GIS application in identifying suitable areas for solar panel installation in Mashhad County of Iran

Most areas of the Iran enjoy more than 300 days of good sunshine for photovoltaic energy production and the potential for wind energy production is also immense. In this paper we evaluated the suitability of Mashhad County in Iran for the installation of photovoltaic panels. Mashhad is a mega city with a growing population due to its religious importance and the travelling pilgrims coming to the city to visit the Holy Shrine each year. We evaluated the area based on several factors including including topographic features (slope gradient, slope direction and height), roads and infrastructure, built-up areas, environmentally protected areas, solar photovoltaic output potential, air temperature, land cover and active fault lines. Since most of the area is flat with minor elevations, there is no limitation for energy production. The largest share of the area has slope gradient of less than 15% (3303 km2), this factor also imposes no limitation. In terms of elevation also 42% (4335 km2) of the area below 2000m which is suitable for wind farm construction. There are some 72 active faults in the area. In total, 7.3% of the total area is covered with protected areas accounting for ~ 720 km 2 which is not suitable for solar farms. In terms of land cover, 72% of the area is available for constructing solar farms. There is also no limitation in terms of air temperature and potential PV output. The final suitability map was obtained by combining these layers and then divided into five classes. Based on our results, the suitable class had the largest share of the final map. Highly suitable areas comprise 14.1% of the total area. The excluded lands from the analysis due to the limiting factors made up approximately 56% equal to 5811 km 2 . In total, Mashhad County is considerable potential for solar energy production.