Photovoltaic (PV) technology can directly convert radiation into electricity, which is an important way to construct a low-carbon society. The assessment of five commercially available PV technologies is a representative multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) issue with a large amount of ambiguous and subjective information. Although some scholars have made improvements to the evaluation method, the problem of uncertain information has not been completely solved. A novel approach is put forward in this paper based on cloud model and grey relational analysis (CMGRA), integrating the fortes of cloud model for dealing with uncertainty and the merits of grey relational analysis for overcoming the errors caused by small sample size. An illustrative example of PV technology selection is applied to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of CMGRA. The newly proposed approach provides both sustainable choices for technology selection and policy supports for governors to construct low-carbon society. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.