The main part of mankind’s ecological footprint is the carbon footprint, a measure of the environmental impact of humanity’s energy release from fossil fuels. The use of fossil fuels will have to change in the forthcoming decades to a largely climate-neutral use of solar energy enabled by dramatic cost reductions for PV and wind energy systems. The impact of this trend on world society has been discussed in a previous paper. In connection with these important technical developments, the role of electricity, its transport and storage will alter in the coming decades, allowing the design and use of larger and larger electricity grids and a parallel use of hydrogen for both storage and energy transport. This will further change the energy landscape of the world. All these developments and their relationship to global sustainable development are elaborated in this cross-disciplinary paper by specifically analyzing whether the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations are an effec... [more]

Decarbonisation is becoming a central aim of countries around the globe, ensuring the effects of climate change do not increase exponentially in the coming years. Renewable energy generation is at the core of this decarbonisation process, enabling economies to divorce themselves from a reliance on oil and coal. Hybrid energy systems can utilise multiple generation methods to supply electrical demand best. This paper investigates the use of localised hybrid energy systems around the UK, comparing the financial viability of solar, wind and hydrokinetic generation methods both as a hybrid system and individually in different scenarios. The significance of having localised hybrid energy systems is that they address two large problems within renewable energy generation, that of storage issues and also generating the electricity far away from where it is actually used, requiring extensive infrastructure. The microgrid optimisation software HOMER was used to simulate each of the generation me... [more]

Energy issues are multifaceted and are not limited to power plants, biogas plants or transmission lines. They also include the production, usage and utilisation of batteries and accumulators, which are increasingly valuable due to, among other things, the decision to develop the production of electric cars. This article creates new ground by analysing the European Union management system of batteries and accumulators in the cause−effect context. This paper’s insights have emerged iteratively based on the theory reviewed and the empirical case—a deep analysis of the Polish management system of batteries and accumulators. The findings show that the public institutions in the analysed European Union Member State—Poland—were not ready to create a fully coherent and effective oversight system on managing batteries and accumulators. It may limit the reliability of the European Union’s reporting on battery and accumulator management, which is a part of the European energy policy. The findings... [more]

This paper discusses energy behaviors in hydraulic cylinder dynamics, which are important for model-based control of agriculture scale excavators. First, we review hydraulic cylinder dynamics and update our physical parameter identification method to agriculture scale experimental excavators in order to construct a nominal numerical simulator. Second, we analyze the energy behaviors from the port-Hamiltonian point of view which provides many links to model-based control at laboratory scale at least. At agriculture scale, even though the nominal numerical simulator is much simpler than an experimental excavator, the analytical, experimental, and numerical energy behaviors are very close to each other. This implies that the port-Hamiltonian point of view will be applicable in agriculture scale against modeling errors.

Power forecasting models offer valuable insights on the electricity consumption patterns of clients, enabling the development of advanced strategies and applications aimed at energy saving, increased energy efficiency, and smart energy pricing. The data collection process for client consumption models is not always ideal and the resulting datasets often lead to compromises in the implementation of forecasting models, as well as suboptimal performance, due to several challenges. Therefore, combinations of elements that highlight relationships between clients need to be investigated in order to achieve more accurate consumption predictions. In this study, we exploited the combined effects of client similarity and causality, and developed a power consumption forecasting model that utilizes ensembles of long short-term memory (LSTM) networks. Our novel approach enables the derivation of different representations of the predicted consumption based on feature sets influenced by similarity an... [more]

The Anthropocene thesis poses new challenges to human activity on the planet. These challenges also apply to the built environment. Climate change will increase existing threats, and create new ones, for both human and natural systems. Above all, the built environment is expected to provide structural stability, access to water necessary for life, and safe production of clean energy. This research-by-design was focused on designing an adaptive built environment for Anthropocene societies and the maintenance of their well-being, and on envisioning and conceptualizing new architectural solutions based on multidisciplinary knowledge and CAD parametric design methods and tools. The conceptual designs are the result of these studies. These visions show how wind loads can be reduced, water can be stored, diverse energy sources can be integrated into one work of architecture, and thermal comfort can be provided to support local communities and the life of the environment in the belief that th... [more]

There is a need to reduce carbon-based energy and replace it with clean energy in order to counteract the negative effects of climate change. The increase in renewable energy sources may result in savings and the increasing cost of maintaining carbon-based energy. Worldwide involvement is required. The fulfillment of conditions by individual states does not solve the problem. The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed economic growth. It turns out that economic growth is not always associated with increased investments in RES (existing or emerging new clean energy points). We have a new epidemiological threat—Delta—which could become large. This will not improve the situation. Germany is an exemplary country for benchmarking in the field of renewable energy. The worrying fact is that Poland, despite economic growth, does not achieve an even growth in RES. Each of us is required to be involved, to be open to innovation and to act in accordance with the energy policy of the European Union. Basic m... [more]

