GOMap - Geospatial Opportunity Mapping tool: an open-source GIS application for urban scale renewable energy generation

As part of a project awarded to Glasgow City Council (GCC) by Innovate UK, an interactive GIS-based Geospatial Opportunity Mapping (GOMap) tool was developed to identify land within the city of Glasgow that is policy unconstrained and technically feasible for the deployment of urban solar photovoltaic power stations (PVPS). The development process included workshops with GCC and ScottishPower Energy Networks (SPEN) regarding policy and technical aspect information respectively. Relevant factors associated with each aspect affecting site selection were identified. GOMap, based on the QGIS system, represents spatial relationships between policy and technical factors on a 10 m x 10 m city grid and implements a scoring system to differentiate factors that support or curtail PVPS deployment. User-directed weightings can be applied to explore alternative action plans. Finally, GOMap outputs are utilised by a PVPS model to estimate annual energy generation as a function of local weather and installation design (array spacing and panel tilt).