Modelling Regional Solar Photovoltaic Capacity in Great Britain

TL;DR

This paper describes elsarticle.cls, a LaTeX document class designed to streamline submission formatting for Elsevier journals. It details the dependencies, optional features, and installation workflow, and explains differences from the earlier elsart.cls to improve compatibility and workflow for authors. The approach includes providing configurable formatting models (default, preprint, final styles for various Elsevier models), deep integration with natbib for citations, and robust frontmatter support for abstracts and keywords. The practical impact is to make manuscript preparation more predictable across journals and to ease integration with common LaTeX toolchains, reducing formatting friction for researchers.

Abstract

Great Britain aims to meet growing electricity demand and achieve a fully decarbonised grid by 2035, targeting 70 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity. However, grid constraints and connection delays hinder solar integration. To address these integration challenges, various connection reform processes and policies are being developed [1]. This study supports the connection reforms with a model that estimates regional PV capacity at the NUTS 3 level, explaining 89% of the variation in capacity, with a mean absolute error of 20 MW and a national mean absolute percentage error of 5.4%. Artificial surfaces and agricultural areas are identified as key factors in deployment. The model has three primary applications: disaggregating national PV capacity into regional capacity, benchmarking regional PV deployment between different regions, and forecasting future PV capacity distribution. These applications support grid operators in generation monitoring and strategic grid planning by identifying regions where capacity is likely to be concentrated. This can address grid connection delays, plan network expansions, and resolve land-use conflicts.