiency.
Melbourne Airport alone would outperform the annual solar electricity production of the city of Bendigo by nearly 12 gigawatt-hours per year. Meanwhile, the greatest energy potential was identified at Perth Airport. There, the solar generation potential is nearly double Bendigo’s entire output and equals the combined production of Adelaide, Sydney, Moorabbin, and Townsville airports.
The researchers emphasize that they only mapped government airports, but Australia has more than 150 privately owned airfields that could also install solar panels. This means the potential for generating clean, renewable energy is immense.
According to RMIT University, the findings could also be extended to assess the solar potential of other sites, such as large commercial buildings, warehouses, or distribution centers.
The complete study can be found in the Journal of Building Engineering.
Via CicloVivo
This article was written by Marcia Sousa. The translation is powered by AI.
