Equity- and Heritage-Informed Rooftop PV Screening for the Sustainable Development of Renewable Energy Communities in Bologna, Italy

Rooftop photovoltaic (PV) deployment in historic European cities is often treated as an energy-maximization task, with limited attention to distributive equity and cultural heritage constraints. Linking rooftop PV deployment to sustainable development requires screening approaches that address not only renewable electricity generation, but also social inclusion, resource efficiency, and the protection of cultural heritage. This study presents an open-data, GIS-based screening framework to support Renewable Energy Community targeting in Bologna, Italy. Roof polygons from OpenStreetMap (51,950 roofs) were combined with a cultural-heritage Web Feature Service (892 assets) to classify roofs as protected and excluded (645 roofs), heritage-sensitive within a 25 m buffer (4352 roofs), or unconstrained. A conservative PV proxy estimated usable roof area and annual generation using fixed system parameters and a PVGIS-derived specific yield (1359.39 kWh kWp−1 yr−1). Social conditions were represented with the composite fragility index and 2024 population totals to compute normalized per capita PV potential. Three prioritization strategies were compared: S1 (technical opportunity), S2 (equal-weight energy–equity score), and S3 (S2 moderated by heritage concentration). After heritage conditioning, the citywide potential totals 7.38 million m2 usable area (≈1.11 GWp; ≈1.51 TWh·yr−1), and per capita potential ranges from 2.33 to 4.55 MWh·cap−1·yr−1. Equity weighting shifts priority toward more vulnerable areas, while heritage-dense areas remain lower-ranked. The workflow outputs transparent rules, priority maps, and reproducible layers for sustainability-oriented municipal decision-making by connecting urban decarbonization, energy justice, efficient use of existing rooftops, and heritage-compatible renewable energy planning.