Research Method for Assessing the Potential of Solar Energy Source: Case Study in Thanh Hoa Province

  This research uses the GHI (Global Horizontal Irradiation Index) raster data source of solar radiation potential map developed by The World Bank Group and the land use map data, infrastructure in 2019 of Thanh Hoa province to calculate the solar radiation technical potential in Thanh Hoa province. In addition, GIS techniques are also applied to overlay thematic maps to determine the available solar energy development area according to the method of the Institute of Energy. The results show that the available solar energy development area is 54,621.15 ha, accounting for 5% of the province's natural area, the technical potential is 21,848.46 MWp. The well-developed regions are concentrated in the lowland and midland districts due to favorable conditions of land scale and infrastructure, less affected by natural disasters such as storms, floods and landslides. Regarding the method of determining technical potential, it is required to be more specific to identify available and exclusion areas with some types of land such as water surface, forest and paddy rice land.