Researchers help solar power take flight

Solar panels have the power to make the aviation industry greener than it’s ever been, but they can also impose challenges for pilots and air traffic control. Fortunately, University of Waterloo researchers are discovering ways to make this vital source of clean energy work for airports around the world.

Backed by Government of Canada funding through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), a team of experts at the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics (WISA) has enlisted a camera-equipped drone and created computer simulations to understand the potential risks of the reflected glare caused by solar panels. Armed with this information, they’ll help design environmentally-friendly airports.

Dr. Costa Kapsis

“Canada has to deal with its emissions,” explains Dr. Costa Kapsis, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and one of the project’s leaders. “What we’re trying to do is part of the effort to electrify aviation buildings and make airport facilities more sustainable and energy-resilient with adopting renewable technologies.”

Most of the sector’s emissions come from aircraft in flight, and the options for dealing with them are limited. That’s not the case with aviation facilities which can be powered by renewable electricity generated onsite.

Building wind turbines near airports to generate power is not feasible, as their height would pose a dangerous obstacle for aircraft. In contrast, solar panels and airports make a perfect match. Airports are typically surrounded by vast stretches of unobstructed land — ideal places to locate ground-mounted photovoltaic systems. Solar panels can also be integrated on airport building roofs and over parking lots. This technology could significantly reduce an airport's carbon emissions, meet its electricity needs around the clock in a cost-effective way and provide reliable power during a grid blackout.

But there’s a catch. Glare from solar panels can pose challenges for air traffic controllers and, more critically, for pilots during takeoff and landing — the most critical times of a flight. The WISA researchers’ goal is to deal with this challenge by standardizing the process for safely employing solar panels at airports. To do this, they’re assessing when glare can occur, how intense and serious it can be, then finally what can be done to control it.

Dr. Derek Robinson

The WISA team is diverse. Kapsis, an expert in the building sector, is collaborating with Dr. Derek Robinson, a professor in Waterloo’s Faculty of Environment, whose research focuses on the aviation sector and the use of drones. Five graduate students and two technicians handle much of the hands-on work.For the past year, the researchers have flown a drone over the solar panel installations on the roof and in the parking lot of evolv1, a building located in the David Johnston Research + Technology Park in Waterloo. Those flights take place at different times of day and in every season to include the widest possible spectrum of light and glare conditions.

Their specialized drone is equipped with a global-positioning system (LPS), a LIDAR scanner for three-dimensional mapping, and a camera with a fisheye lens that is calibrated to record images like what a human eye would perceive. It is used to create a 3D map of the solar panel park and rooftop system while gathering all the glare-related measurements. After the drone captures images and geospatial data, the WISA researchers analyze the images from its camera in computer software, evaluating the probability of glare to occur using luminance mapping. From these data they can create the same conditions in a simulation model to predict the timing and intensity of glare throughout the year.

The Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre, a pilot training school at the Region of Waterloo International Airport, installed a ground-mounted solar panel system which offers real-life facilities for testing the WISA models. Employing virtual-reality technology, the researchers are successfully replicating on a screen the surrounding environment that air controllers and pilots would work with. The researchers then install solar panels in the model to determine how they would affect a real plane landing.

“It’s effectively a video game that can be deployed for enhanced safety design,” Kapsis says.

More test flights by the drone were conducted this summer to complete a full year’s worth of data. Ultimately, the project should produce important new guidelines for optimizing the installation of solar panels at airports — without compromising safety.

The simulation models indicate that the use of anti-reflective coating or satinated glass on solar panels can reduce or in some cases eliminate glare. Adjusting panel orientation to avoid glare in landing corridors is another solution. Both solutions can enhance safety by reducing glare but decrease electricity generation by up to 20 per cent — depending on the location and season. The guidelines from this project could eventually lead to Transport Canada standards and regulations for the aviation sector. “This is a big effort and requires multidisciplinary collaboration to help the aviation sector meet its sustainability goals without compromising safety,” Kapsis says. “It’s exciting work and we feel we’re in the right place at the right time.”

This project is funded by a $240,000 Research-for-Impact grant through FedDev Ontario’s Aerospace Regional Recovery Initiative. The grant is part of a larger $9.17 million investment by FedDev Ontario funding 38 Research-for-Impact projects at WISA.

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