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31st Annual Conference of the Solar Energy Society of Canada (SESCI). Aug. 20-24th 2006, Montréal Canada
AN EVALUATION OF THE POTENTIAL OF BUILDING INTEGRATED
PHOTOVOLTAICS IN CANADA
Sophie Pelland1 and Yves Poissant1
1Corresponding author : Sophie Pelland
CANMET Energy Technology Centre-Varennes (CETC-V), Natural Resources Canada
1615 Lionel-Boulet Boulevard, Varennes, Québec, Canada, J3X 1S6
Ph : (450) 652-2650, Fax : (450) 652-5177, email : sophie.pelland@nrcan.gc.ca
ABSTRACT
The electricity generation potential of building
integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) in Canada is
evaluated on a countrywide basis and for each of the
provinces, as well as for a few municipalities
featuring as case studies. The main goal of this
project is to determine the potential of photovoltaics
in Canada.
The methodology used was agreed upon by the
International Energy Agency (IEA) Photovoltaic
Power Systems Programme Task 7 Experts Group.
The methodology was applied to Canadian data on
ground floor surface areas to evaluate the electricity
that can be produced by grid-connected photovoltaic
systems integrated into the rooftops and façades of
buildings. The electricity production estimates
obtained are compared to the corresponding
electricity consumption figures, for each building
stock/geographical region under consideration. We
also evaluate the associated greenhouse gas
emissions that would be avoided if photovoltaic
systems were used instead of each province’s mix of
electricity generation sources (thermal, nuclear,
hydroelectric, etc.).
Our results illustrate a large, untapped potential for
BIPV in Canada. For instance, about 46% of
Canada’s residential electricity needs could be
supplied by BIPV systems. For the combined
residential and commercial/institutional Canadian
building stock, about 29% of the 246 TWh consumed
annually could be supplied by PV, and an associated
23 Megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions could
be avoided.
1. INTRODUCTION
Residential and commercial/institutional buildings
accounted for over 50% of total electricity end use in
Canada in 2003 and over 30% of total energy end
use, producing about 23% of national greenhouse gas
emissions [Comprehensive Energy Use Database
(CEUD) 2003].
Since photovoltaic (PV) systems generate no
greenhouse gases or other emissions during
operation, and very little over their entire lifecycle,
BIPV can clearly reduce the emissions from
electricity use in buildings. In addition, BIPV also
offers a means of reducing electricity consumption:
the integration of photovoltaics into building designs
is closely tied with energy efficiency measures, and
often occurs in contexts such as net metering and
time-of-day pricing which actively encourage
reduced electricity consumption and consumption
outside of peak demand hours.
The current cost of electricity produced by PV is
relatively expensive. However, costs on average have
decreased by 15-20% for each doubling of market
size following a standard learning curve [Report
IEA-PVPS T1-14:2005]. This is illustrated in Table 1
in the case of Canada. Given the projected cost
reductions as well as the environmental benefits
associated with BIPV, it becomes relevant to
examine the technical potential of BIPV in Canada:
how much electricity it can generate, what fraction of
electricity demand it can supply, and what
greenhouse gas emissions it can avoid.
Table 1: Price of PV modules in Canada over time
Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Price
(CAD/W) 11.09 10.70 9.41 7.14 6.18 5.53 4.31
Reduction 3.5% 12% 24% 13% 10% 20%
[Source: NRCan, CETC-Varennes, Annual market survey,
March 2006]
In section 2, we describe the methodology used to
evaluate PV electricity generation potential and
associated greenhouse gas reductions. Elements of
the methodology common to all cases considered are
presented in section 2.1. Specific methods used for
the three cases considered in this paper are then
presented separately: residential buildings in Canada
and the provinces are discussed in section 2.2,
commercial and institutional buildings in Canada and
the provinces in section 2.3 and buildings within
three individual municipalities in section 2.4. The
results for these three cases are presented separately
in section 3, along with results for the Canadian
residential and commercial/institutional buildings
combined. Section 4 gives concluding comments.
