Applied Energy 242 (2019) 57–68

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Digital numerical map-oriented estimation of solar energy potential for site T

selection of photovoltaic solar panels on national highway slopes
⁎
Jaehoon Junga, SangUk Hana, Byungil Kimb,
a
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Andong National University, 1375 Gyeongdong-ro, Andong-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do 36729, Republic of Korea

H I GH L IG H T S

• AA framework for solar site selection using digital numerical maps is proposed.
• A high-resolution solar map is created considering shade effects and tilted surfaces.
• A clustering approach to identify suitable sites on highway fill slopes is presented.
• case study is provided to identify the most suitable site in Gongju, South Korea.

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Photovoltaic systems are promising replacements for fossil fuels at places where high solar energy is available.
Digital numerical map The estimation of available solar energy is the key to maximizing energy generation because sites with high
Solar irradiation available solar energy must be selected. Previous approaches to site selection required several experts to avoid
National highway network subjective biases, often relying on rough estimations where the topography was not fully considered. Therefore,
Suitable site selection
this study proposes a computational method that estimates the potential of solar energy for prioritizing and
selecting sites for photovoltaic solar panels using publicly available digital numerical maps. These maps provide
various kinds of spatial data to support proper land utilization. We focus on the use of national highway slopes as
potential installation sites because they are typically unused public areas with high accessibility and few re-
strictions. For the estimation of annual solar irradiation, elevation contours and highway networks are first
separated from the digital numerical maps. The extracted contours are subsequently used to generate a set of
topographic data for the estimation. The extracted highway network is used to produce a binary mask re-
presenting fill slopes within which grid cells of high solar energy are identified and clustered to locate suitable
sites. The proposed method is applied to a test site near Gongju, South Korea, where top 10 potential installation
sites are clustered and ranked based on their estimated annual solar irradiation. The most suitable site is
identified in eastern Gongju with an annual solar energy of approximately 49,623.7 MWh.

1. Introduction Solar energy is one of the most noteworthy renewable energy

Fossil fuels (e.g., coal, natural gas, and petroleum) remain the
dominant energy source in the global economy. However, if con-
sumption continues at its current rate, resources will be depleted within
several decades owing to their limited supply [1]. Furthermore, there
are many negative consequences to using fossil fuels, such as the
emission of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. To avoid the rapid
increase of greenhouse gases, the key lies in the improvement of energy
efficiency on the consumer side or shifting to renewable energy re-
sources on the supply side [2].
sources viable to replace fossil fuels because it provides an unlimited
supply without pollution. In addition to the environmental aspects,
modern photovoltaic (PV) systems can provide noticeable returns on
investment comparable to fossil fuels and can meet the demands of
world energy consumption [3,4]. During the last ten years, the global
solar PV market has rapidly increased with a growth rate of 50% [5].
Furthermore, the International Energy Agency expects that the share of
global electricity of PV systems will reach 16% by 2050 [6].
However, there are still some challenges preventing the wide use of
PV systems. One noticeable shortcoming is the low efficiency of a solar

