A major step towards mainstreaming PV on an Urban Scale is communities that standardise PV technology in the housing or community design. We surveyed examples of housing developments and incorporated townships that have integrated multiple stakeholder values into business solutions. It should be a useful reference for a design or planning of PV developments in urban areas.
With a template for gathering the information, 29 PV communities were surveyed. Most of the community scale PV examples are residential, both multi-unit and single houses.
Truly integrated PV communities can maximise the benefits through careful planning and multilateral involvement of all stakeholders. The urban scale PV market is not the bilateral relationship of traditional central generation electricity sales. When urban scale PV is mainstreamed, the planning and business relationships will also be common place. However, as this market emerges, these initial PV communities result in large numbers of systems connected to the “traditional” one-way network grid in a limited area. In these early adopter developments, emphasis is on the collaboration between the utility, building sector and government agencies.
Advanced facilities like PV systems are a high initial investment. However, these can be an added value of the houses and the community. In addition, it is expected the environmental consciousness and identity as a community will emerge to become widespread marketing and value tool regionally.
It is envisioned that a well-designed PV community would be one of the promising options of mainstreaming PV in urban areas and stimulate PV market for further deployment.