EUROPEANS can massively expand low-cost solar generation just by tapping the space over their heads.

That’s the conclusion of researchers who used satellite imagery, electricity prices and lending data to assess the untapped energy potential of Europe’s buildings.

Rooftop area three times the size Luxembourg is available and could economically supply almost a quarter of the bloc’s power, according to a paper published in Elsevier’s October edition of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.

“Policies at country and regional levels to exploit this potential can bring benefits for employment in the manufacturing, installation and operational sectors” while mobilizing people toward “achieving the EU’s transition to a low carbon energy system,” wrote researchers led by Katalin Bodis of the European Commission’s Joint Research Center.

The majority of Europeans support shifting to clean energy to halt climate change, but governments have struggled to find solutions. Germany expects to miss pledges it made to cut emissions despite record investments in solar and wind power.

Sluggish investment in upgrading power grids has created bottlenecks between regions that have deployed intermittent renewables and those that still rely on polluting fossil-fuel plants that run all the time.

The new research suggests that looking more closely at rooftop solar resources could help policymakers to plan more effectively, especially as an expected wave of electric vehicles enters the market and raises power demand.

“Rooftop systems can cover such an increased demand and if designed to produce electricity mainly for local consumption, side-effects such as grid congestion and dispatch cost will be avoided,” the researchers wrote. (SD-Agencies)