Determination of Suitable Sites for Solar Power Plants By Using Weighted Overlay Analysis: Sivrihisar Case

Abstract

Turkey spends around 50 billion dollars for oil and natural gas import products each year to meet the increasing energy demand. In fact, Turkey has rich renewable energy resources. Recently, serious efforts have been made to increase the utilization of solar energy. The annual sunshine duration and annual solar energy potential of the country are respectively 2.737 hours (7,2 hours/day) and 1.527 kWh/m² (4,2 kWh/m²-day). Sivrihisar district of EskiAŸehir province, located in the central Anatolia, is also reported have remarkable potential for solar energy generation in terms of solar radiation, sunshine duration, topography and climatic conditions. There are currently 3 solar power plants in the region with a total generation capacity of 5MW. From this point, this study focuses on the determination of the suitable sites for the installation of solar power plants using weighted overlay analysis method via the utilization of geographical information systems (GIS). A variety of natural and cultural characteristics, such as solar energy potential, topography, transportation and infrastructure, fault lines, protected areas, bird migration routes etc. were included in the analysis. The weighted overlay results showed that 2,2% of the study area had 1 st degree suitability, while 42,3% of Sivrihisar had 2 nd degree suitable lands for solar power plant installation, according to the criteria adopted during the determination process. It was also concluded that 15%-efficient polycrystalline solar power plants, which would be installed on an area of 50.5000 m 2 , could generate electricity of 79489181 kWh/year (7,95 GWh/y), which would totally meet the annual electric demand in the district.