The term “energy security” is used almost everywhere in economic and political discussions related to energy supply. However, different authors use different meanings to express the concept of energy security. Quite often, this term is used to give more importance or relevance to issues that are often not inherently related to energy security. Attempts to define the essence of the concept of “energy security” have hitherto not been systematic and are characterized by a variety of approaches, and some insufficient justification especially in the aspect of state national security is notable. Our contribution to the discourse development is the consideration of energy security as part of internationally recognized indices that are developed to assess the temperature of world security. A regression modeling approach to test the crucial factors of social-economic development that impact the energy security indicators is presented. The literature analysis and review of the world’s existing n... [more]

Datahubs step forth as convenient test beds for innovative solutions to create value from the energy data. There are numerous pilots and early trials for establishing energy Datahubs, especially in northern Europe. These are all centralised models, and the centralisation of data control and value creation can be regarded as contradictory to the decentralisation trend in the energy sector. This paper attempts to design the first decentralised energy Datahub ecosystem’s business ecosystem, with the name DenHub, using Blockchain technology. This model enables easy access to transparent and flexible energy data and new business models that will emerge upon its use. All data produced, distributed, used, and curated will help researchers and entrepreneurs study this field and propose new business models to make the energy ecosystem more efficient, clean, and inclusive. The paper also presents the differences between centralised and decentralised methods by underlining the advantages and disa... [more]

A large portion of food loss and waste (FSL) is comprised of seeds and stones. Exotic fruits such as mangoes, lychees and avocados, in which the seeds account for a significant part of the weight and volume of the entire product, are most affected by this problem. The seeds contain a large quantity of polyphenols and essential nutrients, which makes them a good material for extraction. However, conventional extraction techniques are considered time-consuming, and therefore significantly limit their use on an industrial scale. An alternative method of managing the seeds may be their energy utilization. In this study, torrefaction was proposed as a method for the valorization of exotic fruit seeds (mango, lychee, avocado). Thus, the influence of torrefaction temperature (200−300 °C) on the physical-chemical properties of substrates was investigated. The obtained results revealed that, in relation to the unprocessed raw materials, the torreficates are characterized by improved hydrophobic... [more]

The key direction of political actions in the field of sustainable development of the energy sector and economy is the process of energy transformation (decarbonization) and increasing the share of renewable energy sources (RES) in the supply of primary energy. Regardless of the indisputable advantages, RES are referred to as unstable energy sources. A possible solution might be the development of the concept of hydrogen supply chains, especially the so-called green hydrogen obtained in the process of electrolysis from electricity produced from RES. The aim of the research undertaken in the article is to identify the scope of research carried out in the area of hydrogen supply chains and to link this research with the issues of the operation of electricity distribution networks powered by RES. As a result of the scoping review, and the application of the text-mining method using the IRaMuTeQ tool, which includes the analysis of the content of 12 review articles presenting the current r... [more]

In the literature, the linkage between income, energy, and carbon emissions has been widely examined and most of the empirical studies have not investigated the impact of the real estate market on their empirical models. Our study endeavors to present a novel topic by investigating the influence of the real estate market on Turkey’s environmental quality, using an advanced method of the Bootstrap Autoregressive Distributed Lag (BARDL). We estimate that consumption of renewable energy contributes significantly to CO2 emissions, while real income increases the environmental degradation in both the short and long run. Furthermore, our study demonstrates that the real estate market contributes negatively to the deduction of carbon emissions in Turkey. A one percent increase in the real estate market will cause a rise in Turkey’s carbon level by 0.010% and 0.009% in the short and long term, respectively. Our research suggests that Turkey should design new strategies for sustainable real est... [more]

The evolution of electricity markets has led to increasingly complex energy trading dynamics and the integration of renewable energy sources as well as the influence of several external market factors contributed towards price volatility. Therefore, day-ahead electricity price forecasting models, typically using some kind of neural network, play a crucial role in the optimal behavior of market agents. The most prominent models and benchmarks rely on improving the accuracy of predictions and the time for convergence by some sort of a priori processing of the dataset that is used for the training of the neural network, such as hyperparameter tuning and feature selection techniques. What has been overlooked so far is the possible benefit of a posteriori processing, which would consider the effects of parameters that could refine the predictions once they have been made. Such a parameter is the estimation of the residual training error. In this study, we investigate the effect of residual... [more]

