Implementing MCDM Techniques for Ranking Renewable Energy Projects under Fuzzy Environment: A Case Study

Energy requirements have increased dramatically due to industrialization, economic, and population growth. To meet this demand, and solve its challenges, such as climate change, renewable energies do play an important role. This research work aims at selecting the best renewable energy projects using a hybrid decision-making framework from environmental, economic, technical, and social aspects at a sub-national level. In this regard, a new hybrid fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making model is deployed in which Vise Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje, distance from average solution, and additive ratio assessment methods are used. In addition, for the weighing of criteria, Fuzzy Shannon’s entropy is used. Furthermore, the North Khorasan province is nominated as a sub-national study area. The results show that among 30 sub-criteria, social acceptance, net-presented cost, and noise were the top three with weights of 0.1105, 0.1003, and 0.0988, respectively. Solar energy projects also accomplished high ranks with an overall score of roughly 0.22. After that, small hydropower got second place with a score of 0.187. Moreover, the ranking of cities indicates that Jajarm was the most suitable location for implementing renewable energy development with a score of 0.14. Finally, sensitivity analysis was carried out to show that the mathematical model possessed good robustness.