Assessment of RES cooperation framework between the EU and North Africa: A multicriteria approach based on UTASTAR
International Journal of Energy Sector Management
ISSN: 1750-6220
Article publication date: 5 September 2016
Abstract
Purpose
The Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Union provides another element to cross-border cooperation by allowing Member States to fulfill their 2020 renewable energy sources (RES) targets by implementing joint projects in third countries through the cooperation mechanisms. The purpose of this paper is to assess the country risk, to support bilateral cooperation for RES electricity generation projects.
Design/methodology/approach
A multicriteria decision support methodology has been developed taking into account three evaluation parameters, namely, the investment framework, the social conditions and the energy and technological status. An additive value model has been constructed, and the UTilitès Additives (UTA) – UTA* (UTASTAR) disaggregation method has been implemented to infer the criteria weights. The obtained ranking of alternatives has been subjected to robustness analysis, and finally the proposed methodology has been applied to five North Africa countries, so as to draw key results.
Findings
The pilot application of the methodological approach proposed and the model developed was fully compatible with the decision maker’s ranking on a set of fictitious countries and facilitated the assessment of a country’s current situation with regards to its investment, social conditions and energy and technological status. The results regarding the five North African countries examined, indicated the country’s investment framework as the most important factor, from foreign investors’ perspective, affecting a country’s suitability for the implementation of RES projects through a cooperation mechanism and Morocco, as well as Tunisia as the countries with the most suitable conditions for a successful implementation of such projects.
Originality/value
To the best of authors’ knowledge, there are only very few studies trying to assess opportunities and risks emerging from the implementation of joint projects between European and third countries in the field of electricity generation from RES. There are even less studies using (UTASTAR) method on real-world decision-making problems, and almost none are dedicated to energy sector-related problems.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The current paper was primarily based on the research conducted within the framework of the project “BETTER - Bringing Europe and Third countries closer together through renewable Energies” (project number: IEE/11/845/SI2.616378), supported by the Intelligent Energy Europe programme. The authors wish to thank the valuable work made by Dr Natalia Caldés Gómez and Dr Cristina de la Rúa Lope (senior researchers of the Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology, CIEMAT), with regards to the identification of indicators to assess key issues for the implementation of Cooperation Mechanisms within the frame of BETTER project. Furthermore, the authors would like to express their gratitude to Prof. Y. Siksos for his advice and supervision in the development of the multicriteria methodology. Their contribution in this respect was invaluable for the development of this work. The content of the paper is the sole responsibility of its authors and does not necessary reflect the views of the EC.
Citation
Papapostolou, A., Karakosta, C., Marinakis, V. and Flamos, A. (2016), "Assessment of RES cooperation framework between the EU and North Africa: A multicriteria approach based on UTASTAR", International Journal of Energy Sector Management, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 402-426. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJESM-12-2014-0007
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited