Optimal Solar Farm Site Selection in the George Town Conurbation Using GIS-Based Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) and NASA POWER Data

Many countries are committed to boosting renewable energy in their national energy mix by 2030 through the support and incentives for solar energy harnessing. However, the observed solar data limitation may result in ineffective decision making, regarding solar farm locations. Therefore, the aim of this study is to utilise GIS-based multi criteria decision making (MCDM) and NASA POWER data to identify the optimal locations for solar farm installations, with the George Town Conurbation as a case study. Although NASA POWER is tailored for the application, at least, on the regional level, the information it provided on the solar radiation and the maximum and minimum temperatures are deemed useful for the initial solar mapping attempt at the local level, especially in the absence or lack of local data. The performance of the GIS-based MCDM model is categorized as good in identifying solar farms. There are no significant differences in the area under the curve (AUC) values between the map of the NASA POWER data and ground-measured data. This indicates the potential of using the NASA POWER data for generating the much-needed initial insights for the local optimal solar farm site selection. The stakeholders can benefit from the suitability map generated to effectively target the locations that have the highest potential to generate solar energy efficiently and sustainably.