Title: Development of a best-worst method based MCDM approach for solar power plant location selection: an application to Tunceli, Turkey

Authors: Yunus Emre Aykac; Melih Yucesan; Muhammet Gul

Addresses: Department of Engineering Management, Munzur University, Tunceli, Turkey ' Department of Emergency Aid and Disaster Management, Munzur University, Tunceli, Turkey ' School of Transportation and Logistics, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract: Solar energy stands out with its increasing potential in the world. The decision to choose the location of a solar power plant is very important due to the investment return. In this study, a solar power plant site selection for Tunceli, Turkey is studied with a two-stage multi-criteria decision-making approach. In the first stage, the importance levels of the determined nine factors are obtained by the best-worst method (BWM). In the second stage, the most appropriate site is selected among the eight districts of Tunceli. As a result of the first stage, solar and fault line emerged as the most and least important factor, respectively. The second stage showed that Pertek district is the most suitable place. A comparative framework has been created including five different MCDM methods, which strengthens the final decision's accuracy and reveals whether each method's results are correlated.

Keywords: solar energy; power plant location; multi-criteria decision-making; best-worst method; BWM; Tunceli; Turkey.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCDM.2023.134927

International Journal of Multicriteria Decision Making, 2023 Vol.9 No.4, pp.322 - 350

Accepted: 13 Jan 2023
Published online: 21 Nov 2023 *

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