A Point-Cloud Solar Radiation Tool
Current software solutions for solar-radiation modeling in 3D focus on the urban environment. Most of the published tools do not implement methods to consider complex objects, such as urban greenery in their models or they expect a rather complex 3D mesh to represent such objects. Their use in an en...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-09-01
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| Series: | Energies |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/19/7018 |
| _version_ | 1797479596321406976 |
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| author | Filip Pružinec Renata Ďuračiová |
| author_facet | Filip Pružinec Renata Ďuračiová |
| author_sort | Filip Pružinec |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Current software solutions for solar-radiation modeling in 3D focus on the urban environment. Most of the published tools do not implement methods to consider complex objects, such as urban greenery in their models or they expect a rather complex 3D mesh to represent such objects. Their use in an environment that is difficult to represent geometrically, such as vegetation-covered areas, is rather limited. In this paper, we present a newly developed solar-radiation tool focused on solar-radiation modeling in areas with complex objects, such as vegetation. The tool uses voxel representations of space based on point-cloud data to calculate the illumination and ESRA solar-radiation model to estimate the direct, diffuse, and global irradiation in a specified time range. We demonstrate the capabilities of this tool on a forested mountain area of Suchá valley in the Hight Tatra mountains (Slovakia) and also in the urban environment of Castle Hill in Bratislava (Slovakia) with urban greenery. We compare the tool with the r.sun module of GRASS GIS and the Area Solar Radiation tool of ArcGIS using point-cloud data generated from the digital-terrain model of Kamenistá valley in High Tatra mountains in Slovakia. The results suggest a higher detail of the model in rugged terrain and comparable results on smooth surfaces when considering its purpose as a 3D modeling tool. The performance is tested using different hardware and input data. The processing times are less than 8 min, and 8 GB of memory is used with 4 to 16 core processors and point clouds larger than 100,000 points. The tool is, therefore, easily usable on common computers. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T21:48:03Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7abda7be2662448e93e60bfc0ed93d05 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1996-1073 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T21:48:03Z |
| publishDate | 2022-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Energies |
| spelling | doaj.art-7abda7be2662448e93e60bfc0ed93d052023-11-23T20:11:44ZengMDPI AGEnergies1996-10732022-09-011519701810.3390/en15197018A Point-Cloud Solar Radiation ToolFilip Pružinec0Renata Ďuračiová1Department of Theoretical Geodesy and Geoinformatics, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, 810 05 Bratislava, SlovakiaDepartment of Theoretical Geodesy and Geoinformatics, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, 810 05 Bratislava, SlovakiaCurrent software solutions for solar-radiation modeling in 3D focus on the urban environment. Most of the published tools do not implement methods to consider complex objects, such as urban greenery in their models or they expect a rather complex 3D mesh to represent such objects. Their use in an environment that is difficult to represent geometrically, such as vegetation-covered areas, is rather limited. In this paper, we present a newly developed solar-radiation tool focused on solar-radiation modeling in areas with complex objects, such as vegetation. The tool uses voxel representations of space based on point-cloud data to calculate the illumination and ESRA solar-radiation model to estimate the direct, diffuse, and global irradiation in a specified time range. We demonstrate the capabilities of this tool on a forested mountain area of Suchá valley in the Hight Tatra mountains (Slovakia) and also in the urban environment of Castle Hill in Bratislava (Slovakia) with urban greenery. We compare the tool with the r.sun module of GRASS GIS and the Area Solar Radiation tool of ArcGIS using point-cloud data generated from the digital-terrain model of Kamenistá valley in High Tatra mountains in Slovakia. The results suggest a higher detail of the model in rugged terrain and comparable results on smooth surfaces when considering its purpose as a 3D modeling tool. The performance is tested using different hardware and input data. The processing times are less than 8 min, and 8 GB of memory is used with 4 to 16 core processors and point clouds larger than 100,000 points. The tool is, therefore, easily usable on common computers.https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/19/7018solar-radiation modelingpoint-cloud datavoxel-based modelingsoftware toolvegetation-covered areasurban greenery |
| spellingShingle | Filip Pružinec Renata Ďuračiová A Point-Cloud Solar Radiation Tool Energies solar-radiation modeling point-cloud data voxel-based modeling software tool vegetation-covered areas urban greenery |
| title | A Point-Cloud Solar Radiation Tool |
| title_full | A Point-Cloud Solar Radiation Tool |
| title_fullStr | A Point-Cloud Solar Radiation Tool |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Point-Cloud Solar Radiation Tool |
| title_short | A Point-Cloud Solar Radiation Tool |
| title_sort | point cloud solar radiation tool |
| topic | solar-radiation modeling point-cloud data voxel-based modeling software tool vegetation-covered areas urban greenery |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/19/7018 |
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