Renewable Energy 36 (2011) 2554e2561

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

PV site suitability analysis using GIS-based spatial fuzzy multi-criteria evaluation

Yassine Charabi a, *, Adel Gastli b,1
a
Department of Geography, College of Arts, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 42, Al-Khodh, Muscat 123, Oman
b
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 33, Al-Khodh, Muscat 123, Oman

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents some preliminary results from a research study conducted on solar energy resource
Received 19 June 2010 assessment in Oman. GIS-based spatial multi-criteria evaluation approach, in terms of the FLOWA
Accepted 6 October 2010 module was used to assess the land suitability for large PV farms implementation in Oman. The tool used
Available online 15 March 2011
applies fuzzy quantifiers within ArcGIS environment allowing the integration of a multi-criteria decision
analysis. Land suitability analysis for large PV farms implementation was carried out for the case study of
Keywords:
Oman. The overlay results obtained from the analysis of the resultant maps showed that 0.5% of the total
FLOWA
land area demonstrate a high suitability level. Different PV technologies were considered for imple-
Prospect
Photovoltaic
mentation. It was found that the CPV technology provides very high technical potential for implementing
Solar map large solar plants. In fact, if all highly suitable land is completely exploited for CPV implementation, it can
Solar power produce almost 45.5 times the present total power demand in Oman.
Solar radiation Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction the rhythm of the implementation of solar farm using Photovoltaic

Despite the cascade effects of the financial crisis that have
affected every sector, in varying degree and geography, the
investment in renewable energy continues growing with
a sustainable trend. According to the new report of the UNEP
(United Nation Environment Programme) [1], the investment in
renewable energy rose 5% in 2008 proving definitely the estab-
lishment of new methods of electric power generation and
confirms that this sector represents now a mainstream energy
investment [2]. The climate of the good health of renewable energy
is the fruit of the interactions of the governmental and societal
engagement towards tangible actions to mitigate climate change by
reducing Green House Gases (GHG), reducing their dependency on
fossil fuel supply and making energy security a strategic priority.
Certainly, the current financial and economical crisis may have
slowed down the demand on the fossil fuel energy and driven
down prices. But, the world opinion is still convinced, that is only
a temporary pause. It seems that there is a latent threat form
energy crisis, and will constitute a good stimulus for the emergence
of the renewable energy era.
To face this threat from resources depletion, solar energy is
recognized as a robust alternative to unsustainable energy use in
developed and developing countries. During the last two decades,
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ968 24142003; fax: þ968 24141851.
E-mail addresses: yassine@squ.edu.om (Y. Charabi), gastli@squ.edu.om (A. Gastli).
1
Tel.: þ968 24141373; fax: þ968 24413454.
(PV) panels or Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technologies has
accelerated in the countries situated in the solar energy belt,
despite their prohibitive costs.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) solar elec-
tricity will grow up to 20e25% by 2050 [1]. The IEA has also fore-
seen that, by 2050, the PV and CSP systems will be able to generate
9000 TWh of electricity and reduce the yearly CO2 emissions by
almost 6 billion tones [3].
Comparing the CSP and PV technologies, the CSP necessitate
larger amounts of water for cooling and mirror washing than the
PV. Therefore, for arid countries with scarce fresh water resources,
the PV technology is more suitable, environment friendly, and
economical. Besides, the implementation of PV plants is much
faster than the CSP ones, which gives it more flexibility to cope
easily with the development of the grid system. To enable the
development of the PV solar technologies long-term oriented
strategies with predictable incentives are needed to ensure the
successful deployment of PV systems to competitiveness in the
most suitable locations and times.
The Geographical Information System (GIS) reached a high level
of maturity and emerged as a powerful tool to build solar energy
strategies and to integrate large amounts of PV into flexible, effi-
cient and smart grid. GIS is able to handle, processing, analyzing
a large quantities of spatial data and underpinning decision-
making for the spatial deployment of PV. Using GIS and Multi-
Criteria Analysis (MCA) together provide a fine lens for the optimal
site selection for plants. GIS-based MCA is commonly used to solve
the conflicts of location suitability and harmonizing the tradeoffs

