Geoprocessing toolbox for renewable energy

Abstract

Sustainable energy is necessary to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and address climate change. To establish renewable energy power plants (REPPs), it is important to consider effective procedures that yield abundant energy while sustaining the environment. Among others, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) tools are commonly used for site selection and impact analysis of photovoltaic power plants. However, existing research lacks a single, convenient application for these processes. This study aimed to develop a user-friendly toolbox within the ArcGIS Pro environment for site selection and environmental and social impact analysis for photovoltaic power plants (PVPP). We used a literature review method to look at previous research on selecting sites for photovoltaic power plants using GIS and MCDM methods. Then, we used a design-and-creation method to develop a toolbox in ArcGIS Pro that combines methods for selecting PVPP sites and analyzing their effects using ArcGIS Python libraries. GIS-based methods were found to be used only in the normalization and alternative evaluation stages of MCDM. The results show that not all stages of MCDM employ GIS-based methods. Two script tools were created: PVPP site selection and PVPP impact analysis for finding optimal sites and analyzing the social and environmental impacts of photovoltaic power plants, respectively. The developed tools were tested and validated by conducting a study on the province of Castellón in the Valencian community. 10 suitable sites were identified and analysed for their environmental impacts. The Pathfinder application was used to validate the results of the PVPP site selection tool. 6 sites of the developed PVPP site selection tool intersect with 6 sites identified by the Pathfinder application as optimal locations for PVPP development. However, the study lacks validation for PVPP impact analysis, as there are no existing tools for impact assessment of photovoltaic power plants. Future work could involve field studies to validate the tool's effectiveness in different geographical locations and integrate other factors for photovoltaic site selection.