Sun, wind, water, biomass or geothermal energy are renewable energy sources that regenerate naturally over and over again. As part of the group project “Construction of Renewable Energy in the Canton of Bern”, I am responsible to prepare a potential location selection for wind energy in the area of the Canton of Bern, to replace the annual electricity production of the Mühleberg nuclear power plant. Multi-criteria decision analysis is conducted, taking different factors into consideration.
Regarding current research and restrictions in Canton Berne, important factors for the selection of locations for wind energy plants are wind speed, the proximity to road networks, power lines and residential areas. To join layers showing these factors, AHP (Analytic hierarchy process) is applied to determine the weights of different factors.
The details of the analytical processes are documented in the file Group Project Report.pdf. The tool for mapping is ArcGIS Pro. Potential locations for wind energy plant in Canton Bern.png shows the potential location for wind turbines with 5 different levels of suitability. North-western regions in Canton Bern are most suitable.