The goal of this project carried out by Farboud Khatami is to study the sustainability of different electricity generation technologies. Unlike most other studies, the focus here is on sustainability based on resource usage and not greenhouse gasses alone. Ultimately, the project seeks to identify the most optimal electricity generation portfolios by maximizing sustainability while minimizing risks.
In doing so, different criteria such as environmental, social, technical, and economic were taken into account. The alternatives were graded using multiple multi-criteri decision making (MCDM) methods based on the available resources and feasibilities in each region. In the end, the costomized aggregate footprint (RAF) of each energy type was computed. In this study, the viability of different energy sources was calculated in the southeastern US states to find the most sustainable energy sources for each state. The figure bellow shows examples of energy footprint in the southeastern states.
