Ecological Benefit Optimization and Design of Rural Residential Roofs Based on the “Dual Carbon” Goal

With the continuous advancement of urbanization, rural areas are facing increasingly severe environmental pollution, excessive energy consumption, and high carbonization resulting from both daily living and production activities. This study, which is aligned with the low-carbon objectives of “carbon sequestration increase and emissions reduction”, explores the optimization strategies for ecological benefits through the combined application of rooftop photovoltaics and rooftop greening in rural residences. Three design approaches are proposed for integrating rooftop photovoltaics with green roofing: singular arrangement, distributed arrangement, and combined arrangement. Using PVsyst (7.4.7) software, this study simulates the effects of roof inclination, system output, and installation formats on the performance of photovoltaic systems, providing a comprehensive analysis of carbon reduction benefits in ecological rooftop construction. A rural area in East China was selected as a sample for adaptive exploration of ecological roof applications. The results of our research indicate that the optimal tilt angle for rooftop photovoltaic (PV) installations in the sample rural area is 17°. Based on simulations combining the region’s annual solar path and the solar parameters on the winter solstice, the minimum spacing for PV arrays is calculated to be 1.925 m. The carbon reduction benefits of the three arrangement methods are ranked, from highest to lowest, as follows: combined arrangement 14530.470tCO₂e > singular arrangement 11950.761tCO₂e > distributed arrangement 7444.819tCO₂e. The integrated design of rooftop PV systems and green roofing not only meets the energy demands of buildings but also significantly reduces their carbon footprint, achieving the dual objectives of energy conservation and sustainable development. Therefore, the combined application of rooftop PV systems and green roofing in rural spaces can provide data support and strategic guidance for advancing green transformation and ecological civilization in East China, offering significant practical value for promoting low-carbon rural development.

This creative work has been published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) license which allows copying, and redistribution as well as adaptation of the original work provided appropriate credit is given to the original author and the conditions of the license are met.