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: jhjung1216@gmail.com (J. Jung), sanguk@hanyang.ac.kr (S. Han), bkim@anu.ac.kr (B. Kim).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.03.101
Received 17 September 2018; Received in revised form 15 February 2019; Accepted 9 March 2019
Available online 14 March 2019
0306-2619/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
J. Jung, et al.
PV panel, which only converts some part of solar energy into a usable
form of energy (e.g., electricity), while the remaining energy is lost.
Typically, the efficiency of solar PV systems is in the range of 15–20%
[7]. During the last decade, much effort has been put to overcome the
technical limitations, and some recent studies have been reported to
achieve a conversion efficiency of more than 40% [8,9]. However, more
efficient solar panels are available at higher prices [10]. Another
shortcoming is that PV systems require large installation areas [11,12].
Because land cost increases over time, the demands for an efficient use
of available land increases [13].
Installing integrated PV systems in densely populated urban areas is
one method of overcoming the issue of limited space, high land prices,
and matching the energy requirements in these areas [14]. Nowadays,
instead of large and centralized solar power plants, the “distributed
generation” with a solar PV system on abundant rooftops is receiving
great attention, providing onsite electricity generation for nearby cus-
tomers with small capacities in building sectors [15]. However, there
are several issues with building-integrated PV systems, such as move-
ment of owner, renovation, health, and safety concerns [16]. As an
alternative, the integration of noise barriers with PV systems has at-
tracted interest in many countries, where a noise barrier located near a
roadway or railway is used as a support structure for the PV system
[17], and its shape and arrangement have become a subject of research
in the recent years [18]. In particular, the use of a bifacial solar module
is an emerging area of research because it is advantageous in collecting
both direct and reflected radiations from two sides [19]. Unfortunately,
the dazzling reflections of PV panels installed on noise barriers cause
roadway distractions. On the contrary, a floating solar PV system in a
reservoir is receiving great attention to meet the energy demands of
agricultural or aquaculture areas such as the shrimp-farming sector in
Thailand [11]. This is particularly advantageous in generating more
electricity than other ground-mount and rooftop systems owing to the
cooling effect of water underneath the PV panel; however, transporting
the generated electricity to the land is a difficult task [16].
A viable location to install PV systems is the national highway
slopes. These areas have several potential benefits: most highway slopes
are unused public lands; economies of scale can be achieved because of
their long and linear extent; proximity to roads reduces project and
logistical costs; highway slopes contain fewer trees and objects that
block sunlight; and a majority of highway extensions do not pass
through densely populated or protected areas. Thus, there are fewer
chances of civil complaints and damages to the environment.
Despite these advantages, the selection of suitable sites for solar
panel installation is time consuming, costly, and labor intensive.
Moreover, there are safety concerns for the surveying personnel
working in areas adjacent to heavy traffic. Our research explores the
potential use of digital numerical maps for suitable solar panel site
selection. These maps contain various kinds of spatial data that can
support a wide range of spatial analysis. The primary objectives of this
study are to
• propose a computational framework to estimate the available solar
energy and select a suitable site for PV solar panels using digital
numerical maps,
• provide a high-resolution 5 × 5 m solar map considering shade ef-
fects and tilted surfaces, and
• propose a clustering approach to identify suitable sites on highway
fill slopes.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 re-
views recent studies relevant to suitable site selection for PV systems
and identifying their limitations. Section 3 outlines the procedures of
the proposed approach and presents a description of the study site.
Section 4 provides the details of spatial data generation from digital
numerical maps. Section 5 provides the details of the proposed meth-
odology to investigate suitable solar sites on national highway slopes.
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Applied Energy 242 (2019) 57–68
Section 6 describes the test results of the proposed approach applied to
the case study in Gongju, South Korea. Finally, Section 7 identifies the
potential utility of the proposed approach and future work.
2. Related work
Suitable site selection for PV systems is critical to minimizing pro-
ject costs while maximizing solar energy generation. A good selection
process entails a comprehensive analysis to evaluate several aspects
including geographical, economic, social, technical, political, and en-
vironmental factors [20,21]. To deal with various types of information,
recent developments in geographic information systems (GISs) have
aided spatial analyses over broad areas, in which diverse variables are
stored and visualized digitally in vector- or raster-layer formats. The
grade of a given variable is based on the importance of the decision and
is subsequently intersected with other variables, thereby filtering sui-
table locations by the largest overall grade [22]. A key requirement for
GIS site selection is the prioritization of conflicting variables, often
aided by multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA). Over the last decade,
as the integration of GIS and MCDA has become common for identifying
suitable solar sites [23,24], many different approaches have been de-
veloped: the fuzzy set method, weighted product method, weighted
sum method, weighted least-square method, and analytical hierarchy
process (AHP) [25,26]. Among these, Al Garni and Awasthi [24] con-
sider AHP as the most effective owing to its simplicity and flexibility.
However, these models and methods often require the labor of
several experts with intensive knowledge and are more difficult to
implement because the large number of factors need to be considered.
Moreover, from a technical perspective, collecting and combining sev-
eral criteria layers at different scales and from different reference sys-
tems in a single analysis is time consuming and labor intensive. Thus,
much effort is required to reduce errors caused by misregistration,
missing data, and different spatial and temporal resolutions [23,27].
One notable technical limitation found in literature is low-resolution
solar mapping (e.g., resolutions of 50 m [1], 90 m [20], 500 m [23],
100 m [27], 1000 m [28], 1000 m [29], 5000 m [30]). If the purpose of
