ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Cities
Sec. Solar Energy in Urban Development
This article is part of the Research TopicAdaptive Building Envelopes and Renewable Energy StrategiesView all 3 articles
Enhancing sustainable urban development by combined application of bifacial PV and a high-reflectance roof coating: a case study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Building Physics and Sustainable Design, KULeuven, Belgium, Leuven, Belgium
- 2Lodz University of Technology, Lodz, Poland
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Mitigating climate change has become increasingly critical in the context of accelerating urbanization and rising energy demand. The long-term goal of effective and sustainable urban energy planning is to develop practical strategies that ensure access to affordable energy while enhancing thermal comfort and urban livability. This paper presents a technical evaluation of the energy performance of a bifacial PV system installed on the roof of a warehouse located in a suburban area (near Lodz airport). The efficiency of the system is assessed in comparison to traditional PV panels. To investigate the potential gains from reflected solar radiation, a high-reflectance exterior roof coating was applied to half of the monitored roof surface, allowing for direct performance comparison between coated and uncoated surfaces. The applied reflective membrane, a flexible and UV-resistant coating, also serves to reduce roof surface temperatures and enhance PV efficiency. The influence of the reflective surface on energy yield was assessed with the historical records: the documented yield of the examined scenario is almost 10%. Rather than relying on numerical modeling, this work presents a real-world case study that demonstrates a good practice example for urban sustainability.
Keywords: Bifacial PV, high-reflectance roof coating, Sustainable urban development, Urban energy efficiency, urban energy transition
Received: 19 Sep 2025; Accepted: 18 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zygmunt. 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: Marcin Zygmunt
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