0960-1481/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.renene.2010.10.037
 Y. Charabi, A. Gastli / Renewable Energy 36 (2011) 2554e2561
and risks related to various experts’ judgment engaged in the
implementation of different applications [4e6]. However, very
little was published on solar applications.
This paper presents a study that aimed at developing the first
geographical mapping models to locate the most appropriate sites
for different PV technologies in Oman using MCA.
2. Overview of multi-criteria analysis
The principal of the MCA is to condense complex problems
with multiple criteria into finest ranking of the best scenarios from
which an option is selected [7e10]. In GIS-based MCA and for solar
energy purpose, this might include a set of geographically defined
criteria, such as solar radiation, Digital Elevation Model (DEM),
residential area, sensitive area, transmission lines, load demand,
road accessibility etc. Weights can be attributed to the criteria
according to the importance of each variable in deriving the
optimal alternative and each of the variable and their weights may
have a more or less favorable in the final decision than another
[11].
The GIS-based multi-criteria analysis relies basically on two
main approaches: Boolean overlay operators and weighted
summations procedures. Both approaches are considered as
decision algorithms based on the Ordered Weighted Averaging
(OWA) methodology [12e17] which is an ensemble of multi-
criteria aggregation procedures using fuzzy set theory. The OWA
incorporate both the criterion importance and order weights. It
has enough flexibility to generate a large variety of decision
strategies.
The analytical hierarch process (AHP) [18] is another
approach used in decision-making strategies. It is a robust
structured approach dealing with complex decisions. The AHP is
based on the additive weighting model and has been used within
GIS in two different modes [19]. The first technique can be used
to derive the importance weights coupled with criterion map
layers. In second step, the weights are aggregated with the
criterion map layers in a manner identical to weighted combi-
nations approach [19]. This Method offers an important advan-
tage for a spatial decision problem with a wide range of
alternatives making it impossible to complete pair-wise
comparisons of the alternatives. The second technique of AHP
can be used to combine the priority for all levels of the hierar-
chical structure, including the level representing alternatives.
According to this approach a small number of alternatives can be
evaluated [19,20].
OWA and AHP algorithms were incorporated in the GIS plat-
forms since 1995. They were refined afterward with the integration
of the AHP_OWA procedures using fuzzy quantifiers in GIS solu-
tions [21]. AHP_OWA have been used around the world in a wide
variety of decision situations [22e25]. However, few applications
were conducted on renewable energies. In this paper we propose
to use the AHP_OWA using fuzzy quantifiers in GIS environments
to develop an index for land suitability for PV and CSP farms
implementations.
3. Application methodology to PV farms siting
3.1. PV site suitability
Solar energy resource assessment and site suitability for large
PV farms implementations is affected by different factors which can
be classified in three main categories: Technical, Economical and
Environmental. These factors depend on the geographical location,
biophysical attributes and socio-economical infrastructure of the
country under study.
2555
For a country like Oman, which is situated astride the tropic of
cancer and characterized by an arid and very hot climate, the
typical parameters that affect most the optimum location of large
PV farms are shown in Table 1. Notice that the dust and sand risk
factors are only specific to the region and may not apply for other
countries with temperate climate.
The suitability of the location of a PV farm is determined based
on the combination with different weights of all the factors listed
above. The most insolated areas are predisposed to high suitability.
Proximity to roads avoids additional cost of infrastructure
construction and consequential damage to the environments.
Lands that have minimal value due to past use and present
conditions should be evaluated for potential PV farms deployment.
PV farms are particularly suitable where the connection to the
existing electric grid is effortless. The arrangement to implement
PV farms in close proximity to the existing grid and loads pole
reduce significantly transmission losses.
Large-scale PV farms require flat terrain or fairly steep slope that
is facing south with less than a 5% graded slope. The deployments of
the PV at large scale were adopted in the perspective of sustainable
development and mitigation of climate change, because it operates
for long periods with low maintenance. PV systems were recog-
nized as technologies that have virtually no environmental impact,
because, they are clean and silent. From this standpoint, the
implementation of PV farms, should respect the sensitive areas
under landscape and monument protection due to esthetic
requirements. Zone of influences identified as critical risk zone for
PV farms such as floods and windy area, should be avoided. Also,
area with abundance of dust, combined with the occurrence of fog
and mist, will affect the efficiency (revenue) of PV farms. For
instance, if a solar collector surface is maintained at a cleanliness
level of 90%, the estimated annual loss in revenue reach up to 10%
[26]. Furthermore, washing with water (conventional cleaning
method) may well involve prohibitive costs especially in an arid
country like Oman.
3.2. Selection criteria
In this study, the evaluation criteria were selected based on
study goals, spatial scale, and accessibility to the geo-referencing
data base. For instance, the resolution of the digital elevation model
is selected based on the capacity of the computer machine which is
used. Besides, the complete transmission lines spatial dataset were
not available and thus were not used. This omission will also allow
identifying potential pathways for future transmission lines
development to make them pass nearby most suitable locations for
large PV farms implementations.
3.3. Analysis tool
The tool used in this analysis is the Fuzzy Logic Ordered Weight
Averaging (FLOWA) module developed by Boroushaki and Malc-
zewski [19] that was integrated within ESRI ArcMap 9.3. It
incorporates the concept of fuzzy (linguistic) quantifiers into the
GIS-based land suitability analysis via ordered weighted averaging
(OWA). OWA is defined as a multi-criteria evaluation procedure (or
combination operator). The nature of the OWA evaluation procedure
Table 1
Classification of factors affecting optimum locations for large PV farms.
Technical Economical Environmental
Solar Radiation Grid proximity Sensitive areas
Land Accessibility Land slope Hydrographic line
Land use Load poles Sand/dust risk
2556 Y. Charabi, A. Gastli / Renewable Energy 36 (2011) 2554e2561

