The application of PROMETHEE II CRITIC multiple attribute decision making methods in evaluation and ranking the thin-film solar cells

Using renewable energies, especially solar energy has received significant attention due to increasing energy consumption and the problem of energy deficiency in recent decades. Second generation of solar cells, thin-films, has several benefits compared to the previous generation, but there exist a few studies on determining the best material or ranking the materials using MADM techniques. This paper tends to evaluate and rank several absorber layer materials for solar cells. First of all, thin-film experts opinions were gathered using a questionnaire to determine the attributes. Nine attributes were selected and the weights were calculated using CRITIC method which takes into account both the correlation (similarity) between the values of each attribute and its dispersion (standard deviation). Then, the PROMETHEE II was implemented to rank the thin-film materials, where the discrimination thresholds (indifference, preference and veto thresholds) were declared by the thin-film experts. Also, the type of preference functions was determined by the experts.