Assessing the viability of blockchain technology in renewable energy supply chains: A consolidation framework

The growing focus on sustainability has propelled heightened scrutiny toward energy supply chains. Blockchain technology stands poised to revolutionize these chains, introducing stability-enhancing factors. Nevertheless, like other nascent technologies, blockchain's integration, while laden with advantages, poses challenges across technical, stakeholder, environmental, and governmental domains within the energy supply chain. Consequently, a thorough assessment of blockchain's applicability in supply chains is imperative for informed decision-making among supply chain managers. However, disparate decision-making methodologies often yield divergent outcomes. Given the substantial costs involved, particularly in capital, adopting blockchain technology in the energy supply chain demands precision. To address this complexity, this study develops a consolidation framework grounded in efficiency, risk, and uncertainty considerations to harmonize the diverse evaluations of blockchain adoption viability in renewable energy supply chains. Employing a data-driven optimization model in conjunction with an importance determination model, we assess and prioritize the impact of blockchain challenges individually. Subsequently, a fuzzy tri-objective optimization model is utilized to amalgamate findings from preceding evaluations, determining the ultimate significance of blockchain challenges. These models are then validated through a case study focusing on the electricity supply chain, affirming the pivotal role of investment costs and blockchain deployment as primary hurdles in utilizing blockchain within renewable energy supply chains.