In order to combat climate change, many countries have promised to bolster Renewable Energy (RE) production following the Paris Agreement with some countries even setting a goal of 100% by 2025. The reasons are twofold: capitalizing on carbon emissions whilst concomitantly benefiting from reduced fossil fuel dependence and the fluctuations associated with imported fuel prices. However, numerous countries have not yet made preparations to increase RE production and integration. In many instances, this reluctance seems to be predominant in energy-rich countries, which typically provide heavy subsidies on electricity prices. With such subsidies, there is no incentive to invest in RE since the time taken to recoup such investments would be significant. We develop a model using a Neural Network (NN) regression algorithm to quantitatively illustrate this conjecture and also use it to predict the reduction in electricity price subsidies required to achieve a specified RE production target. Th... [more]

The equipment energy efficiency improvement policy (EEEIP) is one of the important measures of energy conservation and emission reduction in various countries. However, due to the simultaneous implementation of variety policies, the effect of the single policy cannot be clearly reflected. In this paper, a method of identification and evaluation of EEEIP was proposed, and the application was verified by analyzing the example of EEEIP in Japan (Top Runner policy, TRP). Firstly, through the factor decomposition model, this paper studied the energy conservation and emission reduction potential of this policy area in Japan. Then, the TRP was identified by using moving windows and correlation analysis, and the impact of specific equipment in TRP was analyzed. Finally, through the calculation of the rebound effect of the carbon footprint (REC), this paper analyzed the energy consumption and emission reduction effects of TRP in the short-term and whole life cycle. It showed that the policy has... [more]

This study aims to find the relationship between energy resource dependence and economic growth in consideration of interprovincial heterogeneity. This paper first uses panel data from 14 provinces with rich energy resources in China between 2001 and 2016 as a whole to test the energy resource curse hypothesis. It finds that there is no obvious resource curse from a general perspective. It further makes time prediction and transmission channel analysis based on regressions of each province and classifies them into four groups according to the different degrees of the resource curse. It shows the different roles of resource dependencies in different groups. Twelve provinces are subject to different degrees of the resource curse, among which, six provinces would eventually experience negative economic growth if they increase the degree of resource dependence. Next, this study discusses the mechanism of one particular group, “invisible energy resource curse”, which is when energy resource... [more]

This study investigates the influence of oil prices on tourism income in countries that heavily relied on crude oil exports from 2000 to 2017. We found that oil prices and tourism receipts are cointegrated, revealing the existence of their long-run equilibrium relationship. Another significant finding to emerge from this study is the presence of a unidirectional Granger causality that runs from the oil prices to the tourism receipts. The results of the current study are of particular importance for policymakers who operate in oil-exporting countries. The implications provide a systematic understanding of the effect of oil price fluctuations on tourism income which can benefit investors greatly by enabling them to hedge against oil price fluctuations and plan for their tourism business and policymakers by enabling them to set policies to stabilize oil price fluctuations and plan for tourism development, correspondingly.

This paper proposes a condition-based maintenance strategy for multi-component systems under degradation failures. The maintenance decision is based on the minimum long-run average cost rate (LACR) and the maximum residual useful lifetime (RUL), respectively. The aim of this paper is to determine the optimal monitoring interval and critical level for multi-component systems under different optimization objectives. A preventive maintenance (PM) is triggered when the degradation of component exceeds the corresponding critical level. Afterwards, the paper discusses the relationship between the critical level and the monitoring interval with regards to the LACR and RUL. Methods are also proposed to determine the optimal monitoring interval and the critical level under two decision models. Finally, the impact of maintenance decision variables on the LACR and RUL is discussed through a case study. A comparison with conventional maintenance policy shows an outstanding performance of the new m... [more]

Transition to a low carbon energy system requires extensive private investment and novel financing instruments. Corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs) have been proven effective in increasing renewables financing. The challenge is to scale this corporate model to smaller energy consumers that form a significant part of the global total energy demand and carbon dioxide emissions. This paper examines collateral strength and global potential of the real estate sector as an offtaker for PPAs. The strength is evaluated by constructing a detailed energy and economic model for 90,000 buildings in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA), Finland. The global potential is evaluated by creating country-level profiles with global data of interest rates, energy consumption, and energy costs. The results suggest that real estate is a strong offtaker as the HMA’s value of real estate collateral compared to required wind power capital expenditures (that could cover electricity demand of the buildings... [more]