In recent years, several researchers have studied the potential use of ammonia (NH3) as an energy vector, focused on the techno-economic advantages and challenges for full global deployment. The use of ammonia as fuel is seen as a strategy to support decarbonization; however, to confirm the sustainability of the shift to ammonia as fuel in thermal engines, a study of the environmental profile is needed. This paper aims to assess the environmental life cycle impacts of ammonia-based electricity generated in a combined heat and power cycle for different ammonia production pathways. A cradle-to-gate assessment was developed for both ammonia production and ammonia-based electricity generation. The results show that electrolysis-based ammonia from renewable and nuclear energy have a better profile in terms of global warming potential (0.09−0.70 t CO2-eq/t NH3), fossil depletion potential (3.62−213.56 kg oil-eq/t NH3), and ozone depletion potential (0.001−0.082 g CFC-11-eq/t NH3). In additio... [more]

Increasing restrictions on the emission of greenhouse gases by the standards and the European Union’s policy aims at increasing the share of renewable energy sources in the energy mix of the Member States. Subsequently, we observe a rapid increase in the installed capacity of the renewable energy sources. Renewable energy sources are currently the fastest growing sectors of energy generation, specifically the photovoltaic sector. In 2005, the total installed capacity in photovoltaic installations in the European Union was about 2.17 GW, while in 2019 it was already over 130 GW. Currently, due to many forms of incentive governmental measures the construction of photovoltaic installations is rapidly increasing with installations mounted on private houses and buildings. The article presents selected issues concerning the failure modes of photovoltaic installations and a comparative assessment of the estimated and the real measured electrical production of an operational photovoltaic insta... [more]

Passive thermal comfort has been widely used to test the thermal performance of a building. The science of active thermal comfort is important to be connected with the science of architecture. The currently developing active thermal comfort is adaptive thermal comfort. Vernacular houses are believed to be able to create thermal comfort for the inhabitants. The present study seeks to analyze the connection between the architectural elements of vernacular houses and adaptive thermal comfort. A mixed method was applied. A quantitative approach was used in the measurement of variables of climate, while a qualitative methodology was employed in an interview on thermal sensations. The connection between architectural elements and adaptive thermal comfort was analyzed by considering the correlation among architectural features, the analysis results of thermal comfort, and the Olgyay and psychrometric diagrams. At the beginning of the rainy season, residents of exposed stone houses had the hig... [more]

The major objective of this study is to identify and analyze cultural and economic barriers to sustained adoption of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) as the primary clean cooking energy in India, and examining underpinning values and norms in socio-technical energy system of the country. In 2016, the Government of India introduced a mega scheme called Ujjwala for clean cooking energy with LPG connects in women’s name. This policy, however, experienced limited implementation, but did lead to enhancing women’s agency in many areas. Women’s agency is defined briefly as their ability to set goals, develop capacities, and act on their defined goals to realize desired outcomes in wellbeing and capabilities. In the case of switching to clean cooking energy, the question can be posed as: as women are the ones who carry out most of the onerous work of collecting and cooking with wood, are they able to make decisions on the adoption of clean cooking fuel, that enhance their agency and the wellbeing... [more]

So far, little is known about the Business Model Canvas development in the energy sector. In this paper, we fill this knowledge gap and modify the Business Model Canvas. Based on the cause−effect analysis combined with the literature searching method, we suggest that Osterwalder’s Canvas for energy enterprise should be modified because the available Canvas adaptations cannot fully capture the energy enterprise’s business model or realise its business operations combined with the public interest. We propose a new original Canvas adaptation by adding two crucial blocks representing the mission, energy accountability, and impact on stakeholders in the Business Model Canvas. The findings make two main contributions. First, they contribute to developing entrepreneurship theory. We formulate an original definition of a business model, first showing the limitations of current definitions. We verify Chesbrough’s functions of business models. Second, compared to earlier business model framework... [more]

Effective solutions are needed to decrease the greenhouse gases emissions of the transport sector, not only in terms of supply-side measures, but also including demand-side solutions. This paper focuses on the passenger demand related to daily commuting, either for work or study purposes. A bottom-up analysis is presented, which draws from detailed data for Lombardy, the most populous region in Northern Italy, to build an estimate of the annual energy consumption and emissions related to commuting. The potential of different measures to decrease emissions is evaluated, including the renovation of the vehicle stock, higher levels of remote working, and the deployment of carpooling schemes. The results show that the largest part of the current emissions from commuting is caused by car use, both due to its higher modal share and to the higher specific emissions, which are in turn also contributed by the low occupancy rates. The renewal of the current vehicle stock can lead to significant... [more]

