The present research aims to conduct a systemic review on Renewable Energy, Economic Growth and Economic Development and look for links between the papers published between 2008 and May 2021. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology, it was possible to reach a sample of 111 articles selected by Web of Science and a sample of 199 academic articles selected by Scopus in that specific period. The analysis of the group of Renewable and Non-renewable Energy Consumption, Economic Growth and Economic Development shows that most of the articles published in this subsample use the quantitative methodology in economic sciences. The results indicate that research on the subject has a growing trend and that most of the articles are post-2015 publications. In addition, China has been the leading nation in published works. The journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is considered the most relevant in this category, and Sustainability... [more]

Increasing energy demand in buildings with a 40% global share and 30% greenhouse gas emissions has accounted for climate change and a consequent crisis encouraging improvement of building energy efficiency to achieve the combined benefit of energy, economy, and environment. For an efficient system, the optimization of different design control strategies such as building space load, occupancy, lighting, and HVAC becomes inevitable. Therefore, interdisciplinary teamwork of developers, designers, architects, and consumers to deliver a high-performance building becomes essential. This review aims to endorse the importance of Building Performance Simulation in the pre-design phase along with the challenges faced during its adaptation to implementation. A morphology chart is structured to showcase the improvement in Building Energy Efficiency by implementing Building Performance Simulation for different building energy systems and by implementing various energy efficiency strategies to achie... [more]

The development of energy networks and electrification is a major challenge in many African countries, which can contribute to reducing social inequalities. Energy, and above all electricity, is a decisive factor influencing the functioning of national governments. The power of governments in individual countries depends on the energy sector. Therefore, it is worth noting that during the presidential elections, candidates make many promises related to the improvement of the energy supply. The article shows, using the examples of Guinea, Ethiopia and Egypt, how politicians in the pre-election period use slogans related to the energy and development of the country. The innovative side of this article looks at how politicians keep their promises by using the energy sector and how they secure victory in the next election. The article linked the objective needs for the development of the energy sector resulting from the growing demand for energy with the motives of the decisions makers who... [more]

Wireless body sensor networks (WBSNs) monitor the changes within the human body by having continuous interactions within the nodes in the body network. Critical issues with these continuous interactions include the limited energy within the node and the nodes becoming isolated from the network easily when it fails. Moreover, when the node’s burden increases because of the failure of other nodes, the energy utilization as well as the heat dissipated increases much more, causing damage to the network as well as human body. In this paper, we propose a threshold-based fail proof lifetime enhancement algorithm which schedules the nodes in an optimal way depending upon the available energy level. The proposed algorithm is experimented with a real time system setup and the proposed algorithm is compared with different routing mechanisms in terms of various network parameters. It is inferred that the proposed algorithm outperforms the existing routing mechanisms.

This paper explores the current attitudes of managers and executives working in the energy sector towards the Data-Driven Organizational Model implied by Big Data. The aim is to explore and understand the current mindset of senior decision makers, since their success depends as much on cognitive and behavioral processes as on their technical competences. We adopt a grounded-theory approach, developing models of understanding and belief abductively, driven by the data obtained from participants through a reflection guide. We find that managers differ significantly in their understanding and engagement with their challenges; they display interest but differ in their commitment and enthusiasm; they identify a lack of strategy and skills as current barriers; and they are currently unwilling to trust data, treating evidence according to their own prior commitments. This is a significant barrier to establishing the Data-Driven Organizational Model. These findings raise concerns, and the pape... [more]

Recent national government policy in Ireland proposes a radical transformation of the energy sector and a large reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050. Water and energy form the water−energy nexus, with water being an essential component in energy production. However, the connection between the production of energy and water is rarely made. In particular, the end-user processes are generally excluded because they occur outside the water industry. The present study includes two simple approaches for industrial sites to calculate their carbon footprint in the water sector. The assessment of the milk powder manufacturing using both approaches indicates that the combined emission factor of the water supply and treatment is approximately 1.28 kg CO2 m−3 of water. The dairy production among steel, textile, and paper industries appears to be the most carbon-emitting industry. However, the results show that the carbon intensity of the water supply and treatment can be minimized by the integration... [more]

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of biomass micronization on energy production using a converted aircraft turbine AI-20. The test system was constructed in such a way to ensure continuous operation for a given period of time and was equipped in a chopper, a flail mill, and a micronizer. The turbine had the ability to produce energy from solid biomass and as well conventional fuels. The most energy was obtained from absolutely dry sunflower husk (17.27 MJ/kg) and the least from Poplar (7.82 MJ/kg). Miscanthus, wheat straw, and hay (approximately 17 MJ/kg) showed high values of energy production. In addition, the thermal decomposition of wheat straw at 350 and 450 °C was studied using the Py-GC/MS technique in a helium atmosphere to determine the gaseous compounds formed during biomass gasification under anaerobic conditions. The results obtained indicate the formation of compounds classified as phenols (vanillin, hydroxymethylfurfural).

