Power Generation

Using a Levelized Cost of Energy, or LCOE, the total cost of building a facility over its lifetime, the report shows that renewables are now competitive with fossil fuels without subsidies.

Investing

Investing in renewables helps utilities save money, creating more jobs, and boosting a cleaner environment. Combined with lower energy costs, this gives governments and businesses a compelling case to phase out coal.

Several

Several studies have found that the total cost of building a wind or solar project can be less than half the price of constructing a new coal plant. This is particularly true when compared to natural gas-fired combined cycle power plants.

IEA

The IEA has also found that the cost of offshore and onshore wind has fallen. It also reports that the cost of large-scale solar is now 85% cheaper than ten years ago. These numbers demonstrate that renewables are the cheapest source of new power in most major countries.

Cost

The cost of renewables continues to fall, which adds to the business case. Renewables have the potential to produce 50 percent of the world's electricity by 2050.

2050

By 2050, the cheapest source of electricity could be solar and wind, allowing six-in-ten new power plants to undercut 800 GW of coal plants.

Findings

These are just a few of the findings from the World Energy Outlook 2020. This 464- page document outlines the uncertain future of global energy use.

Despite

Despite the challenges, the World Economic Forum, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the World Bank have collaborated on the report.

Multi-Criteria

A multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach is utilized to integrate these factors into a final decision. The proposed framework includes a weighting criteria by analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and a suitability map generated using GIS techniques.

For effective

For effective solar farm exploitation, it is essential to identify the suitable locations. This involves a detailed study of a range of criteria. Some of them include land use, location, environmental constraints, technological and social aspects.

Hybrid Methodology

In this study, the authors have used a hybrid methodology to evaluate the best site for PV farms. In order to determine the optimum site, the researchers applied a number of different criteria, including the distance to major roads, the albedo, the average annual temperature, the slope criterion, the cloudy days criterion, the average number of sunny days, the soil texture criterion, the distance from access roads, the number of tourist nights, and the number of lightning strikes.A comprehensive evaluation of all these criteria has produced a land suitability map which can be used to identify appropriate locations for future renewable energy projects. Using this information, developers can determine the best place to install their power plants, and increase the efficiency of their operation.

Several studies

Several studies have investigated this topic. They have used a range of methodologies, including the Analytical Hierarchy Method and the ELECTRE-TRI method. Moreover, the researchers investigated the feasibility of combining the two methodologies to produce an efficient decision making algorithm.