Using PROMETHEE to assess bioenergy pathways

Investment and policy decisions in the context of sustainable development are classic application areas for multi-criteria decision analysis. Ranking various pathways, i.e. conversion routes, for biomass use in the energy sector is particularly challenging. Depending on how ecological, economic, and social criteria are weighed, a multi-criteria decision analysis can lead to significantly contrasting recommendations. In this paper, we present a decision support for eleven energy pathways using decision criteria drawn from all three sustainability dimensions—ecological, economic, and social. For the graphical presentation of the relatively large number of pathways and criteria weightings, we introduce a novel visualization approach that combines the results of both PROMETHEE I and II. This visualization approach permits stakeholders to quickly and intuitively gather insights about the result structure and the consequences of different input parameters, for instance different criteria weightings.