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Development and Public Release of Solar

Radiation Map for Effective Use of Solar Energy

Based on GIS with Digital Surface Model

Atsushi Shiota, Yuuki Koyamatsu, Kiyotaka Fuji, Yasunori Mitani, and Yaser Qudaih Dept. Electrical and Electronics Eng., Kyushu Institute of Technology, Sensui-cho, Tobata-ku, Kitakyushu, 804-0015,

Japan

Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract—In Japan, local governments have introduced

sensors and podcasting system in order to manage the

rescue information in the time of disasters. For instance,

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have

been actively utilized. However, during the Great East

Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011, enormous

tsunami results in a flood of the electrical equipment of

many municipalities buildings caused the complete loss of

power system. For this reason, ICT was not able to be used.

Thus, independent power supplying facilities are really

required. On the other hand, in the recent years in Japan an

increased number of registered renewable energy and

electric vehicles have been introduced. Therefore, in our

research and in order to efficiently arrange the solar power,

the amount of solar radiation map to figure out the land and

roof suitable for solar power has been developed using the

Geographic Information System (GIS) and Digital Surface

Model (DSM). The map is published depending on the

application of the residents. It will establish a method to

encourage the efficient placement of solar power.

Index Terms—electric vehicles, solar energy, GIS, DSM,

ICT

I. INTRODUCTION

In Japan, most of the local governments become aware

of the natural disasters status by utilizing some sensors or

cameras. They have introduced a disaster prevention

information system in order to manage and evaluate the

damage information for residents in the affected areas

with an active utilization of ICT as an important tool [1].

However, due to the tsunami which was caused after the

Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on March 11,

2011, power supply facilities of local government’s

buildings were flooded and major blackout occurred.

Furthermore, troubles and distraction have been occurred

in the emergency facilities. On the other hand, a heavy

snowfall of the western Tokushima prefecture in

December 2014 caused another power outage, and local

villages were very isolated. Because IP telephone was not

available due to the power outage, the safety of residents

was not able to be confirmed. Furthermore the number of

casualties has been increased because victims were

Manuscript received June 1, 2015; revised August 19, 2015.

unable to use the heating appliances operate by electricity.

In addition, “Nankai Trough huge earthquake damage

estimation has been reported in the Central Disaster

Prevention Council in March 2013. Therefore, it’s an

important approach to have back-up power facilities to be

independent from Power Grid.

On the other hand, the amount of introduction of

photovoltaic (PV) has been increasing in Japan. In

addition, the number of Electric Vehicles (EV), Plug-in

Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) and Fuel Cell Vehicles)

have been recently increased in Japan. Moreover,

improvement in cost and safety of a battery such as a

lithium ion secondary battery proceeds, the future is

expected to spread of large-capacity batteries or cartridge

type batteries. It has become possible to secure a power

by the method that combines PV and vehicles equipped

with large capacity batteries such as EV and installation

type batteries.

In this work, the development of solar power

generation simulation system using GIS and DSM has

been utilized considering that residents can visually find

the land and roof for their PV insulation The purpose is to

achieve the promotion of aggressive utilization of

agricultural land and roofs that have not been used to

grasp the efficient land and roofs for PV generation units.

The other purpose is to lead to the power ensuring

disaster utilizing solar power and storage batteries

including EV. Final purpose is to build a system where

PV users can confirm the accuracy of high amount of

solar radiation than ever attracted when introducing PV

system [2]-[4].

Section 2 of this paper describes the system structure

utilizing GIS and DEM including some technical

elements of the solar radiation. Section 3 talks about

future measures and Section 4 concludes.

II. SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION

A. GIS Utilization

GIS is a technology for the creation, management

representation, search, analysis and sharing of geospatial

information [5]. Fig. 1 shows the ability of the system to

construct a model for the real world on the computer.