(1) The German energy system transformation towards an entirely renewable supply is expected to incorporate the extensive use of green hydrogen. This carbon-free fuel allows the decarbonization of end-use sectors such as industrial high-temperature processes or heavy-duty transport that remain challenging to be covered by green electricity only. However, it remains unclear whether the current legislative framework supports green hydrogen production or is an obstacle to its rollout. (2) This work analyzes the relevant laws and ordinances regarding their implications on potential hydrogen production plant operators. (3) Due to unbundling-related constraints, potential operators from the group of electricity transport system and distribution system operators face lacking permission to operate production plants. Moreover, ownership remains forbidden for them. The same applies to natural gas transport system operators. The case is less clear for natural gas distribution system operators, wh... [more]

Because of disruptive changes in energy businesses and services, as well as changes in people’s lifestyles around the world, energy demand and consumption have risen quickly in recent decades. A household energy awareness literature review was conducted. The survey was conducted in Poland with over 1097 respondents. Additionally, it was given a qualitative analysis. At the same time, in order to consider why energy consumption in households is increasing, a traditional quality management tool was used—the Ishikawa diagram. The Pareto−Lorenz diagram was used to analyze the causes of the increase in energy consumption in households. A model of the causes of increasing energy consumption in households has been built. The researchers calculated the chi-square test, which allows them to determine Pearson’s C coefficient. The C-Pearson coefficient can be calculated using the Chi square value. The results of the study clearly show that the respondents have knowledge of energy and the factors... [more]

The goal of this paper is to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature about the sustainability of digitalization in the energy sector in order to capture the main challenges and trends in the transition towards it. The bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature was carried out by interrogating the Scopus database, using a set of keywords considered relevant for the analyzed field and for the goal of the proposed research. The purpose of the study was, on the one hand, the depth of the research into these topics during the 2013−2021 period, in terms of the number of scientific papers, the topic, abstract and keywords associated, the geographical area of origin and the authors’ affiliation and on the other hand, an analysis of the existence of possible links between these topics formulated through three hypotheses. The results obtained reveal the researchers’ concerns for digitalization in the energy sector, the existing correlations between the keywords analy... [more]

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a bridging point between the old, neoclassical, growth-based model of the economy and newer, emerging paradigms, such as the well-being economy. The importance of growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is recognized within the SDGs, however, in addition, Target 19 of Goal 17 advocates the adoption of alternative measures of economic well-being. The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) has been found to be the indicator of alternative economic well-being most aligned with the SDGs. On the basis that increased, high-quality energy use leads to expanded macro-economic activity, as measured by GDP, this study conducts a conceptual exploration of the extent to which the pursuit of sustainable energy development (SED) can enhance GPI outcomes. Based on a recent Icelandic GPI study, a total of 46 SED themes were found to be linkable to 16 of its 39 sub-indicators, including 8 cost deductions and 7 benefit additions. The frequency of these was as... [more]

Data are an important asset that the electric power industry have available today to support management decisions, excel in operational efficiency, and be more competitive. The advent of smart grids has increased power grid sensorization and so, too, the data availability. However, the inability to recognize the value of data beyond the siloed application in which data are collected is seen as a barrier. Power load time series are one of the most important types of data collected by utilities, because of the inherent information in them (e.g., power load time series comprehend human behavior, economic momentum, and other trends). The area of time series analysis in the energy domain is attracting considerable interest because of growing available data as more sensorization is deployed in power grids. This study considers the shapelet technique to create interpretable classifiers for four use cases. The study systematically applied the shapelet technique to data from different hierarchi... [more]

Buildings worldwide use a large amount of energy and, hence, contribute to increasing the level of greenhouse gases emission (GHG). It was realized that most electrical energy is used in buildings for heating, cooling, and ventilation purposes. To deal with environmental issues, the concepts of renewable energies and clean or green energy sources have been a part of academic discussions. A review of the literature unveils that most of the prior research in the GHG domain focused on the production side of producing renewable energy by opting for different cleaner energy sources (for example, solar energy). Although such studies have contributed significantly to advancing the field, it is also important to change the energy consumption behavior at the level of individuals for decarbonization. However, such a debate to promote the pro-environmental behavior (PEB) of employees from the perspective of energy consumption remains an understudied area. Against this backdrop, this research was... [more]

The aim of the paper is to analyze how regulatory design and its framework’s topics, other than macroeconomic factors, might impact green innovation by taking into consideration a brand-new renewable source of energy that is becoming more and more important in recent years: hydrogen and fuel cell patenting activities. Such activities have been used as a proxy for green technological change in a panel data of 52 countries over a 6-year period. A series of sectorial, energy regulation, and macroeconomic variables were tested to assess their impact on that technological frontier of green energy transition policy. As might have been expected, the empirical analysis carried out with the model that was prefigured confirms significant evidence of lock-in effects on fossil fuel policies. The model confirms, however, another evidence: countries already investing in renewables might be willing to invest in hydrogen projects. A sort of reinforcement to the further development of green sustainable... [more]

