Multicriterial Evaluation of Renewable Energy Expansion Projects at Municipal Level for the Available Biomass Potential

Lucas Blickwedel, Laura Stößel, Ralf Schelenz and Georg Jacobs
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Lucas Blickwedel: Chair for Wind Power Drives, RWTH Aachen University, Campus-Boulevard 61, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Laura Stößel: Chair for Wind Power Drives, RWTH Aachen University, Campus-Boulevard 61, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Ralf Schelenz: Chair for Wind Power Drives, RWTH Aachen University, Campus-Boulevard 61, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Georg Jacobs: Institute for Machine Elements and System Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Schinkelstraße 10, 52062 Aachen, Germany

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 23, 1-17

Abstract: To reduce emissions in the energy sector and reach worldwide climate goals, further expansion of renewable energy sources (RES) is inevitable. Local opposition has increased in recent years, resulting in the need for more consideration of acceptance issues in the planning process of RES projects. To fill this gap, a method is introduced to consider the dimension of social acceptance in a holistic approach and at an early project stage. In a two-step procedure, a municipal interest profile is created, followed by an examination of possible expansion projects based on the municipal profile. Both hard and soft characteristics of a given project are assessed in combination. Using the example of two potential scenarios for biomass expansion in a given municipality in Germany, the methodology is put to the test. The results show that with the new method House of municipal Energy (HomE), the interest profile of a municipality can be quantified in a comprehensible and transparent way. It is further shown that, depending on the initial objective function of the municipality, different expansion scenarios can be advantageous. In the examined case, the larger biogas plant achieves a higher utility value, since a clearly higher local added value can be generated. A smaller plant, which is only operated with waste materials, is preferable with regard to the required area and lower environmental impact. However, the advantages of the larger plant outweigh those of the smaller plant for the investigated example.

Keywords: utility value analysis; AHP; multicriteria decision analysis; potential model; renewable energy system (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: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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