The managerial and environmental studies conducted in the energy research area reflect its substantial importance, particularly when optimizing and modifying consumption patterns, transitioning to renewable sources away from fossil ones, and designing plans and systems. The aim of this study is to provide a systematic review of the literature allowing us to identify which research subjects have been prioritized in the fields of energy and sustainability in recent years, determine the potential reasons explaining these trends, and categorize the techniques applied to analyze the uncertainty faced by decision-makers. We review articles published in highly ranked journals through the period 2003−2020 and apply text analytics to cluster their main characteristics; that is, we rely on pre-processing and text mining techniques. We analyze the title, abstract, keywords, and research methodology of the articles through clustering and topic modeling and illustrate what methods and fields consti... [more]

Greenhouse crops represent a significant productive sector of the agricultural system; one of the main problems to be addressed is indoor air conditioning to ensure thermal well-being of crops. This study focuses on the ventilation analysis of solar greenhouse with symmetrical flat pitched roof and single span located in a warm temperate climate. This work proposes the dynamic analysis of the greenhouse modeled in TRNsys, simultaneously considering different thermal phenomena three-dimensional (3D) shortwave and longwave radiative exchange, airflow exchanges, presence of lamps with their exact 3D position, ground and plant evapotranspiration, and convective heat transfer coefficients. Several air conditioning systems were analyzed, automatic window opening, controlled mechanical ventilation systems (CMV) and horizontal Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger (EAHX) coupled with CMV, for different air volume changes per hour. In summer, the exploitation of the ground allows having excellent results... [more]

This paper provides a structured literature review of the negative economic effects associated with the development of wind energy and synthesized the evidence at an abstract level. We then developed an analytical framework to systematically review economic issues such as volatility, electricity price, housing values, and unemployment in relation to wind energy. Global wind energy development data from the time period from 2000 through 2019 were included for a more robust analysis. This period encompasses the vast majority of total global installed wind energy capacity. After amalgamating evidence from existing studies and data banks, we discuss the policy implications, suggest avenues for future research, and propose solutions to mitigate externalities. By understanding the negative economic impact created by the expansion of wind energy, we can better equip policy makers and developers to create more efficient and sustainable energy policy to benefit citizens and preserve the environ... [more]

Micro-cogeneration (mCHP) is a promising solution for the generation of heat and electricity in households, it contributes to reducing carbon dioxide emissions in countries where the production of electricity is mainly based on fossil fuels. Its dissemination in Poland faces barriers in the form of high purchase prices in relation to electricity productivity. In this work 1% of the household population in Poland was analyzed using the Monte Carlo method. It was found that for mCHP to become economically profitable for a group of at least 10,000 households, its price should fall from around 18,000 euros (711.5 euros/kWth and 18,000 euros/kWe) to 4800 euros (189.7 euros/kWth and 4800 euros/kWe) and for 100,000 households to 4100 euros (162.1 euros/kWth and 4100 euros/kWe). These calculations were made for fixed gas and electricity prices. The analysis also included cases of various changes in gas and energy prices. Faster growth of electricity prices than gas prices reduce the profitabil... [more]

Energy-efficient buildings, sustainable buildings, smart buildings, nearly zero-energy buildings, passive and active buildings are construction concepts widely recognised as setting the latest trends. The purpose of their design is to create an optimal thermal microclimate by means of heat flows that are either formed within it or enter into it. This research paper presents an analysis of the measurements of the density of heat flows, their spread in building constructions, all of which is examined in laboratory conditions and confronted with calculation models. The hypothesis of this research is to confirm or refute whether the computational models match the laboratory simulations in terms of thermal-technical parameters. The research uses a methodology designed for examining building constructions under virtually stable conditions. Two variants of external sandwich walls based on prefab cross laminated timber panels (variant A) and structural insulated panel (variant B) were proposed... [more]

