PV park site selection for utility-scale solar guides combining GIS and power flow analysis: A case study on a Swedish municipality

Utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) parks have dominated the international market for the past few years. However, in some countries, like Sweden, utility-scale PV is on the verge to economic viability. Using existing infrastructure in a resource-efficient manner could be a crucial strategy for a successful implementation at scale. In this study, a new methodology for a utility-scale solar guide is developed by studying the hosting capacity in the local grid and identifying land appropriate for PV parks. The method is applied on a rural municipality in Sweden (512 km2) with a local distribution grid (5,000 customers). The impact on the grid, if connecting a PV park to a substation, was analyzed through power flow simulations and the geographical assessment was done using multi-criteria analysis with a Boolean approach. Three different sizes of PV parks, 1, 3, and 5 MWp, were analyzed. Results showed that 3.7% of the studied area is qualified for locating 1 MWp PV parks. However, if introducing a maximum distance threshold to the nearest substation that can host the PV generation from the park, the potential is further reduced (e.g., to 1% for a 750 m threshold). Furthermore, parts of the grid can host PV parks of 3 and 5 MWp, but only near urban areas, where qualified land is lacking. The results highlight that the proposed methodology can function as a tool in the dialog between utility companies, municipalities, PV companies, land-owners and other stakeholders in order to find resource- and system-efficient locations for PV parks. •A method for deriving utility-scale solar guides for PV power generation is proposed.•The method combines traditional land use analysis with grid power flow simulations.•The method is applied and evaluated for a Swedish rural municipality.•Including grid hosting capacity in the solar guide notably reduces the PV potential.•1% of the municipality land area can host a 1 MW PV park without grid reinforcement.