2. METHODOLOGY
2.1 General Methodology
In order to estimate the electricity generation
potential of buildings in Canada, a conservative
methodology developed by the International Energy
Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme
(Task 7) was applied. A complete discussion of the
methodology and of the sensitivity of BIPV potential
estimates to the assumptions and parameters used can
be found in the IEA report [Technical Report IEA-
PVPS T7-4: 2002].
The IEA report included an estimate of the electricity
production potential for Canadian buildings,
classified according to their use: residential, office
and service, agricultural, industrial and other. The
estimates were based on ground floor areas
extrapolated from U.S. figures (Canada did not
actively participate in this report). These estimates
were re-done in the present study using actual
Canadian values for ground floor areas. We were
able to obtain data for a subset of residential
buildings and commercial/institutional buildings, but
not for the other building types, which were therefore
excluded.
The methodology is based on a simple rule of thumb:
for every m2 of building ground floor area, there are
on average 0.4 m2 of rooftop area and 0.15 m2 of
façade area with good BIPV potential [Technical
Report IEA-PVPS T7-4: 2002]. The areas with good
BIPV potential are identified as those which are both
architecturally suitable for installing PV systems and
receive sufficient yearly insolation. This is defined
separately for rooftops and façades as being at least
80% of the respective maximum yearly insolation.
The rule of thumb is useful in Canada since statistics
on floor areas can generally be obtained or estimated,
while data on rooftops and façade areas is not
available.
Once the ground floor area of a particular building
stock is known, the corresponding annual electricity
production (E=Er+Ef) is given by:
Rooftops: Er = A * 0.4 * Yr * e * I (1)
Façades: Ef = A * 0.15 * Yf * e * I (2)
where A is the ground floor area of the building
stock, e is the overall PV system efficiency, I is the
maximum yearly global insolation received by a
fixed surface and Yr/Yf is the solar yield for
rooftops/façades, defined as the average over all
rooftop/façade surface orientations that are BIPV
suitable of the fraction of the maximum yearly
insolation received. An overall PV system efficiency
of 0.1125 (=0.15*0.75) was used based on a nominal
PV module efficiency of 15% and a value of 0.75 for
the PV system performance ratio, which is the ratio
of the actual system yield (kWh/kW) to the reference
or nominal yield, the latter being numerically equal
to the insolation in the plane of the PV array
(kWh/m2). The performance ratio takes into account
all PV system losses, for instance losses in electrical
wires and losses due to operation under non-optimal
conditions (temperature-related losses, losses due to
shading, reflections, etc.) [Poissant et al., 2003]. The
performance ratio value used (0.75) is the most
common yearly average value that was reported in a
worldwide monitoring of 395 grid-connected PV
systems by the International Energy Agency, for
systems built between 1996 and 2002 [Report IEA
PVPS T2-05:2004]. (In the scope of this paper, off-
grid PV systems are excluded, since the performance
ratio of 0.75 refers only to grid-connected systems).
As for the solar yield, the IEA analysis values for
Canada were used: 0.88 for rooftops, and 0.64 for
façades.
The only inputs needed in each case are the
maximum yearly insolation and the ground floor area
of the buildings. The sources used to obtain ground
floor areas varied from case to case, and included
statistics on heated floor space and number of storeys
per building, GIS analyses of aerial maps and direct
building measurements. They will be explained in
the relevant sections of this paper.
All the insolation data was obtained from the
Environment Canada CERES CD (le disque
canadien des énergies renouvelables éolienne et
solaire, The Canadian Renewable Energy Wind and
Solar Resource CD), which gives yearly mean daily
global insolation values for different surface
orientations at 144 meteorological stations
throughout the country for the 1974-1993 period.
