Volume 58

Energy and environment potential by urban building-integrated photovoltaic in China Zhe YU, Duo LOU, Zhenwei LU, Bin YE

Abstract

As urban expansion drives escalating building energy consumption, responsible for a third of global energy-related COâ‚‚ emissions, building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) present a multifunctional renewable energy solution. Addressing the limitations of previous single-city evaluations, this study establishes a spatial assessment framework integrating both rooftop photovoltaic (RPV) and facade photovoltaic (FPV) systems across prefecture-level 360 Chinese cities, encompassing 7.7×10⁴ km² of installation areas. Our analysis demonstrates that the total BIPV generation potential reaches 10,023 TWh annually, equivalent to 126% of China’s current electricity demand, in addition to a carbon mitigation potential of 8.32 Gt. Spatial cluster analysis reveals four distinct city typologies: high-density metropolises (Cluster 1), emerging industrial hubs (Cluster 2), developing inland cities (Cluster 3), and the cities in the western region (Cluster 4). Particularly, Cluster 1 cities exhibit 3.8 times greater photovoltaic potential per unit area than the national average, suggesting that these cities are strategic priorities for the energy transition. This spatially explicit evaluation methodology provides decision-support tools for optimizing photovoltaic urban planning and formulating regionalized renewable energy policies, offering practical insights for achieving carbon neutrality targets.

Keywords Renewable energy, Building-integrated photovoltaics, Roof photovoltaic, Facade photovoltaic, Urban decarbonization