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) system, which can be used as a decision support tool for managing environmental sustainability, includes carbon footprint assessment as one of the available methodologies. In this study, a carbon footprint assessment was used to investigate seawater production systems of a desalination plant in Senok, Kelantan, Malaysia. Three stages of the desalination plant processing system were investigated and the inventory database was developed using the relevant model framework. Subsequently, measurements and interpretations were performed on several key indicators such as greenhouse gases, energy efficiency, acidic gases, smog, and toxic gases. Overall, the results of the study indicate that the Reverse Osmosis (RO) technology that is used in the desalination plant in the study area is one of the best options to meet the demands of the environmental sustainability agenda (SDGs). This is due to the lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, of about 3.5 × 10−2 kg of CO... [more]

It is important to effectively reduce carbon emissions and ensure the simultaneous adjustment of economic development and environmental protection. Therefore, we used Kaya identity to screen the factors influencing carbon emissions and conducted preliminary qualitative analyses, including grey relation analysis and linear regression analysis, on important variables to establish a vector autoregression (VAR) model based on their annual data to empirically analyze the influencing factors of carbon emissions. The results showed that economic growth effect, energy intensity effect and embodied carbon in foreign trade were the key factors affecting carbon emissions, among which the economic growth effect contributed the most. Accordingly, we propose countermeasures including technological innovation to reduce energy intensity, the development of new energy sources to improve energy structure, acceleration of industrial structure transfer, and optimization of trade structure.

Water flow forecasts are an essential information for energy production, management and hydropower control. Advanced actions to optimize electricity production can be taken based on predicted information. This work proposes an ensemble strategy using recurrent neural networks to generate a forecast of water flow at Jirau Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), installed on the Madeira River in Brazil. The ensemble strategy consists of combining three long short-term memory (LSTM) networks that model the Madeira River and two of its tributaries: Mamoré and Abunã rivers. The historical data from streamflow of the Madeira river and its tributaries are used to validate the ensemble LSTM model, where each time series of river tributaries are modeled separated by LSTM models and the result used as input for another LSTM model in order to forecast the streamflow of the main river. The experimental results present low errors for training and test sets for individual LSTM networks and ensemble model.... [more]

Recently, nanomaterial-based scintillators are newly emerging technologies for many research fields, including medical imaging, nuclear security, nuclear decommissioning, and astronomical applications, among others. To date, scintillators have played pivotal roles in the development of modern science and technology. Among them, plastic scintillators have a low atomic number and are mainly used for beta-ray measurements owing to their low density, but these types of scintillators can be manufactured not in large sizes but also in various forms with distinct properties and characteristics. However, the plastic scintillator is mainly composed of C, H, O and N, implying that the probability of a photoelectric effect is low. In a gamma-ray nuclide analysis, they are used for time-related measurements given their short luminescence decay times. Generally, inorganic scintillators have relatively good scintillation efficiency rates and resolutions. And there are thus widely used in gamma-ray s... [more]

The purpose of this paper is a multidimensional assessment of the diversification of economic development in EU countries in the context of the progress in the implementation of the concept of sustainable development in 2014 and 2019. The issues discussed in this article are topical and important, given that the spatial disparity of economic development in the EU has never been so pronounced as it is today. While there is a wealth of studies on economic development in the literature, research on the comprehensive approach to this problem in the relation of sustainable development appears to be rather scarce. The article emphasizes the role of energy in economic growth. Authors used taxonomic measures. They were constructed on the basis of selected methods of multidimensional comparative analysis. By using the Hellwig method and the TOPSIS method, taxonomic measures were constructed, and linear ordering of the EU countries was carried out. In addition, using the so-called threshold meth... [more]

The EU’s energy policy is geared towards introducing changes in order to stop or avoid negative climate change. The determinants of the energy policies of Poland and Germany are presented along with the priorities until 2050. The possibilities of reducing the impact of energy on the environment were interpreted, emphasizing its common goal. Activities supporting the EU and maintaining the level of energy security are indicated. Possible negative effects in the social and health sphere are presented as a response to the failure to implement these demands. The literature was analyzed and proprietary questionnaires were carried out, and the results realized in the EU by the independent FBI Economic Department were implemented. On the basis of earlier pilot studies, variants of a successful transformation were implemented, assuming different roles performed by a citizen (entrepreneur). Opportunities to tackle climate change and global challenges have been identified based on innovation and... [more]

