A decision support system in rural renewable energy deployment in the Vhembe District, Limpopo, South Africa

Many countries worldwide integrate renewable energy systems (RES) in their future energy plans to reduce the negative impacts of fossil fuel consumption and carbon emissions on the environment and have focused on sustainable energy options. The current need and challenges to use alternative energy sources are driven by the continued rise in fossil fuel prices, increasing population and migration, and energy demand, mainly in developing countries, such as South Africa. In addition, the continuous increase in energy demand, global warming, and other environmental problems related to the negative impact of using fossil fuels have raised severe global challenges. The solar, wind, hydro, and biomass resources and their potential to provide alternative energy sources have not been sufficiently utilised. As a result, RES is increasingly being considered as a potential solution for sustainable energy production and reduction of negative environmental impact. To obtain the suitable potentials, it is essential to assess, estimate, and model renewable energy resources in different locations to provide energy end-users, communities, the private sector, and decision makers with accurate, evaluated, and validated data to promote the construction of solar, wind, hydro, and biomass/bioenergy power plants. Furthermore, identifying suitable locations, the available capacity of renewable energy facilities, influencing factors of renewable energy development, and consumption play an essential role in planning renewable energy plants.The use of remote sensing (RS) technology and GIS tools enable detailed assessment, modelling, and quantification of RES distribution, abundance, and quality that yield an effective and efficient use of available potential. Therefore, determining the optimal locations, capacity and identifying the spatial influencing factors are essential in developing a scientific planning strategy with validated data. This research aims to create a GIS framework for evaluating alternative locations for wind, solar, biomass, biofuels, and hybrid power plants for suitable rural energy deployment. As renewable energy planning is essential, the model will be a valuable tool for decision support in spatial selection and explicit location planning strategies.In this study, the available energy potential measurements were developed using GIS and RS mappings as tools to assess renewable energy potentials in the Vhembe District Municipality from the perspective of spatial planning. The study's specific aims are to quantify and map the wind, solar, hydro, and bioenergy potential from a theoretical level, as well as environmental restrictions, and to analyse the suitability of the location for small power plants.For other regions, the proposed decision support methodology provides a multi-purpose approach for a complex exploration of RES potentials and their exploitation under specific environments and conditions. As a result, the methodology employed in this study can be used in other study areas to assess renewable energy potential in identifying new profitable regions based on the land suitability results that integrate spatial information from remote sensing. Lastly, from the results produced, the available potential can be used in the mapping process in other regions.

全球众多国家在其未来的能源规划中融入可再生能源系统（RES），以减轻化石燃料消耗和碳排放对环境的负面影响，并专注于可持续能源的选择。当前，对替代能源的需求与挑战源于化石燃料价格的持续上涨、人口增长和迁移，以及发展中国家如南非等地的能源需求增加。此外，能源需求的持续增长、全球变暖以及其他与化石燃料使用负面影响的关联环境问题，都引发了严重的全球性挑战。太阳能、风能、水能和生物质资源作为替代能源的潜力尚未得到充分挖掘。因此，可再生能源系统正日益被视为可持续能源生产和减少负面环境影响的有效解决方案。为了获得适宜的潜力，评估、估算和建模不同地区的可再生能源资源至关重要，以便为能源终端用户、社区、私营部门和决策者提供准确、评估和验证的数据，以促进太阳能、风能、水能和生物质/生物能源电站的建设。此外，确定适宜地点、可再生能源设施的可用容量、影响可再生能源发展的因素以及消费，在规划可再生能源电站方面发挥着至关重要的作用。遥感（RS）技术和地理信息系统（GIS）工具的使用，能够对可再生能源的分布、丰富度和质量进行详细评估、建模和量化，从而实现潜在资源的有效和高效利用。因此，确定最佳地点、容量以及识别空间影响因素，对于制定基于验证数据的科学规划策略至关重要。本研究旨在创建一个GIS框架，以评估风能、太阳能、生物质、生物燃料和混合动力电站的替代地点，以适应适宜的农村能源部署。鉴于可再生能源规划的重要性，该模型将成为空间选择和明确地点规划策略决策支持的有价值工具。在本研究中，利用GIS和RS映射作为工具，从空间规划的角度开发了可用能源潜力测量方法，以评估Vhembe区市政当局的可再生能源潜力。本研究的具体目标是量化并绘制风能、太阳能、水能和生物能源的潜力，以及环境限制，并分析小型电站的适宜性。对于其他地区，所提出的决策支持方法提供了一种多用途方法，以复杂探索特定环境和条件下的可再生能源潜力和其开发。因此，本研究采用的方法可以在其他研究区域中使用，以评估可再生能源潜力，并基于土地适宜性结果识别新的盈利区域。最后，从产生的结果中，可用潜力可用于其他地区的制图过程中。