Assessment of solar photovoltaic technologies using multiple perspectives and hierarchical decision modeling: Manufacturers worldview

Abstract

The assessment of photovoltaic technologies using multiple perspectives such as social, technological, economic, environmental, and political (STEEP) have become increasingly important in the last several years. Each perspective is composed of multiple criteria with the social and political perspectives gaining more significance. A hierarchical decision model using expert judgment quantification was developed to provide the relative ranking of the criteria. Such modeling is effective in assessing technologies considering multiple competing perspectives and criteria. The model was operationalized via desirability functions for each criterion. The combined results provide scores for each technology and indicate in which criteria the technology needs improvement. In earlier research the electric utility worldview was considered to assess multiple photovoltaic technologies. In this paper the solar photovoltaic manufacturer worldview case study is presented.