China agricultural development has been facing the problem of resource constraints because its resources per capita such as land and energy are relatively lower than the global average. By applying the provincial agricultural panel data from 2000 to 2015 and fixed effect model based on the translog production function, this paper estimates both output elasticities and substitution elasticities of agricultural inputs, which may provide insights into sustainable agricultural development. The results show that, except for capital, the output elasticities of other production factors are all positive. Energy has always played an important role in agricultural production, whose elasticity in agriculture increased from 0.0203 in 2000 to 0.1694 in 2015. We also find a severe scarcity of land, and the high intensity of energy in the field of agriculture. Moreover, there exists a substitute relationship between all factors, which means that in the short term, one production factor can be employe... [more]

Morocco has resolutely committed to the green transition of its economy by opting for industry decarbonation, which now imposes itself as an essential access criterion to foreign markets. Intending to include energy efficiency in the leading players in energy-intensive industries, this paper has the main objective of contributing to a better understanding of the decarbonation plans potential impact, taking the example of solar energy integrating opportunities as an action for a thrifty, sustainable, and low carbon Moroccan industry. Indeed, the paper focuses on the industrial textile sector, such as the energy-intensive industry. This sector is the first employer and the most important industrial activity; it is also an icon and the oldest industry in Morocco. This study examines the energy, economic and environmental fallout, evaluating the productions, the investment and the CO2 emissions limit. Besides, the energy industrial sector is characterized by a strong dependence on fossil i... [more]

An increasing amount of CO2 emissions from the household sector of Iran led us to analyze the inequality and understand the possible driving force behind the CO2 emissions. The study of inequality provides information to policy-makers to point policies in the right direction. By considering the differences in the socio-economic factors of provinces, the study aims to analyze the inequality in CO2 emissions and different kinds of energy consumption, including oil, gas and electricity, for the household sector of Iran’s provinces between 2000 and 2017. For this aim, the Theil index and Kaya factor, as a simple and common method, were considered to evaluate the inequality in both CO2 emissions and energy consumption, and determine the driving factor behind CO2 emissions. According to the results, inequality in oil and natural gas consumption were increasing, electricity was almost constant; however, CO2 emissions experienced a decreasing trend for the study period. The Theil index changed... [more]

Both electrical and thermal efficiencies combine in determining and evaluating the performance of a PV/T collector. In this study, two PV/T systems consisting of poly and monocrystalline PV panels were used, which are connected from the bottom by a heat exchanger consisting of a spiral tube through which a nanofluid circulates. In this study, a base fluid, water, and ethylene glycol were used, and iron oxide nanoparticles (nano-Fe2O3) were used as an additive. The mixing was carried out according to the highest specifications adopted by the researchers, and the thermophysical properties of the fluid were carefully examined. The prepared nanofluid properties showed a limited effect of the nanoparticles on the density and viscosity of the resulting fluid. As for the thermal conductivity, it increased by increasing the mass fraction added to reach 140% for the case of adding 2% of nano-Fe2O3. The results of the zeta voltage test showed that the supplied suspensions had high stability. Whe... [more]

This work presents new data on the life cycle impact assessment of various lignocellulosic biomass types in Mexico. A comparative life cycle assessment model of biomass densification systems was conducted. An integrated approach that incorporated various process variables, such as technology and variations in feed properties, within the analysis was employed to evaluate the environmental impact of producing 1 MJ of energy-containing densified fuel. The results show that the densification unit and curing (fuel drying) have the highest impact on the life cycle’s operational energy and the total life cycle energy, respectively. Of all the 33 biomass types from the 17 species sources considered in this study, sweet sorghum and sandbur grass have the highest global warming potential, 0.26 and 0.24 (kg CO2-eq), and human toxicity 0.58 and 0.53 (kg 1,4-dichlorobenzene-eq), respectively, while coffee pulp and cooperi pine wood have the least impact in both categories, with values of 0.08 and 0... [more]

While the contribution of renewable energy technologies to the energy system is increasing, so is its level of complexity. In addition to new types of consumer systems, the future system will be characterized by volatile generation plants that will require storage technologies. Furthermore, a solid interconnected system that enables the transit of electrical energy can reduce the need for generation and storage systems. Therefore, appropriate methods are needed to analyze energy production and consumption interactions within different system constellations. Energy system models can help to understand and build these future energy systems. However, although various energy models already exist, none of them can cover all issues related to integrating renewable energy systems. The existing research gap is also reflected in the fact that current models cannot model the entire energy system for very high shares of renewable energies with high temporal resolution (15 min or 1-h steps) and hi... [more]

