Assessment of Wind Energy Potential and Optimal Site Selection for Wind Energy Plant Installations in Igdir/Turkey

Gökhan Şahin (), Ahmet Koç, Sülem Şenyiğit Doğan and Wilfried van Sark
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Gökhan Şahin: Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Princetonlaan 8A, 3584 CB Utrecht, The Netherlands
Ahmet Koç: Park and Garden Plants Department, Vocational School of Technical Sciences, Dicle University, 21280 Diyarbakır, Turkey
Sülem Şenyiğit Doğan: Park and Garden Plants Department, Vocational School of Technical Sciences, Dicle University, 21280 Diyarbakır, Turkey
Wilfried van Sark: Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Princetonlaan 8A, 3584 CB Utrecht, The Netherlands

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 20, 1-30

Abstract: Wind energy is an eco-friendly, renewable, domestic, and infinite resource. These factors render the construction of wind turbines appealing to nations, prompting numerous governments to implement incentives to augment their installed capacity of wind turbines. Alongside augmenting the installed capacity of wind turbines, identifying suitable locations for their installation is crucial for optimizing turbine performance. This study aims to evaluate potential sites for wind power plant installation via a GIS, a mapping technique. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was employed to assess the locations, including both quantitative and qualitative aspects that significantly impact the wind farm suitability map. Utilizing the GIS methodology, all datasets were examined through height and raster transformations of land surface temperature, plant density index, air pressure, humidity, wind speed, air temperature, land cover, solar radiation, aspect, slope, and topographical characteristics, resulting in the creation of a wind farm map. The correlation between the five-year meteorological data and environmental parameters (wind direction, daily wind speed, daily maximum and minimum air temperatures, daily relative humidity, daily average air temperature, solar radiation duration, daily cloud cover, air humidity, and air pressure) influencing the wind power plant in Iğdır province, including Iğdır Airport, Karakoyunlu, Aralık, and Tuzluca districts, was analyzed. If wind energy towers are installed at 1 km intervals across an area of roughly 858,180 hectares in Igdir province, an estimated 858,180 GWh of wind energy can be generated. The GIS-derived wind power plant map indicates that the installation sites for wind power plants are located in regions susceptible to wind erosion.

Keywords: wind power plant; renewable energy; geographical information systems (GISs); analytic hierarchy process (AHP); wind speed (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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