Green energy sources selection for sustainable energy planning using multi-criteria decision-making approach

Abstract

The objective of this research is to select the optimum green energy sources (GES) for sustainable energy planning from a given set of alternatives. This study proposes a hybrid model based on SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats) and an integrated Entropy-Technique for Order of preference by Similarity to Ideal solution (TOPSIS) method for optimal GES. SWOT analysis is used to characterize the corresponding criterion of GES alternative. The information collected from the various energy sources related to different criteria for assessing the best alternative is always imprecise in nature. Thus, to reduce the impreciseness in data, entropy method is used, which extracts the precise weight from the available information. Again, TOPSIS method is applied to appraise the relative closeness to the ideal solution. The result shows that solar-photovoltaic is the most suitable sustainable GES, having highest score value evaluated by the integrated methodology. Thereafter, energy satisfaction index shows the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed integrated methodology.