IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i5p1890-d327334.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Spatial-Based Integration Model for Regional Scale Solar Energy Technical Potential

Author

Listed:
  • Younes Noorollahi

    (Renewable Energy and Environmental Dep., Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran 15119-43943, Iran
    Energy Modelling and Sustainable Energy Systems (METSAP) Research Lab., Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran)

  • Mohammad Mohammadi

    (Renewable Energy and Environmental Dep., Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran 15119-43943, Iran)

  • Hossein Yousefi

    (Renewable Energy and Environmental Dep., Faculty of New Sciences and Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran 15119-43943, Iran)

  • Amjad Anvari-Moghaddam

    (Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark
    Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tabriz, 5166616471 Tabriz, Iran)

Abstract

One of the main objectives of human society in the present century is to achieve clean and sustainable energy through utilization of renewable energy sources (RESs). In this paper, the main purpose is to identify the locations that are suitable for solar energy in the Kurdistan province of Iran. Initially, solar-related data are collected, and suitable criterion and assessment methods are chosen according to the available data. Then, the theoretical potential of solar energy is assessed and the solar radiation map is prepared. Moreover, the technical potential of various solar technologies is evaluated in that study area. These technologies include concentrating solar power (CSP) and photovoltaic (PV) in power plant applications, and rooftop PV panels and solar water heaters in general applications. The results show that the Kurdistan province has the potential capacity for 691 MW of solar photovoltaic power plants and 645 MW of CSP plants. In the case of using solar water heaters, 283 million cubic meters of natural gas and 1.2 million liters of gasoline could be saved in fuel consumption. The savings in the application of domestic PV will be 10.2 MW in power generation.

