Offshore windfarm siting in Greece using GIS and TOPSIS

The deployment of offshore wind power technologies is becoming increasingly important towards the sustainable development of regions. In Greece, wind energy is provided at the time being, only by onshore plants and the interest in investigating the top choices for offshore wind applications in terms of environmental, economic, social and technical criteria is rapidly growing. The aim of this paper is to investigate the most appropriate sites for offshore windfarm siting in swallow waters (water depth ≤50m), where it is economically or/and technologically feasible to have structures resting directly on the seabed to support the turbine structure, taking advantage the existing knowledge as well as the technical experience of such applications. The proposed methodology includes two distinct stages (exclusion and evaluation) and integrates Geographical Information System (GIS) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method for solving spatial and policy planning problems. Thirteen exclusion criteria (e.g. wind velocity, distance from electricity grid, distance from residential network) and six assessment criteria (e.g. electricity energy production, distance from marine protected areas) are considered in the analysis. The results reveal five sites in swallow waters for offshore windfarm siting that could contribute to the energy interdependency of many areas.