I see humanity in general using available resources until they are gone. I wanted to find if there is a way that we can generate the power requirements of Westminster CO, using only available, and suitable rooftops. By doing this no additional land will be required to be developed for the sole purpose of power generation.
I created a Digital Surface Model (DES) using Lidar data to identify the topography of the rooftops located with Westminster. I then took into account the aspect, slope and if there were any obstructions to the roof. I use the area solar generation tool and clipped the results to a rooftop boundary layer and performed a suitability analysis for power generation for each roof. I eliminated North facing roofs, any with a slope greater than 45 degrees, and any that were less than 100m².
The result provided and total amount of power that the rooftops of Westminster would be able to generate if solar panels were installed. This calculation is based on using 16 percent of total solar energy converted at 86 percent efficiency per the EPA guidelines for current solar panels. The end result is that just using the roof space already present in Westminster we could generate 4 million kilowatts more than required every year.