Multi-Criteria Decision Making for Sustainability of Renewable Energy System of Nepal

Abstract

This paper presents an application of Analytic Hierarchy Process for evaluation of the sustainability of renewable energy sources and technology in context of Nepal. Solar energy, biogas, micro hydropower and grid technology have been evaluated based on selected criteria like technical (efficiency and reliability), economic (initial investment, operation & maintenance cost and Benefits), environmental (CO₂ emission, land requirement, impact on ecosystem) and social (social acceptability, job creation, social benefits). The importance weights of the criteria and sub-criteria as well as preferential ranking of options have been determined by eliciting expert judgment through pairwise comparisons. The findings show that within the technological constraints, grid technology is the most preferred option followed by micro hydropower and Solar. Biomass is the least preferred sustainable system of Nepal. The finding also shows that technical criteria (33%) is the most important criteria for renewable energy followed by financial (27%), Environmental (22%) and social (18%) being the least. In context of Nepal, Financial criteria has more priority than the environment by the experts for financial sustainability of renewable energy as most of the projects are one time funded by government or donor agencies. The proposed evaluation will help to select the most suitable alternative assisting policy makers to form opinion on sustainability of considered energy systems and make decisions on optimum alternative. However, as time progresses and technology improves, the preferential ranking might change.

KEYWORDS: Analytical Heirarchy Process, Sustainability, Renewable Energy, Pairwise Comparison, Alternatives