The South-facing surface orientation with latitude tilt
obtained the highest yearly insolation values of all
the fixed surfaces in the CERES database, so the
corresponding values were used to calculate the
maximum yearly insolation.
In the case of individual municipalities, insolation
data from the nearest meteorological station was
used. Meanwhile, for provinces and larger regions,
the insolation value was calculated by averaging the
insolation value of all the stations in the region
weighted by the population associated with each
station’s municipality (to simplify, meteorological
stations/municipalities with populations less than 5%
of the region’s most populated municipality were
excluded). Since building densities and population
densities are strongly correlated, this gives a good
approximation of the maximum average insolation
received by the buildings of the region in question.
After having obtained actual electricity production,
this was compared to the corresponding electricity
consumption to determine what fraction of the
consumption could be supplied by photovoltaics.
Finally, greenhouse gas emissions offsets were
estimated by calculating the greenhouse gas
emissions that would be avoided if the annual
electricity production by photovoltaics replaced an
equivalent amount of electricity produced by
electricity generation sources currently used in the
region in question. The GHG emissions (G) for a
given region were calculated using:
G = E * g (3)
where E is the photovoltaic electricity generation
potential and g is the GHG emissions intensity for
electricity production in the region (amount of GHG
emitted per electricity generated).
Electricity intensity values for the provinces were
taken directly from the Electricity Intensity Tables of
Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory, 1990-2003
(Annex 9). For groupings of several provinces,
electricity intensities were calculated by dividing the
total electricity-related GHG emissions for the region
by the associated total electricity production. For two
municipalities (Calgary and Saskatoon), the
electricity intensity of their province was used, since
electricity supply is coordinated provincially. In the
case of the remote community of Wha Ti, the
electricity intensity used was that of a remote grid
powered by a diesel generator.
Following the GHG Inventory methodology, PV has
a GHG electricity intensity of 0, since PV systems
produce no GHG emissions during operation.
2.2 Residential buildings in Canada and the
provinces
In order to evaluate the electricity generation
potential of BIPV for residential buildings in Canada
and its provinces, we combined 2003 data from two
Office of Energy Efficiency sources, the first giving
the floor space of residential buildings (the total
heated floor area on all storeys of a residential
building excluding the basement and garage), and the
other the average number of storeys per building
[Comprehensive Energy Use Database (CEUD
2003); 2003 Survey of Household Energy Use
(SHEU 2003)]. We calculated the ground floor area
using:
storeys ofnumber Average spaceFloor
areafloor Ground =(4)
Apartment buildings were excluded from the
analysis since data on the average number of storeys
was not available for these. The residential buildings
under consideration include single detached, attached
and mobile homes. Since photovoltaic systems are
very rarely installed on the façades of these buildings
in practice, the PV electricity generation potential
was estimated for rooftops only using equation (1).
2.3 Commercial and institutional buildings in
Canada and the provinces
A similar analysis was carried out for commercial
and institutional buildings. Again, data on
floorspace was obtained from the CEUD 2003
database, while data on the number of storeys per
building was obtained from the Commercial and
Institutional Building Energy Use Survey 2000
(CIBEUS 2000). The ground floor area per building
was calculated using equation (4), as above. (Note:
Floorspace was defined slightly differently in the
CEUD 2003 and the CIBEUS 2000, introducing a
small source of error). The photovoltaic potential per
building was calculated by adding the rooftop and
façade contributions from equations (1) and (2), but
with a “rule of thumb” value of 0.2 m2 BIPV façade
potential per m2 of ground floor area instead of 0.15
m2, as suggested for commercial/institutional
buildings in the 2002 IEA report.
2.4 Canadian municipalities
The BIPV electricity generation potential of three
Canadian municipalities was also estimated to
illustrate the different types of data on building areas
currently available at the municipal level, and how
these can be used to evaluate BIPV potential. The
three municipalities chosen as case studies include
two major metropolitan areas, Calgary and
Saskatoon, and one remote community in the
Northwest Territories, Wha Ti. The evaluation of
ground floor areas for each munipality is described
below.
