Evaluation of renewable energy projects based on sustainability goals using a hybrid pythagorean fuzzy-based decision approach

Abstract

Due to the growth in energy demand and the need to pay attention to sustainable development, many developing countries face the challenge of making policies for growing sustainable energy. With attention to industrial expansion and population growth, Iran, a developing country, is confronting an energy shortage problem. Despite the appropriate capacity of renewable resources in Iran, due to the lack of proper planning for adopting renewable resources in Iran, these resources have a small share of the energy supply. This study aims to present a decision framework for assessing renewable energies in developing countries, in the case of Iran. In addition to technical aspects, sustainability aspects such as economic, social, and environmental factors are proposed to assess renewable sources in this work. The Best-Worst Method (BWM) and the Interval-Valued Pythagorean Fuzzy Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (IVPF-WASPAS) techniques are suggested to prioritize renewable sources. The findings indicated that solar energy was Iran's most suitable renewable resource. Also, the validation and sensitivity analysis confirmed the findings. This research provides a comprehensive perspective for policy-making and planning of sustainability in the energy industry.