MCDA is to analyze a small area with a large amount of details, the use
of high-resolution solar maps is vital to reduce the uncertainty caused
by a mixed-pixel problem [22,31]. Particularly, when mountainous
areas are involved, topographic and shade effects should be considered.
These considerations are missing in many prior studies
[1,23,27–29,32]. Thus, a lack of reliable solar mapping can skew the
final decision towards suboptimal sites. Even if all other criteria are
considered, a location may not be suitable unless the solar energy po-
tential is sufficiently high [1].
To minimize the time and effort required to analyze various spatial
inputs for solar site selection, Fernandez-Jimenez et al. [33] proposed a
methodology for ranking feasible locations for PV plants based on ob-
servability. They used the fuzzy viewshed and distance-decay methods
to calculate the maximum number of hours a PV plant could be viewed
by observers on the road. This approach demonstrated its potential as a
criterion for social restrictions. Dias et al. [34] archived the location
and quantification of suitable areas for PV system installations using
land-use data. After excluding protected natural and water areas, the
remaining available land was evaluated further through three land-use
competition scenarios based on the ratio of PV favorability to the
economic value of land use. Subsequently, the suitable areas were
prioritized using terrain features such as slope and aspect. However, in
the above two studies, the solar energy potential was not directly
considered. Bocca et al. [35] developed a mathematical model to assess
the solar energy potential in Italy using an offline database from the
Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. This approach
provided a quick analysis of the given regions rather than providing a
spatial distribution map of solar energy. Merrouni et al. [32] in-
vestigated the eastern region of Morocco for hosting large PV farms.
They provided a solar map covering this region by interpolating
J. Jung, et al.
Fig. 1. Schematization of the proposed method.
measurements collected from 10 meteorological stations using the
Kriging algorithm. Then, to screen unsuitable sites, they mapped the
exclusion criteria (i.e., hydrology, infrastructure, and land occupation)
to a solar map, comparatively simulating two regions of interest: Oujda
and Almeria. Although the method proposed in [32] provided an in-
sight into the use of GIS tools in suitable PV installation areas, the in-
terpolation method, used to estimate the solar energy potential, did not
fully reflect adjacent topographies, such as the shade effect, for an ac-
curate estimation. Amjad and Shah [29] considered the raster data of
direct nominal irradiation in Pakistan to identify the top 5% solar en-
ergy regions. Subsequently, a density-based clustering technique was
used to identify suitable solar sites. The proposed method was applied
and tested for low-resolution solar mapping (1 × 1 km). Further re-
search is required to validate small-scale and mountainous areas. Thus,
solar energy potential remains unanswered for wide-area searches with
high-resolution solar mapping.
A national highway network is a major solar panel installation site
because it includes unused public lands with high infrastructure ac-
cessibility (e.g., road networks and transmission lines) and few re-
strictions (i.e., no forests or protected areas). Additionally, solar de-
velopment in areas around the highway network can produce revenue
by generating energy to power various transportation assets or by
leasing land to energy providers [36]. For several decades, European
countries such as Germany, Netherlands, and Switzerland have utilized
unused spaces and noise barriers along highways to deploy solar panels
[37]. Faturrochman et al. [17] proposed noise barriers integrated with
59
Applied Energy 242 (2019) 57–68
bifacial PV modules and investigated the effects of orientation, tilt,
location, cell position, and bypass diode configuration on the annual
energy generation. Mahmud et al. [19] proposed a concept of vertical
installation of bifacial solar panels in the middle of highways and si-
mulated the electricity production for eight roads in Bangladesh. These
researches demonstrated the potential use of national highways for PV
systems; unfortunately, optimal site selection was not considered. Many
state-level transportation departments in the U.S. have also explored
opportunities to utilize highway networks for solar energy develop-
ment. The first solar highway project in the U.S. was conducted in 2008
by the Oregon Department of Transportation (DOT). They deployed 594
solar panels that produced solar energy of about 130 MWh annually
along Interstate-5 and Interstate-205 south of Portland [38]. In 2015,
the Colorado DOT provided guidance for highway rights-of-way for
solar array deployment [36]. However, the guidelines principally fo-
cused on the potential impacts to highway safety and operations.
Moreover, spatial analysis, necessary for suitable site selection, was not
considered. Sharma and Harinarayana [13] proposed the construction
of roof structures above national highways. They investigated feasible
sites using Google Earth. Recently, Kim et al. [39] demonstrated the
potential use of unused national highway land for solar energy gen-
eration. Using a spatial information database and criteria from advisory
groups, two candidate sites were determined. Subsequently, a follow-up
analysis was performed to assess the suitability of the candidate sites,
based on estimated solar power generation capacities. However, they
relied heavily on manual qualitative analysis to identify candidate sites.
J. Jung, et al.
In contrast to existing methods, we propose a computational ap-
proach to estimate the solar energy potential of candidate solar sites
based on digital numerical maps to reduce the time and cost of col-
lecting and combining spatial data. Notably, the amount of computa-
tionally estimated solar energy is an essential criterion that must be
considered in any solar site analysis. Given a digital numerical map, our
solar site analysis include high-resolution solar energy mapping
(5 × 5 m) that considers shade and tilted-surface effects. A digital nu-
merical map is particularly efficient for generating highly detailed to-
pographic data for reliable solar energy mapping. The generated solar
map is combined with a highway network to determine the most sui-
table location for solar panel installation. The following section de-
scribes the proposed approach in more detail.
3. Overview and case description
In this study, we focus on a computational method that estimates
the potential of solar energy for prioritizing and selecting sites for in-
stalling PV solar panels on highway fill slopes using publicly available
digital numerical maps. Our proposed approach can be divided into two
phases: data generation and suitable site selection (refer Fig. 1). For