depends on some selected parameters, which can be specified by
means of fuzzy (linguistic) quantifiers. OWA can produce a number
of decision strategies or scenarios by changing the parameters.
3.4. Hierarchical structure
A hierarchical structure is governing the correlation between
the objectives and attributes [19]. The overall goal here is evalu-
ating land suitability for a large PV farm implementation on the
basis of solar radiation topography, land usage and sensitive areas
objectives. Thus, the objectives are measured in terms of the
criteria including solar radiation, sensitive areas, soil type (sandy),
land slope, land usage, land accessibility, load poles, hydrographic
lines. Each criterion is represented by a spatial layer.
To simplify the analysis and minimize the number of layers and
computing cost, some of the above-mentioned criteria are merged
together in one spatial layer. For instance the flood pathways,
rivers, dams, urban and village areas, sensitive areas, sand type
soils, and roads are merged all together in one layer and were given
equal weight. This makes sense because it is not possible to build
a large PV farm on buildings, sandy soil (Sahara) or land with high
risk of floods.
In order to identify the most suitable lands for PV farms
implementation, the following three criteria are considered: (i)
solar radiation (ii) constraint areas, and (iii) proximity to major
roads. The first two criteria are to be maximized and the third factor
is a minimization criterion.
3.5. Generation of criteria weights
Based on the above defined hierarchical structure, a pair-
wise comparison matrix at each level of the hierarchy can be

Fig. 1. Spatial distribution of annual solar radiation (MWh/m2).

 Y. Charabi, A. Gastli / Renewable Energy 36 (2011) 2554e2561
developed, beginning at the top by assigning 1 for equal
importance and going downward by giving number 9 for
extreme importance [27]. This procedure greatly reduces the
conceptual complexity of a problem since only two components
are considered at any given time. This approach requires usually
experts to provide their best judgment to the relative intensity
of importance of one evaluation factor (objective and criterion)
against another.
3.6. Order weights
The computing of the overall evaluation is performed by means
of the OWA combination function [19]. The FLOWA module permits
specifying a linguistic quantifier to the levels of objectives in order
to generate a set of ordered weights. It employs fuzzy statements
Fig. 2. Constraints layer including slopes.
2557
such as “all”, “most”, “many”, “half”, “some”, “few”, “at least one”.
The FLOWA module only considers a class of the relative quantifiers
known as the regular increasing monotone quantifiers [19].
4. Study-case implementation & results
To find out the most appropriate locations for PV farms in Oman,
an important data base was collected from different sources to
shape factors affecting optimal locations for large PV farms in Oman
as stated in III. Five steps compose the achievement of the spatial
distribution of the land suitability level:
Step 1: the collected geo-referenced data base was converted
from vector files to raster format with a pixel of 40 m in order to
keep uniformity with the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of
Oman.
2558 Y. Charabi, A. Gastli / Renewable Energy 36 (2011) 2554e2561

Step 2: use of solar radiation analyst module of ArcGIS to
calculate the total solar radiation map. This module incorporates
slope, hill shade and aspect to produce an accurate solar radiation
map [28] and it allows to modify the coefficient of the atmo-
spheric transmissivity. In the published literatures, there are no
studies about atmospheric transmissivity in Oman. A trans-
missivity value of 0.65 was adopted, according to study conducts
in arid region comparable to Oman [29]. The calculation of solar
radiation with a resolution of 40 m for whole Oman consumes
a lot of time and incalculable with the available computers.
Therefore, the size of the pixel size was enlarged to 500 m to
reduce the time consuming for the different GIS calculation
process (Fig. 1).
Step 3: a constraint layer regrouping all the unsuitable areas was
created. This layer is composed from dams, flood area, land use,
village boundary, historical and touristic monuments, wadis
(rivers), sand dunes, roads and area with slopes more than 5 . The
map algebra function of ArcGIS was used to merge and reclassify all
this layers. The unsuitable areas were attributed by 0 and the
suitable with 1 (Fig. 2).
Step 4: Land accessibility was recognized as an important
criterion in the process of PV farms siting. As the objective was to
minimize distance from roads, the straight-line distance tool of
ArcGIS is used to measure distances from each location to the
closest road (Fig. 3).
Step 5: The above listed layers (Solar radiation, constraint layer
and straight-line distance to roads) were used to run the FLOWA
module. The FLOWA module process is mainly composed of the
following four phases:
 Phase 1: Selection and standardization of the raster criteria. At
this stage of the process, solar radiation and constraint layer
were selected for maximization and straight-line distance to
roads was selected for minimization.

