Ongoing reductions in the costs of solar PV and battery technologies have contributed to an increased use of home energy systems in Sub-Saharan African regions without grid access. However, such systems can normally support only low-power end uses, and there has been little research regarding the impact on households unable to transition to higher-wattage energy services in the continued absence of the grid. This paper examines the challenges facing rural energy transitions and whether households feel they are energy ‘locked in’. A mixed-methods approach using questionnaire-based household energy surveys of rural solar home system (SHS) users was used to collect qualitative and quantitative data. Thematic analysis and a mixture of descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were applied. The results showed that a significant number of households possessed appliances that could not be powered by their SHS and were willing to spend large sums to connect were a higher-capacity option... [more]

Technological Innovation Systems theory, and its “functions” framework, have demonstrated their value as tools for exploring socio-technological transitions. Although the “seven functions” model has demonstrated its academic value across a vast literature, there have been few attempts to explore the model through the lens of industry stakeholder opinion. We believe that involving a relevant stakeholder group offers the potential for validating this approach, and even potentially enriching it. This research aims to address that shortfall. In 32 interviews with senior participants in the UK offshore wind, tidal stream and wave sectors and associated supply chain, policy makers, support organisations and other stakeholders, the validity of the seven well-established “Hekkert” functions was tested. The research found that the interviewees confirmed that all seven functions were necessary in characterising the emergence of the focal technologies, and analysis of the interviews allowed the d... [more]

Investment is an essential engine of economic growth and a major source of China’s CO2 emission. It is therefore crucial to explore the gravity movement and decoupling state of China’s CO2 emission embodied in fixed capital formation (FCF). This study aims to estimate China’s CO2 emissions embodied in various categories of FCF by using input−output tables. The gravity model and Shapley decomposition method are used to explore the gravity movement and regional contributions for China’s CO2 emissions embodied in FCF. Then, the Tapio decoupling model and logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method are combined to uncover the decoupling relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth embodied in FCF and the corresponding driving factors. The results show that China’s CO2 emissions embodied in FCF experienced a rapid increase during 2002−2012 and remained almost stable during 2012−2017. The gravity center for CO2 emissions embodied in FCF moved toward northwest during 2002−2015, wit... [more]

In 2008, the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE TM46 UC) presented an annual-fixed thermal energy benchmark of 240 kWh/m2/yr for university campus (UC) buildings as an attempt to reduce energy consumption in public buildings. However, the CIBSE TM46 UC benchmark fails to consider the difference between energy demand in warm and cold months, as the thermal performance of buildings largely depends on the ambient temperature. This paper presents a new generation of monthly thermal energy benchmarks (MTEBs) using two computational methods including mixed-use model and converter model, which consider the variations of thermal demand throughout a year. MTEBs were generated using five basic variables, including mixed activities in the typical college buildings, university campus revised benchmark (UCrb), typical operation of heating systems, activities impact, and heating degree days. The results showed that MTEBs vary from 24 kWh/m2/yr in January to one and nearly ze... [more]

This paper argues that energy systems are becoming increasingly complex, and illustrates how new types of hazards emerge from an ongoing transition towards renewable energy sources. It shows that the energy sector relies heavily on risk assessment methods that are analytic, and that systemic methods provide important additional insights. A case study of the Dutch gas sector illustrates this by comparing the hazard and operability study (HAZOP, analytic) with the system-theoretic process analysis (STPA, systemic). The contribution is twofold. This paper illustrates how system hazards will remain underestimated by sustained use of only analytic methods, and it highlights the need to study the organization of safety in energy transitions. We conclude that appropriate risk assessment for future energy systems involves both analytic and systemic risk assessments.

This paper analyzes the impact of policy changes on the Romanian renewable energy producers. Attracted by a generous subsidy scheme, foreign and domestic investors flocked to the market. Consequently, the sector witnessed remarkable progress, especially in the wind power category. Romania fast approached the national target set by the European Union concerning the share of the country’s energy consumption from renewable sources. However, frequent changes in the support scheme and in the regulations issued by public authorities led to chaos. The aim of the paper was to emphasize the evolution of renewable energy policy in Romania, to investigate the incentives and their effects, and to critically assess the impact of the changes on renewable energy producers. It highlights, by means of an exploratory study and several interviews with executives of renewable energy companies, the challenges and shortcomings of policymaking. The main finding was that the revision of the subsidy scheme and... [more]

