8. MCDA: Measuring Robustness as a Tool to Address Strategic Wind Farms Issues

Sustainable wind energy development takes into account sociocultural variables that can be identified from citizens’ concerns about the use of this renewable energy. These concerns are included in a multicriteria decision aid process, and, expressed as postulates in this study; they are subject to a robustness analysis. The approach is described and applied to the Baie-des-Sables (Canada) Wind farm case study. While this academic post-installation assessment does not affect the current operation of the farm which started back in November 2006, we conclude that if these concerns were considered, another wind farm scenario would have got a higher rating. Robustness analysis with respect to communication tools or type of ownership of the wind farm made it possible to identify objective rules based on changes in the ranking of scenarios. This change was verified using evaluation matrices containing different, maximum and proportional values with respect to the values of the original matrix. The robustness analysis results made it possible to identify, in a conflict situation, opportunities to remove obstacles to wind farm implementation.