Multi-Criterion Macro-Siting Analysis of Offshore Wind Farm Potential in Sweden.

Sammanfattning: Sweden has a great potential for offshore wind energy production. As technology develops and policies change, construction of offshore wind farms in the country is likely to increase. The presented methodology is to apply MCDM and AHP methods in a GIS to produce an evaluation map of potential sites for offshore wind energy production.  The aim of this thesis was to determine what data is relevant and needed to translate Swedish and international standards and regulations regarding offshore wind farm siting into one or more layers of GIS data within the exclusive economic zone of Sweden. Furthermore the locations of the existing Areas of National Interests for offshore wind energy production have been evaluated using the evaluation map. The evaluation map has been obtained using several exclusionary criteria and buffer distances as well as four evaluation criteria. In addition, the results of this study have been used to calculate a potential net annual energy production for offshore wind energy in Sweden. The analysis considers some of the social, technical and environmental constraints present in offshore wind farm siting. The exclusion, buffer and evaluation criteria were determined in the initial literature review of previous studies on the topic. Datasets were collected from several different open online resources and Swedish government agencies, the analysis was performed using the QGIS software. To assess the results, the resulting evaluation map has been classified into four different categories: poor, average, good and excellent. The analysis shows that it is possible to translate Swedish and international standards into one layer of GIS data. Furthermore the results of this study show that 52% of the defined Areas of National Interest for offshore wind energy production should not be considered for wind farm siting according to the exclusion constraints, additionally only 19% of the Areas of National Interest for offshore wind energy production are classified as good or excellent. In contrast, 20.3% of the entire study area is deemed to be suitable for offshore wind farm siting, out of which 62.7% is classified as good or excellent. The potential net annual energy production has been estimated to be 56.1 TWh annually within the Areas of National Interest for offshore wind energy production and 915.3 TWh annually within the entire study area.