article · Cogent Engineering
Rising population, economic expansion, and industrial growth in Benin are driving up electricity demand, prompting national efforts to expand generation capacity through sustainable options. To guide resource selection, an evaluation assessed five clean energy technologies: solar photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, wind, hydropower, and bioenergy. The assessment employed eighteen criteria spanning technical, social, economic, and environmental pillars. Analytical weighting methods were combined with the evaluation based on distance from average solution technique to determine the final rankings. Solar photovoltaics proved to be the optimal technology, followed by wind energy in second place. Concentrated solar power, hydropower, and bioenergy placed third, fourth, and fifth respectively. These rankings aligned fully across multiple decision-making frameworks, providing consistent evidence to support sustainable electricity planning in Benin.
Meeting growing energy demand while reducing environmental impact requires governments to choose the right power sources. By systematically evaluating multiple renewable technologies against balanced technical, economic, social, and environmental standards, this analysis gives non-specialists and authorities a clear, data-driven rationale for prioritising specific clean energy investments to power national development.
This research provides an applied decision-making framework intended for policymakers and energy planners shaping national renewable energy strategies. Because it operates at the strategic planning stage rather than providing physical hardware, its immediate utility lies in guiding national procurement tenders, feasibility studies, and public-private capital deployment towards solar photovoltaic and wind projects in Benin.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Benin’s rapid population, economic, and industrial growth will increase energy demand. Hence, Benin’s government is keen to increase its power capacity to meet future demand. Renewable energy sources are significant options that governments could explore when developing their sustainable energy strategies. Prioritizing energy sources for a country’s sustainable development requires a decision-making process. In this study, multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) methods are used to prioritize alternatives such as solar photovoltaic (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP), wind energy, hydropower, and bioenergy suitable for sustainable electrification in Benin. The study employed eighteen (18) criteria classified under the four pillars of sustainability (technical, social, economic, and environmental) to evaluate the alternatives. Thereafter, the criteria importance through inter-criteria correlation (CRITIC) and entropy methods, which were employed to compute criteria weights and incorporated into the evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS) method to rank the alternatives. The findings from the EDAS rankings show that solar PV is the optimal alternative, ranking in the first position, followed by wind energy in the second position. CSP, hydropower, and bioenergy rank in the third, fourth, and fifth positions. In addition, EDAS findings correlated fully with those of other MCDM approaches evaluated on the same decision matrix. This indicates that solar PV is Benin’s optimal technology for sustainable electricity generation. The study’s findings are critical for policymakers developing Benin’s renewable energy sector.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1080/23311916.2023.2204553
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