Calgary
Like an increasing number of municipalities in
Canada and worldwide, the City of Calgary has
produced a GIS map of Calgary based on aerial
photography, which includes building rooftop
outlines, that is the horizontal projection on the
ground of the rooftop outline. This data/map has
been analyzed by the geomatics group at the City of
Calgary [Digital Area Survey, latest data layer:
2005], which has building rooftop outline areas for
different building categories. The areas enclosed
within building rooftop outlines were used as
estimates for ground floor areas. Since rooftop
projections include the projection of rooftop
overhangs and eaves, rooftop outline areas will
overestimate ground floor areas. Electricity
consumption data for Calgary was provided by the
Alberta Energy Utilities Board [2004 Annual
Statistics, personal communication].
Saskatoon
The City of Saskatoon’s surveyor's office was able to
provide the average heated floor space area for
50,400 residential single unit homes in Saskatoon
[personal communication]. The average floor space
for these homes was 1090 ft.², with 23% of units
having more than one floor. Under the simplifying
assumption that these 23% of units have two floors,
the average ground floor area is given by:
avg
A
2
2
avg m 82.3
0.23*20.77*1 ft.² m
0.09290304 * ft.² 1090
A =
+
= (5)
Data on residential electricity consumption was
obtained from Saskatoon Light and Power and Sask
Power for all residential accounts [personal
communication], and the consumption corresponding
to the 50,400 attached houses was assumed equal to
the fraction (50,400/Number of residential accounts)
of the total electricity consumption.
Wha Ti
The case of Wha Ti illustrates an approach that has
been used in a number of European
cities/municipalities [Report IEA-PVPS T7-4: 2002]:
sampling the municipality’s building stock to
estimate relevant data. Sampling for Wha Ti was
conducted in the context of formulating a
Community Energy Plan [Bromley et al., 2004].
Building ground floor areas were measured in 2005
for 74 out of 105 residential buildings, and 15 out of
23 non-residential buildings. Electricity
consumption data was also gathered previously for
several of the sampled buildings [Reference ibid.].
3.DISCUSSION AND RESULTS
ANALYSIS
3.1 Residential buildings in Canada and the
provinces
The BIPV production potential for residential
buildings in Canada and the provinces is presented in
Table 2 for the entire residential building stock, and
in Table 3 at the level of individual households (the
average ground floor area per household was used in
this case). The tables also show the corresponding
electricity use and the ratio of BIPV production
potential to electricity use (as a percentage), as well
as the greenhouse gas emissions avoided by
producing the yearly BIPV electricity potential with
PV instead of currently used energy sources.
Canadian results
On a country-wide level, this analysis suggests that
rooftop photovoltaics for residential buildings could
supply about 53 TWh out of the 114.8 TWh
consumed annually in Canada (6.3 MWh out of 13.6
MWh at the level of individual households). This
represents roughly 46% of current residential
electricity consumption in Canada. About 16
Megatonnes per year of greenhouse gas emissions
would be avoided in the process, or about 1.9 tons
per year per household. In terms of power or
capacity, the calculated BIPV potential corresponds
to installing about 6.2 kW of photovoltaics per
household with the module efficiency assumed in
this study (occupying about 40 m², or a third of the
available rooftop area). This can be compared to the
average size of about 3.5 kW [Charron, 2005] for
residential grid connected PV systems in Japan,
where typical ground floor areas are considerably
smaller than in Canada (almost by a factor of 4,
[IEA-PVPS T7-4: 2002]). For the roughly 8 million
households living in residential buildings other than
apartments, this represents a PV potential of about
52,000 MW.
