A Linguistic Decision Support Model towards the Promotion of Renewable Energy

Abstract

In the pursuit of energy market restructure to sustainable forms of development, governments have at their disposal an increasingly diverse mix of renewable energy sources options. Indeed, renewable energy sources can be seen as a way to reduce carbon emissions, decrease fossil fuel imports, and meet other energy policy objectives. However, appraising renewable energy sources options is a really complex task, taking into consideration the imprecision and subjectivity of the related information. The main scope of this article is to present a transparent and flexible multiple criteria decision support model, based on TOPSIS extension, using the 2-tuple representation. This model aims to assist the energy actors for appraising renewable energy sources options in terms of their contribution to the energy policy objectives, using linguistic variables. Moreover, the application of the proposed model's software realization to a number of renewable energy sources options of the Greek energy market is presented and discussed.