Multi-Criteria Method for Sustainable Design of Energy Conversion Systems

Kathleen Mallard, Vincent Debusschere and Lauric Garbuio
Additional contact information
Kathleen Mallard: CNRS, Grenoble INP Institute of Engineering and Management, Université Grenoble Alpes, G2Elab, 38000 Grenoble, France
Vincent Debusschere: CNRS, Grenoble INP Institute of Engineering and Management, Université Grenoble Alpes, G2Elab, 38000 Grenoble, France
Lauric Garbuio: CNRS, Grenoble INP Institute of Engineering and Management, Université Grenoble Alpes, G2Elab, 38000 Grenoble, France

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 16, 1-18

Abstract: Energy production systems for isolated communities lacking national energy grids are, in many countries, associated with first energy access of rural or developing regions. Those communities require innovative design methods to select relevant solutions for sustainable developments in a context of continuously strengthening climate change conditions. The design of an innovative solution goes through multiple stages. After identifying opportunities, analyzing a context and identifying a problem, we are interested here in the process of imagining solutions and guiding reflections so that the resulting solutions are sustainable. Sustainability is analyzed from technical, economic, environmental and social angles. The two main visions for imagining solutions, the value proposition and the technical solution, are discussed. We are then developing a multi-criteria method of sustainable design to imagine the technical solution of an electricity production system in a context of first access to energy for isolated communities. This method serves as decision and discussion support between all stakeholders (community, decision makers, project managers) so that they collectively build a sustainable solution. As the exchanges progress, criteria from different fields meet and complement each other to allow the development of the specifications for the energy production solution which will be ultimately developed.

Keywords: sustainable design; decision support tool; first energy access (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (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)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/16/6513/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/16/6513/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:16:p:6513-:d:397989

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().