Improvement of Renewable Energy Products by Balancing Quality, Environmental, Societal, and Cost Aspects

The aim of this article is to develop a model that supports the design and improvement of renewable energy products at an early stage of their development (conceptualization and prototyping), while also taking into account key aspects of sustainability. These aspects include quality (customer satisfaction with product use), environmental impact, social responsibility, and purchase and/or production costs. Hence, this model is named QESC. The model was tested and illustrated for energy storage facilities. According to the proposed modeling process, sixteen key criteria were identified from the quality, environmental, and social aspects. The criteria were based on energy storage catalogs and the ISO 26000 standard. The criteria were described through ten different states (modifications), which represented alternative product solutions (prototypes). The proposed energy storage devices were evaluated using a formalized scoring method (PS, Czechowski). Subsequently, the indicators of quality, environmental, and social aspects were aggregated with the actual cost of the prototypes. A cost analysis was used for this purpose. The results were interpreted considering various aspects depending on the estimated costs of the prototypes. Based on the developed ranking of prototypes, the direction of development of the energy storage devices under consideration was determined. The proposed analysis demonstrated that the most advantageous prototype would be one with a high level of quality and cost compliance, with social and environmental aspects proving less important. The model can support decision making regarding the development of renewable energy products, including being useful for the sustainable development of other products at an early stage of their development.