Provincial results
The results vary considerably from one province to
another. For instance, the ratio of PV electricity
production varies from slighly less than 30% in
Québec, New Brunswick and
Newfoundland/Labrador to over 100% in the case of
PEI and Alberta. Meanwhile, the GHG emissions
avoided vary from about 0.1 ton per household per
year in Québec, BC and Newfoundland/Labrador to
about 6.6 in Alberta and PEI. In terms of electricity
production per household, the main source of
variation is the difference in insolation, which is
considerably higher than average in the Prairies, and
lower in Newfoundland/Labrador, the Territories and
British Columbia. As far as the ratio of BIPV
generation potential to electricity use, the variations
derive primarily from considerable differences in
electricity use in the different provinces: in Prince
Edward Island, electricity use per household (3.2
MWh per year) accounts for only 13% of energy use,
while the Québec electricity use per household (22
MWh per year) is about 7 times greater, and accounts
for a correspondingly much greater percentage of
energy use (59%) [CEUD 2003]. Finally, variations
in GHG emissions offsets primarily reflect the
difference in electricity production sources used in
each province.
Energy-efficient homes
The above results apply to the electricity use of
standard Canadian residential buildings. However,
integrating photovoltaics into buildings is often part
of a broader, twofold approach of reducing energy
use and of favouring renewable and decentralized
energy production. In fact, a number of projects
worldwide now aim for net-zero energy use, i.e. for
homes that generate as much energy as they use over
the course of a year. (For a review of Canadian and
international initiatives, see Charron, 2005).
In terms of building design, the impact of BIPV can
be maximized through a number of techniques
including super insulation, airtight construction,
passive solar design and extracting heat from the PV
panels.
From the perspective of homeowners, PV use,
especially when combined with net metering and
time-of-day pricing, can lead to increased awareness
of energy use, to the purchase of energy efficient
appliances and to energy saving behaviour. Within
the general population, individuals with the “best
behaviour” use about 30% less energy than the
average [Chiras, 2002]. Meanwhile, energy-efficient
appliances can further reduce electricity consumption
(by 10-50 % in the case of ENERGY STAR
appliances).
Assuming an overall reduction in electricity use of
55%, the ratio of PV production to electricity use
would reach 100% for Canada, and climb to about
60% in Newfoundland/Labrador where it is lowest.
3.2 Commercial and Institutional buildings in
Canada and the provinces
The results for commercial and institutional buildings
are presented in Tables 4 and 5 in the same format
that was used for residential buildings, but with
provinces grouped according to the CIBEUS and
CEUD categories. In the case of commercial and
institutional buildings, the total Canadian BIPV
electricity generation potential is about 19 TWh out
of 131.7 TWh consumed annually (or 78 MWh out
of 449 MWh per building). This represents about 15-
17% of electricity use (the range reflects slightly
different results depending on which database is
used). This is considerably lower than in the
residential case, and is due to a much higher
electricity intensity per ground floor area for
commercial/institutional buildings (Canadian
average: 0.58 MWh/year/m2) than for residential
buildings (Canadian average: 0.14 MWh/year/ m2)
[CEUD 2003]. In terms of power or capacity, the
commercial/institutional BIPV potential corresponds
to about 21 000 MW, or 82 kW per building on
average. At the level of greenhouse gases, this
installed capacity would lead to reductions of about
6.5 Megatonnes per year, or about 16 tons per
building.
The electricity production per building for the
different regions covers a much wider range of
values than in the residential case. This can be
attributed to the greater diversity of buildings and the
wider range of ground floor areas per building for the
different regions.
3.3. Residential and commercial/institutional
buildings combined results and the Canadian
building stock
Combined results
According to the previous analysis, the combined
BIPV potential of the residential and
commercial/institutional buildings analyzed for
Canada is 72 TWh per year, which represents about
29% of the corresponding electricity use per year
(246 TWh) in 2003. This installed capacity would
prevent about 23 Megatonnes of GHG per year. In
terms of power or capacity, the combined BIPV
potential is about 73 000 MW, or about 2300 W per
capita. This can be compared to the total installed
PV power of 16.75 MW in Canada at the end of
2005, or about 0.5 W per capita [Ayoub et al., 2006].
