Analysing the role of roof shape optimization on decreasing the effect of duck curve in Perth, Western Australia: An experimental case study

Abstract This paper optimizes roof shape and associated Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) mounting strategies based on the newly announced feed-in tariff pricing range in Western Australia to confirm hypothesised benefits and potential influence on grid consumption reduction. Through analysis of a residential building in Perth, the study looks at: the current status of consumption, solar production, and energy balance. An Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) approach is deployed to optimize roof shape for each month and one whole year, with the aim of maximizing financial return by selling extra produced power to the grid. We have found that the optimized form has a tilt angle of 35.9° from horizontal and an azimuth angle of 47° toward the northwest. To compare the effectiveness of the newly announced tariff pricing, an analysis of economic benefits has been carried out comparing the ability of base case and optimized roof shapes to balance production and consumption surpluses and deficits. The outcome exemplifies the positive effect of an optimized roof shape that could supply 16% higher solar production than the base case shape. The current work provides practical guidelines for engineers, architects and researchers to design more suitably built environments.