Assessment of renewable energy suitability and development constraints in Iraq

This nationwide study employs a spatial multi-criteria evaluation implemented in ArcGIS Model Builder to balance renewable-energy potential, ecosystem-service supply and development impacts. The analysis covers the entire of Iraq at 30 m resolution. The analysis of data identified suitable areas for renewable energy projects, including solar farms and biomass production, taking into account environmental, socio-economic, and land-use factors on the basis of four levels. The results give a more detailed land suitability classification for solar farms, using a four-class scheme according to the possible impact on ecosystem services. The results show that 49 % of the analyzed areas are suitable for both biomass and solar farms, while 6 % are suitable exclusively for solar energy, and 45 % are not suitable for either. Under the ecosystem services trade-off analysis, 82 % of the land has good suitability for balancing agricultural biomass production with water services; 10 % has intermediate suitability, and 8 % is not suitable. In the case of solar energy, the analysis found that 14 % of the land is highly suitable, 70 % moderately suitable, 11 % with lower suitability, and 5 % least suitable. The analyses also provide further details on the effect of policy and regulatory frameworks. For agricultural biomass 44 % of the areas have no constraints, 50 % are affected by policy constraints without substantial ecosystem services trade-offs, and 3 % by both constraints and trade-offs. For solar farms, 40 % of the areas are free of constraints, 14 % are affected by ecosystem services trade-offs, 42 % by policy constraints without substantial ecosystem services impacts and 7 % by both constraints and trade-offs.