The aim of this paper is to present the state of development of renewable energy sources (RES) in Poland in accordance with the obligations of European Union energy policy. The EU Member States are obliged to adopt different support mechanisms for the development of renewable energy sources, and in consequence to achieve their Directive’s targets. Poland, being a Member State of the EU since 2004, has accepted a target of a 15% share of energy generated from renewable energy sources in final energy consumption, including 19.3% from renewable electricity until 2020. Due to the difficulties with target achievement, the authors found it reasonable to analyze the challenge of RES development in Poland. The article presents energy policy in the EU, as well as the review of measures implemented for renewable energy development. The current state of and perspectives on using renewable energy sources in Poland and in the EU are also depicted. In the article, the authors analyze the relation be... [more]

Energy Internet, a futuristic evolution of electricity system, is conceptualized as an energy sharing network. Its features, such as plug-and-play mechanism, real-time bidirectional flow of energy, information, and money can lead to significant benefits and innovation in electricity production and utilization. Energy Internet integrates small-scale renewable energy systems, electric loads, storage devices, and electric vehicles for effective transaction of power backed by emerging technologies such as Internet of Things, vehicle-to-grid, and blockchain. At present, there is no scaled-up working model of Energy Internet, and literature is scarce, which makes the research in this domain significant, novel, and timely. Given this, an attempt is made to develop the conceptual model of an Energy Internet, elaborate its structure and components, and discuss its operational principles. First, a comprehensive overview of Energy Internet is presented along with its aptness as a future evolution... [more]

Nearly two-thirds of the emissions that cause smog come from road transport. In April 2019, the European Parliament adopted new regulations on public procurement to encourage investment in clean buses—electric, hydrogen, or gas. Directive 2009/33/EC is to apply from the second half of 2021. The aim of this article is to make an attempt to simulate the number of zero-emission buses (ZEB) in European Union (EU) member countries in two time horizons: 2025 and 2030, and to forecast the number of clean vehicles in the precise time horizons, including before and after 2050. Research questions are as follows: (1) what will be the number of ZEBs in individual EU countries over the next few years; (2) which of the EU countries will reach by 2030 the level of 95% share of ZEBs in all buses, which are a fleet of public transport buses; and (3) in which year will which EU countries reach the level of 95% share of zero-emission buses. The method used is a Bass model. The conducted analyses demonstr... [more]

Transportation safety, as a critical component of an efficient and reliable transportation system, has been extensively studied with respect to societal economic impacts by transportation agencies and policy officials. However, the embodied energy impact of safety, other than induced congestion, is lacking in studies. This research proposes an energy equivalence of safety (EES) framework to provide a holistic view of the long-term energy and fuel consequences of motor vehicle crashes, incorporating both induced congestion and impacts from lost human productivity resulting from injury and fatal accidents and the energy content resulting from all consequences and activities from a crash. The method utilizes a ratio of gross domestic product (GDP) to national energy consumed in a framework that bridges the gap between safety and energy, leveraging extensive studies of the economic impact of motor vehicle crashes. The energy costs per fatal, injury, and property-damage-only (PDO) crashes i... [more]

Following a recycling or continuous recycling process, there is always waste with no material or market value that can be converted into energy or other fossil fuel substitutes. The present study aimed to evaluate the management of organic waste policy and to predict the trend of organic waste generation in Albania. The research used an appropriate Box−Jenkins Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) to determine the quantification of organic waste to be generated. The main results obtained can support the decision-making process in the planning, change and short-term implementation of organic waste management, and the information provided is very useful in collecting, transporting, storing and managing waste in Albanian cities (Tirana, Durrës, Kukës, Berat, Shkodra, Dibër, Gjirokastër and Elbasan). Furthermore, the high percentage of the organic waste generation until 2025 constitutes good premises to raising public awareness related to their energy recovery.

