Korean Energy Economic Review ISSN:1599-7057(Print) 에너지경제연구

Solar energy has been known as a successful alternative energy source, however it requires a large area to build power generation facilities compared to other energy sources such as nuclear power. Weather factors such as rainy weather impact on solar power generation because of lack of insolation In order to build a solar power plant, a large area is required for a limited domestic land hereby selecting the optimal location for the plant that maximizes the efficiency of power generation is necessary. Territory of the republic of Korea is composed of a large amount of mountain areas which account for 63% of entire Korean land. Solar power plants require plain fields. However, these fields are occupied by city or other commercial usage. The price of these fields become expensive and continuously growing. Therefore, this research analyze the optimal site for solar power generation plant by implementing analytic hierarchy process based on both weather factors and land factors. This research suggests not only a optimal location for power generation efficiency but also reasonable price and land for future solar power plants.