Optimizing green hydrogen strategies in Tunisia: A combined SWOT-MCDM approach

Tunisia's rapid industrial expansion and population growth have created a pressing energy deficit, despite the country's significant, yet largely untapped, renewable energy potential. This study addressed this challenge by developing a comprehensive framework to identify and evaluate strat...

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Main Author: Sassi Rekik
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-12-01
Series:Scientific African
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468227624003806
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author Sassi Rekik
author_facet Sassi Rekik
author_sort Sassi Rekik
collection DOAJ
description Tunisia's rapid industrial expansion and population growth have created a pressing energy deficit, despite the country's significant, yet largely untapped, renewable energy potential. This study addressed this challenge by developing a comprehensive framework to identify and evaluate strategies for promoting green hydrogen production from renewable energy sources in Tunisia. A Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT) analysis, incorporating social, economic, and environmental dimensions, was conducted to formulate potential solutions. The Step-wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) method facilitated the weighting of SWOT factors and sub-factors. Subsequently, a multi-criteria decision-making approach, employing the gray technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS-G) method (validated by gray additive ratio assessment (ARAS-G), gray complex proportional assessment (COPRAS-G), and gray multi-objective optimization by ratio analysis (MOORA-G), was used to rank the identified strategies.The SWOT analysis revealed ''Strengths'' as the most influential factor with a relative weight of 47.3 %, followed by ''Weaknesses'' (26.5 %), ''Threats'' (15.6 %), and ''Opportunities'' (10.6 %). Specifically, experts emphasized Tunisia's renewable energy potential (21.89 %) and robust power system (12.11 %) as primary strengths. Conversely, high investment costs (11.2 %) and political instability (7.77 %) posed substantial threat. Positive socio-economic impacts represented a key opportunity with a score of 5.2 %. As for the strategies prioritizing criteria, production cost ranked first with a score of 13.5 %, followed by environmental impact (12.8 %), renewable energy potential (12.0 %), and mitigation costs (11.3 %). The gray TOPSIS analysis identified two key strategies: leveraging Tunisia's wind and solar resources and fostering regional cooperation for project implementation. The robustness of these strategies is confirmed by the strong correlation between TOPSIS-G, ARAS-G, COPRAS-G, and MOORA-G results. Overall, the study provides a comprehensive roadmap and expert-informed decision-support tools, offering valuable insights for policymakers, investors, and stakeholders in Tunisia and other emerging economies facing similar energy challenges.
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spelling doaj-art-ff45c7ed87ab4f64ba4615e18a57e1cf2025-08-20T02:40:11ZengElsevierScientific African2468-22762024-12-0126e0243810.1016/j.sciaf.2024.e02438Optimizing green hydrogen strategies in Tunisia: A combined SWOT-MCDM approachSassi Rekik0University of Monastir, National Engineering School of Monastir, Laboratory of Thermal and Energy Systems Studies (LESTE), Monastir, TunisiaTunisia's rapid industrial expansion and population growth have created a pressing energy deficit, despite the country's significant, yet largely untapped, renewable energy potential. This study addressed this challenge by developing a comprehensive framework to identify and evaluate strategies for promoting green hydrogen production from renewable energy sources in Tunisia. A Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT) analysis, incorporating social, economic, and environmental dimensions, was conducted to formulate potential solutions. The Step-wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) method facilitated the weighting of SWOT factors and sub-factors. Subsequently, a multi-criteria decision-making approach, employing the gray technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS-G) method (validated by gray additive ratio assessment (ARAS-G), gray complex proportional assessment (COPRAS-G), and gray multi-objective optimization by ratio analysis (MOORA-G), was used to rank the identified strategies.The SWOT analysis revealed ''Strengths'' as the most influential factor with a relative weight of 47.3 %, followed by ''Weaknesses'' (26.5 %), ''Threats'' (15.6 %), and ''Opportunities'' (10.6 %). Specifically, experts emphasized Tunisia's renewable energy potential (21.89 %) and robust power system (12.11 %) as primary strengths. Conversely, high investment costs (11.2 %) and political instability (7.77 %) posed substantial threat. Positive socio-economic impacts represented a key opportunity with a score of 5.2 %. As for the strategies prioritizing criteria, production cost ranked first with a score of 13.5 %, followed by environmental impact (12.8 %), renewable energy potential (12.0 %), and mitigation costs (11.3 %). The gray TOPSIS analysis identified two key strategies: leveraging Tunisia's wind and solar resources and fostering regional cooperation for project implementation. The robustness of these strategies is confirmed by the strong correlation between TOPSIS-G, ARAS-G, COPRAS-G, and MOORA-G results. Overall, the study provides a comprehensive roadmap and expert-informed decision-support tools, offering valuable insights for policymakers, investors, and stakeholders in Tunisia and other emerging economies facing similar energy challenges.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468227624003806SWOT analysisMCDMGray number theoryGreen hydrogen strategiesTunisia
spellingShingle Sassi Rekik
Optimizing green hydrogen strategies in Tunisia: A combined SWOT-MCDM approach
Scientific African
SWOT analysis
MCDM
Gray number theory
Green hydrogen strategies
Tunisia
title Optimizing green hydrogen strategies in Tunisia: A combined SWOT-MCDM approach
title_full Optimizing green hydrogen strategies in Tunisia: A combined SWOT-MCDM approach
title_fullStr Optimizing green hydrogen strategies in Tunisia: A combined SWOT-MCDM approach
title_full_unstemmed Optimizing green hydrogen strategies in Tunisia: A combined SWOT-MCDM approach
title_short Optimizing green hydrogen strategies in Tunisia: A combined SWOT-MCDM approach
title_sort optimizing green hydrogen strategies in tunisia a combined swot mcdm approach
topic SWOT analysis
MCDM
Gray number theory
Green hydrogen strategies
Tunisia
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468227624003806
work_keys_str_mv AT sassirekik optimizinggreenhydrogenstrategiesintunisiaacombinedswotmcdmapproach