Electric supply is listed as one of the basic amenities of sustainable development in Malaysia. Under this key contributing factor, the sustainable development goal aims to ensure universal access to an affordable, clean, and reliable energy service. To support the generation capacity in years to come, distributed generation is conceptualized through stages upon its implementation in the power system network. However, the rapid establishment growth of distributed generation technology in Malaysia will invoke power quality problems in the current power system network. In order to prevent this, the current government is committed to embark on the development of renewable technologies with the assurance of maintaining the quality of power delivered to consumers. Therefore, this research paper will focus on the review of the energy prospect of both fossil fuel and renewable energy generation in Malaysia and other countries, followed by power quality issues and compensation device under a h... [more]

As Germany struggles to meet its near-term emissions reduction targets in lagging sectors like heating or transport, the need to identify energy transition pathways beyond power generation is urgent. This paper presents an investigation of tangible and climate-friendly transformation paths to replace the existing coal-fired units used for heat and power generation in Berlin with a largely CO2-free innovative technology mix. Although the literature has extensively covered the decarbonization of the power generation sector on different geographic scales, few studies have focused on the decarbonization of the heat sector in cities with large district heating networks, like Berlin. This paper aims to fill this gap. The proposed methodology combines three key elements: (1) scenario analysis including high-fidelity models of the European power market and the heat demand in Berlin, (2) evaluation of energy potential from low-carbon alternative sources, and (3) a techno-economic portfolio opti... [more]

The increase in ambient particulate matter (PM) is affecting not only our daily life but also various industries. To cope with the issue of PM, which has been detrimental to the population of megacities, an advanced demand response (DR) program is established by Korea Power Exchange (KPX) to supplement existing policies in Korea. Ironically, however, DR programs have been launched hurriedly, creating problems for several stakeholders such as local governments, market operators, and DR customers. As an alternative, a method for predicting and categorizing the PM through deep learning and fuzzy inference is suggested in this study. The simulation results based on Seoul data show that the proposed model can overcome the problems related to current DR programs and policy loopholes and can provide improvements for some stakeholders. However, the proposed model also has some limitations, which require an in-depth policy consideration or an incentive system for power generation companies.

This paper aims to explore the evolution of bioenergy from a comprehensive and dynamic perspective and study how stakeholders in the industry exert influence during the development. Taking the development of bioenergy in the Yangtze River Delta as an example, the research builds a dynamic network of bioenergy stakeholders from a social network analysis method. This paper selects six typical cities and six stakeholder groups in the Yangtze River Delta to conduct field surveys and interviews. This study integrates social network analysis with multilevel perspective theory to analyse the evolution of bioenergy from a dynamic perspective. The results show that the relationship among the stakeholders is a network based on central stakeholders involved in the material flow and is affected by multiple peripheral stakeholders. Through the analysis of the dynamic evolution relationship between stakeholders, this paper reveals the existing problems during the development of bioenergy in the Yang... [more]

In the face of severe air pollution and implementation of energy and climate policy, it remains a challenge to develop effective strategies addressing the problem of solid fuels use in single-family houses (SFH) in rural areas in Poland. This study investigated the correlations between thermal modernization of SFH, the changes of heat sources from coal to clean energy, including heat pumps driven by prosumers’ photovoltaic (PV) installation, and the disposable income of households in Polish rural areas. It also provided an analysis of the current support mechanisms promoting energy efficiency and PV development. The application of simulation modelling of energy consumption and costs in the research has proved that comprehensive thermal modernization of rural SFH constructed in the period of 1945−1970 and investments supporting PV/heat pump systems would enable the most cost-effective way of heating to be implemented. Considering that, today, spending on energy for heat puts a burden on... [more]

Solar hybrid mini-grid systems possess the potential to substantially support electrification in sub-Saharan Africa. While their technical reliability has been proven, their financial viability is achieved only by heavy subsidization as of now. Due to the growing importance of results-based financing, we ask whether newly developed business models leveraging on the value added of electricity supply in rural areas (such as the KeyMaker Model) bare the potential to substantially reduce amount of grants required to finance the initial capital investment and thus contribute to a sustainable form of development. The principle of the KeyMaker Model is based on utilizing the locally supplied mini-grid electricity to establish a local agro-processing project, the revenues of which are an additional income stream for the mini-grid operator, while the project creates an end-market for the local farmers to sell their produce. We have developed two scenarios (without and with KeyMaker Model) for f... [more]

