Utilizing Spatial Multi-criteria Analysis to Determine Optimal Sites for Green Hydrogen Infrastructure Deployment

Green hydrogen has emerged as a promising solution to tackle the challenges of urban regional planning and energy resilience. The production and use of hydrogen as a renewable energy carrier can play a critical part in reaching these objectives as cities worldwide work to lower their carbon footprint. The main challenge is to identify the most suitable areas for the Green Hydrogen Infrastructure (GHI) location. Several criteria are essential to select these areas to ensure efficient distribution and accessibility. This paper proposes a spatial multi- criteria analysis integrating the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method in the Geographic Information System (GIS) to identify the most suitable locations for hydrogen infrastructure. This approach considers multiple criteria, such as demand, accessibility, environmental impact, and cost. In addition, three different scenarios were analyzed, emphasizing the technical, economic, and environmental criteria. The final result saw the comparison of three different land suitability maps to identify the best sites for plant placement. The GIS component allows for spatial analysis, making it possible to visualize and analyze the spatial relationships between potential locations and other relevant factors. The method is applied to an energy-intensive industry in Matera municipality (Italy). This approach offers suggestions on how urban planners, decision-makers, and other stakeholders may help green hydrogen become developed and used as a sustainable energy source. This research claims that green hydrogen could significantly improve energy resilience in the face of climate change and other global concerns while transforming energy systems.