Site selection of solar power plant by using open source GIS for Eskisehir Province-Turkey
Özet
Sun, which has the largest energy in the renewable energy sources. Solar energy which was not popular in the past, gained importance nowadays due to population growth, increasing importance of energy requirements and development of technology. Solar energy resources are also addressed in the most harmless effect when environmental impacts are taking into account. The most advantages of using solar energy compared to other types of energy are having inexhaustible source of energy, having clean energy, the lack of sophisticated technology, the lack of external dependency, to the low operating costs and can be considered to be suitable for local applications. In addition to these benefits, it has some disadvantages. It is known that sunlight is not continuous, so it requires storage facility. Solar power plant needs large spaces for installation and high initial installation costs. Electric production amount changes in winter-summer, even day and night. Considering all these cases, it's seen that site selection of Solar Power Plant is an important phase. The sun is an inexhaustible source of energy, but it does not come to a constant value everywhere. In this case, certain conditions must be provided for the installation of solar power plant. Solar Energy Potential Atlas gives a certain idea for places according to solar plant installation in Turkey. This atlas use the values based on the solar radiation and sunshine duration. The more realistic and detailed studies for the site determination slope of the land, land properties, geology and soil conditions, adjacency to the electricity distribution network is required. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) should be used for this type of spatial analysis. In this study, the Open Source GIS software QGIS is used for potential power plant installation site for the districts in the Eskisehir province. The most suitable district for solar power plant site has been determined. The most suitable location in this district were selected by considering the land properties and electricity network distribution of the region.