Energy efficiency measures and the deployment of renewable energy are commonly presented as two sides of the same coin—as necessary and synergistic measures to decarbonize energy systems and reach the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement. Here, we quantitatively investigate the policies and performances of the EU Member States to see whether renewables and energy efficiency policies are politically synergistic or if they rather compete for political attention and resources. We find that Member States, especially the ones perceived as climate leaders, tend to prioritize renewables over energy efficiency in target setting. Further, almost every country performs well in either renewable energy or energy efficiency, but rarely performs well in both. We find no support for the assertion that the policies are synergistic, but some evidence that they compete. However, multi-linear regression models for performance show that performance, especially in energy efficiency, is also strongly as... [more]

This study discovered market determinants of credit default swap (CDS) spreads in the North American oil and gas industry. Due to the limited theoretical background on market sources of CDS price fluctuations, we chose to alleviate model uncertainty and possible misspecification issues using Bayesian model averaging. This robust framework allowed us to aggregate results from a vast number of linear panel models estimated over the 2017−2020 period. We identified oil price volatility, major shifts in the OPEC+ supply policy, natural gas prices and industrial metal prices as the most robust determinants of CDS spreads. We show that following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, oil prices ceased to be a notably important determinant of credit risk, as factors indirectly related to oil prices, such as global and sectoral uncertainty, financial conditions and the macroeconomic stance became more influential. Additionally, we show that the CDS spreads of shale companies are determined by simi... [more]

Energy storage technology plays a significant role in the pursuit of the high-quality development of the electricity market. Many regions in China have issued policies and regulations of different intensities for promoting the popularization of the energy storage industry. Based on a variety of initial conditions of different regions, this paper explores the evolutionary process of electricity market players considering energy storage technology. The trilateral evolutionary game model is adopted to analyze the strategies of the power plant, the power grid, and the government. After assigning the model according to an actual situation, each equilibrium point corresponds to a real electricity market situation. The results indicate the following: (1) In the process of stabilizing, the role of “Advanced Imitators” leading the strategy of building energy storage changes between the power plant and the power grid. (2) In Eastern, Middle, and Southern China, the power plants and power grids o... [more]

Electrically assisted bicycles are anticipated to become an effective tool to limit not only the use of cars in cities but also their negative impact on health, the environment, and passenger transportation in cities. In this paper, we examine the effects of implementing the first fully electric bike (e-bike) sharing system in the Metropolitan Area of Gdańsk−Gdynia−Sopot in Northern Poland, where no other bike sharing system had been introduced before. The aims of this article were to determine the impact of the new e-bike sharing system on the modal choice of citizens, identify barriers to its usage, and find differences between the usage of the system in the core of the metropolitan area and in the suburbs. We used two primary data sets: the survey data collected using the computer-assisted personal interviewing technique (CAPI technique) and the data automatically acquired from the website that monitored the system activities. We performed the analysis by using nonparametric tests a... [more]

Policy and electricity price uncertainty provide disincentives to investors considering renewable energy investments. While electricity price uncertainty impacts on investment decisions relating to any energy investment, whether renewable or non-renewable, policy uncertainty will affect renewable energy investment decisions to a far greater extent. In this study, we consider the two main sources of uncertainty a solar Photovoltaic (PV) project is exposed to: electricity price uncertainty and policy uncertainty. We focus our analysis on utility-scale solar photovoltaics in the Pennsylvania, Jersey, Maryland Power Pool (PJM) electricity market and the New Jersey Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) market. Using Solar Renewable Energy Credits as a proxy for policy, we find that there is considerable volatility in both electricity prices and policy. In a sample covering eleven years, we implement univariate Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedastic (GARCH) and combinations of... [more]

The latest pre-production vehicles on the market show that the major technical challenges posed by integrating a fuel cell system (FCS) within a vehicle—compactness, safety, autonomy, reliability, cold starting—have been met. Regarding the ongoing maturity of fuel cell systems dedicated to road transport, the present article examines the advances still needed to move from a functional but niche product to a mainstream consumer product. It seeks to address difficulties not covered by more traditional innovation approaches. At least in long-distance heavy-duty vehicles, fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) are going to play a key role in the path to zero-emissions in one or two decades. Hence the present study also addresses the structuring elements of the complete chain: the latter includes the production, storage and distribution of hydrogen. Green hydrogen appears to be one of the potential uses of renewable energies. The greener the electricity is, the greater the advantage for hydrogen since i... [more]

Positive Energy Districts and Neighborhoods (PEDs) are seen as a promising pathway towards sustainable urban areas. Several cities have already taken up such PED-related developments. To support such approaches, European countries joined forces to achieve 100 PEDs until 2025 through a comprehensive research and innovation program. A solid understanding and consideration of cities’ strategies, experiences and project features serve as the basis for developing and designing the PED program. JPI Urban Europe has been collecting information on projects towards sustainable urbanization and the energy transition across Europe. The collected cases are summarized in a PED Booklet whose update was recently published on the JPI Urban Europe website. Results presented in this paper provide insights from the analysis of 61 projects in Europe and offer recommendations for future PED developments.