data generation, our method takes as input only a digital numerical
map including elevation contours and highway networks. Using ele-
vation contours, three topographic datasets (i.e., the digital elevation
model (DEM), slope, and aspect models) are generated. The highway
network is rasterized and a morphological dilation operation is con-
ducted to determine the highway slopes. These slopes are then classi-
fied as cut or fill slopes. Because the dazzling reflections of PV panels
installed on cut slopes may distract the oncoming traffic, we create a
binary mask to limit the site selection to fill slopes.
For suitable site selection, we assume clear skies. Daily solar ra-
diation values are estimated at hourly intervals and compiled over
365 days to provide a yearly accumulated solar irradiation map. Using
the three topographic datasets, solar mapping considers the diffuse,
ground-reflected, and direct nominal irradiances on a tilted surface and
the shade effects caused by nearby topographies. After generating the
solar map, the top 10% grid cells, in terms of solar energy, are identified
and clustered along the highway fill slopes. Finally, the clusters with
the highest solar energy potential are selected as the most suitable sites
for solar panel installation. The details of each phase shown in Fig. 1 are
provided in Sections 4.1–5.3.
The feasibility of the proposed approach is investigated via a case
study in Gongju, located in the middle part of South Korea between
latitudes 36°11′ and 36°44′ N and longitudes 127°07′ and 127°33′ E.
The city has a continental climate with a mean temperature of −2.2 °C
in winters and 25.7 °C in summers. The mean annual precipitation is
1265 mm. The elevation ranges from 2 to 587 m above sea level. The
study area is mountainous, and there is a clear difference in the amount
of solar radiation received at different spots. Fig. 2 shows an ArcMap
image of the study area, including a radial highway network high-
lighted in yellow, where the total extension is measured to about 69 km.
4. Data generation
4.1. Digital numerical map
In South Korea, the National Geographic Information Institute
(NGII) digitized the spatial information of the entire national territory
to create digital numerical maps to support efficient land management
[40]. These maps store various kinds of spatial information as vector-
type data with 3D coordinates (ITRF2000 UTM-k), which can be readily
transformed to other data formats for a wide range of applications.
Digital maps are updated every two years for urban areas and four years
for other regions to provide users with up-to-date information [41].
Since 2016, to encourage the widespread use of spatial information, the
NGII has made the digital maps available to the public at no charge,
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Applied Energy 242 (2019) 57–68
providing the highest resolution at 1:1000 for major urban areas and
1:5000 for the entire Korean peninsula [42]. The objects in digital
numerical maps are classified into eight categories: transportation (A),
building (B), facilities (C), vegetation (D), water system (E), topography
(F), boundary (G), and label (H), among which the information con-
taining elevation contours and national highway networks are used to
generate topographic and highway-slope datasets.
The digital numerical maps were created using a digital photo-
grammetric system. During data generation, several factors can poten-
tially affect the accuracy of the digital maps, such as uncertainties on
ground control points, photography, triangulation, orientation, and
plotting [43]. Because it is challenging to identify the influence of in-
dividual factors on the uncertainty in the final product, the NGII cal-
culated the root mean square errors of the generated maps using the
571 field measurements collected across the country. As a result, the
horizontal and vertical accuracies of the digital numerical maps were
calculated to be 1.904 and 0.915 m, respectively [44], which are within
the grid-cell size (5 × 5 m) adopted in the present study. Accordingly, it
can be said that the uncertainties on the digital numerical map do not
have significant impacts on the generated topographic data and esti-
mated solar irradiation in the later phase. The following sections de-
scribe these steps in more detail.
4.2. Topographic data creation
A DEM provides a continuous digital representation of the topo-
graphic surface of the Earth, commonly used for terrain analysis and
solar radiation estimation [45,46]. In this study, to generate a DEM of
the study area, vector-type elevation contours (Fig. 3a) are extracted
from the digital numerical map and converted into raster data con-
taining elevation values for each grid cell (Fig. 3b). The size of the grid
cell is 5 × 5 m based on the contour interval (5 m) of the 1:5000 scale
map. Then, the DEM is transformed to UTM coordinates (Zone 52), a
preferred reference system for subsequent solar analyses. Fig. 3b shows
that the coordinate transformation often leads to the deformation of the
input image to match the shapes and sizes of different coordinate sys-
tems. The DEM is then used to compute the slope and aspect for each
grid cell using the procedure employed by Hebeler [47]. The slope
model in Fig. 3c represents the angle of the surface normal from the
horizontal plane. The aspect model in Fig. 3d represents the angle of the
surface normal clockwise from south, classifying eight different direc-
tions and flat areas with different colors. Angles of both the models are
in units of degrees. The resulting topographic data are used to estimate
the solar radiation (refer Section 5.1).
4.3. Highway fill-slope extraction
Spatial restrictions are important to reduce the search space within
a feasible area for site selection. Fig. 4a shows the road network ex-
tracted from the digital numerical map for the study area, where the
national highway network (highlighted in red) can be readily separated
using the feature code “A0013111.” Subsequently, the vector-type
highway network is rasterized into a binary image representing the
road surface as “1” and the other parts as “0,” for which the same grid-
cell size (5 m) as used for DEM generation is used. The resulting
highway-network binary image is used to identify the highway slopes
using a morphological dilation operation [48]. This expands the objects
contained in the binary image using a structuring element to decide the
operation according to the object’s shape and size. In this study, we
adopt a simple disk-shaped structuring element with a radius of six grid
cells, yielding an enlarged highway-network binary image 30 m from its
boundaries. The enlarged parts are then labeled as “2” to represent the
slopes, distinguishing them from the road surfaces. Fig. 4b depicts the
generated highway-slope image, where the slopes are highlighted in
green.
Next, fill slopes are segmented from the highway-slope image.
J. Jung, et al. Applied Energy 242 (2019) 57–68

