Remote sensing of night-time lights and electricity consumption: A systematic literature review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Night-time light (NTL) satellite imagery can provide unique insights into the energy sector. Nevertheless, there are limited studies that have systematically reviewed the literature on the relationship between electricity consumption and NTL. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a systematic review of studies that have explored this relationship. The review identified over 200 regression models estimating electricity consumption using NTL satellite images. The key finding of the review was that there was a large variability in regression performance for model prediction of electricity consumption from NTL imagery, indicating a need for further work to refine the techniques and approaches in this emerging field of remote sensing research. The level of spatial aggregation had an important influence on model performance with larger geographical areas, such as countries or states, providing better estimations.