A Multi-Criteria Approach to Sustainable Energy Management Evaluation Focusing on Renewable Energy Sources

Abstract

Reliable assessment of countries’ energy policy implementation across multiple dimensions and sectors requires appropriate tools and methods. Monitoring the situation of countries in terms of renewable energy sources (RES) makes it possible to rank them and assess their progress. Multi-criteria decision analysis methods (MCDA) are valuable in this field because they allow considering multiple conficting criteria and prioritizing according to the preferences given by decision-makers. This work presents the application of two MCDA methods to assess the sustainable use of RES in different sectors in 30 European countries. The applied methods, which are COmbinative Distance-based ASsessment (CODAS) and Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS), include in their algorithms additional adjustable parameters which enable performing sensitivity analysis of the evaluated alternatives. In this way, it is possible to determine the stability of the considered solutions in the rankings. The study identified the best-ranked countries regarding sustainable RES usage, including the Nordic countries such as Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Finland. In addition to the Nordic countries, Austria is also among the best-scored countries.