Prioritizing suitable locations for national-scale solar PV installations: Israel's site suitability analysis as a case study

The integration of renewables is one of the main challenges and driving forces in electricity markets in recent years. Accordingly, the study of selecting suitable locations for installing renewable facilities has gained momentum. Although studies have examined various siting criteria, electric grid interconnection feasibility issues are not often included due to the lack of complete national mapping information and data. We couple Geographical Information System (GIS) data with an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method to create a model for identifying and prioritizing locations that are better suited than others for PV installations based on techno-economic, environmental and electrical criteria. We test our model using Israel's entire national distribution power grid configuration and land use characteristics as a case study. Our results indicate that while a total area of 323 km2 is considered appropriate for PV installations in Israel, only 42.6% of that area (137.6 km2) can be classified into high or very high suitability levels. Prioritizing PV locations is of great importance because they determine the effectiveness of the PV integration in terms of how much it costs to generate electricity and optimal land use management. Hence, our methodology provides decision makers with a practical tool for expanding solar PV efficiently.