Solar-based renewable energy adoption is in its early stage in Nepal's power system. This study employs the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a robust MCDM technique, to assess site suitability for solar-powered EV charging stations along BP Highway in Gandaki Province. Criteria including solar radiation, slope, aspect, LULC and elevation were used for solar panel suitability, while distance from highway, distance from existing charging stations, slope, soil bulk density and LULC were used for EV station selection. A weighted overlay analysis generated the final suitability map with CR = 0.058, and the final combined index was computed as 0.5×Solar Panel + 0.5×EV Charging Station.
Nepal receives an average of 300 days of sunshine annually, with solar irradiance of 4.5–5.5 kWh/m²/day. The BP Highway - connecting Dhulikhel to Bardibas over 158km - is Nepal's most economically active corridor. Yet EV adoption faces a structural problem: there is no systematic, data-driven framework to locate charging stations.
Traditional internal combustion vehicles have dense petrol pump networks. EV users face range anxiety because the charging infrastructure is underdeveloped and not spatially optimized. This study addresses that gap using GIS and MCDM to identify where solar-powered EV charging is both viable and accessible.
The BP Highway spans 158km through Bagmati and Madhesh Province, centered around the Kavre, Sinduli, Ramechhap, and Motahari districts. A 2km buffer around the highway was used as the analysis extent. The route exhibits diverse topography - from Mahabharat hill regions to fertile valleys - with solar irradiance levels between 4.5–5.5 kWh/m²/day throughout.
Each criterion was independently reclassified into four suitability categories: Highly Suitable, Moderately Suitable, Low Suitable, Not Suitable. Two separate suitability analyses were run - one for Solar Panel placement and one for EV Charging Station siting.
Pairwise comparison matrices were constructed and validated with a Consistency Ratio (CR) of 0.058 for EV station and 0.08 for Solar panel (both below the 0.1 threshold).
ASF Data Search · 12.5m × 12.5m resolution
ArcGIS Solar Radiation Tool · Wh/yr/m²
Sentinel · ArcGIS Living Atlas · 10m×10m
ISRIC World Soil Information · kg/m³
Overpass Turbo (OpenStreetMap) · 158km total
Manual collection via web research → CSV → GIS
The final combined suitability index (0.5×Solar Panel + 0.5×EV Station) produced a comprehensive map of optimal sites. Field validation confirmed that highly suitable areas feature large open spaces with strong solar access, while unsuitable zones were predominantly dense built-up regions.
The study demonstrates that GIS + AHP can provide a reproducible, evidence-based framework for sustainable energy infrastructure siting - a methodology directly applicable to other highways across Nepal.