Comparative Analysis of Five Widely-Used Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods to Evaluate Clean Energy Technologies: A Case Study

Saeed Khojaste Effatpanah, Mohammad Hossein Ahmadi, Pasura Aungkulanon, Akbar Maleki, Milad Sadeghzadeh, Mohsen Sharifpur and Lingen Chen
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Saeed Khojaste Effatpanah: Faculty of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood 3619995161, Iran
Mohammad Hossein Ahmadi: Faculty of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood 3619995161, Iran
Pasura Aungkulanon: Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok, Bangkok 10800, Thailand
Akbar Maleki: Faculty of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood 3619995161, Iran
Milad Sadeghzadeh: Renewable Energy and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Tehran, Tehran 14399571, Iran
Mohsen Sharifpur: Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa
Lingen Chen: Institute of Thermal Science and Power Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430205, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-33

Abstract: Over the last decade, the total primary energy consumption has increased from 479 × 10 15 BTU in 2010 to 528 × 10 15 BTU in 2020. To address this ever-increasing energy demand, as well as prevent environmental pollution, clean energies are presented as a potential solution. In this regard, evaluating and selecting the most appropriate clean energy solution for a specific area is of particular importance. Therefore, in this study, a comparative analysis in Jiangsu province in China was performed by describing and implementing five prominent multi-criteria decision-making methods in the field of energy technology selection, including SAW, TOPSIS, ELECTRE, VIKOR, and COPRAS. The decision problem here consists of four clean energy options, including solar photovoltaic, wind, nuclear, and biomass, which have been evaluated by twelve basic and important criteria for ranking clean energy options. The obtained results, according to all five MCDM methods, indicate that solar photovoltaic was the optimal option in this study, followed by wind energy. The nuclear and biomass options placed third and fourth, respectively, except in the ELECTRE method ranking, in which both options scored the same and thus neither was superior. Finally, by conducting a comprehensive two-stage sensitivity analysis, in the first stage, it was found that changes in the weights of land use and water consumption criteria had the greatest impact on the performance of options, among which biomass and nuclear showed high sensitivity to variations in criteria weights. In the second stage, by defining five scenarios, the ranking of options was evaluated from different aspects so that the decision maker/organization would be able to make appropriate decisions in different situations.

Keywords: clean energy; multi-criteria decision-making; comparative analysis; SAW; TOPSIS; ELECTRE; VIKOR; COPRAS; sensitivity analysis; Jiangsu province (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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