Selection of Optimal Renewable Energy Resources in Uncertain Environment Using ARAS-Z Methodology

In the modern era of globalization, an alarming increment in energy consumption is perceived all over the world which results in the scarcity of primary energy resources in the near future. Due to expeditious economic growth and increasing population, many countries are planning to explore existing Renewable Energy (RE) sources to fulfill increasing energy demand. Selection of suitable alternative RE must be addressed in multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem because it involves multiple criteria which are conflicting in nature. This paper proposes an integrated method which is a combination of Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS) method and Z-numbers. The proposed method namely ARAS-Z, Z-number is used to consider the degree of self-confidence along with the fuzzy number to handle the uncertainty involved in the human judgment used in the evaluation of criteria weights. ARAS is applied for the assessment and prioritization of feasible alternative RE sources based on utility degree. A comparative analysis of the proposed method is done with other MCDM methodologies for checking the effectiveness and capability of the proposed methodology.