A GIS-based Boolean logic-analytical hierarchy process for solar power plant (case study: Erbil Governorate—Iraq)

The remarkable increase in population and industrial development has brought priority to the installation of solar power plants in developing countries. Solar power site selection is a complicated task, which involves spatial assessment, driving environment, economic and climatological factors. For different site selection studies, multi-criteria estimation was used. This study utilized GIS and Boolean-AHP model to perform solar power site selection in Erbil governorate. The study proposed three scenarios: economic weight scenario, environment weight scenario and equal weight scenario. The final index model identifies four groups: unsuitable, low suitable, moderately suitable and highly suitable. Consequently, the study identified 369 candidate sites to install the solar power farms, interestingly; about 85% of the candidate sites are located in the southern and central part of the study area.