Journals Proceedings

Abstract

the demand for the renewable energy sources is very high and this is mainly due to the fact that fossil fuels are finishing and they may not be environmental friendly. While it is highly important that the remaining amount of non-renewable energy resources are preserved for the future generations, other resources of energy can become more and more important. This is in particular very important for the developing countries such as Iran, which most of its export income is on the basis of selling oil, despite the huge potential of using renewable resources such as wind and solar; The amount of solar energy reception and average annual sunny hours (i.e. over 2900 hours), Iran is considered as one of the suitable countries in terms of capability for creating solar power plants. In the present paper, it has been attempted to recognize the appropriate locations to take advantage of this energy. In this regard, at first, the influencing factors on the solar energy are investigated, and then, using FAHP decisionmaking techniques the most suitable locations in Iran for the construction of solar power plants are introduced. According to the performed investigations, the most important factors that should be considered include: sunny hours, ambient temperature, height, and the amount of dust.