Reviewing the past to get the future of urban PV planning right December, 2009: When it comes to rooftop systems, PV’s main market has traditionally been concentrated on one-off installations where homeowners combine the wish to do the right thing for the environment while making a little profit in the process. A new book, Photovoltaics in the Urban Environment, while revealing, is not so much for them. As PV becomes increasingly visible in cities and other populated areas, this new publication’s target readers are the municipal planners and architects who have been hooked by the idea of going solar. This 208-page, hardbound book, based on studies by the European Commission and the International Energy Agency, looks at the bigger picture, as described in the publication’s subtitle, Lessons Learnt from Large Scale Projects. It starts with a kind of checklist on planning, before reviewing 15 projects – all, except three, located in Europe. Then it looks at seven European projects in the planning stage, and finishes off with recommendations on the details of planning and financing, plus guidelines for design. The most interesting part is on the case studies of existing and completed projects, especially the overviews of problems, barriers and solutions. Some, like three projects in the Netherlands, are revealing – in Amersfoort, 500 new-builds received a total of 1.35 MW, which, while successful, left tenants with »accumulated« problems and »unhappy with the service« provided. On the other hand, just when a report on the Olympic Solar Village in Newington, Australia, for the Sydney Games in 2000 starts to get interesting, talking about the need to absorb the cost of PV roof components into the overall per-square-meter marketing of the building as a single package, it pulls back. This is simply referred to as »a challenging task.« Snore. The book really takes off in the next section. While ostensibly on plans for the future, it is really about the present, examining projects in the work-up phase. In many cases, the various authors offer timely warnings related to the pitfalls from the learned lessons on the completed projects. The chapter on regulatory framework and financing is a concise – perhaps too concise at just five pages – review of areas for planners to consider before embarking on projects. The chapter on design provides novices with the basics of the technology, such as the terminology, and architects with criteria for making design choices, all backed up with a decent selection of photos. It finishes up with a useful three-page wrap-up on top tips. Photovoltaics in the Urban Environment may not be the best bedtime reading, but it is certainly a credible wake-up call for planners and architects to take the emergence of PV in populated areas more seriously than they have before. wph Photovoltaics in the Urban Environment Earthscan, 2009 208 pages, hardback £60 ($96.12) ISBN: 9781844077717 William P. Hirshman © PHOTON International, December 2009 Duplicate only with allowance of PHOTON Europe GmbH, Aachen, Germany  back