Title: Rationalising photovoltaic energy investments with multicriteria decision analysis: a Greek case study

Authors: Pelopidas Siskos, Socrates Houridis

Addresses: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Heroon Polytechniou 9, Polytechnioupoli Zografou, 15780 Athens, Greece. ' Department of Informatics, University of Piraeus, 80, Karaoli and Dimitriou Str., 18534 Piraeus, Greece

Abstract: During the last years, the global market of renewable energy resources is in a continuous growth. This paper deals with the decision making problem of a specific investor who is willing to invest in the development of a small photovoltaic park, in the Greek PV Market. The main objective of this paper is to structure this specific problem as a multicriteria decision problem. A set of eight alternative contractor companies, responsible for studying and manufacturing the PV system is identified and evaluated on 12 criteria which are grouped in three categories: company profile, financial and technical aspects of the submitted proposals. The paper outlines the implementation of the ELECTRE I multicriteria method in order to support the investor in choosing the best alternative. Although the method does not provide initially a single choice, a robustness analysis of the method follows so as the best available alternative to be selected.

Keywords: multicriteria analysis; sustainable energy planning; photovoltaic energy; decision support systems; DSS; ELECTRE; multicriteria decision making; MCDM; renewable energy; Greece; investment decisions; solar energy; solar power.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCDM.2011.039587

International Journal of Multicriteria Decision Making, 2011 Vol.1 No.2, pp.205 - 229

Published online: 29 Nov 2014 *

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