Assessment of Solar Energy Potential using GIS and AHP approach: A Case Study of Bumthang Valley

This paper evaluates the Solar Energy Potential for Bumthang valley in central Bhutan using geographic information system (GIS) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach. In order to find the suitable catchment for solar PV installation, the analysis have been carried out based on three broad factor; climatological, environmental and economic factors namely; solar irradiance, elevation, aspect, slope, LULC, proximity to town and proximity from road besides exclusion criteria; Protected Area and Biological Corridor (PA&BC). The weights of the criteria are calculated using MCDM-AHP and applied on the individual criteria raster to generate the final suitability map. The highly suitable area for placing solar farm has been assessed applying exclusion criteria and yielded a potential area of 6.54 km² for the valley. The solar energy potential based on different efficiencies of PV modules indicated a potential of more than 1000 GWh/Year, while current energy consumption of the valley indicated only 11.5 GWh/Year.