This represents only about 0.02% of the Canadian
BIPV potential as estimated here! Comparing
internationally, the 0.5 W per capita value is well
below the 8.87 W per capita and 9.62 W per capita
reported in 2004 for Japan and Germany
respectively, as illustrated in Figure 1 [Report IEA-
PVPS T1-14:2005].
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
AUS
AUT
CAN
CHE
DNK
DEU
ESP
FRA
GBR
ISR
ITA
JPN
KOR
MEX
NLD
NOR
PRT
SWE
USA
Country (ISO country code )
Total installed power per capita (W)
Figure 1: Installed PV power per capita for IEA
countries. [Source: Report IEA-PVPS T1-14:2005].
Canadian building stock
Residential and commercial/institutional buildings
account for about 54% of electricity end use in
Canada (29% for residential buildings and 25% for
commercial and institutional buildings), with the
remainder of electricity end use coming essentially
from industry (44%) and from small contributions by
agriculture and transportation (about 2% for the two
combined) [CEUD 2003]. (Note: electricity end use
excludes the electricity used to generate energy,
which is considerable).
Industrial buildings and facilities are much more
energy and electricity intensive than their residential
and commercial/institutional counterparts. Using IEA
ground floor estimates combined with 1998 CEUD
data, their electricity intensity is about 1.4
MWh/year/m2 , or 10 times greater than that for
residential buildings (0.14 MWh/year/m2 ), with
commercial and institutional buildings being roughly
midway at 0.58 MWh/year/m2. In this sense,
residential and commercial/institutional buildings are
more “BIPV suitable” than industrial buildings and
facilities. Thus, for the purposes of the development
of PV in Canada, the ratio of PV potential to
electricity use can be taken to be about 29% for the
relevant building stock (about 46% for the most
suitable building stock: residential buildings).
3.4 Canadian municipalities
The results obtained for each of the three
municipalities considered are shown in Tables 6, 7
and 8, at the level of individual households (Table 6),
of the residential building stock (Table 7) and of the
entire buildings stock (Table 8).
At the level of individual households, the results
obtained for each municipality can be compared to
those of their respective provinces. For Saskatoon,
the electricity production per household (6.0 MWh
per year) is slightly lower than the Saskatchewan
result (7.1 MWh per year) due to a smaller ground
floor area per household, as estimated here.
Meanwhile, the result for Calgary (9.8 MWh per year
per household) is well above the Albertan result (7.2
MWh per year). This reflects the fact that rooftop
outline areas include rooftop overhangs and eaves,
and that residential garage areas were included for
Calgary but excluded at the provincial level, leading
to a much larger ground floor area for Calgary (140
m2 ) than the Albertan average (105 m2 , no garages).
For Wha Ti, the production potential (6.0 MWh per
year) is close to the Northwest Territories value of
5.7 MWh per year per household.
The results obtained for the ratio of BIPV generation
potential to electricity use for the residential sector
differ from the provincial/territorial values obtained
previously, in the case of Calgary (145% vs. 103%
provincially) and of Wha Ti (69% vs. 53%
provincially). In the case of Calgary, this can be
traced to the much larger ground floor area used,
while for Wha Ti it reflects electricity use below the
North West Territories average.
The results for the entire building stock for Wha Ti
and Calgary imply that photovoltaics could meet a
substantial fraction of total electricity needs in these
two municipalities: 72% in Calgary, and 85% in Wha
Ti.
CONCLUSION
The BIPV electricity production potential of
residential and commercial/institutional buildings
was analyzed for all of Canada, its provinces and
territories and three municipalities featuring as case
studies.
The analysis shows that photovoltaics could meet a
substantial fraction of yearly electricity consumption
in Canada, particularly in the residential sector,
where about 46% of current needs (53 out of 114.8
TWh per year) could be provided by photovoltaics.