International Journal of Electrical Energy, Vol. 3, No. 3, September 2015

©2015 International Journal of Electrical Energy 169doi: 10.18178/ijoee.3.3.169-173

GIS manages data in a film called layer. This layer

consists of position information and attributes

information. As shown in Fig. 2, GIS constitutes a model

the real world by superimposing layers. This makes it

possible to grasp the geographical distribution and

geographical relationship data. Therefore, it is possible to

grasp the geographical distribution and geographical

relationship of GIS data. Data used in GIS is called

geospatial data, with the existence of a very big data.

Moreover, GIS has a variety of functions. Typical

features and geospatial data of GIS is shown in the

following Fig. 3.

In this figure Digital Surface Model (DSM) is

considering the height of trees and buildings, while

Digital Elevation Model (DEM) representing ground

surface and the road network providing roads details.

Tracking function handles the trajectory of the acquired

position information by GPS. Spatial statistics functions

aggregates the objects in the view. Geocoding responsible

about coding the text address. 3D function handles the

three-dimensional data. Network analysis function

performs the analysis of the network data. Finally, Spatial

analysis function analyze the events might occur in the

targeted area. [6]

Figure 1. GIS image.

Figure 2. The basic principle of GIS.

Figure 3. Geospatial data-function of GIS.

B. DEM Utilization

Elevation data used in this research is a DSM (Digital

Surface Model) at the City of Kitakyushu. Elevation data,

which is often used in GIS is DEM (Digital Elevation

Model). DSM has the elevation data of buildings and

trees while DEM has the elevation data of ground surface.

There is a merit that shadow can be considered, such as

buildings and trees in the case of performing the solar

radiation analysis using DSM closer to the real world.

The difference between DSM and DEM is shown Fig. 4.

The representation of the occurrence of shadows of the

one of the building in Kyushu Institute of Technology-

Tobata campus is shown Fig. 5. The red circles express

the shadows [3].

Figure 4. The difference of DSM and DEM.

Figure 5. Representation of the occurrence of shadow (7:00am

2013.10.13).

C. Technical Elements for the Amount of Solar

Radiation Modeling

The solar radiation that has been transmitted from the

space is affected by the scattering and absorption by

atmospheric substance when it enters the atmosphere.

Also, some of the solar radiation is returned to the space

which is reflected by the material surface and in the

atmosphere of the earth. The solar radiation balance of

the air is shown Fig. 6. A component that incident

directly from the sun of the solar radiation that the

surface receives is called a direct solar radiation. The

components reflected by the clouds and scattered in the

atmosphere are called the scatter solar radiation [7].

Figure 6. Solar radiation balance of the air.


©2015 International Journal of Electrical Energy 170

All of the solar radiation that ground surface receives

is called the global solar radiation. Solar radiation that

combined scattering solar radiation and direct solar

radiation is a global solar radiation. In other words, the

total solar radiation that affects the solar power can be

expressed by the following equation [8].

Global solar radiation

= Direct solar radiation + Scatter solar radiation (1)

Elements required to calculate the direct solar radiation

amount is the whole sky visible region and the solar orbit

diagram. Also, elements required to calculate the

scattered solar radiation is the whole sky divided view

and the whole sky visible region. Calculation algorithms

of (1) are as follows [9].

Calculate the whole sky visible region to the

intersection of the DSM of the mesh.

Calculate the direct solar radiation amount is

superimposed the whole sky visible region and the

solar orbit view.

Calculate the scattering amount of solar radiation

by superimposing the whole sky split view and the

whole sky visible region.

Repeatedly performing the process from 1 to 3 for

all intersections of DSM mesh. A conceptual

diagram of this algorithm is shown Fig. 7.

Figure 7. Algorithm conceptual diagram.

To confirm the accuracy of the solar radiation analysis

processing ArcGIS Spatial Analysis, was compared with

the value measured by the total solar radiation meter. The

appearance of the pyranometer which was used in this

research is shown Fig. 8. The specs of the pyranometer

are shown Table I.

Figure 8. Appearance of the pyranometer.