Fig. 2. Study area (ArcMap image).

Fig. 3. Topographic data generation: (a) elevation contours extracted from the digital numerical map; (b) DEM; (c) slope model; and (d) aspect model.

61
J. Jung, et al. Applied Energy 242 (2019) 57–68

Fig. 4. (a) Highway network extracted from the digital numerical map and (b) highway-slope image overlaid on the DEM and ArcMap image.

Fig. 5. (a) Conceptual illustration of cut and fill slopes and (b) the highway fill-slope binary image overlaid on the DEM and ArcMap image.

Modern highways in mountainous regions are constructed using a series Algorithm 1. Highway fill-slope segmentation
of cuts and fills [49]. Fig. 5a is a conceptual illustration of cut and fill 10 Find the elevation, E1:Gn , of η1: n from the DEM ,
∑n G
k = 1 Ek
slopes using regular latticed patterns. Cut slopes are generated by cut- 11 Compute the mean elevation, Ē G = ,
n
ting out part of a mountainous terrain to make way for a roadway.
12 If E c ≥ Ē G
Conversely, fill slopes are generated in an elevated section above the 13 HS [i][j] = 0
original ground surface. Because dazzling reflections on solar panels 14 End
installed on cut slopes can distract the oncoming traffic, it is desirable 15 HF = HS
to limit solar site selection to fill slopes. Algorithm 1 includes the details 16 Return HF
of the proposed highway fill-slope segmentation. A disk-shaped detec-
tion window with radius r is defined, detecting each slope grid cell (υ)
5. Suitable site selection
of the highway-slope image (HS ) (refer Fig. 5a) to determine υ in the fill
slopes when the mean elevation of the road-surface grid cells (η1: n ),
5.1. Solar radiation estimation
within r , is greater than the elevation of υ . In this study, r (60 m) is set
to be double of the radius of the structuring element specified in the
Thermal energy is the sum of all short- and long-wave radiation
previous highway-slope extraction phase to ensure that nearby road-
effects at ground level. A positive thermal energy value indicates a
surface grid cells are located within the radius (i.e., n > 0). With this
radiation energy surplus, whereas a negative value signifies energy loss.
restriction, a new binary mask (HF ) containing only the highway fill
Because net radiation is affected by ground conditions (e.g., soil and
slopes is created as shown in Fig. 5b. This enables the selection of
plant cover), direct solar radiation, computed from the geometric po-
suitable sites only in those areas.
sition of the Sun with respect to the surface, is generally used [50,51].
In this study, the estimation of solar radiation on a tilted surface is built
Algorithm 1. Highway fill-slope segmentation upon the research in [52]. Solar radiation falling on a surface normal to
1 Input: A highway-slope image (HS) and DEM the Sun’s rays atop the Earth’s atmosphere is called the solar constant
Output: A highway fill-slope image (HF) (I0 ) [53]. However, the actual availability of solar radiation (I ) can vary
2 Define the disk-shaped detection window with radius r
because the Earth’s orbit is elliptical, and the Earth–Sun distance varies
3 Count the number of rows ( p ) and columns (q ) of the DEM
4 For each occupied grid cell, υ =HS [i][j], where i = 1: p and j = 1: q , across the year. The following approximate relationship can be used to
5 If υ is on the road surface (i.e., υ = 1) account for the variation without a significant loss in accuracy:
6 H[i][j] = 0
7 Elseif υ is on the slope (i.e., υ = 2 ) I = I0 [1 + 0.034cos(360n/365.25)°] (1)
8 Find the elevation, E C = DEM[i][j],
where n is the day number, considering January 1 as 1. Recently, new
9 Find the road-surface grid cells, η1: n , within r,
measurements by NASA found the value of I0 to be 1366.1 W/m2 [52],

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J. Jung, et al. Applied Energy 242 (2019) 57–68

Table 1
Values of τb and τd for South Korea (37.57 °N / 126.97 °E).
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

τb 0.409 0.483 0.571 0.631 0.712 0.789 0.682 0.560 0.503 0.479 0.441 0.387
τd 1.844 1.669 1.529 1.476 1.397 1.343 1.526 1.771 1.845 1.808 1.861 1.982

as adopted by this study. As I passes through the atmosphere, the
portion of solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface without a change
in direction is called “direct solar radiation.” The radiation levels on the
Earth’s surface are prone to uncertainties stemming from local climatic
conditions. Thus, in situ climatic parameters are necessary to calibrate
the estimation model. However, because it is often difficult to obtain in
situ data, Gueymard and Thevenard [54] proposed a model to estimate
the solar radiation in clear skies.
b grass). Next, the sky diffuse radiation on a tilted surface can be de-
Ib,N = I (e−τ b m )
d
Id,h = I (e−τd m )
where Ib,N indicates the beam radiation per unit area normal to the
Sun’s rays, and Id,h indicates the sky diffuse radiation per unit area on a
horizontal surface. τb and τd are beam and diffuse optical depths, re-
spectively. They are site dependent and vary across the year. Table 1
provides the values of τb and τd for South Korea [52]. Note that because
the optical depths in the table are estimated for the 21st day of each
month, values for other days can be obtained by linear interpolation
between the two neighboring months.
In Eqs. (2) and (3), m is the air mass ratio indicating a dimensionless
path length of sunlight through the atmosphere approximated as fol-
lows:
1 The solar azimuth angle changes daily and seasonally [56]. Because
m≈
sinα + 0.50572(6.07995 + α )−1.6364
where the Sun’s altitude angle (α) is obtained using the procedure
implemented by Koblick [55]. b and d are the beam and diffuse air mass
exponents, respectively, defined as follows:
b = 1.219 − 0.043τb − 0.151τd − 0.204τb τd
d = 0.202 + 0.852τb − 0.007τd − 0.357τb τd
Ic = Ir,c + Id,c + Ib,c (8)
Fig. 6 shows the geometry of solar angles for a tilted surface [52].
First, the ground reflected solar radiation is approximated as
Ir,c = ρIh sin2 (β /2) (9)
where β is the angle between the tilted surface and the horizontal plane,
which can be obtained from the slope model (Section 4.2), and ρ is the
ground reflectance (0.2 is typically assumed for ordinary ground or
(2)
termined from the sky diffuse radiation (Id,h ) on a horizontal surface.
(3) Id,c = Id,h cos2 (β /2) (10)
Finally, the beam radiation on a tilted surface per unit area can be
calculated as
Ib,c = Ib,N cosi (11)
cosi = cosα cos(as − a w )sinβ + sinα cosβ (12)
where i is the incident angle of the beam radiation on a tilted surface,
and a w is the tilted surface azimuth angle from due south obtained from
the aspect model (Section 4.2). The solar azimuth angle (as ) is mea-
sured on a horizontal plane between the due-south line and the direc-
tion to the Sun as projected onto the horizontal plane. In this study, we
estimate as using the algorithm implemented by Koblick [55].
(4) the amount of solar radiation is an accumulated output, it is necessary
to determine the input year and time interval for the calculation. In this
study, 2018 is used as the input year, and the daily solar radiation is
estimated at hourly intervals, added for 365 days, and stored on square
grid cells (5 × 5 m) to produce the annual solar irradiation map.
(5)
5.2. Shaded-area estimation
(6)

