Solar Constraints and Potential in Urban Residential Buildings

2016. The Authors. Today, Asian cities have been full of high-rise and compact buildings with large population. In Seoul, Korean capital city where millions of people have lived, over 20 or 30 floors residential buildings are common sight. As a result, half of the Korean population is living in high-rise residential buildings like apartments. However, large residential buildings in cities have consumed huge energy provided from fossil fuels to support occupants' environmental convenience, and they are currently a major energy-consuming sector. To resolve this environmental and energy issues, solar systems are promising one of effective solutions to supplement energy demand for urban residential buildings. Therefore as fundamental approach this paper studies solar potential and constraints in high-rise residential buildings to understand unfavorable urban environment for solar energy based on diverse interferences from other urban factors. To maximize solar potential and to utilize effective renewable systems on the surface of buildings, this study analyses Korean typical multi-family housing buildings and also includes a case study to deal with an apartment complex to figure out the effective ways for solar energy. This result can be expected to be utilized for architects and engineers in their design process to plan low energy buildings.

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