Applications of multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) Methods in Renewable Energy Development: A Review

Renewable energies are noticeably developing due to their various advantages such as low greenhouse gases emission, availability and their reducing cost trend. In order to achieve the favorable objectives in energy projects, it is crucial to consider all the related parameters affecting the decision making. Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods are reliable and efficient tool for policy making and achieving the most appropriate solution. These approaches consider the influential factors and their relative importance in prioritizing the alternatives. Since the outcome of the MCDM approaches depend on the employed algorithm and the used criteria, this article focuses on the studies related to the applications of these methods in renewable energy technology selection. The aim of the present paper is extracting the criteria which are necessary to be used in decision making for renewable energy systems. In addition, the approaches employed for improving the performance of MCDM methods as decision making aids are represented. According to this review study, technical, economic and environmental criteria are utilized in the majority of decision making researches. Moreover, some of the studies have considered other criteria such as social and risk to achieve more reliable decision. Some ideas are represented in the reviewed researches such as integrating different methods and using fuzzy sets, instead of crisp sets, to improve the performance of the MCDM methods and reduce the uncertainties.