Assessment of Barriers to Renewable Energy Development Using Stakeholders Approach

Typically, the lack of effective stakeholder participation in a project—especially in the initial planning and implementation stages—has a negative impact on the expected performance of the project. These negative consequences require attempts to encourage their effective participation. Nevertheless, there are some challenges ahead, such as conflict of interest among the stakeholders. For more accurate identification of the interests, objectives, and performance of the stakeholders, this paper proposes an accurate and organized model for the analysis of results from the stakeholder impact index. We implemented the proposed model to determine the existing barriers to renewable energy development in Iran, specifically the wind and solar energy sectors. For data collection, we used the opinions of the experts and other people involved in these industries. Data analysis showed that the current implantation conditions of the solar and wind energy sectors were similar from the stakeholders’ perspectives as not bad but poor. The required position of each stakeholder to lift the barriers and develop these industries was identified and their current positions from the desirable conditions were assessed. Finally, some recommendations were presented to improve the stakeholders’ conditions and eliminate the barriers.