Solar power plant site location suitability analysis using GIS weighted average raster overlay "Lebanon"

Abstract

After the civil war, the electricity sector in Lebanon faced numerous challenges due to lack of maintenance and funding. Rationing hours increased dramatically and consequently, citizens diverted toward the private sector in order to compensate for this electricity shortage. The majority of the produced electricity is based on burning fuel leading to extensive pollution. To overcome both the environmental and electrical shortage dilemmas, this paper studies the feasibility of solar energy as a complementary solution. North Lebanon district is the adopted case study. Additionally, the suitable zone to establish a solar plant is selected scientifically using Geographic Information System (GIS) while taking into account all the restrictions and criteria. The raster analysis overlay method using weighted average sum is used. The study succeeded in selecting one appropriate region that can compensate for the north region power deficit.