Abstract
Ethiopia has vast amount of renewable energy resources including solar energy which remains virtually undeveloped and for the projected growth of the country utilizing the available energy especially renewables is vital for its economic and environmental benefits. The aim of the study was to determine suitable rooftop area for photovoltaic installation, assesses the electricity generation potential and determining the greenhouse gas emission reduction potential of rooftop solar photovoltaic system on major condominium sites in Addis Ababa.
Manual selection method using areal images, site plans, building designs and on site scrutiny were employed to assess the suitability of rooftop area of buildings blocks in the selected condominium sites, System Advisor Model was used to estimate the solar photovoltaics energy potential and Tire 1 approach of guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories was applied to estimate greenhouse emission reduction potential. The total rooftop area of all blocks in the condominium sites was 728,355-meter square, where 24 percent enables to install solar photovoltaic systems with minimum or no modification except for fitting the modules on the roof. The total estimated annual energy production of solar photovoltaic system on the determined suitable area was 65,348,081.00 Kilo Watt hours, where highest annual energy production potential of 21,968,180 Kilo Watt hours was found at Yeka-Abado followed by 13,863,342 at Tulu-Dimtu, 12,852,895 at Gelan, 8,386,071 at Jemo-1 with and 8,277,593 at Ayat-2. The cumulative estimated greenhouse emission reduction potential was 16,303.89 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, where Ayat-2, Yeka-Abado, Jemo-1, Tulu-Dimtu and Gelan condominium sites have emission reduction potential of 2,065, 5,480.91, 2,092.27, 3,458.81 and 3,206.71 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent respectively. This indicates there is high electricity generation and notable greenhouse gas emission reduction potential from rooftop photovoltaic system even considering the suitable rooftop portions of condominiums that could strengthen the electric energy suppling capacity, increase the energy mix and contribute in reducing GHG emissions.
Keywords: Solar, Photovoltaics, Rooftop, Greenhouse gas, Renewable Energy