Non-domestic buildings are frequently characterised as resistant to top-down low-carbon and energy-efficiency policy. Complex relationships amongst building stakeholders are often blamed. “Middle actors”—professionals situated between policymakers and building users—can use their agency and capacity to facilitate energy and carbon decision-making from the “middle-out”. We use semi-structured interviews with expert middle actors working with schools and commercial offices, firstly, to explore their experience of energy and low-carbon decision-making in buildings and, secondly, to reflect on the evolution of middle actors’ role within it. Our exploratory findings suggest that a situated sensitivity to organisational “pressure points” can enhance middle actors’ agency and capacity to catalyse change. We find shifts in the ecology of the “middle”, as the UK’s Net Zero and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) agendas pull in new middle actors (such as the financial community) and issu... [more]

The importance of medical waste management has grown during the COVID-19 pandemic because of the increase in medical waste quantity and the significant dangers of these highly infected wastes for human health and the environment. This innovative review focuses on the possibility of materials, gas/liquid/solid fuels, thermal energy, and electric power production from medical waste fractions. Appropriate and promising treatment/disposal technologies, such as (i) acid hydrolysis, (ii) acid/enzymatic hydrolysis, (iii) anaerobic digestion, (vi) autoclaving, (v) enzymatic oxidation, (vi) hydrothermal carbonization/treatment, (vii) incineration/steam heat recovery system, (viii) pyrolysis/Rankine cycle, (ix) rotary kiln treatment, (x) microwave/steam sterilization, (xi) plasma gasification/melting, (xii) sulfonation, (xiii) batch reactor thermal cracking, and (xiv) torrefaction, were investigated. The medical waste generation data were collected according to numerous researchers from various... [more]

High-temperature desulfurization techniques are fundamental for the development of reliable and efficient conversion systems of low-cost fuels and biomass that answer to the nowadays environmental and energy security issues. This is particularly true for biomass gasification coupled to SOFC systems where the sulfur content has to be minimized before being fed to the SOFC. Thus, commercially available zinc oxide has been studied and characterized as a desulfurizing agent in a fixed-bed reactor at high temperatures from 400 °C to 600 °C. The sorbent material was characterized by XRD, BET, SEM, and EDS analyses before and after adsorption. The sorbent’s sorption capacity has been evaluated at different temperatures, as well as the breakthrough curves. Moreover, the kinetic parameters as the initial sorption rate constant k0, the deactivation rate constant kd, and the activation energy have been calculated using the linearized deactivation model. The best performances have been obtained at... [more]

Many empirical studies have tested the linkage among CO2 emissions, economic growth, and consumption of energy; however, most have not tested the possible influence of insurance market development on their frameworks. This research aims to provide new perspectives on the empirical literature by exploring the role of insurance market development on environmental degradation. The study utilizes a new technique of the bootstrap Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) test as introduced by (McNown et al., 2018). The ARDL testing approach is utilized to explore the short and long linkage between the examined variables. Furthermore, the research utilized the Granger causality to explore the of causality linkage among the selected variables. The findings illustrate that economic growth and consumption of nonrenewable energy have positive influence on CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the findings illustrate that the insurance market development has a positive influence on the levels of Turkey’s carbo... [more]

Global economic growth, demographic explosion, digitization, increased mobility, and greater demand for heating and cooling due to climate change in different world areas are the main drivers for the surge in energy demand. The increase in energy demand is the basis of economic challenges for power companies alongside several socio-economic problems in communities, such as energy poverty, defined as the insufficient coverage of energy needs, especially in the residential sector. Two main strategies are considered to meet this increased demand. The first strategy focuses on new sustainable and eco-friendly modes of power generation, such as renewable energy resources and distributed energy resources. The second strategy is demand-side oriented rather than the supply side. Demand-side management, demand response (DR), and energy efficiency (EE) programs fall under this category. On the other hand, the decentralization and digitization of the energy sector convoyed by the emersion of new... [more]

The world has experienced increased impacts of anthropogenic global warming due to increased emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which include carbon dioxide (CO2). Anthropogenic activities that contribute to CO2 emissions include deforestation, usage of fertilizers, and activities related to mining and energy production. The main objective of this paper was to assess the impacts of agriculture and energy production on CO2 emissions in Zambia. This research used econometric analysis, specifically the Autoregressive-Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds Test, to analyze the relationship between CO2 emissions and GDP, electricity consumption, agricultural production, and industry value added. The results showed the presence of cointegration, where the variables of CO2 emissions, GDP, electricity, and agriculture converge to a long-run equilibrium at the rate of 74%. Further, there was a short-run causality towards CO2 emissions running from agriculture and the consumption of energy as indicate... [more]