Motivated by the environmental challenges and the increase in energy demand, this review assesses the suitability of nuclear power production as an alternative option to using fossil fuels. First, we assess the competitiveness of nuclear power compared to other power sources considering its economic efficiency, environmental impact and implications for health, and conclude that this is a viable option to serve in addition to and as a backup to renewable sources. Second, we review previous findings in various fields on advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power technology and conclude that there is a gap between reality and perception. Third, we discuss challenges related to nuclear weapons proliferation and misperceived public opinion on nuclear power. We conclude that the gap between perception and reality stems from a lack of consolidated interdisciplinary view, media communications focusing mainly on unilateral assessments.

The improvement of energy efficiency ensuring high nutrients removal is a great concern for many wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The energy balance of a WWTP can be improved through the application of highly efficient digestion or its intensification, e.g., through the introduction of the co-substrates with relatively high energy potential to the sewage sludge (SS). In the present study, the overview of the energetic aspect of the Polish WWTPs was presented. The evaluation of energy consumption at individual stages of wastewater treatment along with the possibilities of its increasing was performed. Additionally, the influence of co-digestion process implementation on the energy efficiency of a selected WWTP in Poland was investigated. The evaluation was carried out for a WWTP located in Iława. Both energetic and treatment efficiency were analyzed. The energy balance evaluation of this WWTP was also performed. The obtained results indicated that the WWTP in Iława produced on avera... [more]

Energy transition is a result of mankind’s reaction to climate change and individuals are expected to have a crucial role in achieving it in developed countries. The purpose of this study is to apply the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) tool and investigate the social performance of the Dutch energy transition while focusing on individual behavior, and if this is not possible, to develop indicators focusing on individual behavior dimension. The social performance of the energy transition in the Netherlands was assessed on a hotspot level. Additionally, the S-LCA guidelines were examined to identify the human dimension and behavior in the existing subcategories, and environmental psychology literature was explored to identify drivers and behavior that are important for the energy transition. Existing subcategories fail to show the extent of social progress of the Dutch energy transition nor how individuals perceive it. As a result, a total of 8 subcategories and 25 indicators at a h... [more]

The trend in energy consumption, with a particular focus on heating and cooling demand, is an issue that is relevant to the promotion of new energy policies and more efficient energy systems. Moreover, heating and cooling energy demand is expected to rise in the next several decades, mainly due to climate change as well as increasing incomes in developing countries. In this context, the building sector is currently a relevant energy-intensive economic sector in Morocco; it accounts for 33% of the country’s total energy demand (as the sector with the second highest energy demand, after the transport sector), with the residential sector accounting for 25% and the tertiary sector accounting for 8%. Aiming to reduce energy dependence and promote sustainable development, the Moroccan government recently issued a comprehensive plan to increase the share of renewables and improve energy efficiency. This strategy includes novel thermal building regulations promoted by the Moroccan Agency for E... [more]

Energy usage in buildings is coming increasingly under the spotlight as carbon policy focus shifts towards the utilization of thermal energy. In the UK, heating and hot water accounts for around 40% of energy consumption and 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. Heating is typically produced onsite, making widescale carbon or energetic improvements challenging. District heating networks (DHNs) can offer significant carbon reduction for many users but can only be implemented if the end user buildings have good thermal energy efficiency. This greatly limits the ability to implement advancing 4th and 5th generation DHNs, which are the most advanced systems available. We elucidate the current state of thermal efficiency in buildings in the UK and provide recommendations for necessary building requirements and modifications in order to accommodate 4th and 5th generation district heating. We conclude that key sectors must be addressed including creating a skilled workforce, producing relevant met... [more]

Industrial energy flexibility enables companies to optimize their energy-associated production costs and support the energy transition towards renewable energy sources. The first step towards achieving energy flexible operation in a production facility is to identify and characterize the energy flexibility measures available in the industrial systems that comprise it. These industrial systems are both the manufacturing systems that directly execute the production tasks and the systems performing supporting tasks or tasks necessary for the operation of these manufacturing systems. Energy flexibility measures are conscious and quantifiable actions to carry out a defined change of operative state in an industrial system. This work proposes a methodology to identify and characterize the available energy flexibility measures in industrial systems regardless of the task they perform in the facility. This methodology is the basis of energy flexibility-oriented industrial energy audits, in jux... [more]