A risky output of variation orders in renewable energy projects: Identification, assessment and validation

Renewable energy projects (REPs) are constructed to contribute to the eradication of global warming and supporting a sustainable aspect of economies. However, due to their entrepreneurial nature, such REPs are quite prone to severe project variations. Mostly, REPs deviate from their allocated plans, which lead them to the time and cost overrun outcomes alongside numerous other hindering impacts. The current research was intended to understand the critical impacts of project variations during the building activities of REPs. Utilizing a sample of 253 field experts engaged with such REPs at Pakistan, we employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze and confirm our propositions. It was found that cost-related effects were the most significant outcomes in the REPs and their severity was higher than other variation consequences of time-overrun effects, productivity-related effects, risk-related effects, and reputation related effects. Nevertheless, an unexpected outcome was observed regarding the variations, which do not show their negative effects on reputation related aspects in the REPs of Pakistan. Considering its critical findings, this research is a useful tool for project executives that they can formulate certain techniques to tackle such variations and their consequences in REPs. This research likewise aimed to add and extend pertinent literature for REPs by following the outcomes of the current research concerning the impacts of project variations.