Towards a Sustainable Spatial Planning Approach for PV Site Selection in Portugal

Sofia Spyridonidou (), Eva Loukogeorgaki (), Dimitra G. Vagiona and Teresa Bertrand
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Sofia Spyridonidou: Department of Spatial Planning and Development, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Eva Loukogeorgaki: Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Dimitra G. Vagiona: Department of Spatial Planning and Development, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
Teresa Bertrand: Enercoutim, 1050-012 Lisbon, Portugal

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 22, 1-22

Abstract: In the present paper, we introduce a decision-support framework to (a) classify and prioritize the municipalities of a country based on their suitability to host PV energy projects and (b) pinpoint and evaluate suitable technically and economically viable, as well as environmentally and socially sustainable, sites for PV installation in the most suitable municipalities of a country. The proposed framework is applied in Portugal. It consists of two distinctive stages: ‘Energy Roadmap for PV Deployment’ and ‘PV Site-Selection Analysis and Assessment’. In the first stage, the most and least suitable municipalities for PV deployment in Portugal are identified by analyzing important environmental and technoeconomic PV siting criteria in GIS and applying the TOPSIS method. In the second stage, an integrated PV site-selection assessment is conducted in the Portuguese municipality with the highest suitability index for PV installations. This is achieved by combining a proper GIS siting model with various multicriteria decision-making methods, such as ENTROPY, AHP and TOPSIS. The results illustrate the suitability of numerous municipalities in the country for PV deployment and verify the excellent suitability of the Municipality of Mértola for PV installations. In conclusion, a PV energy roadmap for Portugal is formulated, contributing to national energy autonomy.

Keywords: photovoltaics; GIS; site selection; site suitability; spatial planning; MCDM; TOPSIS; entropy; AHP; Portugal (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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