Integrating information of the efficient and anti-efficient frontiers in DEA analysis to assess location of solar plants: A case study in Iran

The solar photovoltaic (PV) energy is one of the most promising sources of energy, which has attracted many interests. Itis potentially the largest source of energy in the world and is capable to mitigategreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions significantly in comparison with fossil fuels.Location optimization of solar plants can play a vital role to rise the efficiency and performance of the solar PV systems. In this regard, this study aims at evaluating different areas for solar plants according to a set of social, geographical and technical criteria through adata envelopment analysis (DEA) model. The proposed DEA model considers both information of the efficient and anti-efficient frontiers in order to rise discrimination power in DEA analysis. The proposed approach is evaluated and validated via studying a real case study in Iran. The extracted results reveal the usefulness and applicability of the proposed DEA model in choosing appropriate locations for solar plants.