For commercial and institutional buildings,
photovoltaics could provide about 15-17% of total
consumption (131.7 TWh per year). For the
combined residential and commercial/institutional
building stock, about 29% of the yearly 246 TWh
used could be supplied by PV. This corresponds to a
total installed capacity of about 73 000 MW, and to
about 23 Megatonnes of avoided GHG emissions per
year.
The above estimates apply to existing, standard
Canadian buildings. The impact of BIPV increases
substantially when solar energy and energy
efficiency are taken into account in building design
and in individual’s energy consumption habits.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Financial support for this research project was
provided by Natural Resources Canada through the
Technology and Innovation Program. This project
was lead within the framework of the NSERC Solar
Buildings Research Network.
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Ayoub J., Dignard-Bailey L., Photovoltaic
Technology Status and Prospects Canadian
Annual Report 2005, CANMET Energy
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and Cobb P. 2004. Wha Ti Community Energy
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Ecology North, Yellowknife. 123 p.
Charron, R. 2005. A Review of Low and Net-Zero
Energy Solar Home Initiatives, CANMET
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Chiras D. 2002. The Solar House: Passive Heating
and Cooling, Chelsea Green Publishing
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m
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Use (SHEU) 2003. Cat. No. M144-120-2003E*.
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les/index.cfm
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Thevenard D., Cusack P., 2003.
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TABLES AND FIGURES
Table 2. Total residential BIPV potential for Canada and the provinces
Region Mean daily
insolation for
latitude tilt
(kWh/m2)
Ground
floor
area
(km2)
Yearly
electricity
production
(TWh)
Yearly
electricity
use (TWh)
Electricity
production/
Electricity
use (%)
GHG
emissions
intensity
(kg/kWh)
Yearly GHG
emissions
reductions
(Megatonnes)
Alberta 4.73 99 6.8 6.5 103 0.911 6.2
Saskatchewan 4.99 31 2.3 2.6 88 0.84 1.9
Québec 4.33 172 11 37.8 29 0.0088 0.095
Ontario 4.22 332 20 38.5 53 0.272 5.5
Manitoba 4.55 33 2.2 5 43 0.0305 0.066
PEI 4.06 4 0.26 0.1 181 1.12 0.29
Newfoundland/
Labrador 3.39 17 0.83 3.1 27 0.0211 0.017
Nova Scotia 3.92 28 1.6 3.4 46 0.759 1.2
New Brunswick 4.19 22 1.3 4.6 29 0.433 0.58
British Columbia 3.80 125 6.9 12.9 53 0.0209 0.14
Territories
(NWT, Yukon,
Nunavut) 3.67 3 0.15 0.3 53 0.255 0.038
Canada 867 53 114.8 46 16
Table 3. Residential BIPV potential per household for Canada and the provinces
Region Mean daily
insolation for
latitude tilt
(kWh/m2)
Ground
floor
area
(m2)
Yearly
electricity
production
(MWh)
Yearly
electricity
use
(MWh)
Electricity
production/
Electricity
use (%)
GHG
emissions
intensity
(kg/kWh)
Yearly GHG
emissions
reductions
(tonnes)
Alberta 4.73 105 7.2 7.0 103 0.911 6.6
