sustainability Article Evaluating Renewable Energy Sustainability by Composite Index Stefan Dragos Cîrstea 1,* ID , Calin Moldovan-Teselios 2, Andreea Cîrstea 3, Antoniu Claudiu Turcu 1 and Cosmin Pompei Darab 1 1 Electrical Power Systems and Management Department, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Cluj Napoca, 26-28 Baritiu Street, 400027 Cluj-Napoca, Romania;
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[email protected] (C.P.D.) 2 Sociology Department, Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, Babes-Bolyai University, Anghel Saligny Street, 400609 Cluj-Napoca, Romania;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +40-745-301-093 Received: 18 February 2018; Accepted: 5 March 2018; Published: 14 March 2018 Abstract: Renewable energy is a global interest area in achieving sustainable development. Renewable energy sustainability has been assessed using the most commonly used dimensions of this concept: economic, environmental, social, and institutional dimensions. In this paper, we designed a composite index named the Renewable Energy Sustainability Index. The proposed index may represent a national monitoring mechanism that points out the strengths and weaknesses of a state in terms of renewable energy. The data were normalized by calculating the z-score. We tested the proposed index on a selection of 15 European countries ranked by final energy consumption and with different levels of development. The Kayser-Mayer-Olkin values were above the 0.700 limit, which indicates the robustness of each dimension.