Site selection decision framework for photovoltaic hydrogen production project using BWM-CRITIC-MABAC: A case study in Zhangjiakou

Abstract Hydrogen production by photovoltaic power generation can not only effectively alleviate the problem of high cost of electrolysis water by making full use of light resources, but also is an efficient, clean and carbon-reducing way to produce hydrogen. The purpose of this paper is to provide a practical model for site selection decision of photovoltaic hydrogen production project (PVHPP) based on multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method, and take Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province as an example for analysis. Firstly, a set of evaluation criteria system including natural factors, economic factors, technical factors, social factors and environmental factors is constructed. Secondly, probabilistic hesitation fuzzy linguistic term set (PHFLTS) and trapezoidal interval type-2 fuzzy set (TIT2FS) are combined to describe the information of qualitative criteria. Then, the subjective and objective weights are calculated by using best-worst method (BWM) and criteria importance through intercriteria correlation (CRITIC), and the comprehensive weights are obtained by using the idea of game theory. The multi-attribute boundary approximation regional comparison (MABAC) method is then used to sort the alternative plant sites. The ranking results show that A2 (Chongli District) performs the best, and A1 (Qiaodong District) is the second best. Finally, taking Zhangjiakou as an example, sensitivity analysis and comparative analysis are carried out to verify the validity and reliability of the model.