Saskatchewan 4.99 98 7.1 8.0 88 0.84 6.0
Québec 4.33 102 6.4 22.3 29 0.0088 0.056
Ontario 4.22 102 6.2 11.8 53 0.272 1.7
Manitoba 4.55 100 6.5 15.1 43 0.0305 0.20
PEI 4.06 100 5.9 3.2 181 1.12 6.6
Newfoundland/
Labrador 3.39 97 4.8 17.9 27 0.0211 0.10
Nova Scotia 3.92 97 5.5 11.8 46 0.759 4.2
New Brunswick 4.19 93 5.6 19.3 29 0.433 2.4
British Columbia 3.80 112 6.1 11.5 53 0.0209 0.13
Territories 3.67 107 5.7 10.7 53 0.255 1.5
Canada 103 6.3 13.6 46 1.9
Table 4. Total commercial and institutional BIPV potential for Canada and the provinces
Region Mean daily
insolation for
latitude tilt
(kWh/m2)
Ground
floor
area
(km2)
Yearly
electricity
production
(TWh)
Yearly
electricity
use
(TWh)
Electricity
production/
Electricity
use (%)
GHG
emissions
intensity
(kg/kWh)
Yearly GHG
emissions
reductions
(Megatonnes)
BC & Territories 3.79 31.9 2.4 14.5 16 0.024 0.057
Atlantic 3.92 20.3 1.6 8.8 18 0.621 0.97
Quebec 4.33 44.6 3.8 35 11 0.0088 0.033
Ontario 4.22 77.8 6.5 53 12 0.272 1.8
Manitoba 4.55 10.1 0.90 4.2 22 0.0305 0.028
Saskatchewan 4.99 9.1 0.89 3.9 23 0.84 0.75
Alberta 4.73 34.3 3.2 12.3 26 0.911 2.9
Canada 228.2 19 131.7 15 6.5
Table 5. Commercial and institutional BIPV potential per building for Canada and the provinces
Region Mean daily
insolation for
latitude tilt
(kWh/m2)
Ground
floor
area
(m2)
Yearly
electricity
production
(MWh)
Yearly
electricity
use (MWh)
Electricity
production/
Electricity
use (%)
GHG
emissions
intensity
(kg/kWh)
Yearly GHG
emissions
reductions
(tonnes)
BC 3.80 682 51 330 15 0.0209 1.1
Atlantic 3.92 942 73 333 22 0.621 45
Quebec 4.33 948 81 468 17 0.0088 0.71
Ontario 4.22 871 72 485 15 0.272 20
Prairies 4.73 1 095 102 472 22 0.243 25
Canada 915 78 449 17 16
Table 6. Residential BIPV potential per household for certain Canadian municipalities
Municipality Mean daily
insolation for
latitude tilt
(kWh/m2)
Ground
floor
area
(m2)
Yearly
electricity
production
(MWh)
Yearly
electricity
use (MWh)
Electricity
production/
Electricity
use (%)
GHG
emissions
intensity
(kg/kWh)
Yearly GHG
emissions
reductions
(tonnes)
Calgary 4.86 140 9.8 6.8 145 0.911 8.9
Saskatoon 5.05 82 6.0 6.9 87 0.84 5.0
Wha Ti 3.99 104 6.0 8.7 69 0.975 5.9
Table 7. Residential BIPV potential for the entire residential building stock of two Canadian municipalities
Municipality Mean daily
insolation for
latitude tilt
(kWh/m2)
Ground
floor area
(m2)
Yearly
electricity
production
(MWh)
Yearly
electricity
use
(MWh)
Electricity
production/
Electricity use
(%)
GHG
emissions
intensity
(kg/kWh)
Yearly GHG
emissions
reductions
(kilotonnes)
Calgary 4.86 48563200 3410000 2359000 145 0.911 3100
Wha Ti 3.99 11000 630 910 69 0.975 0.62
Table 8. BIPV potential for the entire building stock of two Canadian municipalities
Municipality Mean daily
insolation for
latitude tilt
(kWh/m2)
Ground
floor area
(m2)
Yearly
electricity
production
(MWh)
Yearly
electricity
use (MWh)
Electricity
production/
Electricity use
(%)
GHG
emissions
intensity
(kg/kWh)
Yearly GHG
emissions
reductions
(kilotonnes)
Calgary 4.86 65024000 5810000 8044000 72 0.911 5300
Wha Ti 3.99 20100 1500 1700 85 0.975 1.4
