Solar PV panels site selection using GIS –Fuzzy (AHP) Model: A Case Study Najaf Province –Iraq

Renewable energy will play a crucial part in the future civilization of the 21st century. In this way, solar energy, which can be converted into usable energy by solar panels, is known as the most important, available and cleanest energy source which has little adverse effects on the environment. However, this kind of energy needs to be used carefully and planned in an optimum location to provide a great opportunity for economic growth and development. Seeing the geographical location and climatic conditions of Iraq, solar energy can provide a substantial helping of the energy request for the country. This study develops classify the suitability of different regions, those criteria, including solar radiation, slope as technical parameters, land use as environmental parameters and economic parameters like proximity to the power line stations and road and cities The primary goal of this research is to evaluate and select the best location for utility-scale solar PV projects was to identify sites that are potentially viable for solar energy generation in Najaf area of Iraq using geographical information systems (GIS) and a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique the relative weights of defined criteria and sub-criteria are also determined to apply fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) technique. Next, by overlaying these criteria layers, the final map of prioritization of different regions of Najaf Province –Iraq for exploiting solar photovoltaic (PV) plants are developed. the results have been presented for a total of Najaf’s area are positioned as excellent, good, fair, low, poor and unsuitable areas, respectively included in the regions as the most excellent suitable for exploiting solar PV plants.

Keywords:

GIS (Geographic Information Systems) , AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) , LSI (land suitability index) , MCDM (Multi-criteria decision-making methods) , PV (Photovoltaic) .