DSS for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Development

Nowadays, decision makers and stakeholders more and more require information on the effectiveness to exploit renewable energy sources. Methods and tools are more and more required to support their decisions as regards renewable power plant installations both from the choice of the proper location and from the choice of the proper technology viewpoints. This book provides an overall methodology to evaluate the sustainability of a WPP in specific sites according to a three-fold model: the wind model, the WPP model, and the cost/benefit evaluation. The book proposes an environmental decision support system for the sustainable design of wind power plants both in terms of the site selection over a regional territory and of the optimal technology to be installed. Optimal control problems for real time operational management, as well as an artificial neural network model for solar potential analysis are presented. This book enables researchers, engineers, private investors and public policy-makers to access the technical, economical and environmental potential for large-scale investments in wind and solar technologies.