There are many GIS based studies on the resource assessment of renewable energies. The decision process for including or excluding areas for the resource assessment is very similar to the process of  selecting one site.

Have fun:

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=de&as_sdt=0,5&q=gis+based+resource+assessment+renewable+energy

There are many GIS based studies on the resource assessment of renewable energies. The decision process for including or excluding areas for the resource assessment is very similar to the process of  selecting one site.

Have fun:

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=de&as_sdt=0,5&q=gis+based+resource+assessment+renewable+energy

Dear Milad Malekzadeh,

The factors for one renewable energy type may be different from the others. Also some factors that are applicable to one country or one region may not be effective for other country or region. Some factors are depend on geo-economical and political will (or capacity). But the general criteria may be as follows- 

(i) Cooperation from government or establishment (compatible with political, legislative and administrative situation)

(ii) Availability of technology and its maturity

(iii) Cost factors (it will affect the ultimate consumers' interest about the energy)

(iv) Demand of renewable energy (it will affect the financial support for the project)

(v) Existing energy availability

(vi) Environmental and ecological constraints ( varies from country to country. Also depends on the ultimate determination of the government)

Hope it help you.

Milad, good question,

It obviously varies depending on your type of energy generation device but from an offshore point of view the first factors to look at are water depth, resource (potential wind, wave or tidal energy) and distance from shore. If one of these is not suitable then you will be looking elsewhere. To this we can add existing inmobile infrastructure like pipelines, power and telecom cables, and dumping grounds (especially those that may contain UXO). 

After that, grid connection (but may not be required as it could be a stand-alone test site for proof of technology), impact with existing industries, impact with environmental aspects (seabirds, mammals, designated environmental sites, etc), type and depth of sediment, visual impact from shore, and more.

The ranking of importance of these various aspects will depend on the type of technology to be used, as I have already mentioned, but if you have no resource or too much resource then you are in the wrong place.

Thoughtful use of GIS technology as well as up to date spatial layers of appropriate resolution and accuracy will ensure that sensible site selction decisions are arrived at.

Hope that helps, some more documents on marine spatial planning can be found at:  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/marineenergy/Planning

RW

Hi Milad, take a look at my publication page as I have written a few papers on important parameters to consider when selecting suitable tidal stream turbine sites...  

Hi, Your renewable energy project is at remote location? or easily connected to grid. And which resources you are going to harvest have importance. For example:  If it is solar energy through the PV system and the power generation is at remote location you have to go through the strength of solar resources & topography which you have!! this is for your illustrative purpose only. Based on the RE resources, which you are using for harnessing, parameters will change accordingly. I hope that you got it.!!! 

Thank you all for your help, I should mention that i need the factors of wind and solar energy. And can i choose a site for wind and solar energy together ? I meant is it practical to build two powerhouse of these kind near each other ? Or it aint gonna happen ?

Hi Milad, if you choose wind and solar energy as the source，you should consider their characteristics: intermittent, and ensure that the two energy can be complementary in order to meet building demand continuously.

Dear Milad,

For Solar and Wind energy options, totally different types of technologies are involved. Most important is before you take decision of setting up plants you must have long time-series data about the availability of input energy (amount and consistency of solar radiation and wind speed). Most suitable sites for wind energy are the sea shores or islands but inputs of solar energy depends on many factors. So take data beforehand you proceed. Hope this helps.

Hi Milad, this paper that we recently published may be of use to you... http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148115002761.

Regards,

Paul