Evaluation of Potential Distributed Solar Generation at Right-of-Way Land of Infrastructure Objects

The present way of building utility scale photovoltaic (PV) power plants is rather extensive: land use price is often higher than for the relevant solar cell area, and lack of land is faced in a well-developed area. Building an integrated PV is a more intensive way, although, the area available for optimum solar modules positioning is limited. Another issue of large PV plants construction is wiring and grid connection. The recent trend for utility scale PV power plants is getting output voltages over 1 kV. This reduces wiring length (due to serial connection) and cross-section (due to lower current), as well as Joule heating losses. Although over 1 kV equipment is more expensive due to more complicated certification and lower market volume (at the moment), it is already economically worth implementation and has potential to even greater benefits in course of further development. We have considered infrastructure objects with right-of-way land strips (railroads and highways, power-and pipelines, water reservoirs) as a source of nearly useless land (but worth some taxes to its owners). In case of electrified railroads and power lines, possibilities for shared grid use also become available by adding generation, and in some cases also storage components. To evaluate the potential of distributed solar generation in this way, we have developed a geographic information system (GIS) consisting of the following layers: solar irradiation, railroad, power lines, power plants, water reservoirs land strips alienated for infrastructure in Russia. Our methods can be easily expanded to other regions and objects.