Locations appraisal framework for floating photovoltaic power plants based on relative-entropy measure and improved hesitant fuzzy linguistic DEMATEL-PROMETHEE method

Floating photovoltaic power generation has received extensive attention for its advantages of saving land resources, proximity to urban load centers and high power generation efficiency. Reasonable site selection contributes to the sustainable development of floating photovoltaic power plants to select proper location(s), this paper constructs a multi-criteria group decision-making framework. Firstly, a comprehensive criteria system consisting of veto indicators and evaluation indicators is established. Then, the hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets are adopted to describe the hesitancy of decision-makers and the uncertainty inherent in site selection problems. Thereafter, the group decision-making procedure is divided into two stages: group aggregation and alternative selection. In the first phase, a relative-entropy based similarity measure is defined to calculate the decision-makers’ weights. In the second phase, an improved hesitant fuzzy linguistic Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory - Preference Ranking Organization Methods for Enrichment Evaluation method is proposed to rank alternatives and characterize the psychological factors. Finally, the proposed framework is applied in a case study to certificate the feasibility. The calculation results illustrate that the ranking order may vary with the change of decision-makers’ risk attitudes. This research can effectively improve the site selection decision-making quality and also extend the methods and applications in the decision-making field. •A group decision framework is constructed for projects' site selection.•An improved method is proposed to rank alternatives and show risk attitude.•A similarity measure is defined to determine the weights of experts.•A criteria weighting model is built considering subjective and objective factors.•A criteria system is established including veto criteria and evaluation criteria.