GIS for solar and wind site suitability uses geographic information system (GIS) technology to evaluate land and marine areas against multiple criteria at the same time. These include resource availability, physical conditions, environmental constraints, and infrastructure access. The goal is to identify locations where renewable energy projects can achieve high resource yield, lower development risk, and easier grid connectivity.
In India’s race to 500 GW of non-fossil energy capacity by 2030, GIS-powered suitability analysis is the planning foundation that separates viable project sites from expensive failures.
India’s Renewable Energy Push and the Land Question
India’s renewable energy programme operates at a scale few countries have attempted. By early 2024, India had crossed 85 GW of installed solar capacity. Fifty-one solar parks with an aggregate sanctioned capacity of 37,740 MW had been authorized across 12 states, with 20 parks commissioned at 10,504 MW. The Bhadla Solar Park in Rajasthan, covering 56 square kilometers of the Thar Desert at 2,245 MW, stands as one of the world’s largest solar parks. The Pavagada Solar Park in Karnataka stretches across 13,000 acres at 2,000 MW. The Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park in Andhra Pradesh occupies 24 square kilometers and integrates over 4 million solar panels.
Behind each of these projects is a fundamental question that begins before a single panel is installed: which land is suitable, safe, legally available, environmentally cleared, and close enough to transmission infrastructure to make a project financially viable?
That question cannot be answered without GIS.
What Is Site Suitability Analysis for Renewable Energy?
Site suitability analysis is a spatial planning method that scores every unit of land or sea area against a set of criteria relevant to a proposed land use, in this case a solar or wind energy facility, and produces a ranked map showing which locations are most suitable, marginally suitable, or unsuitable for development.
For renewable energy projects, suitability analysis uses multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) combined with weighted overlay analysis in a GIS environment. Each criterion, solar irradiance, wind speed, slope, land use classification, distance to transmission grid, proximity to roads, and exclusion zones for forests, wetlands, and habitation, is represented as a separate spatial layer. The layers are scored, weighted by their relative importance, and combined into a composite suitability map that planners, developers, and regulatory agencies can interrogate at any geographic level, from the national grid down to the individual project parcel.
Why GIS Is Essential for Solar and Wind Park Planning
Renewable energy planning is inherently spatial. Solar irradiance varies by latitude, elevation, and cloud cover. Wind speed varies by terrain, roughness, and height above ground. Grid evacuation cost depends entirely on the distance and route from a project site to the nearest substation. Land acquisition feasibility depends on tenure classification, forest designation, and revenue record status. None of these factors can be evaluated in isolation, and none of them can be evaluated without a map.
ArcGIS Spatial Analyst provides the core raster analysis toolkit for site suitability work. It processes terrain data, satellite imagery, and resource grids into thematic layers, applies Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) weightings to each criterion, and combines them through weighted overlay to generate composite suitability scores across the entire study area. ArcGIS Pro hosts the full analytical workflow, from data ingestion and preprocessing to final suitability mapping and project boundary delineation.
Indo ArcGIS Living Atlas provides the ready-to-use spatial datasets that power the analysis: Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) and Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) grids, Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), Land Use Land Cover (LULC) classifications, NDVI vegetation indices, and administrative boundary layers that align with India’s regulatory geography.
Key Criteria GIS Evaluates for Suitability
A rigorous GIS-based suitability analysis for solar and wind projects evaluates criteria across four categories:
Resource quality
- Solar suitability analysis uses GHI (Global Horizontal Irradiance) and DNI (Direct Normal Irradiance) datasets to identify areas with strong solar energy potential, while wind suitability analysis evaluates wind speeds at different hub heights such as 80m, 100m, 120m, and 150m.
- Solar energy potential in India varies significantly by region, with northeastern states receiving around 4.5 kWh/m²/day and high-potential states such as Rajasthan and Gujarat exceeding 6.5 kWh/m²/day.
- India’s strongest wind resources are concentrated along Tamil Nadu’s coastline, the ridges of the Western Ghats, Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer region, and Gujarat’s Rann of Kutch.
Physical terrain
- Slope gradient is analysed because MNRE recommends terrain with less than 3% slope for solar PV projects, while steeper terrain can significantly increase grading, foundation, and civil construction costs.
- Aspect is evaluated to identify south-facing slopes, which typically receive higher solar exposure and maximise annual solar energy generation across most Indian latitudes.
- Elevation data derived from Digital Elevation Models (DEM) is used to identify flood-prone lowland areas that may face waterlogging or drainage challenges. It also helps identify high-altitude terrain that may be difficult to access and develop for renewable energy infrastructure.
Exclusion and clearance layers
- Forest department boundaries, including Reserved Forests, Protected Forests, and Deemed Forests, are included as exclusion layers because regulatory clearances for these areas can delay projects for years.
