Natural and energy potentials of solar energy within the Negotin municipality

Abstract

Nowadays, the proper implementation of sustainable development would not be possible with-out the usage of renewable energy resources. The main aim of this paper is oriented towards identifi-cation of proper location for the construction of solar power plants within the Negotin municipality, which could significantly reduce the usage of fossil fuels within this territory. Geographic information system (GIS) was conducted for detail analysis of the stated terrain, including the analysis regarding the natural conditions, such as the terrain inclination and its exposure, the manners of the land usage, natural hazards, as well as the analysis of protected areas. Methods of valorization and elimination of different locations throughout the GIS software were used for analysis of natural characteristics throughout the different maps, while processing the all maps together resulted in one final synthetic map. This map pointed to the potentials for using the solar energy on the territory of the Negotin mu-nicipality, based on the analysis of the most favorable climatic conditions. Synthesis map also pointed to the area with suitable locations for application of the solar energy. Finally, the analysis and calcu-lations of the general potentials of installed power of solar plants within this municipality were per-formed in order to obtain the adequate representation of the amount of the electricity that could be produced from photovoltaic solar panel systems.