A Multicriteria Approach to Identifying and Developing Renewable Energy Zones in Tajikistan

Abstract: Renewable energy zones approach is an international best practice for the development of renewable energy projects. A multicriteria and multiphase methodology is described for identifying and developing solar and wind zones. Important criteria like resource density, distance to transmission network, distance to logistics network, elevation, slope, and non-overlap with protected areas, agricultural lands and water bodies were analyzed in a GIS model. The methodology combined the criteria into a levelized cost of energy financial model for the purposes of ranking the zones. The methodology was successfully applied to the Sughd province of Tajikistan under the USAID’s Power Central Asia Activity, which resulted in the identification of top ranked solar and wind zones. © 2023, Allerton Press, Inc.