Sustainability evaluation of photovoltaic poverty alleviation projects using an integrated MCDM method: A case study in Guangxi, China

Abstract

Photovoltaic poverty alleviation project (PPAP) is initiated to reduce rural poverty and pursue cleaner production, but the lack of reasonable sustainability evaluation has become a challenge. This study evaluates the sustainability of PPAP in order to improve the poverty alleviation performance and efficiency considering an integrated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method combining benefits, opportunities, costs, risks (BOCR) theory, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), interval type-2 fuzzy numbers (IT2FNs), and technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS). First of all, this paper identifies 16 criteria based on BOCR theory from the perspectives of benefits, opportunities, costs, risks and constructs the criteria system. Second, an integrated BOCR-AHP-IT2FTOPSIS method is proposed and applied in processing ambiguous information and comprehensive sustainability evaluation. Third, an empirical case in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China, a comparative analysis and a sensitivity analysis are used to rank the alternative PPAPs and verify the effectiveness and robustness of proposed method. The results show that the integrated MCDM method is capable to evaluate and rank the sustainability levels of PPAPs with the contribution of BOCR theory-based criteria system. The work offers a novel sustainability evaluation angle for PPAPs and has potential applications in providing understandings and making decisions.