Abstract
Pakistan has sufficient wind energy potential across various locations of the country. However, so far, wind energy development has not attained sufficient momentum matching its potential. Amongst various other challenges, the site selection for wind power development has always been a primary concern of the decision-makers. Principally, wind project site selection decisions are driven by various multifaceted criteria. As such, in this study, a robust research framework comprising of factor analysis (FA) of techno-economic and socio-political factors, and a hybrid analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (FTOPSIS) have been used for the prioritization of sites in the southeastern region of Pakistan. The results of this study reveal economic and land acquisition as the most significant criteria and sub-criteria, respectively. From the eight different sites considered, Jamshoro has been prioritized as the most suitable location for wind project development followed by Hyderabad, Nooriabad, Gharo, Keti Bandar, Shahbandar, Sajawal, and Talhar. This study provides a comprehensive decision support framework comprising of FA and a hybrid AHP and Fuzzy TOPSIS for the systematic analysis to prioritize suitable sites for the wind project development in Pakistan.
Highlights
The increased demand for energy across the globe has forced planners and policy-makers to consider the development of non-conventional sources of energy [1]
In the implementation of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) methodology, in the first phase, the main criteria weights were obtained which were followed by the determination of sub-criteria weights as follows
It is evident from the above results that the economic aspect is the most important criteria followed by the political, technical, environmental, and social aspects assessed by the AHP survey respondents
Summary
The increased demand for energy across the globe has forced planners and policy-makers to consider the development of non-conventional sources of energy [1]. This consideration is well accompanied with the concern that the World’s 7.3 billion population is facing global warming and climate change challenges due to the continuous utilization of conventional energy sources [2]. The socio-economic development of nations is greatly associated with the availability of the various forms of energy In this context, electricity is one of the most demanded form of energy across various sectors of any economy. Energy conversion processes for producing electricity are not all coming along smoothly, and instead pose serious challenges pertaining to fuel supplies and containing the emissions
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