Suitability assessment of wind energy farming in the desert landscape of Zarafshan Valley, Uzbekistan

Abstract

Wind farm suitability analyses have been carried out to demarcate the potential zones in the Middle Zarafshan River basin. Uzbekistan’s major cities occupy the middle and lower Zarafshan Valley, which needs to allocate and develop wind energy farms to restore sustainability. In the current study, the Middle Zarafshan valley was assessed to provide a synoptic view of potential zones for wind energy. This study aimed to develop a geospatial method to identify optimal locations in the valley. To accomplish this task, five criteria were considered: wind speed, slope, distance from the transmission network, road network, land use, and land cover. Further, each criterion was assigned a weight according to expert opinions and published research outcomes. In addition, a maximum of 45 % weight was assigned to wind speed, followed by land use, land cover, slope, and others. Further, these criteria were categorized into four classes viz., unsuitable, less suitable, moderately suitable, and highly suitable. Further, different thematic layers were produced to realize this study. Wind speed maps were derived at different heights to calculate the results and integrate them with other derivatives. The findings of this study show that the maximum intensity of winds received at 100 m height or more, and more than 40 % area of the study area was estimated suitable for wind energy exploitation.