Application of fuzzy MCDM approach for evaluating and selecting solar energy suppliers

Evaluating and selecting a suitable solar energy supplier is a complex problem which involves a number of different criteria. To effectively deal with this issue, this paper presents a fuzzy multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach for evaluating and selecting solar energy suppliers. The subjectiveness and imprecision of the decision making process are adequately modeled by the use of linguistic terms approximated by triangular fuzzy numbers. The concept of ideal solutions is adopted for determining the overall performance of each alternative solar energy supplier across all the selection criteria. An example is presented for demonstrating the applicability of the MCDM approach.