Abstract
Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) can assist local decision processes towards selecting renewable energy systems as it is able to manage qualitative data and offers opportunities to integrate knowledge from local stakeholders. However, little experience is available regarding practical applications of MCDA in real decision processes in communities on their path towards a renewable energy supply. Within the “Bioenergy-Region Ludwigsfelde” project, an MCDA evaluation has been applied to a small village on its way to becoming a “bioenergy village”. Here, MCDA has been combined with already established tools accompanying the process to becoming a “bioenergy village”, such as planning workshops, citizens’ meetings and best-practice trips. A comprehensive set of sustainability criteria was applied aimed at addressing the questions of local actors. An emphasis was placed on social criteria that comprise the perceived values of local impacts. In general, it was observed that MCDA provides many benefits for this application context. In particular, the group weighting using the SIMOS method demonstrated good results in the process. However, for real-world applications of MCDA, the challenge of data compilation in particular must be addressed.
Highlights
Renewable energy systems play an important role in the path towards sustainable development [1].In the European Union, a goal of 20% was agreed upon in 2008 as the gross final energy consumption to originate from renewable energy sources [1]
(In this article, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is used as an umbrella term for all of the different terms and methods within the field of multi-criteria decision analysis
The process towards the creation of a “bioenergy village” has been successfully reproduced in five villages near Lower Saxony [18]. Using evidence from this established process, we integrated the MCDA to evaluate the outcomes for sustainability using different scenarios: In order to introduce the concept of a “bioenergy village”, several meetings and events took place
Summary
Renewable energy systems play an important role in the path towards sustainable development [1]. Because of the different characteristics of the method, Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). (In this article, MCDA is used as an umbrella term for all of the different terms and methods within the field of multi-criteria decision analysis. Several different approaches to prepare a MCDA process are possible (see [4], [8], and [9] as examples) These generally include many common basic steps. Depending on the decision context, undergoing the process more than one time and adjusting for instance criteria, alternatives or weights can be useful. MCDA has been widely used for energy policy analysis, energy utility operations or environmental control and management [12] In general, those case studies are described from the perspective of MCDA in a research environment and not from the perspective of a real decision context [15]. The discussion explores the implementation of MCDA in that context and provides an ex-post analysis regarding the practice aspects
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