The use of renewable energy is spreading also to the military field. Its implementation in army forward bases has three clear advantages: an economic benefit lowering consumptions, an environmental profit reducing emissions, and a strategic interest minimizing risks in supplies. This paper presents a methodology for the design of a photovoltaic-thermal system (PV-T) to supply heat and electricity to military tents in forward facilities. UAV shelter hangars used by infantry forces have been chosen to implement this equipment. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been chosen to explain its application to designing the PV-T system. A CFD analysis of different design alternatives was performed in order to quantify decision making criteria and subcriteria. The best performance design was used to build a test bench of the system, using an Arduino-based platform. Telemetry is used to remotely register PV-T module parameters. Experimental data obtained was implemented as boundary conditions to validate the CFD model of the PV-T system, and heat exchange models were implemented using UDF (user defined functions) in ANSYSI((R)) FLUENT (R). A making decision method was successfully applied to define a methodology for geometrical design, using CFD simulation to determine necessary parameters to quantify criteria and subcriteria defined in the AHP. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.