Abstract
The hybrid energy system (HES) has attracted more and more attention since it can not only achieve multi-energy supply but realize cascade utilization of energy resources. However, the performances of the HES in relation to economic, environmental, social, and technological aspects are rarely studied. Therefore, this paper tries to fill this research gap to evaluate the sustainability performance of an HES. First, an evaluation criteria system is established based on a literature review. After that, the group analytic hierarchy process (GAHP) technique is used to obtain the importance weights of these criteria. Later, the sustainability performance of the HES is calculated through an improved fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) approach based on a cloud model. The applicability of this approach is demonstrated by a real case study in Zhejiang province, China. Finally, the sensitivity analysis results reveal that the overall consequence is that the performance of an HES is robust when the criteria weight is floating within a certain range (−30–30%), and the comparative analysis with the traditional FSE also reveals that the proposed approach is superior.
Highlights
Many countries have recognized that relying on one or two kinds of energy sources is not conducive to sustainable development [1,2,3]
Establishing a reasonable evaluation criteria system is crucial to the sustainability performance evaluation of an hybrid energy system (HES)
This paper evaluates the performance of an HES from the sustainability perspective by using an integrated approach consisting of a group analytic hierarchy process (GAHP) and cloud-based fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE)
Summary
Many countries have recognized that relying on one or two kinds of energy sources is not conducive to sustainable development [1,2,3]. In 2001, the United States put forward an HES development plan to promote the application of distributed energy and combined heating and power (CHP) technologies and to increase the proportion of clean energy use [5]. Canada regards the HES as an important supporting technology for achieving its emission reduction targets by 2050 [6]. Japan has become the first Asian country to carry out HES research because of its heavy dependence on imports of energy; it hopes to ease the pressure of its energy supply through technological innovation in this field [7].
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