An Analysis of the Renewable Energy technology Selection in the Southern Region of Bangladesh Using a Hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) Method

Bangladesh is a country of small char lands and islands. Most of these are out of national grid coverage. Therefore, renewable energy technology (RET) is the only solution for electrification. However, proper investigation and research are needed to select the most suitable renewable energy technology. In this study, focus is given on the southern region of the country to select the best RET. Based on the currently available technology and potentiality of the renewable energy resources in the country, five types of RETs are selected for evaluation. These are solar, wind, biomass to electricity, biogas to electricity and solar-wind-battery hybrid energy system. To evaluate the best RET, Multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDM) method is used where an integrated Entropy-EDAS (Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution) model is proposed to identify the best RET in the study area. At first, the key criteria and sub-criteria were selected to analyse five (5) types of RETs. These criteria were categorised as economic, technical, environmental, and socio-political. Additionally, 12 sub-criteria were selected under the umbrella of four main criteria. Then, Shannon's Entropy method was deployed to find the weights of the criteria and sub-criteria. Finally, a new MCDM method, named EDAS, was applied to select the best RET in the study area. The results revealed that the Solar-Wind-Battery hybrid energy system is the best option. The outcome of this study and the decision model might be applicable to other isolated areas in the country, particularly in the southern region of Bangladesh.