Selection of solar power plant location using robust optimization method

Energy is one of the most important resources needed in the world and this need for the energy is increasing day by day. There are different kinds of resources of energy. It is very important for our world that renewable energy, which is one of these energy resources, is both clean and sustainable. Turkey as one of the temperate zone countries in the world can be deemed as a fortunate country in terms of having a rich potential of renewable energy resources. In this study, a model for the location selection of solar energy power plant and energy efficiency was proposed. The proposed (original) model and robust counterpart model were optimized to determine the most suitable province among the alternatives. According to the aforementioned proposed model, the most suitable province was aimed to be determined with robust optimization under the worst conditions. The analysis of this study was made pursuant to the data belonging to Adana, Afyonkarahisar, Ağrı, Aksaray, Erzincan, Erzurum, Hakkâri, Karaman, Kilis, Malatya, Muğla, Sivas and Van provincial centers and obtained from the General Directorate of Meteorology. As a consequence of the analysis of the study, it was observed that whereas the most appropriate province in Turkey for solar power plant facility location was Erzurum according to the original model, it was Ağrı according to the robust counterpart model. In addition, it was found out that the model had a stable structure with respect to the sensitivity analysis carried out to demonstrate the stability of the model.