Solar Farm Suitability Using Geographic Information System Fuzzy Sets and Analytic Hierarchy Processes: Case Study of Ulleung Island, Korea

Jangwon Suh and Jeffrey R. S. Brownson
Additional contact information
Jangwon Suh: John & Willie Leone Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
Jeffrey R. S. Brownson: John & Willie Leone Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

Energies, 2016, vol. 9, issue 8, 1-24

Abstract: Solar farm suitability in remote areas will involve a multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) process, particularly well suited for the geographic information system (GIS) environment. Photovoltaic (PV) solar farm criteria were evaluated for an island-based case region having complex topographic and regulatory criteria, along with high demand for low-carbon local electricity production: Ulleung Island, Korea. Constraint variables that identified areas forbidden to PV farm development were consolidated into a single binary constraint layer (e.g., environmental regulation, ecological protection, future land use). Six factor variables were selected as influential on-site suitability within the geospatial database to seek out increased annual average power performance and reduced potential investment costs, forming new criteria layers for site suitability: solar irradiation, sunshine hours, average temperature in summer, proximity to transmission line, proximity to roads, and slope. Each factor variable was normalized via a fuzzy membership function (FMF) and parameter setting based on the local characteristics and criteria for a fixed axis PV system. Representative weighting of the relative importance for each factor variable was assigned via pairwise comparison completed by experts. A suitability index ( SI ) with six factor variables was derived using a weighted fuzzy summation method. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess four different SI based on the development scenarios (i.e., the combination of factors being considered). From the resulting map, three highly suitable regions were suggested and validated by comparison with satellite images to confirm the candidate sites for solar farm development. The GIS-MCE method proposed can also be applicable widely to other PV solar farm site selection projects with appropriate adaption for local variables.

Keywords: solar farm; suitability analysis; geographic information systems (GISs); multi-criteria evaluation (MCE); fuzzy sets; Ulleung Island (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: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/8/648/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/8/648/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:9:y:2016:i:8:p:648-:d:76089

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().