A Regional Scale Photovoltaic Site Selection Based On Geospatial Techniques

The current study is aimed at defining the suitable areas for establishing photovoltaic (PV) farms in Jordan utilizing geospatial techniques, remote sensing and GIS data. The methodology includes a GIS-based multi-criteria evaluation which converts and integrates geospatial data in the form of map criteria and decision-makers’ preferences to define the most suitable sites for the photovoltaic site selection. The study consists of four major components: (1) identifying the potential regions for the PV farms, (2) determining the score values and relative weights of nine spatial criteria, (3) synthesizing the nine criteria according to the fuzzy-AHP method, and (4) evaluating the suitability of the potential sites for PV farms. The results show that the major contributing factors in defining the suitable PV sites are the solar radiation, aspect, and distance from a major electricity network (with relative weights of 30%, 22% and 15%, respectively). The percentage of potential regions in Jordan for PV sites was found to be 58.4%; however, the percentage of suitable regions represented 68.4% of the potential areas which were divided into four groups: “suitable” (8.3%), “slightly more suitable” (14.6%), “moderately suitable” (18.1%), and “highly suitable” (27.4%). The statistical results at the administrative-unit level (governorate) show that 11.2% of the “highly suitable” areas are located in the Ma’an governorate in the southern part of the country. Thus, utilizing the “highly suitable” areas for PV farms can generate much more electricity than the current demand in Jordan.