Research Article Site Suitability Analysis of Solar PV Power Generation in South Gondar, Amhara Region
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Hindawi Journal of Energy Volume 2020, Article ID 3519257, 15 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/3519257 Research Article Site Suitability Analysis of Solar PV Power Generation in South Gondar, Amhara Region Abraham Hizkiel Nebey , Biniyam Zemene Taye, and Tewodros Gera Workineh Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Bahir Dar University Institute of Technology, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia Correspondence should be addressed to Abraham Hizkiel Nebey; [email protected] Received 4 December 2019; Accepted 20 April 2020; Published 13 May 2020 Academic Editor: Ciro Aprea Copyright © 2020 Abraham Hizkiel Nebey et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Ethiopian government looked towards renewable energy resources to generate electrical power for the current demand of the country. 85% of the total population of the country lives in rural areas and uses fossil fuel for their domestic uses. Using fossil fuel poses a danger for users and the environment. And the government of Ethiopia planned to electrify 85% of the rural community with abundant available renewable resources around the community. Therefore, identifying potential locations for solar PV with GIS is a decision support tool for proposing suitable sites to the government. The solar PV suitability analysis provides optimal locations for solar PV power plant installations. To find suitable locations for solar PV, factors that affect suitability were identified and weighted using analytical hierarchy processes. Then, the weighted values and reclassified values were multiplied together to produce the final suitability map for solar PV. Due to site unsuitability, solar PV generation efficiency drops and may malfunction. By identifying the most suitable locations, a solar PV power plant is optimally located. Therefore, the objective of this study was to find the most suitable sites in the South Gondar Zone for generating power from solar PV. The suitability of the study area for a solar PV power plant is 86.5%. Eighty-six (86%) of the criteria considered in the study area were found to be suitable for optimal location of solar PV power plant. Most of the suitable areas were found in the western part of the zone. The nature of topography is a key factor in generating solar energy; it affects the solar irradiance coming to the solar PV panel surface. 1. Introduction important than nonrenewable sources of energy. Using renewable energy maintains the environment and does not Site suitability analysis means finding potential locations for contribute to global warming [4, 5]. In the context of Ethio- a solar PV installation. ArcGIS is a decision support tool pia, it is woefully, since most of the families use wood and for proposing suitable sites to government. Finding suitable fossil fuel for their domestic uses. This will affect the devel- locations for a solar PV installation enables increasing the opment of the country and the health of the community. efficiency of a solar PV power system. Thus, finding a suitable The development of the country depends on exploiting location for solar PV is one of the measurement strategies to renewable energy resources and using it optimally. Ethiopia improve the efficiency of solar power plants. Due to site is blessed with an abundance of renewable energy resources unsuitability, solar PV efficiency drops and may malfunction. like solar, wind, hydro, and others. Amhara is the region This is the reason why researchers have formulated recom- where these renewable energies are available throughout mendations for the optimal location of solar PV installations. the year [6, 7]. In Ethiopia, more than 85% of the rural community benefits Ethiopia has a higher potential to exploit renewable ener- from the practice of finding suitable locations [1–3]. gies for domestic applications. This vast renewable energy Renewable energy is derived from natural processes con- resource potential was not exploited sufficiently in the coun- stantly. It is economically feasible, easy to use, less polluting, try, primarily due to the lack of scientific and methodological and abundant in nature. Therefore, renewable energy is more know-how with regard to planning, site selection, and 2 Journal of Energy N Amhara zones South Gonder Zone woredas W E S Study areas Lake Tana Legned Legned Amhara zones South Gonder Zone woredas Awi Oromia Zone Debre Tabor Fogera Bahir Dar South Gonder Dera Kemekem East Gojjam South Wollo Ebenat Lay Gayint North Gonder Wag Hemira Esite Simada NorthShewa West Gojjam Farta Tach Gayint North Wollo 230 115 0 230 km Figure 1: The map of the Amhara