Type-2 neutrosophic number based multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) approach for offshore wind farm site selection in USA

Muhammet Deveci,Nuh Erdogan,Umit Cali,Joseph Stekli,Shuya Zhong

doi:10.1016/j.engappai.2021.104311

Abstract

The technical, logistical, and ecological challenges associated with offshore wind development necessitate an extensive site selection analysis. Technical parameters such as wind resource, logistical concerns such as distance to shore, and ecological considerations such as fisheries all must be evaluated and weighted, in many cases with incomplete or uncertain data. Making such a critical decision with severe potential economic and ecologic consequences requires a strong decision-making approach to ultimately guide the site selection process. This paper proposes a type-2 neutrosophic number (T2NN) fuzzy based multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model for offshore wind farm (OWF) site selection. This approach combines the advantages of neutrosophic numbers sets, which can utilize uncertain and incomplete information, with a multi-attributive border approximation area comparison that provides formulation flexibility and easy calculation. Further, this study develops and integrates a techno-economic model for OWFs in the decision-making. A case study is performed to evaluate and rank five proposed OWF sites off the coast of New Jersey. To validate the proposed model, a comparison against three alternative T2NN fuzzy based models is performed. It is demonstrated that the implemented model yields the same ranking order as the alternative approaches. Sensitivity analysis reveals that changing criteria weightings does not affect the ranking order.

Highlights

For the past two decades wind energy, primarily onshore, has been the world’s fastest growing renewable energy source (Deveci et al, 2020a)
The aim of this study is to develop a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model to evaluate and rank offshore wind farm (OWF) site proposals in New Jersey (NJ)’s offshore wind development pipeline for use by both policy makers and investors to validate or simplify their decisions
Each criterion and alternative OWF site were evaluated by a set of independent decision makers (DMs)

Summary

Introduction

For the past two decades wind energy, primarily onshore, has been the world’s fastest growing renewable energy source (Deveci et al, 2020a). Offshore wind offers increased capacity factors relative to onshore, reducing some power system integration challenges, and provides a renewable energy option for many coastal and island regions where siting onshore wind or solar photovoltaics is challenging due to land constraints. These factors, taken together, have driven exponential growth in recently constructed and planned offshore wind installations. The rapidly-growing offshore wind market in the U.S is driven primarily by state-level commitments and procurement goals, with total offshore wind procurement targets increasing three-fold from 2018 to 2019. Within the U.S, interest in offshore wind has been high in the densely populated coastal regions of New England and the Middle Atlantic, with states such as New Jersey (NJ) showing particular interest due to strong renewable energy policy but poor solar and onshore wind resource

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