@article{2019,title={DETERMINING THE POTENTIAL OF SOLAR POWER AND SUITABLE AREA FOR CONSTRUCTING SOLAR POWER PLANT IN HATAY PROVINCE},abstractNode={Energy production and consumption, which are the main parameters of developed countries, have begun to increase after industrial revolution and they also increase every passing day. Today fossil sources are used for energy production mostly. Because fossil energy sources cause environmental degradation and these sources are managed by certain countries, searching alternatives energy sources has become necessity. Especially, clear and renewable energy sources which accepted as environment friendly, become more desirable. In Turkey as a developing country rapidly, demand for renewable energy sources has increased recently due to increasing of energy requirement, trying to decrease the dependence of foreign sources, and providing the diversity of energy production. In this study, solar power potential of Turkey and Hatay province which is located southern part of country, is evaluated. The main purpose of study is to determine the suitable area for constructing the solar power plant in Hatay. In the study the suitable area is tried to determine by using Multicriteria Analysis in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). For this purpose 13 criteria (aspect, slope, distance to roads, distance to electricity transmission lines, distance to power substations, distance to settlements, distance to rivers, distance to lakes, distance to fault lines, distance to rock quarries, distance to route of migratory birds, soil types, vegetation cover) were specified. Each criterion has been handled as different layer separately, and reclassified by assigning grade with scale of 0-10 according to suitability. The suitable and alternative areas were determined and evaluated by overlaying the reclassified layers in the study area. As a result of study Turkey and Hatay have an important potential according to solar power. In the northern part of Hatay that called as Erzin volcanic region there has been 60 km2 area found as suitable region for solar power plant and it has been proposed in the study. Apart from this area several other areas have been determined as alternatives region and they have been evaluated. },author={Reşat GEÇEN},year={2019},journal={Turkish Studies-Social Sciences}}