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Title: A multi-criteria cost-benefit approach to energy technology assessment

Journal Article · · Int. J. Policy Anal. Inf. Syst.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6544628

Analyzing alternative solutions to technical problems and weighing the consequences has an increasingly fashionable name: technology assessment. When the problem concerns a subject as multifaceted as energy, in which technology, economics, resource allocations, and social goals all interact, it becomes extremely difficult to balance costs and benefits and reach a social consensus. A comprehensive approach to ETA is suggested to comprise the following elements: (1) a taxonomy of technical, economical an environmental options within a hierarchically organized mobile; (2) applying multi-criteria decision analysis on each level of the mobile; and (3) a GPS-like program that amounts to a balancing procedure, a trade-off, or an on-line benefit-cost analysis along the mobile path, from the bottom up. A first tentative approximation of the analysis in the issue of energy provisions by nuclear power plants is presented.

Research Organization:
MEDIS, Munchen 81
OSTI ID:
6544628
Journal Information:
Int. J. Policy Anal. Inf. Syst.; (United States), Vol. 5:3
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English