Strategy recommendations for minimizing economic inequalities increased by renewable energy investments regarding sustainable development

Abstract

Renewable energy investments provide significant benefits for countries. However, these investments may also create some problems that lead to economic inequality, such as harming the agricultural area and increasing energy costs. Thus, for the purpose of sustainable economic growth, these problems should be minimized. Nevertheless, it is not optimal for countries to take measures against all these problems because each measure causes countries to make new expenditures. Hence, it is necessary to determine priority measures for this issue so that solutions can be implemented in a more efficient manner. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to identify appropriate priority strategies to minimize the economic inequality caused by renewable energy investments. A two-stage model has been established within this framework. First, a set of criteria is evaluated with T-Spherical fuzzy TOPSIS-based DEMATEL (T-SF TOP-DEMATEL). Secondly, five different renewable energy alternatives will be examined using the SF MAIRCA method. The findings indicate that environmental damage in renewable energy investments is the most critical issue that leads to economic inequality because it has the greatest weight (0.165934). Additionally, it is also found that hydropower energy creates economic inequality more than other renewable energy types due to lowest Q value (0,011).