A comparative study of selected multi-criteria decision-making methodologies for location selection of very large concentrated solar power plants in Nigeria

Abstract

This work studies the location selection of very large concentrated solar power plants (VLCSPPs) in Nigeria using five Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methodologies including: Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Consistency-Driven Pairwise Comparisons (CDPC), Decision Expert for Education (DEXi), Elimination and Choice Translating Reality (ELECTRE) III and IV. A comparative investigation is performed on only one unique model that is structured in four levels. This model has nine basic factors (Direct Normal Irradiance, grid infrastructure, climatic conditions, water availability conditions, natural disaster/hazard conditions, topographical conditions, geological conditions, land use, allocation and availability, war, terror & security conditions) taken from previous factors selection studies. There are 35 alternatives for the VLCSPP locations in Nigeria for the pre-development investment stage and are presented on Google Earth file (GE). The Super Decisions, JConcluder, DEXi and ELECTRE III-IV software are mainly used in this study. The findings show that the AHP and CDPC rankings are very close to each other. On the other hand, the DEXi, ELECTRE III and IV rankings spread very much amongst the methods. Hence, a small procedural rule is defined for the selection of candidate locations for detailed investigations. Several candidates’ VLCSPP locations were found to exist as alternatives, with approximate local central coordinates of 13°38′55.37″N, 13°20′41.41″E and 13°6′58.83″N, 13°26′53.63″E in Nigeria. These should be further investigated in the following investment stages.