Solar potential on Flemish rooftops

The Flemish Energy Agency (VEA) has developed the solar map in collaboration with VITO and Information Flanders. We are aware of all of the locations of homes in Flanders thanks to the Large-scale Reference File [Grootschalig Referentiebestand]. From February 2013 to March 2015 inclusive, a number of flights were organised with laser detection equipment on board in order to measure the height of all buildings and other landscape elements. This information, linked with measurements taken by the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium [KMI], was used to model the annual solar irradiation for each roof."

Enter your address and you will immediately see how suitable your roof is for solar panels or a solar boiler. That is the principle of the solar map that was drawn up on 20 March 2017 by Flemish Minister of Energy Bart Tommelein. Anyone can consult the solar map online and immediately see whether his or her roof is ideal (green), usable (yellow) or of limited or no use (orange). For every roof marked in green or yellow, the tool also immediately calculates the cost price and the repayment time based on average family consumption (electricity consumption of 3,500 kWh/year) and indicates the annual savings in energy costs and CO₂ emissions.

The Flemish Energy Agency has developed the solar map in collaboration with VITO and Information Flanders. Jurgen Everaerts explains: "It was a very intensive job. We were aware of all of the locations of homes in Flanders thanks to the Large-scale Reference File. From February 2013 to March 2015 inclusive, a number of flights were organised with laser detection equipment on board in order to measure the height of all buildings and other landscape elements. This information, linked with measurements taken by the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium, was used to model the annual solar irradiation for each roof."

It was partly the task of VITO Remote Sensing to calculate all of this information and convert it into a solar map for the whole of Flanders. Jurgen Everaerts explains: "A large amount of processing capacity is needed to generate a map of this kind for Flanders. What is more, it was extremely important to ensure that the map was sufficiently detailed. We therefore measured the solar irradiation for each location measuring 25 x 25 centimetres. And what did we see? There is a large amount of potential in Flanders. If we were to take all of the roofs in Flanders together, they would provide a surface area that is large enough to generate 72 GWp. That is enough to produce 62 billion kilowatt hours of solar power every year, and all Flemish families together only consume 11 billion kilowatt hours per year."