Suggested Citation

  • Younes Noorollahi & Mohammad Mohammadi & Hossein Yousefi & Amjad Anvari-Moghaddam, 2020. "A Spatial-Based Integration Model for Regional Scale Solar Energy Technical Potential," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-19, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:5:p:1890-:d:327334
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/5/1890/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/5/1890/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Noorollahi, Younes & Kheirrouz, Mehdi & Asl, Hadi Farabi & Yousefi, Hossein & Hajinezhad, Ahmad, 2015. "Biogas production potential from livestock manure in Iran," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 748-754.
    2. Sabziparvar, Ali A. & Shetaee, H., 2007. "Estimation of global solar radiation in arid and semi-arid climates of East and West Iran," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 649-655.
    3. He, Gang & Kammen, Daniel M., 2016. "Where, when and how much solar is available? A provincial-scale solar resource assessment for China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 74-82.
    4. Sánchez-Lozano, Juan M. & Teruel-Solano, Jerónimo & Soto-Elvira, Pedro L. & Socorro García-Cascales, M., 2013. "Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods for the evaluation of solar farms locations: Case study in south-eastern Spain," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 544-556.
    5. Perpiña Castillo, Carolina & Batista e Silva, Filipe & Lavalle, Carlo, 2016. "An assessment of the regional potential for solar power generation in EU-28," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 86-99.
    6. Azizkhani, Mostafa & Vakili, Abdullah & Noorollahi, Younes & Naseri, Farzin, 2017. "Potential survey of photovoltaic power plants using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method in Iran," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1198-1206.
    7. Besarati, Saeb M. & Padilla, Ricardo Vasquez & Goswami, D. Yogi & Stefanakos, Elias, 2013. "The potential of harnessing solar radiation in Iran: Generating solar maps and viability study of PV power plants," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 193-199.
    8. Abbaspour, M. & Satkin, M. & Mohammadi-Ivatloo, B. & Hoseinzadeh Lotfi, F. & Noorollahi, Y., 2013. "Optimal operation scheduling of wind power integrated with compressed air energy storage (CAES)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 53-59.
    9. Stökler, Steffen & Schillings, Christoph & Kraas, Birk, 2016. "Solar resource assessment study for Pakistan," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1184-1188.
    10. Gass, Viktoria & Schmidt, Johannes & Strauss, Franziska & Schmid, Erwin, 2013. "Assessing the economic wind power potential in Austria," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 323-330.
    11. Ortega, Alberto & Escobar, Rodrigo & Colle, Sergio & de Abreu, Samuel Luna, 2010. "The state of solar energy resource assessment in Chile," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 2514-2524.
    12. Sun, Yan-wei & Hof, Angela & Wang, Run & Liu, Jian & Lin, Yan-jie & Yang, De-wei, 2013. "GIS-based approach for potential analysis of solar PV generation at the regional scale: A case study of Fujian Province," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 248-259.
    13. Ghasemi, Golara & Noorollahi, Younes & Alavi, Hamed & Marzband, Mousa & Shahbazi, Mahmoud, 2019. "Theoretical and technical potential evaluation of solar power generation in Iran," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 1250-1261.
    14. Satkin, Mohammad & Noorollahi, Younes & Abbaspour, Majid & Yousefi, Hossein, 2014. "Multi criteria site selection model for wind-compressed air energy storage power plants in Iran," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 579-590.
    15. Fluri, Thomas P., 2009. "The potential of concentrating solar power in South Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5075-5080, December.
    16. Zawilska, E. & Brooks, M.J., 2011. "An assessment of the solar resource for Durban, South Africa," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 3433-3438.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sahoo, Somadutta & Zuidema, Christian & van Stralen, Joost N.P. & Sijm, Jos & Faaij, André, 2022. "Detailed spatial analysis of renewables’ potential and heat: A study of Groningen Province in the northern Netherlands," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    2. Enrique González-Plaza & David García & Jesús-Ignacio Prieto, 2024. "Monthly Global Solar Radiation Model Based on Artificial Neural Network, Temperature Data and Geographical and Topographical Parameters: A Case Study in Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-14, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ghasemi, Golara & Noorollahi, Younes & Alavi, Hamed & Marzband, Mousa & Shahbazi, Mahmoud, 2019. "Theoretical and technical potential evaluation of solar power generation in Iran," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 1250-1261.
    2. Finn, Thomas & McKenzie, Paul, 2020. "A high-resolution suitability index for solar farm location in complex landscapes," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 520-533.
    3. Noorollahi, Younes & Ghenaatpisheh Senani, Ali & Fadaei, Ahmad & Simaee, Mobina & Moltames, Rahim, 2022. "A framework for GIS-based site selection and technical potential evaluation of PV solar farm using Fuzzy-Boolean logic and AHP multi-criteria decision-making approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 89-104.
    4. Vrînceanu, Alexandra & Dumitrașcu, Monica & Kucsicsa, Gheorghe, 2022. "Site suitability for photovoltaic farms and current investment in Romania," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 320-330.
    5. Hossein Yousefi & Hamed Hafeznia & Amin Yousefi-Sahzabi, 2018. "Spatial Site Selection for Solar Power Plants Using a GIS-Based Boolean-Fuzzy Logic Model: A Case Study of Markazi Province, Iran," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-18, June.
    6. Wang, Peng & Zhang, Shuainan & Pu, Yanru & Cao, Shuchao & Zhang, Yuhu, 2021. "Estimation of photovoltaic power generation potential in 2020 and 2030 using land resource changes: An empirical study from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    7. Nematollahi, Omid & Kim, Kyung Chun, 2017. "A feasibility study of solar energy in South Korea," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 566-579.
    8. Shao, Meng & Han, Zhixin & Sun, Jinwei & Xiao, Chengsi & Zhang, Shulei & Zhao, Yuanxu, 2020. "A review of multi-criteria decision making applications for renewable energy site selection," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 377-403.
    9. Chen, Fuying & Yang, Qing & Zheng, Niting & Wang, Yuxuan & Huang, Junling & Xing, Lu & Li, Jianlan & Feng, Shuanglei & Chen, Guoqian & Kleissl, Jan, 2022. "Assessment of concentrated solar power generation potential in China based on Geographic Information System (GIS)," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    10. Sun, Yanwei & Li, Ying & Wang, Run & Ma, Renfeng, 2022. "Measuring dynamics of solar energy resource quality: Methodology and policy implications for reducing regional energy inequality," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 138-150.
    11. Azizkhani, Mostafa & Vakili, Abdullah & Noorollahi, Younes & Naseri, Farzin, 2017. "Potential survey of photovoltaic power plants using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method in Iran," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1198-1206.
    12. Seyed Mohammad Seyed Alavi & Akbar Maleki & Ali Khaleghi, 2022. "Optimal site selection for wind power plant using multi-criteria decision-making methods: A case study in eastern Iran [Selection of optimal location and design of a stand-alone photovoltaic scheme," International Journal of Low-Carbon Technologies, Oxford University Press, vol. 17, pages 1319-1337.
    13. Ramgolam, Yatindra K. & Soyjaudah, K.M.S., 2015. "Unveiling the solar resource potential for photovoltaic applications in Mauritius," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 94-100.
    14. Zhixin Zhang & Min Chen & Teng Zhong & Rui Zhu & Zhen Qian & Fan Zhang & Yue Yang & Kai Zhang & Paolo Santi & Kaicun Wang & Yingxia Pu & Lixin Tian & Guonian Lü & Jinyue Yan, 2023. "Carbon mitigation potential afforded by rooftop photovoltaic in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    15. Zhang, Yuhu & Ren, Jing & Pu, Yanru & Wang, Peng, 2020. "Solar energy potential assessment: A framework to integrate geographic, technological, and economic indices for a potential analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 577-586.
    16. Obane, Hideaki & Nagai, Yu & Asano, Kenji, 2020. "Assessing land use and potential conflict in solar and onshore wind energy in Japan," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 842-851.
    17. Mollahosseini, Arash & Hosseini, Seyed Amid & Jabbari, Mostafa & Figoli, Alberto & Rahimpour, Ahmad, 2017. "Renewable energy management and market in Iran: A holistic review on current state and future demands," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 774-788.
    18. Sward, Jeffrey A. & Siff, Jackson & Gu, Jiajun & Zhang, K. Max, 2019. "Strategic planning for utility-scale solar photovoltaic development – Historical peak events revisited," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 1292-1301.
    19. Gandoman, Foad H. & Abdel Aleem, Shady H.E. & Omar, Noshin & Ahmadi, Abdollah & Alenezi, Faisal Q., 2018. "Short-term solar power forecasting considering cloud coverage and ambient temperature variation effects," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 793-805.
    20. Jalil Heidary Dahooie & Ali Husseinzadeh Kashan & Zahra Shoaei Naeini & Amir Salar Vanaki & Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas & Zenonas Turskis, 2022. "A Hybrid Multi-Criteria-Decision-Making Aggregation Method and Geographic Information System for Selecting Optimal Solar Power Plants in Iran," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-20, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:5:p:1890-:d:327334. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.