Finally, solar radiation on a horizontal surface can be calculated
using the following equation:
Ih = (Ib,N sinα + Id,h )
Once Ih is obtained, solar radiation on a tilted surface can be com-
puted as the sum of the ground reflection (Ir,c ), sky diffusion (Id,c ), and
beam radiation (Ib,c ).
A shaded area can occur on surfaces when there is a topographic
obstacle between the Sun and the surface. The shaded area receives
only the energy of diffuse radiation [57], and the effect is more pro-
(7)
nounced in a mountainous region, such as the study site. In this study,
the shaded area is estimated using the cast-shadow algorithm im-
plemented by Schwanghart and Scherler [58]. Algorithm 2 describes
the shaded-area estimation in detail. Given azimuth (as ) and altitude

Fig. 6. Geometry of solar angles for a tilted surface.

63
J. Jung, et al.
Fig. 7. Conceptual illustration of cast shadow.
(α ) of a distant light source (the Sun), the DEM (Section 4.2) is rotated
with respect to the Sun’s azimuth angle to allow light from the source
situated in the north, shown in the profile view in Fig. 7. Next, the
shadow elevation is calculated from the second to the last row ( p ) by
sequentially reducing the height by the decrement (Δ ). For each row,
between the shadow and the terrain elevation, the larger value is
considered to calculate the shadow elevation for the next row. By
subtracting the terrain elevation from the shadow elevation, the grid
cells with zero or positive values are chosen as the shaded areas, which
are then converted into binary forms representing the shaded areas as
“1” and the others as “0.” Subsequently, the binary image is rotated
back to its original coordinates using bilinear interpolation, producing a
shadow model with shade values ranging from 0 to 1. Finally, the
shaded values are multiplied by the amount of beam radiation (Ib,N in
Eq. (2)) to incorporate the shade effect in solar mapping.
It is noteworthy that typically the digital numerical maps in South
Korea have been created through aerial photogrammetry using high-
resolution digital aerial photographs (0.25 × 0.25 m). Because aerial
photographs capture the first-reflected object, the contour lines of the
digital numerical maps do not necessarily represent the ground surface,
but represent the top of the object that is first seen, such as tree tops
[59–60]. Consequently, the shaded-area estimation with the digital
numerical maps account for tree heights near the highway in moun-
tainous regions.
Algorithm 2. Shaded-area estimation
1 Input: Azimuth (as ) and altitude (α ) of the Sun, DEM
Output: A shade image (S )
2 Define the grid-cell size ( g)
3 Compute the decrement, Δ = g × tanα
4 Generate the rotated DEMR with respect to as
Fig. 8. Conceptual illustration of potential solar site clustering.
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Applied Energy 242 (2019) 57–68
Algorithm 2. Shaded-area estimation
5 Count the number of rows ( p ) and columns (q ) ofDEMR
6 Create a p × q matrix (S) of zeros
7 For each grid cell S[i][j], where i = 2: p and j = 1: q ,
8 Find the terrain elevation in the previous row, Ept = DEMR [i − 1][j]
9 Find the terrain elevation in the current row, Ect = DEMR [i][j]
10 Compute the shadow elevation, E s = Ept − Δ
11 IfE s ≥ Ect
12 S[i][j] = 1
13 End
14 Rotate S back to the original coordinates
15 ReturnS
5.3. Clustering of solar grid cells
This step clusters the adjacent grid cells with high solar energy
potential. Algorithm 3 describes the proposed clustering method in
detail. First, from the annual solar irradiation map (A ) (Sections 5.1 and
5.2), the grid cells on the highway fill slopes are identified using the
highway fill-slope image (HF ) (Section 4.3). The grid cells with annual
solar energy greater than the user-defined threshold (the 10th percen-
tile is adopted) are identified and used to produce a new binary image
representing the high-solar-energy grid cells as “1” and the others as
“0.” Because the occupied grid cells in the new binary image are un-
organized and isolated, it is necessary to group them into clusters. A
connected-component labeling process is performed on the remaining
occupied grid cells. The algorithm begins with morphological proces-
sing to define which occupied grid cells are connected to other grid cells
according to the number of connected neighborhoods [61–62]. In this
study, eight-connectivity is used to determine the touching edges and
corners. Each cluster is uniquely labeled with different integer values as
shown in Fig. 8; thus, the clusters can be readily distinguished. Finally,
the amount of solar energy for each cluster is calculated from the an-
nual solar map and sorted in descending order to select the cluster with
the highest solar energy potential.
Algorithm 3. Clustering of solar grid cells
1 Input: A highway fill-slope image (HF) and an annual solar map (A)
Output: Clusters of grid cells (C ) with high solar energy potential
2 Define the threshold (δ )
3 Count the number of rows ( p ) and columns (q ) of the annual solar map
4 Create the p × q matrix (C) of zeros
5 For each grid cell C[i][j], where i = 1: p and j = 1: q ,