- Wildlife sanctuary and national park buffers
- Wetland and water body exclusions under Wetlands Conservation Rules
- Revenue land classification: wasteland, agricultural, common land (grazing), government land
- Defence and strategic exclusion zones
Infrastructure proximity
- Proximity to ISTS/InSTS transmission grid substations is evaluated because grid connectivity is one of the largest factors influencing renewable energy project viability after resource quality.
- Distance to roads and rail infrastructure is analysed to estimate construction logistics, transportation efficiency, and overall project development costs.
- Distance from habitation areas is assessed to comply with MNRE regulations, including minimum setback requirements of 500 metres from dwellings for wind turbines and 205 metres from major roads.
The Suitability Workflow: From Resource Maps to Final Sites
Here is how a GIS-based suitability analysis progresses from national screening to project-ready sites:
Step 1: National and state-level screening
GHI or wind resource grids from Indo ArcGIS Living Atlas are overlaid with exclusion layers in ArcGIS Spatial Analyst to eliminate nationally unsuitable areas. The output is a preliminary suitability zone map at the state level, identifying high-resource districts free from the most stringent regulatory constraints.
Step 2: Multi-criteria weighted overlay
Within shortlisted districts, ArcGIS Pro applies AHP-weighted overlay analysis across all relevant criteria simultaneously. Each criterion is standardized to a common suitability scale, weighted by its relative importance to project economics, and combined into a composite score. Planners can adjust criterion weights to reflect different project types, large-scale solar parks weigh grid proximity higher; wind farms weigh terrain and wind resources more heavily.
Step 3: Exclusion modelling
Hard exclusion polygons for forests, wetlands, defence zones, and dense habitation are overlaid as absolute constraints, eliminating areas regardless of their resource or terrain score.
Step 4: Land parcel analysis and cadastral overlay
State revenue department cadastral data is overlaid with the composite suitability map in ArcGIS Pro to identify which specific survey numbers and revenue parcels fall within high-suitability zones. This step converts a theoretical suitability map into land that can be acquired, leased, or aggregated.
Step 5: Grid evacuation corridor modelling
ArcGIS Network Analyst models the optimal transmission corridor from each candidate site to the nearest InSTS substation, estimating line length, terrain crossing costs, and potential conflicts with forests or habitation that would trigger additional clearances.
Step 6: Field validation with drone surveys
Site Scan for ArcGIS manages drone survey missions over shortlisted sites, generating high-resolution orthomosaics and Digital Surface Models that verify terrain conditions, identify encroachments, and capture the ground-level detail that satellite imagery cannot resolve.
How GIS Is Being Applied to India’s Solar and Wind Parks
Bhadla Solar Park, Rajasthan
Bhadla’s selection in the Thar Desert was driven by a combination of factors that GIS evaluates precisely: among the highest GHI values in India at over 6 kWh/m²/day, extensive stretches of barren wastelands with minimal competing land use, flat terrain requiring minimal civil earthworks, and proximity to existing ISTS transmission infrastructure in Rajasthan’s established power corridor.
Pavagada Solar Park, Karnataka
Pavagada introduced an innovative land aggregation model where KSPDCL leased land from 2,300 small farmers at fixed annual rates rather than acquiring ownership. Mapping these fragmented agricultural holdings, verifying tenure, aggregating them into developable parcels, and reconciling them with the planned park boundary across five villages at 13,000 acres of total area was a GIS-intensive exercise in cadastral spatial analysis.
Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park, Andhra Pradesh
The park’s integration of over 4 million panels across four 250 MW pooling substations and nearly 2,000 circuit kilometers of internal cabling reflects the infrastructure planning precision that ArcGIS GeoBIM and ArcGIS Enterprise enable when BIM design data and spatial site data are integrated into a single planning environment.
Offshore Wind: Gujarat and Tamil Nadu Zones
NIWE, working with the FOWIND consortium, applied a multi-criteria approach using LiDAR-based wind resource data, bathymetry, oceanographic data, and distance-from-shore constraints to identify eight potential offshore wind zones each off Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Initial assessments indicate approximately 36 GW of potential off the Gujarat coast and 35 GW off Tamil Nadu. A 2025 peer-reviewed study using GIS and hybrid MCDM methods (combining AHP, CRITIC, TOPSIS, and VIKOR) to evaluate sites across India’s Exclusive Economic Zone found the southern tip of Tamil Nadu hosting the most suitable locations for fixed-foundation offshore wind farms, accounting for wind speed, water depth, distance from shipping lanes, fishing zone exclusions, and ecological constraints simultaneously.
