MAPPING SOLAR POTENTIAL FOR FURMAN UNIVERSITY USING LIDAR AND GIS, GREENVILLE, SC

Furman University, located in Greenville, South Carolina is one of the leading liberal arts universities in the country. Furman University has a long standing commitment to campus sustainability and has set an ambitious goal of becoming carbon neutral by the year 2026. Achieving this target will require Furman to make significant changes in all areas of campus operations and maintenance. The purchase of electricity from Duke Power for campus operations makes up 62% of Furman’s total carbon footprint. Furman is exploring alternative sources of energy including solar to offset fossil fuel based energy from Duke. The main objective of this study is to identify optimal locations, surface area, and available capacity for solar panel installations on top of campus buildings and grounds area. To achieve this goal, we are using high resolution LiDAR data and GIS based modeling approaches. The LiDAR data was used to accurately represent a digital surface model of the landscape so that solar illumination models can be applied to predict the sites with maximum solar illumination. Modeling work is currently in progress and we are expecting the model results to help identify specific buildings and precise locations on campus grounds that are most suited for solar panel installation. The solar potential map produced from this study can be used as a decision making tool at site specific scale as well as larger neighborhood scale.