Sustainability Assessment of Renewable and Conventional Energy Sources in India Using Fuzzy Integrated AHP-WASPAS Approach

Abstract

In this paper, various energy sources for sustainable development of the energy sector in India are evaluated from multiple sustainability factors. A fuzzy integrated analytical hierarchy process (AHP) -- weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method has been developed for the evaluation and assessment of these sources. Thermal, gas, nuclear, solar, wind, biomass, and hydro energy options are used as alternatives in the present study. Initially, the fuzzy AHP method is applied to determine the weights of decision criteria, and fuzzy WASPAS is applied to prioritize sustainable energy (SE) alternatives. Subsequently, the output of the proposed model is validated by a two-step validation process: (i) fuzzy AHP integrated MCDM approaches, and (ii) Best-Worst Method (BWM) integrated fuzzy WASPAS approach. The developed decision support model will help the decision- makers to acquire sufficient confidence in evaluating energy sources for sustainable development of the energy sector in India.