Correlation Between Density of Residential Areas and Solar Energy Potential in Xining City

In urban scale, solar energy utilization potential is closely related to residential density. Taking Xining City as an example, this paper explored how density of urban residential area affects solar energy utilization potential of urban housing. By changing density related design variables , including building layout, density rate, floor-site area ratio and the number of floors, 36 general models of residential areas with low, medium and high density are Abstracted. The results show that solar energy utilization potential of buildings varies greatly with different density related design variables. Comparison of a number of different scenarios reveals how density related variables affect solar energy utilization potential, based on which suggestions for optimization of solar energy potential for urban residential areas in their initial planning and design stages are proposed