MCDM and GIS based modelling technique for assessment of solar and wind farm locations in India

S.K. Saraswat, Abhijeet K. Digalwar, S.S. Yadav and Gaurav Kumar

Renewable Energy, 2021, vol. 169, issue C, 865-884

Abstract: In the recent past, various factors have led to an increase in the use of renewable energy sources, among which, the depleting fossil fuel reserves, increasing fuel prices, and rising environmental concerns are the most prominent. With this increasing reliance on renewable energy sources, a proper assessment of the suitable sites becomes necessary for the optimum utilization of these resources. The present study investigates the spatial suitability of the solar and wind farms locations in India based on the technical, economic, and socio-environmental perspectives. The analysis is performed with the coupled use of the Geographical Information System (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approaches. Analysis of present research work shows that 4.13% of the study area (133,874 km2) is highly suitable for the deployment of solar plants while 0.91% of the total area (29,457 km2) is highly suitable for the wind farms. The study further concludes that the Rajasthan state in India has the highest suitable land for the installation of solar plants (20,881 km2) as well as wind farms (6323 km2). The proposed model can be used for the development of policies related to renewable energy resources and the assessment of suitability of already sanctioned projects.

Keywords: GIS; Multi-criteria decision making; Analytical hierarchy process; Site suitability analysis; Solar plant; Wind farm; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (47)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096014812100063X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:169:y:2021:i:c:p:865-884

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2021.01.056

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().