Sustainable site selection for photovoltaic power plant: An integrated approach based on prospect theory

Site selection is one of the critical steps in building photovoltaic power plants which influences electricity-generating capacity and socio-economic benefits in the future. It needs to consider many factors in site selection, such as climate, geology, and social acceptance, etc. Thus, photovoltaic power plants site selection is a complex problem of multiple-criteria decision-making. However, most of the previous studies consider less about the subjectivity and vagueness of decision-making information and assume that decision makers are totally rational without considering their psychological factors. To deal with the problem, a novel integrated method based on variable precision rough number, Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution and prospect theory is developed in this paper. Basically, the method includes two stages: one is determination of criteria weights based on variable precision rough number, and the other is selecting the most suitable photovoltaic power plant site with a prospect theory-based approach. The novel method integrates the advantage of variable precision rough number in flexibly dealing with vague information and the merit of prospect theory in manipulating decision maker's bounded rationality. Finally, a case study of a 10-megawatt photovoltaic power plant site selection in China is used to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method.