Over 30% of the world’s land area is covered by forests. Approximately 761 million m3 of wood is harvested annually in Europe (2017). The aim of the paper is to assess the amount of wood (biomass) produced in Europe per year, as it determines the amount of carbon dioxide released from wood because of combustion for heating and energy purposes. The circular bioeconomy was applied as the theoretical framework for this study. The study employs official statistics on material flows and also uses a technology assessment, which allows for more precise estimations. It can be estimated that 110 million tons of harvested woody biomass are converted into energy every year. This constitutes nearly 69% of processed wood, with burned wood treated as zero-emission. From the analysis of the compiled results, it can be concluded that, in Europe, more than 50% of the mass of raw wood material harvested per year is used for energy in the first stage of processing by manufacturing industries. These proce... [more]

Thailand is an agricultural country with several agro-industrial by-products that can be processed into fuels. Although producing ethanol from agro-industrial by-products is an interesting option, the process of distilling ethanol from fermented agricultural products requires a high temperature to increase the ethanol concentration from 10% to 95%. In this research, solar ethanol distillation equipment incorporating a solar parabolic collector with a vacuum heat absorber tube to increase efficiency by reducing heat loss was designed and developed. An electronic device was used to control the distillation process, maintain the required temperature, and make suitable adjustments to the solar radiation acceptance angles of the parabolic solar collector. Ethanol dilution at concentrations of 10%, 15%, and 20%, and Sato (Thai Rice Wine) were used as the reactant in the distillation process. The result of distilling ethanol distillation with a semi-automatic control using a vacuum-tube parab... [more]

Road lighting is essential to ensure the safety and comfort of its users, especially in preventing accidents and aiding visual tasks. The monumental shift from conventional road lighting technology to light-emitting diode (LED) lighting is driven by energy efficiency, associated cost savings, and environmental concerns in the road lighting system. This study aims to investigate the performance of LED in substitution for high-pressure sodium vapour (HPSV) road lighting in Penang Bridge, Malaysia using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a frontier-based optimisation approach, by modelling energy, cost, and environment together, as none of the previous studies has included energy, cost, and environmental concerns together in one model. The LED renewable energy industry that promotes zero carbon emissions has the potential to establish an affordable, clean, and carbon-free energy system for road lighting, especially in rural areas.

According to Thomson Reuters DataStream database, 22,458 merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions with a deal value exceeding 7016 billion Euros have occurred in the energy worldwide sector during 1995−2020. International M&A enable promotion of sustainable competitive advantages, accelerates industry developments and helps to promote sustainable social and economic development. Our research aims to systemize empirical studies, which would enable assessment of the relationship between M&A transactions and the principles of sustainable development in the energy sector. To do so, SALSA (search, appraisal, synthesis and analysis) methodology with additional snowballing technique (chain-referral sampling) is conducted. The current research contributes to existing knowledge by providing an extensive systematic literature review of the academic publications on sustainable development and M&A deals. This paper may be insightful for practitioners and scholars because it highlights the most re... [more]

As the number of threats and the severity of their impact increases, an ever greater emphasis is being placed on the protection of critical infrastructure. Thus, the issue of resilience, or its assessment and strengthening, is increasingly coming to the fore. The resilience assessment of critical infrastructure, especially in the energy sector, has received considerable attention due to the high level of interest in this issue. However, the issue of strengthening resilience poses a significant challenge not only in the energy sector but also in the entire critical infrastructure system. Despite the great importance of this area, there is not a large number of authors moving in this direction and paying attention to resilience-strengthening tools. For this reason, the aim of this article is to provide the reader with a comprehensive methodological overview of resilience strengthening in the critical energy infrastructure sector. This article also provides an overview of internal and ext... [more]

Biogas production is a process with great potential. It uses the biodegradable raw materials of animal, vegetable and municipal waste. The amount of municipal as well as agricultural waste is increasing every year. This waste is an unmanaged and nuisance waste, and using it in biogas plants reduces the amount of waste. Biogas production is part of the EU’s policy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and use energy from renewable sources (diversification of energy sources). Its importance is certain to increase in the future as energy demand increases. This article deals with the economical use of biodegradable waste for biogas production in Poland and Germany. Both countries have a similar agricultural and municipal waste structure. An agricultural biogas plant is one way of obtaining energy based on renewable energy sources (RES). Energy production from agricultural biogas will allow Poland to meet the 32% obligation imposed by the EU and Germany to continue to be the market leader in... [more]