Tackling energy poverty with renewable energy Projects: Fuzzy decision support system based on virtual and real experts

Energy poverty is a serious problem that increases economic inequalities, especially because individuals living in low-income areas have difficulty accessing energy. The development of renewable energy projects (REP) plays a critical role in reducing energy poverty. However, there is considerable uncertainty in determining strategies that will increase the effectiveness of REP to solve the problem of energy poverty. The purpose of this paper is to identify significant strategies to improve REP for the effective management of energy poverty problems by establishing a novel model. First, dimension reduction methodology is considered to calculate the importance of decision makers. The second stage includes prioritization of criteria using p,q-Spherical fuzzy (SFS) analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The final stage focuses on ranking of renewable energy investment (REI) alternatives using p,q-SFS weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS). The contribution of this paper to the literature is the determination of critical indicators that will increase the performance of REI to reduce the energy poverty problem with an original and comprehensive decision-making model. Creating a virtual expert is the main superiority of this proposed model. With the help of this issue, it can be possible to reach a sufficient number of experts. Hence, a more diverse and comprehensive evaluation can be conducted. The findings denote that start-up costs and geographical conditions have the highest significance to improve REP for the aim of minimizing energy poverty problem. Rooftop solar panels and micro wind turbines are also found as the most essential REI strategies.