Multi-criteria evaluation of renewable energy alternatives for electricity generation in a residential building

Abstract

The residential sector is well known to be one of the main energy consumers worldwide. The purpose of this study is to select the best renewable energy alternatives for electricity generation in a residential building by using a new integrated fuzzy multi-criteria group decision-making method. In renewable energy decision-making problems, the preferences of experts and decision-makers are generally uncertain. Furthermore, it is challenging to quantify the reel performance of renewable energy alternatives using a set of exact values. Fuzzy logic is commonly applied to deal with those uncertainties.The method proposed in this paper combines different methods. First, the Delphi method is used in order to select a preliminary set of renewable energy alternatives for electricity generation as well as a preliminary set of criteria (economic, environmental, social, etc.). Then, the questionnaire is used to study the renewable energy alternatives preferences of the residents of the residential building’. Later, the FAHP (Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process) is implemented to obtain the weighs of the criteria taking into consideration uncertainties in expert's judgments. Finally, the FPROMETHEE (Fuzzy Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation) global ranking is performed in order to get a complete ranking of the renewable energy alternatives taking into account uncertainties related to the alternatives' evaluations.The originality of this paper comes from the application of the proposed integrated Delphi- FAHP- FPROMETHEE methodology for the selection of the best renewable energy alternatives for electricity generation in a residential building. A case study has validated the effectiveness and the applicability of the proposed method. The results reveal that the proposed integrated method helps to formulate the problem and is particularly effective in handling uncertain data. It facilitates the selection of the best renewable energy alternatives in a manner that is participatory, comprehensive, robust, and reliable.