TABLE I. PYRANOMETER SPECIFICATIONS

Fields Specs

Response speed 18s/95%

Sensor Thermocouple

Sensitivity 5~20μV/W･m-2 (15.71μV/W･m-2)

Internal resistance 29~55Ω

Wavelength range 300~2800nm

Temperature dependence -10~40°C<5%

Cable length 10m

We have installed the pyranometer to the specified

Building of the Kyushu Institute of Technology (Tobata

Campus). The measurement results of October 13, 2013

are shown Fig. 9. The reason for selecting the October 13,

2013 is due to the weather condition. It was a stable

sunny throughout the day. Values are taken from 8 am ~

4pm due to the elevation and structure of the selected

bukiding. The total amount of solar radiation was

4.77kWh/m2. The amount of solar radiation analysis

processing result of using the ArcGIS is shown Fig. 10.

In Fig. 10, the value of small solar radiation is indicated

by green and the large solar radiation is expressed in red.

Calculation result by the ArcGIS of the amount of solar

radiation layer was 4.75kWh/m2 [3], [8].

Figure 9. Appearance of the pyranometer.

Hence,

4.77kWh/m2 (Pyranometer) ≒ 4.75 kWh/m

2 (ArcGIS)

(2)



It has been confirmed that it is possible to ensure the

accuracy in a sunny day. Thus, if the amount of solar

radiation analysis process is performed on the assumption

that sunny weather in Kitakyushu entire area, it is

possible to grasp the amount of land and roof exposed to

solar radiation (Period of a year). Thus, it is possible to

grasp the suitable land and roofs for solar power

generation. The analysis results of Kitakyushu entire area

is shown Fig. 11.

Figure 10. Amount of solar radiation simulation (2013.10.13_8:00 to 16:00).

Figure 11. Amount of solar radiation simulation in Kitakyushu city.

As shown in Fig. 11, we have developed the solar

radiation map using the DSM. Due to DSM utilization,

the map has a higher precision than ever done before with

the consideration of the buildings and trees shadows. By

using this map, it is possible to visually check whether

solar power generation is suitable or not by color using

solar radiation values of each point. It has been achieved

as the first purpose of this research, “determine the

efficient land and roofs for PV installations.

Then, the method where public users can see the

amount of solar radiation map has been examined. It was

decided to use a different approach depends on an

individual case to confirm the amount of solar radiation

in the field by using a mobile terminal, such as using

smart phones and tablet devices to check the amount of

solar radiation in the home or office PC. When checking

the amount of sunlight on a PC, it is necessary to widen

the grasp in such a way that residents who are not

interested in the solar power to be aware of the fact that

there is a tool to verify the amount of solar radiation and

encourage them to think about solar energy. So, we used

to “spy glass” of ArcGIS in a way that online residents

will have the interest. Solar radiation map using

“Spyglass” in ArcGIS Online is shown Fig. 12.

This map is represented in red and blue via green

colors to correspond to the location where many small

values of the solar radiation can be detected, which

makes residents to visually see the amount of solar

radiation. Users can move the “circle” freely in Spyglass

as shown in Fig. 12. Using this map is providing a

mechanism in which users can look at the amount of solar

radiation inside the “circle”. This solar radiation map

using this spy glasses has started the information

origination from regional information portal site “G-

motty” that are jointly operated by Kitakyushu City and

other corporations.

Figure 12. ArcGIS online “SPYGLASS”.

Figure 13. G-motty mobile (ver iOS).

Next, we will be describing the method in which users

can determine the amount of solar radiation using the

mobile device in the field. When using the mobile device,

there is a need for a mechanism that user can see the

amount of sunlight while confirming the current position



by utilizing the GPS. We used “G-motty Mobile” which

was jointly developed by ESRI Japan Co., Ltd. and

Kitakyushu City by the G-space City Construction

Project of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and

Communications in 2014. They are pending the patent for

the G-motty Mobile in Japan. “G-motty Mobile” is an

application developed for the purpose of confirming the

feature and state of the surrounding around the certain

position. For instance, if users are interested to consider

PV installation and land purchasing or housing, they can

have a confirmed information about solar radiation at the

nearby land by using this application. The solar radiation

amount map using G-motty Mobile is shown Fig. 13.

