Land suitability evaluation based on multi-criteria decision-making methods for locating wind farms in Khorasan Razavi province

Finding the optimum location of wind turbines for the proper use of wind energy, as one of the sources of renewable energy, is very important. Determining the location of wind turbines has a great influence on the efficiency of their equipment. So far, research in the Khorasan Razavi area has limited to the statistical analysis of wind speed and directional data while the spatial criteria affecting finding the optimum location of wind turbines was rarely considered. This research seeks to find optimum location for the wind power plant using environmental (including slope, altitude, distance from the fault, distance from the river, distance from protected areas), technical (including average wind speed, wind congestion and wind density), and economic (including distance from the city, the village, the airport, the natural resources and from the road) criteria and using ANP, ANP-DEMATEL and ANP-OWA multi-criteria decision-making methods. The aim is to evaluate the results of each method and produce a land suitability map for the construction of wind power plants in different decision scenarios. Based on this, using the analysis tools of the geospatial information system, the land suitability map is produced based on the aggregation of the mentioned criteria and the results of utilizing the mentioned decision-making methods are compared. By considering land suitability maps, it has been determined that in different scenarios of decision making, the southeastern province has the most potential for wind power plant construction. The results of this research indicate that the proposed method provides a good tool for choosing the right place to build a wind power plant.