Development of priority decision for renewable energy potential using analytical hierarchy process and geographical information system method

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to develop decision making method for site selection and to rank the priority of renewable energy potential development site using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and geographical information system (GIS) in Indonesia. This study identifies the energy alternative that focusing on solar, wind and geothermal based on previous work by authors as continuity study. The AHP model is built to identify the weight of criteria for two hierarchies. The weight has been used as input for spatial analysis in GIS method. The resources map is generated by overlaying solar irradiation map, wind speed map and geothermal potential map with spatial analysis tool in GIS environment. The result shows that geothermal is the best criteria, followed by solar and wind alternatives with weight value of 0.72, 0.22, and 0.06 respectively. Resource map generated identifies the high, moderate and low suitability site to rank the priority decision of renewable energy development for Indonesia. Based on the result, the site selection of ten locations can be found to give the recommendation for priority development of renewable energy. In addition, the potential of renewable energy in term of technical potential, economic potential and carbon dioxide reduction potential are calculated based on assumption and reference by considering the application of renewable energy technology. The proposed methodology is useful to identify the renewable energy resources site for development priority. The method can be used to achieve the similar objectives for other country.