Maximising rooftop solar could help counteract climate change

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-03-07 21:00

International

CC:0

International researchers say an increase in rooftop solar panels to cover all suitable roof spaces globally could help combat climate change. The team used data mining and artificial intelligence (AI) to locate a total of 286,393 square km of rooftops worldwide that could host solar panels. They found that installing panels on these rooftops could potentially reduce global temperatures by 0.05–0.13°C before 2050, which would have the flow-on effect of reducing our carbon footprints, particularly in areas with a lot of sunshine or rapid urbanisation.

Journal/
conference: Nature Climate Change

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Nanjing Normal University, China

Funder: This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China for Distinguished Young Scholars (42325107, awarded to M.C.), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (W2412152, awarded to M.C.) and the International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals (CBAS2022GSP08, awarded to M.C.).

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