Selection of Optimal Location for Wind Turbines in Diyala Governorate Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with GIS Technique

Abstract

AbstractRenewable energy is considered one of the possible alternatives in attention to severe economic improvement and growing power consumption. The improvement of wind farm projects calls for the right making plans and evaluation. Usually, the suitability for locations of wind turbines is based on wind speed. The (AHP) became a singular method to find out the possible locations for the wind turbines in the study areas, primarily depending entirely on four main criteria (Climatical, Economical, Geomorphological and Environmental). Each main group has sub-criteria that influence the wind turbine location. That ranking for every criterion had been based on the to be had a review of the literature. The ’consistency ratio’ among the experts’ viewpoints were examined using the pairwise contrast approach, and a very last weight was computed for every criterion. A map was created showing the suitability sites for wind turbines using GIS technology. It was found that (8%) of the study area had higher suitable, good suitable areas (38%), less suitable areas (42%), and unsuitable areas (12%). The western side of Diyala Governorate is the optimal area for the construction of wind turbines.KeywordsAHPGISModel builderReclassify of raster dataSuitable areas map