Assessing the Siting Potential of Low-Carbon Energy Power Plants in the Yangtze River Delta: A GIS-Based Approach

Yechennan Peng, Hossein Azadi, Liang (Emlyn) Yang, Jürgen Scheffran and Ping Jiang
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Yechennan Peng: Institute of Geography, Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN), University of Hamburg, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
Hossein Azadi: Institute of Geography, Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN), University of Hamburg, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
Liang (Emlyn) Yang: Department of Geography, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), 80333 Munich, Germany
Jürgen Scheffran: Institute of Geography, Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN), University of Hamburg, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
Ping Jiang: Department of Environmental Science & Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200437, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 6, 1-20

Abstract: China announced a target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. As one of the most promising pathways to minimize carbon emissions, the low-carbon electricity supply is of high consideration in China’s future energy planning. The main purpose of this study is to provide a comparative overview of the regional siting potential of various low-carbon power plants in the Yangtze River Delta of China. First, unsuitable zones for power plants are identified and excluded based on national regulations and landscape constraints. Second, we evaluate the spatial siting potential of the seven low-carbon energy power plants by ranking their suitability with geographic information system (GIS)-based hierarchical analysis (AHP). The results revealed that around 78% of the area is suitable for power plant siting. In summary, biomass power plants have high siting potential in over half of the spatial areas. Solar photovoltaic and waste-to-electricity are encouraged to establish in the long-term future. The maps visualize micro-scale spatial siting potential and can be coupled with the sustainability assessments of power plants to design an explicit guiding plan for future power plant allocation.

Keywords: low-carbon energy; power plant; spatial suitability; energy planning; analytic hierarchy process; carbon neutrality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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