Simulation of solar panels effect on microclimate in arid areas using remote sensing technology

Abstract

Using renewable energy sources become more significant than nonrenewable energy sources since it can reduces fossil energy consumption in an eco-friendly manner. Building solar panels in large area and use it as alternative energy may have significant effect on the microclimate. In this study, on some microclimate parameters effect have been studied extensively by measuring solar panels in field and laboratory experiments and integrating the results of these experiments through simulating in LANDSAT 7 ETM+ images of Riyadh - Saudi Arabia. The focus was on four microclimate parameters which are land surface albedo, land surface temperature, relative humidity, and atmospheric pressure. This study showed a clear impact when land cover changes to solar panel. In fact, the solar panel’s albedo in the shortwave part of Electro Magnetic Spectrum (EMS) is around 0.13, compared to the dominant landcover class in arid area, sand which is 0.30. Furthermore, by implementing solar panels over a vast arid area, the surface temperature might increase by 20 – 30 % passing from an average of 45 °C to 62 °C. Thus, the relative humidity in the time of image has dropped from 13% standardize to only 3% in the case of solar panels. The fourth studied microclimate parameter, air pressure showed no significant change before and after simulation and seen more related to altitude.