Suitable sites for wind power plants constructed in East Azerbaijan using fuzzy- analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) method

In this study, to determine appropriate locations for the construction of wind power plants in the East Azerbaijan, several criteria, including wind speed, prevailing wind speed, pressure, temperature, elevation, slope, road, city, village, protected areas, land use, river, fault and earthquakes were considered. All criteria were implemented by using an analytical hierarchy process (AHP) weight of layers in EC2000 software. For fuzzification the parameters were coded by 0, 1 into the IDRISI software and based on the expert opinions, the control points and fuzzy function of each layer was determined. Then the software Arc®GIS9.3 was used to overlay layers, and finally, the East Azerbaijan potential wind power plant was constructed in four levels: excellent (217294.36 ha), good (972887.64 ha), fair (1650932.35 ha) and poor (1709038.40 ha).