Map of Suhareke Industrial Zone generated from GIS spatial analysis and showing solar radiation and potential solar PV output for each rooftop. Credit: Lorik Haxhiu, DT Global

How DT Global is Using Digital Data to Power Clean Energy Transitions in Kosovo

By Torge Gerlach,
Chief Executive Officer,
DT Global

As Europe’s energy crisis deepens and global climate change impacts intensify, finding new ways to invest in clean, renewable energy is critical. Through the USAID Kosovo Energy Security of Supply (KESS) Activity, DT Global is pioneering a new approach to expanding renewable energy access: using drones and GIS technology to improve market and investment information on photovoltaic solar power potential.

Assessing solar potential using traditional methods and then financing solar photovoltaic systems (the solar panel systems used to generate electricity) can be slow and expensive. This dissuades both the businesses that would use these systems and investors who would fund them. But by using drones, municipal data, and GIS technology, USAID KESS is demonstrating how it is possible to quickly map and analyze rooftops for solar potential.

Since October 2021, KESS has surveyed more than 420 sites (state entities, businesses, and households) across seven regions of Kosovo and identified almost 17 MW in small-scale potential solar capacity. To promote solar uptake, KESS created an ArcGIS site, Kosovo Solar Assessment: Estimating Solar Power Potential in Kosovo, to share information on rooftop solar potential publicly and free of charge for government, businesses, individual households, and energy investors. The KESS team also provides guidance and support on project preparation and financing for anyone interested in solar installations.

“By utilizing drone survey, photogrammetry, and GIS spatial analysis, we can survey hundreds of hectares and calculate solar potential for each rooftop in the surveyed area within a couple of days,” says Lorik Haxhiu, DT Global’s KESS Local Project Coordinator. “With the tools and workflow in place and our strong track record, we are in a position to replicate the process.”

And this work is paying off. In December 2022, powered by KESS’s digital assessments and using solar panels made in Kosovo, the Royal Beverage Company, a subsidiary of RC Cola in Kosovo, installed a solar PV system that has 720 kWp of solar capacity. This means that 15% of the company’s energy needs will now come from renewables, generating a carbon offset of 733.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year—the equivalent of removing 146 cars from the road for a year.

Supporting the solar enabling environment

By supplying neutral information on solar potential, KESS is also improving the overall enabling environment for this type of renewable energy. Providing this information—part of the essential due diligence process investors must make—helps to de-risk the Kosovar renewables market for investors.

“We can provide Kosovar businesses with facts and figures on how much solar potential exists, how much it would cost to install, what the payback period is, and what the risk on investment is,” says Michael Blair, DT Global’s Program Manager for USAID KESS. “We can then connect these businesses with developers and banks who see the investments as less risky when presented with these detailed assessments.”

At the end of this work, we estimate that the businesses and households KESS assessed will be able to install approximately 10 MW of small-scale solar capacity, reducing greenhouse gases by an estimated 12,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide—equal to powering 2,400 Kosovo households for a year. By showing how drones, software, and analysis can pay dividends in bringing renewables to market, KESS and DT Global are ushering in a new tool in the fight against climate change.