Site selection of solar power plant using Geospatial Information System and climatic data (Case study: Ilam province)

The aim of this study was to determine the appropriate location for the construction of solar power plants according to the criteria and factors of climate (temperature, radiation, precipitation, sundial, evaporated), topography (elevation, slope, aspect, distance to fault), environment (user land, rivers) and human environment (residential areas, roads) in Geographical information system (GIS) and hierarchical model in Ilam province. According to the importance and role of these factors, the statistics of parameters were analyzed in the software Excel and map of each criterion was prepared in GIS and the weight of each criterion was determined by Analytical hierarchical process (AHP). ArcGIS®9.3 software was utilized for the modeling and integration of data to produce the map of solar plant construction in four different classes (poor, moderate, good and very good). The results showed that the zones in very good class covered an area of 1510812500 m2;thus, the southern and western regions of Ilam province are the best places for the construction of solar power plants. Results also showed that GIS as a decision support system and AHP as a flexible model are appropriate for modeling spatial data and positioning the right place of solar power plants.