Hence, a mechanism that users can confirm the

accuracy of a high solar radiation when they introduce a

PV has been introduced. So, it has been achieved as the

second purpose of this research.

III. FUTURE MEASURES

According to this research, it is verified how to

introduce the creation of the solar radiation simulation

data and simulation results to residents. We are planning

to use this verification result for the growth of fruits and

other solar radiation dependent crops to the research of

agriculture affiliate. Fruits qualities are related to the

solar radiation depending on the type of fruit. In Japan,

with the most of the cases where farmers have old aging,

abandoned farmlands have been increased. In the future,

in cooperation with agricultural organizations, in order to

leave suitable orchards for the growth of the fruits

preferentially, utilizing the solar radiation simulation

results will be continued. The 3D model of orchards and

the solar radiation situation of orchards are shown Fig. 14.

Black circles indicate the orchards locations.

(a) 3D model

(b) The amount of solar radiation

Figure 14. Model of orchards.

IV. CONCLUSION

In this research, it has been shown that it is possible to

ensure the accuracy of simulating solar radiation with the

consideration of the influence of buildings and trees

shadows using GIS and DSM. On the other hand, solar

radiation map of Kitakyushu entire area has been

developed for this approach. Moreover, this work

exhibited the following two types of maps exploring

depending on the purpose and the method which exposes

the map to residents.

1) Spyglass in case of using the PC

2) G-motty Mobile in case of using mobile devices

such as smart phones.

As for a future approach, it is planned to expand the

design considering agricultural sector in the solar

radiation map.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research was supported by the G-space City

Construction Project of the Ministry of Internal Affairs

and Communications at Kitakyushu City of Japan. And,

the authors would like to thank the research members for

their kind assistance.

REFERENCES

[1] A. Shiota and G. Urakawa, “The regional GIS community

formation and disaster mitigation measures in preparation for wide area disaster in Kitakyushu City and surrounding municipalities,”

Institute of Social Safety Science of Japan, 2014. [2] A, Shiota, K. Fuji, T. Kawagoe, and Y. Mitani, “The outline of the

photovoltaic simulation system using GIS (in Japanese),”

Committee of Joint Conference of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Kyushu, 2013.

[3] A. Shiota, K. Fuji, T. Kawagoe, and Y. Mitani, “System design of the photovoltaic power generation simulator using GIS vehicle,”

in Proc. Annual Meeting of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of

Japan, 2014, pp. 187-188. [4] K. Fuji, S Noda, Y. Mitani, M. Watanabe, and H. Yamada,

“Evaluation of functional isolated power supply system using PV generation and electric vehicle,” in Proc. Annual Meeting of the

Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan, 2013, pp. 470-471.

[5] O. Huisman and R. A. D. By, Principles of Geographic Information Systems, Enschede, The Netherlands: ITC, 2009.

[6] A. Shiota., K. Tanoue, Y. Mitani., Y. Qudaih., and K. Fuji, “Construction of transporting system the electric power by using

EV as mobile battery system in during black out of power grid by

disasters,” in Proc. International Conference on Electrical Engineering (ICEE), 2015.

[7] Japan Solar Energy Society, Solar Energy Utilization Technology, Ohmsha, 2006.

[8] S. Atsushi, “Utilization of GIS in power system,” Master’s thesis,

Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan, 2014. [9] P. Fu and P. M. Rich, “The solar analyst 1.0 manual,” Helios

Environmental Modeling Institute (HEMI), USA, 2000.

Atsushi Shiota was born in Kitakyushu in 1977. He graduated from Electrical Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan in 1999.

He is the chief of Information Technology Promotion Department at the General Affairs and Planning Bureau of Kitakyushu City Hall and in

charge of “Optimizing Information Systems” and “Geographic

Information Systems”. He finished the Master Course of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Kyushu institute of Technology in 2015 and

is now doctor course student. His research interest is Construction of electrical energy use support system using GIS (Geographic Information

System).



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