Renewable Energy and Sustainability - Chapter 1: Sustainability-Concept and its application in the energy sector

Although sustainability is a familiar word nowadays, there is no precise definition of it that is generally accepted by the global scientific community. However, the predominant components of sustainability are the economy, environment, and society. The energy sector's sustainability also depends on these three criteria, along with many different indicators. In light of these criteria, the sustainability assessment of energy generation technologies or the energy sector could be conducted through many different methods such as multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA). In this chapter, all these issues are discussed: first, the concept of sustainability is explained along with definitions. Second, the history of the sustainable development concept and “sustainable energy development” are discussed. Third, the many different available sustainability assessment methods are highlighted. Finally, as an example, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method is employed to assess the sustainability of energy generation technologies and the results discussed.