GIS-AHP Multi Criteria Decision Analysis for the optimal location of solar energy plants at Indonesia

Abstract

A reliable tool for site-suitability assessment of solar power plants capable to account for the protection of cultural, natural, and ecological conservation areas is proposed. The tool integrates an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) based Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) algorithm into a Geographical Information System (GIS) package, which consists of layers of satellite-derived data for energy resources and locally obtained data such as land usage, topography, community settlement, road lines, and electrical network, considered as the criteria layers for the assessment of site suitability. The study is focused on the West Kalimantan Province (WKP) which imposes significant challenges due to the wide diversification of protected areas that need to be considered, particularly in landmarks that demand for high resolution imaging of Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI) within ±4° of the equator. To overcome these challenges, a GIS spatial weighted overlay analysis of criteria layers has been performed within three approximation schemes distinguished by the proximity to existing infrastructures. It has been found that although WKP has relatively high values of GHI over its entire area of 146,807km2, when the protected areas are accounted, only 34% of the area is available for solar power plant deployment. Further analysis using the AHP-MCDA approach, with consideration of the best-suitable conditions, significantly reduces the search of optimal location of solar power plants into just 0.07% to 0.03% of the WKP area. This corresponds to an area of 46.60−108.58km2 with an estimated generation capacity of 2,034−4,785MW, what indicates that the abundant resources of WKP could be sufficient to meet the national renewable energy target. The results of this research should provide a model of decision support system for development of large-scale solar power plants in tropical countries, where the protection of forest and biodiversity is a global concern.