Region and the study area [25]. technical implementation. A further constraint prohibiting use a systematic planning process for renewable energy their utilization was that the real potential of these resources’ resource selection to develop renewable energy power plants. location is not well-known, because of the lack of research emphasis [6, 7]. In Ethiopia, most solar power plants have low efficiency, 2. Literature Review and the cause for this efficiency drop is site unsuitability. This can be addressed through site suitability analysis. Currently, There are different site suitability-related studies in which the practice of finding a suitable location in Ethiopia is low, multicriteria decision making have been used for different and solar PV has been installed without considering a perspectives. Multicriteria decision making has been used detailed site suitability analysis. for energy planning and policy making at different levels, risk Even though the government of Ethiopia recently took assessments of long-term energy plans, selection of the best steps towards renewable energy resources, there is a problem renewable technologies and energy management problems, in identifying the exact resource locations. The efforts were and selection of suitable sites for power plant installation. not organized, and this is due to a low number of researches The multicriteria weight methodology has been used to to explore suitable locations. Therefore, it is important to rank land suitability evaluation for crop production in conduct short and long-term energy planning. The renew- Morocco [8]. Most researchers [9–11] have agreed that able energy resources need to be evaluated in a systematic MCDM approaches are well-suited to address strategic way, and the technoeconomic issues must be considered in decision-making problems. MCDM methods provide a sys- renewable energy resource evaluation. Therefore, this study temic and apparent way to enclose multiple conflicting objec- is aimed at finding suitable locations for a solar PV for sus- tives. MCDM based on multiattribute value functions is used tainable energy planning in four different districts (Dera, to support energy planning and to select and prioritize the Estie, Farta, and Fogera) of the South Gondar Zone, Amhara suitable location for renewable energies. Region, Ethiopia (Figure 1). Analytical hierarchy and ArcGIS Azmi et al.’s [11] review provided an application of were integrated for order of preference. This determined MCDM with GIS methods in photovoltaic site suitability attempt is expected to inspire government stakeholders to analysis and suggested that AHP is the most popular method. Journal of Energy 3 Table 1: Site suitability analysis-related studies with multicriteria perspectives. No. Attempt Method Weakness Year Reference Multicriteria decision making for PV power GIS-based Used less number of 1 2018 [13] plant site selection AHP approach criteria for analysis Multicriteria decision making for supplier 2 AHP It was not georeferenced 2019 [14] selection GIS-AHP Sensitivity analysis was 3 Site assessment for plant cooling system 2018 [15] combination not considered Multicriteria decision making for suitable Sensitivity analysis was 4. AHP 2018 [16] site selection of solar PV not considered Fuzzy-Delphi Used less number of criteria for 5. Project risk assessment 2018 [17] methodology analysis and not georeferenced Multicriteria decision analysis and fuzzy for There was no specific 6. GIS-fuzzy 2019 [18] site selection problems case study area Multicriteria decision making for ranking 7. AHP It was not georeferenced 2018 [19] renewable energy resources Multicriteria decision making for renewable Sensitivity analysis was 8. AHP 2019 [20] energy potential assessment not considered Multicriteria decision analysis for site There was no specific 9. AHP 2019 [21] selection problems case study area Multicriteria decision making for optimal 10. location selection for offshore wind-PV-seawater AHP It was not georeferenced 2019 [22] pumped storage power plant Multicriteria decision analysis and fuzzy for 11. optimizing location selection for biomass Fuzzy-AHP It was not georeferenced 2019 [23] energy power plants Multicriteria decision making for analysis 12. of land availability for power plants and AHP 2019 [24] assessment of solar photovoltaic development Table 2: Fundamental scale for pairwise comparisons [34, 35]. Degree of importance Definition Explanation 1 Equal importance Criteria equally important to the objective 3 Moderate importance One criterion slightly more important over another 5 Strong importance One criterion strongly more important than another 7 Very strong importance One criterion very strongly more important than another 9 Extreme importance One criterion extremely more important