Site Suitability Assessment for the Development of Wind Power Plant in Wolaita area, Southern Ethiopia: An AHP-GIS Model

Abstract

Abstract The engine behind any economy's growth is energy. The majority of energy sources are derived from fossil fuels, and the demand for energy produced using fossil fuels has increased since the Industrial Revolution. It is now obvious that the energy generated by these fossil fuels led to significant levels of toxic gases, which harmed the environment. Moreover, Ethiopia still lacks electricity despite having a vast amount of renewable energy resources. As a result, resources must be assigned to using renewable energy sources, like wind energy, as an alternative to the country's current power grid. This study aimed to conduct a site suitability assessment for the potential location of a wind power plant in the Wolaita area using geospatial methods. Many factors and criteria are considered in the process of selecting a suitable site. Geographic Information System (GIS) was employed to develop a multi-criteria approach for determining the most suitable locations for wind power plants. In this study, seven criteria were used. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to evaluate these criteria, and all of these criteria were assigned a weighted score. These criteria were also given weights using pairwise comparison. The result or suitability map is scored in four categories, ranging from most suitable to unsuitable. According to the findings, 0.628% of the total area (28.00 km2) is deemed highly suitable for establishing wind farms. From a total area of 2433.96 km2, 54.61% of the land is considered to be moderately suitable. The remaining 0.85% (37.85 km2) of the total area is deemed least suitable for wind turbines, leaving 43.91% (1956.94 km2) not suitable. It has been identified that the study area's central, northwestern, and southern regions are superb locations for the establishment of wind farms. The results of this investigation will assist the Ethiopian government or any other organization working on the development of sustainable and renewable energy to speed up the investment process in renewable energy and increase the certainty of resource development. The results of this study could be used as a benchmark for the sector of wind energy.