Abstract

     The rapid increase in the world population along with the rising trend of global economic growth triggers serious problems related to energy consumption. In this regard, a comprehensive analysis of the current and potential energy situation in the light of demographic trends, main economic indicators, technical conditions, social and environmental concerns has become a significant issue for developing well-planned global and regional energy strategies. In this study, a multi-objective decision-making model is constructed for renewable energy planning to determine the most appropriate resource diversity for Turkey by focusing on five renewable energy sources, namely solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass. There are four objective functions presented in the proposed multi-objective model including maximization of the technical score of regions, maximization of the job creation, maximization of the environmental score, and minimization of the cost. As a solution methodology, a two-phase fuzzy goal programming approach is performed. The proposed model is solved using LINGO software as a comprehensive solver for model optimization. The appropriateness of the proposed method is analyzed by comparing it with other multi-objective methods. Results reveal that the majority of the energy demand should be met via solar and hydroelectric energies for the satisfaction of the indicated objectives.

Introduction

     The ongoing growth in the world population and the global economic development of countries together with the effects of industrialization, urbanization, and technological developments, have caused a dramatic increase in the amount of resource consumption. In the meantime, the level of consumption, the most inevitable of which is the need for energy, maintains its rise in many ways despite the fact that the world’s fossil resources are finite and rapidly depleting. Since the world already has limited reserves in terms of fossil fuel resources, and these resources are not evenly distributed between countries, it is not possible to meet the energy demand with the existing fossil resources in the short term. Moreover, the use of fossil fuels causes damage to the environment and living conditions, especially human health, animal life, and nature. This situation is also considered as another threat. Hence, it seems inevitable that the energy problem will be one of the major challenges humanity must deal with in the short term since energy is considered one of the most important subjects on the agenda of policymakers. In these circumstances, decision-makers have started to find out alternative sources to meet the energy needs. Energy sources in the renewable form are considered fundamental primary sources of alternative energy that require strategic planning in terms of sustainable development. Therefore, reducing the use of fossil resources and replacing them with renewable energy sources in a controlled manner are both critical for energy sustainability and vital for energy planning in the long term.

Conclusion

     Real-world problems in planning activities require consideration of multiple conflicting objectives simultaneously. In recent years, renewable energy planning has become a very important issue, which poses itself as a multi-objective problem due to its impact on economic, social, and environmental concerns. As the number of options increases, it becomes more difficult for decision-makers to determine specific renewable energy technology among alternatives [103]. Therefore, the proposed model for the prioritization of renewable energy sources based on twenty-one electricity distribution zones in Turkey has been developed in a multi-objective structure.

     The advantage of the proposed multi-objective model is that it can be further modified by integrating particular considerations such as national renewable energy targets and local incentive support schemes. In this way, the model enables the evaluation of several objectives simultaneously and better accommodates various parameters together in order to contribute to the process of determining the most suitable renewable energy technologies in future energy planning. Thus, this study presents a framework that provides a useful roadmap for decision-makers in the development and implementation of sustainable energy plans by analyzing renewable energy resources from a regional perspective to utilize energy potential efficiently. In addition, another contribution made through this study is the use of efficient solution methods comparatively in multi-objective analysis, which allows decision-makers to decide on the most appropriate evaluation method in the planning process. Hence, the two-phase fuzzy goal programming method is utilized for the evaluation procedures in comparison with three other multi-objective methods including lexicographic optimization, goal programming with absolute deviation, and goal programming with percentage deviation.