Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a new multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) technique to determine the priority of renewable power plants construction conceding technical, economic, social, political and environmental aspects. Design/methodology/approach First, a comprehensive set of 5 main criteria of technical, economic, social, political and environmental are considered for renewable power plants construction, each including 5 sub-criteria (a total of 25 sub-criteria). Then, the analytic hierarchy process method is used to determine the weight of the criteria. Finally, a new MCDM technique proposed to prioritize the construction of renewable power plants, named TOPKOR. To demonstrate the capability of the proposed method, a case study is conducted in which six types of renewable power plants are evaluated. Findings Comparison results of the main criteria weights show that the “economic” [0.403], “environmental” [0.296] and “technical” [0.17] aspects have the highest importance, respectively. The results also show that solar, hydroelectric and wave and tidal power plants have the highest priority for construction, respectively. Research limitations/implications The result of this research could be useful for related decision makers in construction of the renewable power plants to have a comprehensive set of criteria in technical, economic, social, political and environmental aspects in their decision process. Originality/value This research provides a comprehensive set of criteria and sub-criteria for prioritizing the renewable power plants. Moreover, a new hybrid MCDM technique is introduced for prioritizing the construction of power plants.