{"id":567342,"date":"2023-01-16T19:59:01","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T03:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&#038;p=567342"},"modified":"2023-12-11T19:26:30","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T03:26:30","slug":"facilitating-solar-energy-production-while-protecting-biodiversity","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/facilitating-solar-energy-production-while-protecting-biodiversity","title":{"rendered":"Facilitating Solar Energy Production While Protecting Biodiversity"},"author":5752,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[971,931,381322],"tags":[1301,165542,287902,237991,478132],"arcnews_issues":[483512],"class_list":["post-567342","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-location-strategy","category-spatial-analysis","category-sustainability","tag-biodiversity","tag-data-sharing","tag-development","tag-solar-energy","tag-solar-siting","arcnews_issues-winter-2023","arcnews_sections-your-work"],"acf":{"short_description":"A GIS-based system for conducting site suitability assessments is helping Indonesia determine the optimum locations for solar plants.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Indonesia\u2019s 275 million residents inhabit about 6,000 of the more than 17,500 islands that make up the equatorial archipelago. Almost 97 percent of the population has access to the country\u2019s electrical grid, according to the World Bank. About 87 percent of the grid\u2019s capacity comes from fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas, and coal, while the rest comes from hydropower and geothermal sources. Because of electricity shortages in some rural areas\u2014such as West Kalimantan, a province on the island of Borneo\u2014Indonesia imports electricity from Malaysia as well.\r\n\r\nThis reliance on fuel-generated electricity is a burden on the country\u2019s financial sector. It also negatively impacts the environment. So SolarBoost\u2014a collaborative project between the university Politeknik Negeri Pontianak in Indonesia and the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom\u2014is seeking to implement solar power plants throughout Indonesia to increase the nation\u2019s grid capacity. The project also includes developing minigrids for small, rural communities.\r\n\r\nTo determine the optimum locations in which to build solar plants\u2014particularly in rural areas\u2014the SolarBoost team has developed a GIS-based system that integrates satellite and regional data for conducting site suitability assessments. In a pilot project carried out in West Kalimantan, whose forests and biodiversity are of global concern, SolarBoost performed geospatial analysis on vast amounts of data to figure out where large-scale solar plants could be developed. Now, government officials and energy developers can use the results of the study to aid in decision-making and accelerate the development of solar energy infrastructure across the region."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":566242,"image_position":"center","orientation":"vertical","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h2>Solar Power\u2019s Role in Shifting to Renewable Energy<\/h2>\r\nIn addition to expanding the capacity of Indonesia\u2019s electricity production, SolarBoost seeks to help reduce the country\u2019s dependence on fossil fuels. Recently, Indonesia pledged to cut its carbon emissions by at least 31.89 percent by 2030. The country has also set a goal to increase the share of renewable energy in the national energy mix to 23 percent by 2025.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe believe that solar energy can play a major part in [Indonesia\u2019s] shift to renewable energy,\u201d said Dr. Ibrahim-Bathis Kunhali, a project scientist at the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology, and Environment (KSCSTE) in India and a former research associate for the SolarBoost team.\r\n\r\nGiven this context, SolarBoost has attracted extensive interest and support from the government of Indonesia. Currently, SolarBoost is working with 11 government agencies and departments that range in scope from rural development to environmental conservation. These groups provide data and status reports on land cover, land use, soils, climatology, infrastructure, and more, which the SolarBoost team stores, analyzes, and processes using ArcGIS technology."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h2>The Spatial Analysis Toolbox Proves Key<\/h2>\r\nIndonesia\u2019s diverse cultural and ecological conservation areas cover about 18 percent of its landmass. To ensure that these critical locations are protected when selecting sites for solar energy facilities, the SolarBoost team had to study and spatially analyze extensive amounts of data. This included solar irradiance and weather condition data derived from satellite imagery, as well as the land usage, topography, population, roadway, conservation area, and electrical grid connection point data provided by government stakeholders.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe collected data defines the characteristics of an area in terms of its suitability for the development of a solar PV [photovoltaic] power plant,\u201d said Kunhali.\r\n\r\nThe data is organized into two planning processes that rely on geospatial analysis: demarcating barrier zones, which are protected areas where large-scale solar power plants should not be developed, and identifying feasible zones, where PV plants can\u2014and probably should\u2014be developed.\r\n\r\nTo conduct these analyses, the team employed what\u2019s called the Analytic Hierarchy Process, a method of organizing and analyzing complex data that helps determine which sites should be prioritized over others. The process included doing a multicriteria decision analysis, which evaluates options that have conflicting criteria.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe Analytic Hierarchy Process was used [to rank] all [the] data to get a final weighted value according to [each site\u2019s] importance for large-scale solar photovoltaic plant development,\u201d said Kunhali.\r\n\r\nAll this was done using tools in the Spatial Analysis toolbox in ArcGIS.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe used [the toolbox] for spatial data creation, data classification, analysis, [and] mapping,\u201d said Kunhali. \u201cOverlay analysis was performed to combine all the [data] layers for an accurate spatial analysis of the best site location for large-scale PV plant development.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h2>A Successful Project Guides Future Development<\/h2>\r\nThe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/capabilities\/spatial-analytics-data-science\/overview\">spatial analysis<\/a> done on West Kalimantan was highly successful. It quantified an area of 18\u201342 square miles that has the potential to generate an impressive 2.034\u20134.785 gigawatts of electricity. Most importantly, the location wouldn\u2019t require cutting down forests or overrunning protected areas or Indigenous communities, supporting the country\u2019s requirement to manage and maintain its biodiversity.\r\n\r\n\u201cWith web-enabled\u2026maps and GIS data layers, we created the first-ever surface solar irradiance analysis that enables the inclusion of solar energy farms within the policy making strategy for energy production in Indonesia,\u201d said Kunhali. \u201cWe focused on the [West Kalimantan province] because of the challenges of grid development there due to its remote location and the necessity to protect its natural resources and Indigenous communities. By selecting this area, our study also provides the guidance [to assess] PV plant [sites] for similar\u2026rural areas of the country.\u201d\r\n\r\nSolarBoost also demonstrated how critical it is to use GIS for processes like these.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe used it to perform multiple assessments on the cost of electrical power generation and the benefits that could be derived from the installation of a solar farm [in] West Kalimantan and other Indonesian provinces,\u201d said Kunhali. \u201cArcGIS also supported the reporting of legal and infrastructure constraints that could affect the timely deployment of PV projects.\u201d"}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Facilitating Solar Energy Production While Protecting Biodiversity | Winter 2023 | ArcNews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A GIS-based system for conducting site suitability 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