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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Sustainable Design and Construction
Volume 10 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2024.1506294

Active solar and wind energy potential of urban morphologies on building facades and non-built-up space in between: a case study in Addis Ababa, Sub-Saharan African city

Provisionally accepted
  • Addis Ababa Institute of Technology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This article explores into the relationship between urban morphology and renewable energy, specifically focusing on the potential for active solar and wind energy in building facades and non-built-up spaces within blocks in Addis Ababa, a typical Sub-Saharan African city. The study involved the analysis of eleven urban blocks representing four different urban morphology typologies selected with geospatial clustering. Solar and wind data are obtained from satellite-based and meteorological sources. Wind and solar analyses are conducted using computational fluid dynamics through Ansys Fluent and Rhino Grasshopper in Ladybug, respectively, with the support of ArcGIS. The findings reveal that the changes in the values of some morphological descriptors have inverse relationship when comparing solar and wind potential on building facades. Conversely, changes in the values of other morphological descriptors generally show a direct relationship independently on solar and wind potential on the non-built up space.It is recommended that the combined effects of solar and wind potential on urban facades be considered based on morphological descriptors. Similarly, the independent effects of solar and wind potential on nonbuilt-up spaces should also be recommended according to these descriptors.

    Keywords: Solar Energy, wind energy, Urban morphology, ArcGIS, ANSYS Fluent, Rhino-grasshopper

    Received: 08 Oct 2024; Accepted: 12 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Mekonnen and Assefa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Wondwosen Debebe Mekonnen, Addis Ababa Institute of Technology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.