Abstract
The aim of this study was to identify potential sites for wind turbine in the North West of Jordan. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used in a novel approach to identify the potential sites for the wind turbine in the study area based on five physical criteria (Wind Speed, Rainfall, Slope, Altitude and Land use) that affect the wind turbine sites. The importance of each criterion was based on experts’ opinions. The ratings for each criterion were based on the available literature review. The consistency ratio between the experts’ opinions was evaluated using the pairwise comparison method and a final weight was computed for each criterion. A wind turbine suitability map was generated using the weighted linear combination (WLC) method within GIS environment. It was found that 45% of the study area has high and very high suitability for wind turbine. In conclusion, this research will contribute to the enhancement of the available renewable energy resources in Jordan if the selected sites will be utilized for wind turbine.
Highlights
Energy is vital for sustaining life on earth
This research will contribute to the enhancement of the available renewable energy resources in Jordan if the selected sites will be utilized for wind turbine
The sites selected for the wind turbine necessitate the simultaneous use of several decision support tools such as Geographical Information System (GIS), remotely sensed data and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA)
Summary
Energy is vital for sustaining life on earth. It will remain the basic foundation for human and economic development and world peace. World energy demand has been increasing exponentially. It has been estimated that the world population will reach 8 billion by 2020. It is very clear that conventional energy resources are limited on earth. The rapid depletion of fossil-fuel resources, the limited reserves and their unstable prices on a worldwide basis have necessitated an urgent search for alternative energy and significantly increased the interest in renewable energy sources
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