Localization of solar-hydrogen power plants in the province of Kerman, Iran

This research presents an in-depth analysis of location planning of the solar-hydrogen power plants for electricity production in different cities situated in Kerman province of Iran. Ten cities were analyzed in order to select the most suitable location for the construction of a solar-hydrogen power plant utilizing photovoltaic panels. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology was applied to prioritize cities for installing the solar-hydrogen power plant so that one candidate location was selected for each city. Different criteria including population, distance to main road, flood risk, wind speed, sunshine hours, air temperature, humidity, horizontal solar irradiation, dust, and land costare used for the analysis. From the analysis, it is found that among the candidates\' cities, the site of Lalezar is ranked as the first priority for the solar-hydrogen system development. A measure of validity is obtained when results of the DEA method are compared with the results of the technique for ordering preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). Applying TOPSIS model, it was found that city of Lalezar ranked first, and Rafsanjan gained last priority for installing the solar-hydrogen power plants. Cities of Baft, Sirjan, Kerman, Shahrbabak, Kahnouj, Shahdad, Bam, and Jiroft ranked second to ninth, respectively. The validity of the DEA model is compared with the results of TOPSIS and it is demonstrated that the two methods produced similar results. The solar-hydrogen power plant is considered for installation in the city of Lalezar. It is demonstrated that installation of the proposed solar-hydrogen system in Lalezar can lead to yearly yield of 129 ton-H2 which covers 4.3% of total annual energy demands of the city.