**7. The Managerial Perspectives of the Study**

To stay competitive, solar panel manufacturing companies must focus on technological developments that are cost-effective and very responsive to market changes. These changes are changes in energy demand, changes in the cooling system parts and components as per customer demand, changes in the existing cooling system, large fluctuations in the energy demand and mix, changes in the government regulations that are related to safety and the environment, etc. It is well known that the performance of any solar panel module is susceptible to multiple factors. Traditional solar panel cooling systems are selected based on climate, type of panel, energy requirements, and cost. There is evidence that changing the cooling system from one configuration to another has an impact on the amount of energy generated by the solar panels; the amount of fluid required for cooling may change, which could impact the stability of the temperature of the solar panels and could, in turn, impact energy generation. However, the impact of changing a cooling system in solar energy modules will depend on the specific cooling system and the specific solar panel installed.

The study that is reported in the present paper clearly revealed that the performance of solar panel cooling systems is very likely to change whenever the environment is changed, either due to changes in the technical or non-technical operating scenarios. But, there is no guarantee that every change will lead to desirable conditions. It is also very risky to make a change without assessing the relative merit of the same from the viewpoint of system performance. The decision maker may find the methodology that is presented in this paper attractive for many reasons, as this method is capable of treating multi-criteria situations. It possesses an ability to incorporate decision making using threshold indifferences and preferences, as was explained in Sections 3 and 4. Concepts such as partial outranking, complete outranking, the graph and network diagram, and the feasibility of carrying out sensitivity analyses made this approach to the assessment of solar panel cooling system alternatives very attractive. The threshold weightage facilitates the comparison of alternatives using operational, environmental, and economic measures. One may compare alternatives using any sets of performance measures and their weights to decide the points of preference, indifference, and ignorance among choices. The concept of outranking relationships as a network diagram helps in the ordering of the nondominated alternative cooling systems. The presented approach aids in the synthesis of the preference relationship for each alternative solar panel cooling system in order to establish the required outranking relationship across solar panel cooling options in the context of all of the desired performance measures.

Thus, there are many decision situations in which the decision maker must choose among a finite number of alternatives, which are evaluated on a common set of multiple criteria. While evaluating the alternative solar panel cooling systems, it may be of interest to assess how similar and dissimilar the various solar panel cooling systems are and identify which performance measures play a significant role in establishing such relationships. This issue can be taken up with the help of the Visual PROMETHEE MCDM approach. The Visual PROMETHEE assesses the competitiveness of alternative solar panel cooling systems. Here, the adopted approach has the ability to incorporate positive and negative preferences. It synthesizes the preference relationships for each alternative to produce the desired outranking relationship between all of the alternatives. Concepts such as preference flow, weights, geometrical analysis for the interactive aid (GAIA) plane, as well as sensitivity analyses make this approach attractive in the assessment of solar panel cooling systems. Partial and complete ranking also helps identify the most preferred solar panel cooling system. However, decision makers are often interested not only in ranking solar panel cooling systems but also in establishing the superiority of one solar panel cooling system over another (if it exists). The PROMETHEE extends considerable support in this regard.

The practical significance of evaluating solar panel cooling systems within the context of solar power plant operation cannot be underestimated. Solar power plants may boost their energy production and, hence, their profitability by incorporating the proper cooling systems. There are numerous cooling solutions available, including both passive and active ones, and the method chosen will be determined by criteria such as climate, resource availability, and overall cost-effectiveness. This is especially relevant in areas with high ambient temperatures when solar panel efficiency can be severely reduced. Aside from the economic benefits, cooling measures can help to ensure the long-term viability of solar power facilities. The overall energy consumption of the power plant may be lowered by lowering the energy required to cool the panels, resulting in a smaller carbon footprint. This is consistent with global sustainability objectives.
