Regional assessment of Iran's potential for Solar Farms by TOPSIS, Fuzzy TOPSIS and Sugeno-type Fuzzy Inference Methods

Iran is located on the world’s Sun Belt; therefore the required energy of many parts of the country can be generated through photovoltaic systems. One of the most salient characteristic of renewable energy with regard to its conversion and usage is its dependency on geographical location as well as numerous contradicting factors. A suitable site for solar farm must fulfill a series of economic, conservational, climatic, geographic and demographic considerations simultaneously. This research uses multi-criteria decision making (MCDM), fuzzy principles and GIS tools to evaluate the optimized place of photovoltaic solar power plants in Iran. To achieve this objective, three approaches are considered, namely: TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution), Sugeno-type Fuzzy inference system and fuzzy TOPSIS. After obtaining experts’ opinions, site selection steps have been taken in two main steps: first, the deduction of impossible points (constrained); second, the calculation of location’s potential using raster analysis. The comparison of the above methods showed that Fuzzy TOPSISº from the perspective of continuity and involving elementsº had better performance. TOPSIS Method 14.71% and fuzzy TOPSIS 18.33% and Sugeno 20.52% of the total area are considered as suitable area for the construction of solar power plants. All three methods had similar results. The priority of country’s sections for locating solar farm locations are estimated as, Narimanshir, Nobandegan, Farajhiand, Bahmanpour, Shibkoh and Gavbandi through all methods with subtle variations.