AHP Analysis on the Criteria and Sub-Criteria for the Selection of Fuel Cell Power Generation in Malaysia

Abstract

Malaysia is currently facing challenges in finding the right mix of energy sources for achieving sustainable energy supply. In term of fuel cell technology development, Malaysia is lacking the economic and infrastructure factors, besides local expertise, public perception, and industrial support. In fact, fuel cell technology at the present time is not being commercialized on a large scale in Malaysia. Due to much research is focused to the transportation sector, research on the other sectors, especially for power generation, is relatively lacking in Malaysia. For a start, this study aims to identify the criteria and sub-criteria for selecting the sources of fuel cell technology for power generation. An AHP analysis based on a group decision was performed and has found the impact on ecosystem (from environmental criterion), payback period, and investment cost (from economic criterion) are the most important sub-criteria for selecting the sources of power generation with fuel cell technology. This suggests that when it comes to renewable energy, the effect on environment will always come first in the mind. However, when it comes to the acquisition of fuel cell technology, no doubt that the economic factors are the main concern. This implies the focus should be on how to make the sources of fuel cell technology economical to justify its adoption. On the other hand, the less important criterion is technical, while the less important sub-criterion of technical is the technological maturity. However, this does not necessarily mean the technological factors are not important, but at the current stage of fuel cell technology development in Malaysia other issues seem to be more profound. For future study, few suggestions were made to improve the model.