[Dissertation] Finding Suitable Locations of Wind Farms in South Africa
Masters dissertation by Shané, African Institute for Mathematical Sciences
Members
Shané van Graan, AIMS
Supervisor(s)
Dr. Bubacarr Bah, Dr. Vukosi Marivate
Abstract
The installation of renewable energy is becoming more and more important. In South Africa, wind energy, amongst other, will be expanded to obtain 17.8 GW by 2030. The challenge is to find the most optimal locations to place wind farms. Criteria that can be used to indicate how suitable a location is for the installation of a wind farm, are identified. The criteria are weighted by making use of the analytic hierarchy process and a suitability index between 0 and 1 calculated. Five different scenarios are considered as a type of analysis to better understand the data. Suitability maps are used to display the results.