Using the PROSA Method in Offshore Wind Farm Location Problems

Paweł Ziemba, Jarosław Wątróbski, Magdalena Zioło and Artur Karczmarczyk
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Paweł Ziemba: Faculty of Technology, The Jacob of Paradies University, Teatralna 25, 66-400 Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland
Jarosław Wątróbski: Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Szczecin, Mickiewicza 64, 71-101 Szczecin, Poland
Magdalena Zioło: Faculty of Management and Economics of Services, University of Szczecin, Cukrowa 8, 71-004 Szczecin, Poland
Artur Karczmarczyk: Faculty of Computer Science, West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Żołnierska 49, 71-210 Szczecin, Poland

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-20

Abstract: Wind is the most used renewable energy source (RES) in the European Union and Poland. Due to the legal changes in the scope of RES in Poland, there are plans to develop offshore wind farms at the expense of onshore ones. On the other hand, the success of an offshore wind farm is primarily determined by its location. Therefore, the aim of this study is to select offshore wind farm locations in Poland, based on sustainability assessment, which is an inherent aspect of RES decision-making issues. To accomplish the objectives of this research, PROSA (PROMETHEE for Sustainability Assessment) method, a new multi-criteria method is proposed. Like PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment Evaluation), PROSA is transparent for decision makers and is easy to use; moreover, it provides the analytical tools available in PROMETHEE, i.e., the sensitivity and GAIA (Geometrical Analysis for Interactive Assistance) analyses. However, PROSA is characterized by a lower degree of criteria compensation than PROMETHEE. Thus, it adheres in a higher degree to the strong sustainability paradigm. The study also compared the solutions of the decision problem obtained with the use of PROSA and PROMETHEE methods. The compared methods demonstrated a high concurrence of the recommended decision-making variant of location selection, from methodological and practical points of view. At the same time, the conducted research allowed to confirm that the PROSA method recommends more sustainable decision-making variants, and that the ranking it builds is less sensitive to changes in criteria weights. Therefore, it is more stable than the PROMETHEE-based ranking.

Keywords: sustainability assessment; strong sustainability; wind energy; offshore; multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA); PROSA; PROMETHEE; GAIA; sensitivity analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

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