A group of scientists have figured out a way to build cities that would maximize the potential to harness solar power by mimicking Mother Nature.
The study was published in the Renewable Energy Focus journal and conducted at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Researchers from Iraq, Jordan, and the UAE found that a "sunflower-inspired urban city pattern" best optimized the amount of sun homes and other buildings would be exposed to in cities that may not get the most sunlight, sometimes because of long shadows from taller buildings.
"The alternating distribution in the sunflower pattern allows the sun to reach every building in this pattern equally," Dr. Ammar A.T. Alkhalidi, associate professor of Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering and author of the study, said in a statement, per TechXplore. "The results showed that the proposed sunflower pattern outperforms the grid and radial patterns by 4% for roof areas and 12% for facade areas."
The researchers looked at places around the world and settled on Warsaw, Poland, as their example of a city with "low solar radiation and long shadow length" to use for the sunflower pattern model. They compared the results with cities built in a circular pattern such as Baghdad and more modern cities such as Barcelona, Spain, which are built in a grid pattern.
While an increased energy output of 4 to 12% may not sound like much, consider the difference that could have in a major city. In Warsaw, with a population of nearly 2 million people, maximizing solar power and removing 4 to 12% of harmful pollutants released into the air by burning dirty energy would make a huge difference.
The increased solar efficiency would also save homeowners and business owners on their electric bills.
"This distribution ensures the best utilization of solar energy," Alkhalidi said, adding, "It ushers in a new culture in the urban planning community to adopt energy and energy efficiency techniques in the first step in city design, and to build the city on renewable energy bases."
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