Spatial modeling for the optimum site selection of solar photovoltaics power plant in the northwest coast of Egypt

Abstract

The unbalanced distribution of the Egyptian population causes serious social and economic problems. Redistributing population density to fully utilize the uninhabited areas like desert regions is very critical. This requires discovering renewable energy and water resources, to achieve an optimal goal of the sustainable national strategy. Therefore, this paper aims to define the most suitable locations for establishing the photovoltaic (PV) power plants considering the techno-economic and environmental conditions, assuring the maximum power achievement with minimizing project cost. To achieve this, the integration of Geographic Information System (GIS) tools, Remote Sensing technology (RS) with the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) technique was performed. Among MCDM techniques, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method has been used to determine the weights of the multi-criteria (techno-economic and environmental) as a more suitable tool to solve site selection problems. The obtained results showed that the entire region's surface receives a large amount of radiation, as the maximum and the minimum values of solar radiation for 2018 were 5.9 - 4.7 kWh/m2/day, respectively. The Land Suitability Index (LSI) map was created to evaluate the potentiality of the sites. LSI was classified into five categories: “most suitable,” “highly suitable,” “moderately suitable,” “marginally suitable,” and “least suitable”. As a result, 24.9% (261.1747 km2) of the investigation area is more suitable and promising for deploying photovoltaic (PV) power plants.