Proposta metodológica de análise regional para escolha de locais com maior potencial de inserção de parques fotovoltaicos

Abstract

As the global incentive to use renewable energy grows, solar photovoltaics have played a crucial role in this development. In recent years, investments in solar parks have increased, mainly due to the reduction in the cost of photovoltaic modules. However, the selection of the appropriate location for these installations is one of the main concerns, in particular, due to the extensive use of the land, this being a critical issue that needs to be previously analyzed to maintain the sustainability principle attributed to solar energy. Thus, this work aims to identify areas with greater potential for installation of photovoltaic parks (PV) mounted on the ground in the region covered by Conselho Regional de Desenvolvimento (COREDE) Central, located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS) - Brazil. This research is based on the use of the Geographic Information System (GIS) together with Multicriteria Decision Support (MDS) techniques. The MDS methods used were the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and the Fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), combined in the AHP-TOPSIS-2N method. In the GIS, two types of criteria were used: (i) the restrictive criteria and; (ii) the weighting criteria. The restrictive criteria are areas not suitable for the installation of PV parks, this study considered: urban centers and rural villages, the road system, hydrography, areas with a slope greater than 20%, slopes oriented to the south, southeast and southwest, the permanent preservation areas (APP) and the wetlands and susceptible to flooding. The weighting criteria are areas that can be installed, however, among these areas there are those more or less suitable for the insertion of PV parks, the weighting criteria are: areas with a slope of up to 20%, the solar irradiation index, the solar orientation of the slopes, the population concentration and the proximity to the road system, urban and populated centers, the substation and the energy transmission networks. To weight the criteria, the AHP-TOPSIS-2N method was used, which evaluates the criteria and alternatives through paired comparisons, as well as the degree of proximity to the ideal solution. Subsequently, the weights found were applied in a GIS which, in turn, is responsible for the analysis that will generate the spatialized result of the most suitable areas for the installation of the PV system. Thus, based on the analysis by COREDE Central, it was identified that out of the total of 12.384,40 km² in the region, 7.335,63 km² (59%) have some type of restriction for the installation of PV parks. Of the 5.044,06 km² available 850,30 km² are highly suitable, 1.503,09 km² most suitable, 1.334,38 km² moderately adequate, 978,24 km² marginally adequate and 378,05 km² are considered the least suitable locations. Therefore, this systematic approach to decision support is intended to assist regional and state planners, as well as investors in the appropriate selection of locations for the installation of centralized solar photovoltaic energy generation projects, in order to direct investments to more assertive locations.