Renewable energy resource is seen as a focal point for future energy systems due to their lasting presence and environmentally clean profile. Related to that, this study is carried out to see whether the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach can be implemented to help comparing and determining a set of renewable energy resource that would provide optimum impacts, especially with regards to sustainability. As a representation of the elements of sustainable energy, twelve indicators are chosen which comprises of indicators from the technical, economic, social, and environmental dimensions. Meanwhile, the context of the energy sector of New Zealand serves as a case study for the comparative analysis. For weight attribution, two future development scenarios for the country’s energy sector were identified: 1) The environmentally oriented Kea scenario; and 2) The Tui scenario that priorities economic stability and social welfare. As a result, for the Kea scenario, it is identified that wind power comes out as a preferable option due to its generally good performance across the environmental indicators. Meanwhile, in Tui scenario case, hydropower and geothermal energy come out as preferable options over other renewable energy resource as they are the two most economically competitive renewable energy resource in the current energy market. All in all, this study served as an example in developing a working framework for comparisons of renewable energy resource using the AHP methodology. The key lesson taken from the study is the importance of involvement of stakeholders throughout the process of such works in order to produce a sound analysis and insightful results.

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