Authors: Lingaraju, Sathish kumar B N
Abstract: Utility-scale solar park siting in semi-arid regions requires balancing physics-driven energy yield with engineering, environmental, and operations constraints under substantial uncertainty. This paper presents a transparent fuzzy multi-criteria framework that (i) maps raw criteria to physically motivated desirability memberships-monotone linear functions for benefit/cost attributes (global horizontal irradiance, slope, grid distance, water distance, dust days, protected-area buffer, land-use suitability) and a bell-shaped (Gaussian-like) function for module-temperature effects-(ii) derives criterion weights using fuzzy AHP from linguistic pairwise judgements, and (iii) aggregates via a TOPSIS-like closeness measure in the desirability space. A realistic 12- site semi-arid screening dataset is used to demonstrate the workflow. The resulting normalized weights emphasize energy yield (GHI, 0.377) and host-land compatibility (land-use, 0.132; temperature, 0.115), while accounting for terrain (slope, 0.092), network access (grid distance, 0.081), O&M logistics (water distance, 0.052; dust days, 0.058 ), and biodiversity safeguards (protected buffer, 0.092). The final closeness coefficients rank sites S12," " S10, and S 02 as top candidates, driven by high irradiance ( ≥6.2kWhm^(-2) day ^(-1) ), gentle slopes ( <3% ), reasonable grid proximity, suitable land cover, and adequate environmental buffers. Sensitivity checks indicate ranking stability under modest weight perturbations, reflecting strong physical signal in the data. The framework is minimal, auditable, and readily swappable with GIS-derived layers, making it suitable for early-stage planning, stakeholder dialogue, and policy screening in semiarid contexts.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17646055
