An assessment of the implementation of renewable energy sources in the light of concerns over Chilean policy objectives

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the development of renewable energies in the electricity market in Chile has gained significant attention as a key alternative for energy sources diversification and meeting three key policy objectives: energy availability, environmental protection, and social-economic development. This study aims to assess various renewable energy sources in order to select suitable sources to accomplish the different policy goals in a country like Chile. For this purpose, a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) method is employed to evaluate the relative importance of policy objectives. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to build various different policy scenarios measuring the impact of variations on the current weights of the decision criteria. The results show that solar, wind, and small hydro are the preferred sources in the Chilean renewable energy portfolio, maximizing the objective of meeting the three policy goals at the same time.

KEYWORDS:

• Chile
• MCDA
• policy objectives
• renewable energy
• sensitivity analysis

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was funded by the Research Grant CONICYT/FONDAP/15110019.

Notes

¹ Other environmental impacts include the following factors: landscape impact, acoustic emissions, electromagnetic interferences, unpleasant odors, and microclimatic changes

Additional information

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was funded by the Research Grant CONICYT/FONDAP/15110019.