Geographical Information System (GIS)-Based Solar Photovoltaic Farm Site Suitability Using Multi-criteria Approach (MCA) in Southern Tamilnadu, India

Tamil Nadu is the eleventh largest state by area and it constitutes 9% of the total installed electricity generation capacity of India which is largely from fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. Due to the present industrial growth scenario, this amount of electricity generation is not enough so the Government of Tamilnadu has agreed to the Tamil Nadu solar energy strategy in 2012 to meet the electricity needs. The objective of this research study is to categorize the best suitable sites for a solar photovoltaic farm with the aim of minimum cost and maximum output. In this paper, Remote sensing, GIS technologies, and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) are implemented in the energy sector for solar PV siting suitability. Site selection is based on various environmental, technical, and topographical criteria by using weighted overlay multi-criteria analysis. The investigations done in this research are peculiar as the weighted values of the criteria include geopolitical and financial incentives appropriate to the state’s social dynamics. The high potential solar irradiation, distance from a road, hill shade and slope, and land use and land cover are considered as the significant factors in identifying the high suitable location for the photovoltaic power plants. The research region covers 55,160 km2 and is centered on sixteen districts in southern Tamil Nadu. The annual Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI) interpolated map derived from NREL data, as well as other thematic maps acquired from Indian government agency websites, are crucial in this study. Among the 16 districts, 12.096 km2 (0.024%) of fully exploited highly suitable area can meet the power demand of Tamil Nadu. Also, considering the moderately suitable area the state is still be potential to generate around 50 GW of electricity as an average. Investigations also suggest that the concentrator technology has tremendous potential of 16.442 GWh/day to meet the electricity power demands as the state is industrialized day by day. © The Institution of Engineers (India) 2023.