  A reliable tool for site-suitability assessment of solar power plants capable
to account for the sustainable development and protection of cultural and
biodiversity conservation areas is proposed. We present a novel Analytic
Hierarchy Process (AHP) based approach for the Multi-Decision Criteria Analysis
(MDCA) of SSI satellite retrieved data and local information sources, it within
a GIS platform tailored to fit the needs of energy stakeholders at Indonesia,
simultaneously ensuring the conservation of legally protected areas. This
imposes significant challenges due to the wide diversification of cultural,
natural, and ecological protected areas that need to be considered, in
landmarks that demand for high resolution imaging of surface solar irradiance
(SSI) within $\pm 4^{\circ}$ of the equator. To overcome these challenges, a
GIS spatial weighted overlay analysis for criteria layers such as climatology,
topography, electrical grid, and road infrastructure has been performed, it
based on the technical and economic feasibility for solar plants deployment
within three approximation schemes focused on their proximity to the existing
(i) power network, (ii) road infrastructure, and (iii) community settlements.
Here, we focused on the West Kalimantan Province of Borneo Island (WKP), it
mainly due to its possibility of onshore inter-connectivity and energy share
with Malaysia and Brunei, and the high national and international importance
that brings forward the protection of the biodiversity of Borneo. It has been
found that the optimal location of PV plants can be reduced to just $0.03\%$
($46.60~km^{2}$) and $0.07\%$ ($108.58~{km}^{2}$) of WKP, in what we report as
the best-suitable conditions out of the $33.05\%$ exploitable area found after
the exclusion of conservation areas. This corresponds to ...