The transition from traditional energy to cleaner energy sources has raised concerns from companies and investors regarding, among other things, the impact on financial downside risk. This article implements backtesting techniques to estimate and validate the value-at-risk (VaR) and expected shortfall (ES) in order to compare their performance among four renewable energy stocks and four traditional energy stocks from the WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation and the Bloomberg World Energy for the period 2005-2016. The models used to estimate VaR and ES are AR(1)-GARCH(1,1), AR(1)-EGARCH(1,1), and AR(1)-APARCH(1,1), all of them under either normal, skew-normal, Student’s t, skewed-t, Generalized Error or Skew-Generalized Error distributed innovations. Backtesting performance is tested through traditional Kupiec and Christoffersen tests for VaR, but also through recent backtesting ES techniques. The paper extends these tests to the skewed-t, skew-normal and Skew-Generalized Error distr... [more]

The article explores the impact of the quality and volume of energy consumption of the population on the human development index using a sample of a number of countries as an example. The hypothesis concerning the relationship between the amount of energy consumed, the human development index (HDI), and the environment (CO2 emissions into the atmosphere) has been verified. The study results show that the size and rating of the HDI are influenced by such factors as urbanization growth, gross domestic product (GDP), gross national income (GNI) per capita, the share of “clean” energy consumption by the population and business in total energy consumption, the level of socio-economic development, and R&D expenses. In the course of building the model, the recommendations by the United Nations (UN) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) were used. The results show that the volume of energy consumption not only affects the human development index in a particular... [more]

The paper deals with the problems linked to the energy renovation of multi-apartment buildings and developed a case study in Lithuania with the aim to assess the household’s willingness to pay for energy renovation and to define the main barriers preventing the households from making decisions to renovate their apartments in residential buildings. Energy renovation provides huge energy savings and greenhouse gas emissions reduction potential and though policies and measures exist to promote large scale energy renovation, there are still many barriers and the pace of energy renovation is still very slow, especially in new EU member states and former Soviet Union members. These countries have inherited old, energy inefficient residential buildings from their Soviet past, and their inhabitants are locked in energy poverty because of their inability to renovate their apartments. This paper analyzed the current situation in the selected country and presents the results of a case study on wi... [more]

This study investigates the effect of energy use on labor productivity in the Ethiopian manufacturing industry. It uses panel data for the manufacturing industry groups to estimate the coefficients using the dynamic panel estimator. The study’s results confirm that energy use increases manufacturing labor productivity. The coefficients for the control variables are in keeping with theoretical predictions. Capital positively augments productivity in the industries. Based on our results, technology induces manufacturing’s labor productivity. Likewise, more labor employment induces labor productivity due to the dominance of labor-intensive manufacturing industries in Ethiopia. Alternative model specifications provide evidence of a robust link between energy and labor productivity in the Ethiopian manufacturing industry. Our results imply that there needs to be more focus on the efficient use of energy, labor, capital, and technology to increase the manufacturing industry’s labor productiv... [more]

The world’s economic development depends on access to cheap energy sources. So far, energy has been obtained mainly from conventional sources like coal, gas and oil. Negative climate changes related to the high emissions of the economy based on the combustion of hydrocarbons and the growing public awareness have made it necessary to look for new ecological energy sources. This condition can be met by renewable energy sources. Both social pressure and international activities force changes in the structure of sources from which energy is produced. This also applies to the European Union countries, including Poland. There are no scientific studies in the area of forecasting energy production from renewable energy sources for Poland. Therefore, it is reasonable to investigate this subject since such a forecast can have a significant impact on investment decisions in the energy sector. At the same time, it must be as reliable as possible. That is why a modern method was used for this purpo... [more]

Electric vehicles, when coupled to electricity generation from renewable energy sources, can become a viable solution to decarbonize the transport sector. However, given the high variability of electricity mixes on a daily and seasonal basis, high-resolution profiles are needed for a precise analysis of the impacts of electric vehicles in terms of greenhouse gases emissions. This paper presents a comparison of different charging profiles evaluated on 10 European countries over four years, to highlight the effects of national electricity mixes and of the type of charging location on the specific emissions of EVs charging. This study, based on three archetypal charging profiles, provide a quantification of the potential influence of different charging strategies on the average emission factor of the electricity supplied to electric vehicles. The results show that the variability related to charging profiles is generally limited, with an average variation range of 6% for any given country... [more]

For the envisaged large number of commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects that are to be implemented in the near future, a number of issues still need to be resolved, the most prominent being the large capital and operational costs incurred for the CO2 capture and compression process. An economic assessment of the capture and compression system based on optimal design data is important for CCS deployment. In this paper, the parametric process design approach is used to optimally design coal and natural gas monoethanolamine (MEA)-based post-combustion CO2 absorption−desorption capture (PCC) and compression plants that can be integrated into large-scale 550 MW coal-fired and 555 MW natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plants, respectively, for capturing CO2 from their flue gases. The study then comparatively assesses the energy performance and economic viabilities of both plants to ascertain their operational feasibilities and relative costs. The parametric processe... [more]

All Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects require the transportation of CO2 from a source to a storage location. Although, a compressor and a large diameter pipeline is the normal method used to achieve this, liquefaction, shipping and pumping is sometimes attractive. Identifying the economic optimum is important for all CCS projects, minimizing energy consumption is also important because it corresponds to a resource efficiency in fossil-fuel based projects. This article describes the development and validation of a model that estimates the energy consumption associate with CO2 transportation using the geographic location of the source and the reservoir to incorporate ambient temperature and bathymetry data. The results of the validation work show an average absolute temperature and pressure error less than 1 °C and 1 bar compared to a reference model. The model has been developed using openly accessible data and is made available in a repository for open research data.

The optimization issues connected to a landing task of an unmanned aerial vehicle are discussed in the paper, based on a model of a mini-class drone. Three landing scenarios are considered, including minimum-time landing, landing with minimum energy consumption, and planned landing. With the use of classical dynamic programming techniques, including the minimum principle of Pontryagin, as well as the calculus of variations, the optimal altitude reference trajectories are found, to form the altitude control system in such a way as to mimic the profile of the reference trajectory by the actual altitude of the UAV. The simulation results conducted with the use of the Simulink Support Package for Parrot Minidrones verify the correctness and effectiveness of the method, and open the research directions for further analysis, especially to tune altitude controller in a way, as to track the reference profile. Up to this point, optimization tasks considered in the literature, with respect to th... [more]

For many years, primary weather forecasting services (Global Forecast System (GFS) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)) have been made available to the public through global Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models estimating a multitude of general weather variables in a variety of resolutions. Secondary services such as weather experts Meteomatics AG use data and improve the forecasts through various methods. They tailor for the specific needs of customers in the wind and solar power generation sector as well as data scientists, analysts, and meteorologists in all areas of business. These auxiliary services have improved performance and provide reliable data. However, this work extended these auxiliary services to so-called tertiary services in which the weather forecasts were further conditioned for the very niche application environment of mobile solar technology in solar car energy management. The Gridded Model Output Statistics (GMOS) Global Horizon... [more]

The seminal Navier−Stokes equations were stated even before the creation of the foundations of thermodynamics and its first and second laws. There is a widespread opinion in the literature on thermodynamic cycles that the Navier−Stokes equations cannot be taken as a thermodynamically correct model of a local “working fluid”, which would be able to describe the conversion of “heating” into “working” (Carnot’s type cycles) and vice versa (Afanasjeva’s type cycles). Also, it is overall doubtful that “cycle work is converted into cycle heat” or vice versa. The underlying reason for this situation is that the Navier−Stokes equations come from a time when thermodynamic concepts such as “internal energy” were still poorly understood. Therefore, this paper presents a new exposition of thermodynamically consistent Navier−Stokes equations. Following that line of reasoning—and following Gyftopoulos and Beretta’s exposition of thermodynamics—we introduce the basic concepts of thermodynamics such a... [more]

The development of the bus rapid transit system (BRTS) is tremendously growing in developing countries of the world. In large cities, the projection of transportation intends to enhance economic growth and changes the image of the city for both residents and outsiders. The purpose of this research was to study the application of alternative options for energy efficient BRTS in developing countries. The BRTS has some of its accessibility patterns that relate to the socio-economic strata. A decision-making efficiency analysis methodology has been applied to analyze the comparative analysis of both conventional fuel and hybrid bus systems for the Multan city of Pakistan. The section-wise application of a hybrid energy-based bus system has been analyzed in comparison to the conventional bus system. Out of 21 stations, the efficiency-wise hybrid bus system remained superior or equivalent to the standard value of 1 except one midpoint section. The finding of the analysis indicates that the h... [more]

This paper presents a model combining the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) of fossil fuel extraction with its quality parameters and related CO2, SO2 and dust emissions at the stage of the combustion process. The model which was developed aims to identify the environmental impact of the processes of electricity production from selected energy carriers over their whole life cycle. The model takes into account the full LCA of fossil fuel extraction (of both hard and brown coal), its enrichment and fuel production as well as the environmental impact associated with emissions introduced into the air at the stage of electricity generation based on the fuels evaluated. Such an approach allows one to determine the fuel quality parameters that affect the environmental impact of energy production based on an LCA of mining and assigns the degree of environmental impact involved in particular production processes. Overall, the results obtained based on the proposed model permit the identification and... [more]