Suitable map analysis for wind energy projects using remote sensing and GIS: a case study in Turkey

Grid Connection Studies for Large-Scale Offshore Wind Farms Considering High Penetration of Regional Renewables

There is a global focus on adding renewable energy sources to the mix of energy supplies. In this study, the grid connections for large-scale offshore wind farms in areas that have high penetration of renewable energy sources were examined. System strength evaluation considering the interaction of wind farms and inverter-based resources (IBRs) was performed; the fault current was then analyzed to determine their contribution to the total fault current at a bus level. These studies revealed that the interaction between offshore wind farms and IBRs may make the power system weaker, and it is possible that fault current contributions from offshore wind farms can violate the capacity limit of existing circuit breakers. The results of steady-state analysis were verified through case studies focused on the southwest area of the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) system where large-scale offshore wind farms are planned to be established and connected. Power system planners will benefit from the results of this study with a better understanding of the factors to consider when integrating large-scale wind farms in areas with high penetration of renewables.

A High-Resolution Wind Farms Suitability Mapping Using GIS and Fuzzy AHP Approach: A National-Level Case Study in Sudan

Wind energy is one of the most attractive sustainable energy resources since it has low operation, maintenance, and production costs and a relatively low impact on the environment. Identifying the optimal sites for installing wind power plants (WPPs) is considered an important challenge of wind energy development which requires careful and combined analyses of numerous criteria. This study introduces a high-resolution wind farms suitability mapping based on Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and Geographic Information System (GIS) approaches considering technical, environmental, social, and spatial aspects, representing eight different criteria. First, a multi-criteria decision-making analysis based on the FAHP method is employed to assign appropriate weights for the addressed criteria with respect to their relative importance. Since the traditional AHP method, which was found employed in the majority of the relative case-studies, is not efficient in dealing with uncertainty when experts use a basic scale (0 to 1) for their assessments, the FAHP provides more flexible scales through the utilized fuzzy membership functions and the natural linguistic variables. Consequently, this helps to facilitate the assessments made by experts and increases the precision of the obtained results (weights). Next, the high-resolution GIS is used to carry out a spatial analysis and integrate various factors/criteria throughout the proposed index to produce the final suitability map and identify the unsuitable areas. The presented study emphasizes investigating the lightning strike flash rate due to its significant influences on the wind turbine’s safety and operation, yet this crucial factor has been seldomly investigated in previous studies. The obtained findings revealed that the wind speed, the land slope, and the elevation had the highest weighted criteria with 33.1%, 24.8%, and 12.2%, respectively. Besides, the final-developed suitability map revealed that 23.22% and 8.31% of the Sudanese territory are of high and very high suitability, respectively, for wind farms installation which are considered sufficient to cover the electricity needs. The difficulty of acquiring real data and resources for the addressed location was the main challenge of the presented work. The work outlook addresses the suitability mapping of hybrid photovoltaic-wind turbine energy systems, which will require addressing new and significant criteria in the applied methodology.

A GIS-based multi-criteria model for offshore wind energy power plants site selection in both sides of the Aegean Sea

Location selection for offshore wind farms is a major challenge for renewable energy policy, marine spatial planning, and environmental conservation. This selection constitutes a multi-criteria decision-making problem, through which parameters like wind velocity, water depth, shorelines, fishing areas, shipping routes, environmental protection areas, transportation, and military zones should be jointly investigated. The aim of the present study was thus to develop an integrated methodology for assessing the siting of bottom-fixed offshore wind farms in two different countries (with different legal, political, and socio/economic characteristics). Our methodology combined multi-criteria decision-making methods and geographical information systems and was implemented in Cyclades (Greece) and in the sea area of İzmir region (Turkey). Experts used fuzzy sets and linguistic terms to achieve more consistent and independent rankings and results. In the Turkish region, the results showed that 519 km² (10.23%) of the study area is suitable for offshore wind farms, while in the Greek region, only 289 km² (3.22%) of the study area was found to be suitable. This spatial suitability analysis may contribute to provide some useful recommendations for the spatial marine planning at the regional scale, as well as for the preliminary assessment of new offshore wind farms in both countries.

Geographic information system-based investment system for photovoltaic power plants location analysis in Turkey

The motivation of this research, development, demonstration, deployment, and diffusion (RD³&D) study is to present the progress of designing the GIS-based location selection module of autonomous investment decision support system and its experimental application for photovoltaic power plants (PVPPs) in Antalya, Burdur, and Isparta planning region Turkey. The other motivation of this RD³&D study is to start investigating in combinations the applicability and usability of weighted linear combination with 4 subjective weighting approaches (rank sum weight method (RS), inverse or reciprocal weights method (RR), rank order centroid (ROC), point allocation (PA)) for 5 main criteria, 14 sub-criteria, and 79 value ranges. The results show that 38.48% of the planning region is unsuitable, 61.52% is suitable. Only 2.07% of this region is very highly suitable according to RS. 7.13%, 9.22%, and 5.58% are respectively very highly suitable according to RR, ROC, and PA. Similarities between RS, RR, ROC, and PA methods are presented such as RS-RR: 0.7834, RS-ROC: 0.8510, and RS-PA: 0.6384 with covariance and correlation analysis. A backward-looking performance verification and validation analysis is also performed with 7 PVPPs for only 4 decisive success factors (capacity factor, annual energy/land use, project cost/capacity, project cost/energy). This study is thus able to evaluate the optimal locations for future investments, as well as the suitability conditions of the available investments. This study will contribute to provide some useful recommendations for decision makers to identify and assess the hotspots which are suitable for PVPPs in the planning region.