Multi-criteria decision making for PV deployment on a multinational level

Photovoltaic (PV) system decision making techniques have traditionally been based on a single economic criterion. However, to properly address global and regional targets for green energy economy, it is necessary to consider a myriad of criteria including environmental implications. A global range of existing or emerging financial support policies should be considered, presenting a complex mathematical problem across several stakeholders to decide where, what and when to invest. This paper presents a multi-criteria framework to evaluate the impact of different financial support policies on their attractiveness for domestic PV systems deployment on a multinational level. The paper also reviews historic cumulative PV installation under certain studied financial policies, and brings the framework output into this discussion related to evident effectiveness of these policies. The paper highlights the policies that have the potential to encourage rapid deployment of PV systems which in turn may facilitate sufficient investments to several stakeholders. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.