A Multicriteria Decision-Making Model for the Selection of Suitable Renewable Energy Sources

• Published in: Mathematics (Basel) Vol. 9; no. 12; p. 1318
• Main Authors: Wang, Chia-Nan, Kao, Jui-Chung, Wang, Yen-Hui, Nguyen, Van Thanh, Nguyen, Viet Tinh, Husain, Syed Tam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2021
• Subjects: Agricultural production; Alternative energy sources; Alternative fuels; Analytic hierarchy process; Biomass; Biomass energy; By products; Climate change; Decision analysis; Decision making; Depletion; Economic forecasting; Electricity; Electricity distribution; Emissions; Energy industry; Energy resources; Environmental impact; Fossil fuels; Geographic information systems; Hydroelectric plants; Industrial plant emissions; Landfill; Mathematics; MCDM; Multiple criterion; renewable energy; Renewable energy sources; Renewable resources; Site selection; Solar energy; solid waste energy; Sustainability; wind energy; Wind power; Poland; Afghanistan; Vietnam
• ISSN: 2227-7390; 2227-7390
• DOI: 10.3390/math9121318

With the expansion of its industrial and manufacturing sectors, with the goal of positioning Vietnam as the world’s new production hub, Vietnam is forecast to face a surge in energy demand. Today, the main source of energy of Vietnam is fossil fuels, which are not environmentally friendly and are rapidly depleting. The speed of extraction and consumption of fossil fuels is too fast, causing them to become increasingly scarce and gradually depleted. Renewable energy options, such as solar, wind, hydro electrical, and biomass, can be considered as sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels. However, to ensure the effectiveness of renewable energy development initiatives, technological, economic, and environmental must be taken in consideration when choosing a suitable renewable energy resource. In this research, the authors present a multi-criteria decision-making model (MCDM) implementing the grey analytic hierarchy process (G-AHP) method and the weighted aggregates sum product assessment (WASPAS) method for the selection of optimal renewable energy sources for the energy sector of Vietnam. The results of the proposed model have determined that solar energy is the optimal source of renewable energy with a performance score of 0.8822, followed by wind (0.8766), biomass (0.8488), and solid waste energy (0.8135) based on the calculations of the aforementioned methods.