Fig. 3. Spatial distribution of distance to major roads.

 Y. Charabi, A. Gastli / Renewable Energy 36 (2011) 2554e2561 2559

 Phase 2: Hierarchical structure of decision problem. In Table 2

this phase one objective was considered, which is related to Pair-wise comparison matrix of objectives and calculated weights.

the optimization of site suitability for the PV farms Objective Solar Constraint Distance to Weight
deployment. radiation layer major roads
 Phase 3: Pair-wise comparison for objective. The specific Solar radiation 1 2 3 0.545
weights criteria were calculated against each other. Table 3 Constraint layer 0.5 1 2 0.287
Distance to major roads 0.333 0.5 1 0.168
shows the pair-wise and judgment to the relative intensity of
importance of one evaluation factor (objective) against another
(see Table 2). 5. Discussions
 Phase 4: Fuzzy logic quantifiers which are linguistics state-
ments such as “all”, “most”, “many”, “half”, “some”, “few”, “at The annual electric power generation potential for the selected
least one”, etc. In this phase “all” was selected to make sure that areas can be estimated based on the calculated average annual solar
all objectives are met simultaneously. This is the last phase of radiation per unit surface, the total suitable area, and the efficiency
the FLOWA analysis, after which results are displayed. Fig. 4 of the PV technology. Eq. (1) can be used to estimate the yearly solar
shows the results obtained. electric power generation potential [28].

Fig. 4. Spatial distribution of land suitability levels.

2560 Y. Charabi, A. Gastli / Renewable Energy 36 (2011) 2554e2561
Table 3
Total generation potential on highly suitable lands.
PV Technology Efficiency, h (%) Highly suitable
land area, CA (km2)
c-Si 13.1 1508.2
a-Si 7.9
CdTe 8.8
CIGS 8.4
CPV 26.3
GP ¼ SR  CA  AF  h (1)
where:
GP Electric power generation potential per year (GWh/year).
SR Annual solar radiation received per unit horizontal area
(GWh/km2/year).
CA Calculated total area of suitable land (km2).
AF The area factor, indicates what fraction of the calculated areas
can be covered by solar panels.
h The efficiency with which solar system converts sunlight into
electricity.
From Fig. 4, it can be noticed that a small portion of the country
exhibit a high suitability level however, a very large portion exhibits
moderate suitability. The potential generation capacity (in GWh/
year), for highly suitable level, using different PV technologies are
presented in Table 3. An area factor of AF ¼ 70% was selected based
on maximum land occupancy of PV panels with minimum shading
effect. The efficiency h of each PV technology was considered for
a typical high temperature and low DNI region application such is
the case for Oman.
It is clear that for highly suitable lands, all types of PV tech-
nologies can produce huge amount of electricity in Oman. For
instance, if the CPV technology (3rd generation of PV cells) is
considered, there is a potential to generate many multiples of the
current demand for electricity in Oman. Note that the total annual
gross electricity production for Oman as of 2008 was roughly
16,000 GWh [30].
6. Conclusion
This paper has demonstrated the application of a GIS-based
spatial multi-criteria evaluation approach, in terms of the FLOWA
module to assess the land suitability for large PV farms imple-
mentation in Oman. The FLOWA module applies fuzzy quantifiers
within ArcGIS environment. It incorporates uncertainty of expert
opinions on the criteria and their weights, and provides a mecha-
nism for guiding the decision-making through the multi-criteria
combination procedures.
Land suitability analysis for large PV farms implementation was
carried out for the case study of Oman. The overlay results obtained
from the analysis of the resultant maps showed that about 0.5% of
the land area demonstrate high suitability for PV farm imple-
mentation. Different PV technologies were considered and it was
found that the CPV technology provides very high technical
potential for implementing large solar plants. In fact, if all highly
suitable land is exploited for CPV farms, it can produce almost up to
45.5 times the current total power demand in Oman.
Acknowledgment
Authors would like to acknowledge Sultan Qaboos University
and The Research Council in Oman for providing the financial
support to conduct this research study.
Mean annual solar radiation Generation potential,
for highly suitable land, GP (GWh/year)
SR (GWh/km2/year)
2623 362,717
218,738
243,657
232,582
728,204
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