A GIS based MCDM modelling approach for evaluating large-scale solar PV installation in Tunisia

Owing to its favorable geographical and climatic conditions, Tunisia offers a great deal of solar potential, making solar energy projects highly feasible. However, to maximize efficiency and return on investment, it is critical to identify the most promising locations to invest in costly solar power plants. Determining the best-suited location for implementing such projects involves various conflicting parameters, including technical, economic, and environmental dimensions. To address the complex nature of the challenges associated with site selection, this study applies an integrated GIS-based MCDM approach to conduct a land suitability analysis to determine the most feasible locations for installing large-scale solar PV power plants in Tunisia. With the aim of achieving maximum power while minimizing costs, the model considers a number of factors, including solar radiation, slope, average cloudy days, land use, soil texture, temperature, orientation, proximity to grid networks, roads, and residential areas, as well as water resources. To this end, we apply the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) to assign weights to the defined criteria and evaluate the potential sites. The findings revealed that 17.6% of the study area is suitable for developing solar PV systems on a large scale. According to the spatial analysis, the most suitable sites covered an area of 5251 km2 (3.31% of the available area) and were densely scattered across the central and southwestern, southeastern, and eastern coastal regions of the country. Furthermore, the technical potential of these sites was estimated at nearly 1060 TWh/yr. An examination of the locations of operational solar farms and planned projects revealed that they were in line with the most suitable sites, which indicated the consistency of the proposed model.