Selecting the optimal renewable energy using multi criteria decision making

Abstract

Renewable energies are well-known as one of the most important energy resources not only due to limited other energy resources, but also due to environmental problems associated with air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy project selection is a multi actors and sophisticated problem because it is a need to incorporate social, economic, technological, and environmental considerations. Multi criteria decision making (MCDM) methods are powerful tools to evaluate and rank the alternatives among a pool of alternatives and select the best one. COPRAS (COmplex PRoportional ASsessment) is an MCDM technique which determines the best alternative by calculating the ratio to the ideal solution and the negative ideal solution. On the other hand, analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is widely used in order to calculate the importance weights of evaluation criteria. In this paper an integrated COPRAS-AHP methodology is proposed to select the best renewable energy project. In order to validate the output of the proposed model, the model is compared with five MCDM tools. The results of this paper demonstrate the capability and effectiveness of the proposed model in selecting the most appropriate renewable energy option among the existing alternatives.

Keywords:

• renewable energy
• MCDM
• AHP
• COPRAS

JEL Classification:

• O13
• C02
• C44
• C54

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Abdolreza Yazdani-Chamzini

Abdolreza YAZDANI-CHAMZINI. Master of Science in the Department of Mining Engineering, research assistant of Tehran University, Tehran-Iran. Author of more than 46 research papers. In 2011, he graduated from the Science and Engineering Faculty at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran-Iran. His research interests include decision making, forecasting, modeling, and optimization.

Mohammad Majid Fouladgar

Mohammad Majid FOULADGAR. PhD student of future study in Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran-Iran. Author of 13 research papers. In 2007 he graduated from the science and engineering Faculty at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran-Iran. His research interests include decision support system, fuzzy logic, water resource, and forecasting.

Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas

Edmundas Kazimieras ZAVADSKAS. Prof., the Head of the Department of Construction Technology and Management at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania. PhD in Building Structures (1973). Dr Sc. (1987) in Building Technology and Management. A member of Lithuanian and several foreign Academies of Sciences. Doctore Honoris Causa from Poznan, Saint-Petersburg and Kiev universities. A member of international organizations; a member of steering and programme committees at many international conferences; a member of the editorial boards of several research journals; the author and co-author of more than 400 papers and a number of monographs in Lithuanian, English, German and Russian. Research interests: building technology and management, decision-making theory, automation in design and decision support systems.

S. Hamzeh Haji Moini

S. Hamzeh Haji MOINI. Master of Science of Project Management, research assistant of Fateh Research Group, Tehran-Iran. He is the author of 7 research papers. His interests include decision support system, portfolio selection, and artificial intelligence.