6 If A[i][j] ≥ δ and HF [i][j] = 1
J. Jung, et al.
Algorithm 3. Clustering of solar grid cells
7 C[i][j] ← 1
8 End
9 Perform the labeling process on C to group clusters
10 ReturnC
6. Results
ArcMap 10.2.2 and MATLAB R2017b were used as the im-
plementation tools for the proposed approach. Initially, the ArcMap
software was used to separate the elevation contours and highway
networks from the digital numerical map. Vector-type data were con-
verted into raster data of the DEM and binary images. According to the
1:5000 scale of the digital numerical map, a grid-cell size of 5 × 5 m
was chosen for rasterization, resulting in images of size 3606 × 4858
grid cells for both the raster data. These images were then imported into
MATLAB for follow-up analysis including solar radiation estimation and
suitable site selection. The experiment was carried out on a computer
with an Intel Xeon CPU E5620 (2.4 GHz, 24 GB RAM), and the pro-
cessing times were 7797.3 and 16.1 s for solar radiation estimation and
suitable site selection, respectively.
The Sun’s position changes daily and seasonally. Consequently,
shadows are short when the Sun is at its highest point around noon and
long when the Sun is low, either early or late in the day. Because
Gongju has highly mountainous regions, the shade effects should be
considered for reliable solar mapping. Fig. 9 shows the changes in
shadow over Gongju at hourly intervals on June 1, 2018. The terrains
are color coded with grayscale values ranging from 0 to 1 representing
the shade values from low to high. The shaded areas were computed
hourly during an entire day of the year, and were applied to the esti-
mation of the yearly accumulated solar irradiation of Gongju, as shown
in Fig. 10. The color bar denotes the variation of the solar irradiation in
kWh/m2. Overall, the areas experiencing northern exposure have lower
solar energy compared to the flat areas or those experiencing southern
exposure, owing to the strong solar influence in the northern hemi-
sphere between latitudes 36°11′ and 36°44′ N. In Fig. 11a, a histogram
with bin sizes of 10 kWh/m2 was computed to represent the annual
solar irradiation of the study area, where the largest peak was observed
between 2000.0 and 2010.0 kWh/m2. The maximum annual solar ir-
radiation was estimated to be 2260.9 kWh/m2. Note that the study area
was small enough to assume the same climate conditions; hence, the
meteorological factors were not considered.
Using the highway fill-slope binary image (Section 4.3), the annual
solar irradiation map was segmented, as shown in Fig. 12a, enabling the
detection of suitable solar sites within the highway fill slopes, as shown
in Fig. 12b. About 1.1% of all land in the study area was identified as
highway slopes out of which 50.8% were identified as fill slopes.
Fig. 9. Changes in shadow over Gongju city at hourly intervals on June 1, 2018.
65
Applied Energy 242 (2019) 57–68
Fig. 10. Estimated annual solar irradiation on the Gongju city in 2018.
Fig. 11b shows a histogram with bin sizes of 10 kWh/m2, representing
the annual solar irradiation on the highway fill slopes, showing similar
distribution of the entire study area in Fig. 11a. The largest peak was
observed between 2010.0 and 2020.0 kWh/m2, and the maximum an-
nual solar irradiation was estimated to be 2259.0 kWh/m2. Within the
fill slopes, only the grid cells with annual irradiation within the 10th
percentile were identified and clustered using the local grouping
method described in Section 5.3. Table 2 lists the top 10 clusters in the
descending order of annual solar irradiation. The table shows that the
terrains of the top 10 clusters tend to have a similar mean slope of
around 20° owing to the construction regulations of highway fill slopes.
The mean aspects tend to face southwards but represent a wide range
(between −90° and 90°) because of the varying directions of highways.
Overall, the changes in the mean annual solar energy of the top clusters
are relatively minor (between 2181.1 and 2224.9 MWh). However, the
largest difference in the total annual solar energy is observed between
the first (49,623.7 MWh) and the rest of the clusters (≤13,619.5 MWh)
because the area of 22,700 m2 for the first cluster is much larger than
the areas of the remaining clusters (below 6200 m2). In the last two
columns of Table 2, the geographic location of each cluster’s centroid is
represented by latitude and longitude. The first cluster’s location is
identified in the eastern region of Gongju with the coordinates of lati-
tude 36° 29′ 3.253″ and longitude 127° 13′ 57.800″. Fig. 12b shows the
top 10% solar grid cells on the highway fill-slope binary image, where
the first cluster is highlighted with a yellow box. For visual inspection,
the boundary of the first cluster in grid format was imported into the
ArcMap software. Fig. 13 shows that there are a few trees and man-
made structures in the area, demonstrating its potential use for solar
panel installation.
J. Jung, et al. Applied Energy 242 (2019) 57–68

Fig. 11. Histogram of the annual solar irradiation (a) on the entire study area and (b) on the highway fill slopes of Gongju in 2018.

