Development of a Decision Support System for Solar Panel Selection Using Integrated Analytic Hierarchy Process and Grey Relational Analysis

The solar panel is an important component of a photovoltaic system and there has been a lot of research works carried out in order to reduce its material costs while improving energy efficiency. Solar panel Selection for PV system is a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem as it involves both qualitative and quantitative criteria. In order to select the best solar panel, it is necessary to make a balance between tangible and intangible criteria that conflict with each other. The aim of the paper is to develop an integrated approach based on Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) for a 100W solar panel selection. The additive normalization method is used as the prioritization method to calculate the priority vector. Also a computer program is developed in Excel to calculate the mathematical analysis and obtain the results.