Geospatial analysis of wind energy plant in Saudi Arabia using a GIS-AHP technique

Abstract

Wind energy is one of the most desirable sustainable energy alternatives because of its low operating, maintenance, and production costs, as well as its low environmental impact. Selecting suitable locations for wind power farms is a significant difficulty in wind energy development, requiring careful and coordinated evaluations of various factors. This research presents a wind farm site suitability analysis based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques, which consider technical, economic, environmental, and social considerations, reflecting five criteria. First, a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) analysis using the AHP approach is applied to give suitable weights to the addressed criteria based on their relative importance. A GIS is utilized to conduct a geospatial analysis and integrate multiple criteria throughout the suggested index to create the final suitability map and indicate unsuitable locations. The final suitability map consists of four classes ranging from 1 to 4, whereas 4 represents the highly suitable sites in Saudi Arabia. The results show that the total land area of extremely suitable is 48,995 km 2, and the very suitable (class 3) is 197,800 km 2. The exact new suitable locations of class 4 with their total land area and coordinates are proposed in this study. The region that represents the largest total land area of suitability class 3 is Riyadh, which consists of 65,989.499 km 2. Whereas the largest land area of suitability class 4 is Al Mantiqah Al Sharqiyah consisting of 14,553.57 km 2. Finally, the currently announced wind projects in Saudi Arabia are mentioned and further support the findings of this research.