A Study on the Site Selection of Offshore Photovoltaics in the Northwest Pacific Coastal Waters Based on GIS and Fuzzy-AHP

The scarcity of land resources has become a bottleneck restricting the development of photovoltaic (PV) energy, and it is imperative to expand PV layout into the ocean. However, existing studies lack a refined site selection framework for large-scale sea areas. This study takes the Northwest Pacific coastal waters as the research area and constructs a three-stage evaluation framework for the suitability of offshore PV site selection, which includes “resource potential–spatial exclusion–multi-criteria assessment”. The results show that the theoretical power generation potential is generally “higher in the south and lower in the north”, with some deviations in local areas due to differences in temperature and wind speed. Only 4.3% of the sea area is feasible for development. The high-suitability areas are concentrated in the southeast coast of Vietnam and the northwest side of Taiwan Island. The South China Sea has superior development potential, while the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea are relatively less suitable. This study generates the first offshore PV site selection map covering the research area, providing a scientific basis for the formulation of differentiated development strategies for regional offshore PV. It has important practical value for promoting the sustainable development of blue energy.