Benefits for Developers, MNRE, SECI, and State Agencies
For project developers
A GIS-based suitability workflow reduces preliminary site screening time from months to weeks. It identifies only the most viable candidates for detailed investigation, cutting the cost of ground surveys, environmental assessments, and technical feasibility studies on ultimately unviable sites.
For MNRE and SECI
A national-level GIS suitability layer supports tender design by identifying where renewable capacity can realistically be developed within the planning horizon, aligning Solar Park Scheme approvals with actual land availability and grid infrastructure.
For state renewable energy development agencies
GIS enables proactive land banking, where state agencies identify and pre-clear large tracts of suitable government wasteland before tender issuance, creating the plug-and-play model that made Pavagada Solar Park’s development faster and cheaper than comparable projects elsewhere.
For transmission planners at CEA and PGCIL
GIS models the relationship between renewable generation zones and ISTS substation capacity, identifying where new transmission investment is the binding constraint on renewable deployment and where existing grid infrastructure can absorb additional capacity. Explore Esri India’s sustainability solutions for renewable energy planning and site suitability analysis.These solutions help optimise project locations, reduce risks, and improve grid infrastructure planning across India.
Challenges and the Road Ahead: Hybrid Parks, Offshore Wind, and Floating Solar
Land fragmentation and tenure complexity
India’s agricultural land, particularly in states like Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh where solar resource is strongest, is often held in small, fragmented parcels with complex tenancy arrangements, pending mutations, and encumbrance records that do not appear in any standard spatial dataset. Overlaying LULC classifications from satellite imagery with state revenue department cadastral records in ArcGIS Pro is the only way to identify which parcels are actually available for development before costly land acquisition negotiations begin.
Hybrid solar-wind parks
SECI’s hybrid tenders, which combine solar and wind capacity on shared land, require a combined suitability model that evaluates both GHI and wind resource layers simultaneously, identifies locations where both resources are strong enough to warrant co-location, and accounts for the additional land area that wind turbines require around solar arrays. This dual-resource suitability modeling is a growing analytical need that ArcGIS Spatial Analyst and ArcGIS Pro handle through stacked multi-criteria analysis.
Floating solar
India’s floating solar projects at Omkareshwar Reservoir in Madhya Pradesh (600 MW under development), Rihand, and Kayamkulam require GIS analysis of water body depth, seasonal water level fluctuation, wave action, and mooring constraint geometry, an entirely different suitability framework from land-based solar that demands water body mapping layers, bathymetric data, and aquatic ecosystem sensitivity analysis.
Offshore wind at scale
India plans to auction 37 GW of offshore wind site leases through FY 2030. GIS is the only platform capable of integrating the marine spatial planning data, bathymetry, wind resource, shipping lane designations, military exclusion zones, fishing ground restrictions, coral reef sensitivities, and submarine cable corridors that offshore wind siting demands.
Grid co-planning
India’s 500 GW target cannot be met if renewable parks are sited in resource-rich but grid-remote locations that require hundreds of kilometers of new transmission lines. Integrating renewable suitability analysis with CEA’s transmission planning framework in ArcGIS Enterprise, so that grid evacuation feasibility is a first-order siting criterion rather than an afterthought, is the most strategically important GIS application in India’s renewable energy buildout.
FAQs
1. What is site suitability analysis in renewable energy?
Site suitability analysis uses GIS to evaluate land or marine areas against criteria like solar irradiance, wind speed, terrain, and grid proximity to identify viable energy development locations. It applies AHP weighting and multi-criteria decision analysis to produce a composite suitability map for planners.
2.How does GIS help in solar and wind park planning?
GIS combines resource maps, terrain data, land use, and grid proximity into a single suitability model using ArcGIS Spatial Analyst and ArcGIS Pro. Indo ArcGIS Living Atlas supplies GHI, DNI, DEM, and LULC datasets for India to support site selection decisions.
3.What are the largest solar and wind parks in India?
India’s largest solar parks include Bhadla in Rajasthan at 2,245 MW, Pavagada in Karnataka at 2,000 MW, and Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh at 1,000 MW. Major wind clusters are concentrated at Muppandal in Tamil Nadu and the Jaisalmer belt in Rajasthan.
4.Which criteria are used for GIS-based solar site selection?
GIS evaluates solar irradiance, terrain slope, exclusion zones like forests and wetlands, and proximity to grid substations and highways. These criteria are AHP-weighted and combined through weighted overlay in ArcGIS Spatial Analyst to produce a composite suitability score.
5.How is GIS used for offshore wind planning in India?
GIS integrates wind resource, bathymetry, shipping lanes, and ecological sensitivity into a multi-criteria suitability model for India’s EEZ. NIWE and FOWIND used this approach to identify potential offshore wind zones with 36 GW off Gujarat and 35 GW off Tamil Nadu.
Written by
Esri India Marketing