Fig. 12. (a) Estimated annual solar irradiation and (b) suitable site for solar panel installation on the national highway fill slopes in Gongju.

Table 2
Details of the top 10 suitable solar sites on the highway fill slopes in Gongju.
No. Area (m2) Annual solar irradiation Mean slope (°) Mean aspect (°) Latitude (°/′/″) Longitude (°/′/″)

Total (MWh) Mean (kWh/m2)

1 22,700 49,623.7 2186.1 24.6 27.5 36/29/3.253 127/13/57.800

2 6200 13,619.5 2196.7 21.0 32.9 36/29/37.776 127/6/51.610
3 4925 10,958.1 2225.0 25.9 −50.1 36/29/2.275 127/3/21.305
4 4550 9923.5 2181.0 19.2 42.5 36/29/47.265 127/6/25.859
5 4275 9488.7 2219.6 24.0 61.5 36/29/14.470 127/13/4.700
6 4125 9034.9 2190.3 18.1 −97.4 36/29/55.619 127/10/19.773
7 3875 8485.4 2189.8 21.7 −86.2 36/29/3.124 127/5/34.293
8 3575 7924.8 2216.7 21.9 61.5 36/29/6.353 127/5/43.456
9 3550 7882.3 2220.4 22.3 13.8 36/29/4.839 127/6/10.617
10 3575 7860.6 2198.8 25.3 −103.2 36/29/3.253 127/13/57.800

7. Conclusion to conventional methods, the proposed approach primarily uses pub-

Selecting suitable sites is a crucial step for deploying photovoltaic
panels to maximize the generated output power while minimizing
project costs. In this study, we developed an efficient approach to in-
vestigate a suitable solar site using digital numerical maps. In contrast
licly available digital numerical maps, and thus reduces time and cost to
collect and analyze various kinds of spatial data from different sources.
Additionally, by limiting the suitable site selection process to national
highway fill slopes, many economic and environmental issues related to
photovoltaic panel installation can be avoided. Furthermore, a high-

66
J. Jung, et al.
Fig. 13. Suitable solar site overlaid on the ArcMap image.
resolution solar map comprising of a tilted surface with shade effects
was provided, enabling reliable solar energy estimation in highly
mountainous regions. To identify suitable sites on highway fill slopes,
an automated clustering method is proposed, which is able to extract
detailed spatial information about a suitable site (e.g., location, area,
slope, aspect, and solar energy potential). The proposed approach was
tested in a local area, Gongju, South Korea. The most suitable site was
identified in eastern Gongju with an annual solar energy of approxi-
mately 49,623.7 MWh. The suitable site in grid format was imported
into the ArcMap software, and its potential use for photovoltaic panel
installation was confirmed through a visual investigation.
The proposed approach can be applied to any region if the topo-
graphic data and highway networks are available. Currently in South
Korea, digital numerical maps are managed and updated routinely by
the National Geographic Information Institute providing up-to-date
spatial information at no charge. In the United States, the medium scale
(1:24,000) topographic data are provided by the United States
Geological Survey representing a seamless coverage of geospatial data
including boundaries, elevations, geographic names, hydrography, land
cover, orthoimagery, structures, and transportations across the country
[63]. The Ordnance Survey of the United Kingdom produces various
scales of maps (from 1:2500 to 1:250,000) including topography,
highway networks, green spaces, and water network layers [64].
Worldwide, this process can be facilitated using the Shuttle Radar To-
pography Mission digital elevation model, which is freely available,
covering about 80% of Earth’s land area with a spatial resolution of
30 m [65]. By leveraging existing data, this framework can save sig-
nificant time and cost. Given a digital surface model, the proposed
approach can be further extended to deal with buildings and other
objects for solar energy estimation and site selection. Furthermore, this
approach can support improved decision making in multicriteria deci-
sion analysis by providing high-resolution solar maps. The utilization of
unused and abundant public sites around the national highways will
also help promote proper land utilization for agencies.
Despite these advantages, there are some challenges that should be
investigated further. For the selection of a suitable solar site, in this
study, solar irradiation was estimated and adopted as a criterion under
the assumption of clear skies. However, a more rigorous criterion ac-
counting for actual electricity generation capacity under various cli-
matic conditions is required for a more reliable identification of suitable
67
Applied Energy 242 (2019) 57–68
sites and an evaluation of the economic feasibility of photovoltaic
system installations on highway slopes. This will facilitate comparisons
of the proposed highway integrated photovoltaic systems against other
types of solar panel installations such as rooftop or floating photo-
voltaic systems, thereby enabling the users to make an informed deci-
sion on investments. In addition to overcoming these limitations, our
future work will consider the integration of land-use datasets, such as
the Korean [66] or the US [67] national land-use datasets, into our
framework to investigate the ability to improve the suitable site selec-
tion process. The future work will also entail an expansion of the study
area to the national scale.
8. Declarations of interest
None.
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by a grant (18CTAP-C141728-01) from
Technology Advancement Research Program (TARP) funded by
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport of Korean government.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed
in this study are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the
views of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport of Korean
government.
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