A method for predicting city-wide electricity gains from photovoltaic panels based on LiDAR and GIS data combined with hourly Daysim simulations.

Highlights: [•] Created a phovotolvtaic-electric potential map of over 17,000 buildings. [•] Used a new method which accounts for hourly irradiation data and rooftop temperature. [•] Validated new method’s calculations against measured data from two operating photovoltaic systems. [•] Predictive error using new method was found to be less than annual climactic variation. [•] Compared new method and existing methods of predicting photovoltaic urban potential. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]