All-electric ships, and especially the hybrid ones with diesel generators and batteries, have attracted the attention of maritime industry in the last years due to their less emission and higher efficiency. The variant emission policies in different sailing areas and the impact of physical and environmental phenomena on ships energy consumption are two interesting and serious concepts in the maritime issues. In this paper, an efficient energy management strategy is proposed for a hybrid vessel that can effectively consider the emission policies and apply the impacts of ship resistant, wind direction and sea state on the ships propulsion. In addition, the possibility and impact of charging and discharging the carried electrical vehicles’ batteries by the ship is investigated. All mentioned matters are mathematically formulated and a general model of the system is extracted. The resulted model and real data are utilized for the proposed energy management strategy. A genetic algorithm is... [more]

Wind power technology is developing rapidly in China. Especially in the north of China, decentralized wind power (DWP) has developed rapidly. However, wind curtailment exceeds 4% of the gross generation, which has become an important obstacle restricting the development of DWP in 2019. Technical schemes are effective solutions to promote decentralized wind power consumption (DWPC). Moreover, there are few economic analyses of DWP projects with key technologies. This paper summarizes the typical technical schemes and analyzes the economy of a DWP grid-connected project with typical technical schemes by combining methods of the net present value (NPV) and real options (RO). It appears that the DWP project can be profitable with an NPV of about CNY 4.3721 million and an option value of CNY 16.6022 million in the case of a feed-in tariff of 0.34 CNY/kWh. Feed-in tariff and equipment investment costs are the most relevant parameters for economic feasibility according to the sensitivity anal... [more]

One of the possibilities to reduce carbon dioxide emissions is the use of the CCS method, which consists of CO2 separation, transport and injection of carbon dioxide into geological structures such as depleted oil fields for its long-term storage. The combination of the advanced oil production method involving the injection of carbon dioxide into the reservoir (CO2-EOR) with its geological sequestration (CCS) is the CCS-EOR process. To achieve the best ecological effect, it is important to maximize the storage capacity for CO2 injected in the CCS phase. To achieve this state, it is necessary to maximize recovery factor of the reservoir during the CO2-EOR phase. For this purpose, it is important to choose the best location of CO2 injection wells. In this work, a new algorithm to optimize the location of carbon dioxide injection wells is developed. It is based on two key reservoir properties, i.e., porosity and permeability. The developed optimization procedure was tested on an exemplary... [more]

Results-based financing (RBF) programmes in the clean cooking sector have gained increasing donor interest over the last decade. Although the risks and advantages of RBF have been discussed quite extensively for other sectors, especially health services, there is limited research-documented experience of its application to clean cooking. Due to the sheer scale of the important transition from ‘dirty’ to clean cooking for the 4 billion people who lack access, especially in the Global South, efficient and performance-proven solutions are urgently required. This paper, undertaken as part of the work of the UKAid-funded Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme, aims to close an important research gap by reviewing evidence-based support mechanisms and documenting essential experiences from previous and ongoing RBF programmes in the clean cooking and other sectors. On this basis, the paper derives key strategic implications and learning lessons for the global scaling of RBF programmes... [more]

The revised EU Renewable Energy Directive first introduced renewable energy communities into the EU policy framework and requires Member States to implement a support framework for them. Given the broad scientific evidence showing the benefits of community energy for a just energy transition, a successful implementation across all Member States is essential. However, the preconditions for developing support frameworks differ largely between EU nations, as some countries have long-term experiences with supporting renewable energy communities (i.e., Germany and Denmark), while in other Member States, renewable energy communities are notably non-existent (i.e., Eastern European nations). With the purpose of providing scientific evidence to support the development of a policy framework for renewable energy communities in Eastern European Member States, this article compares key factors for the development of such communities in Bulgaria and Germany, combining a literature review with exper... [more]

In recent literature, the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on macro aspects have been investigated, but the aspect of energy, precisely renewable energy still to explore. The motivation of the study is to produce fresh evidence regarding the nexus between EPU and renewable energy consumption (REC) with the mediating role of forcing direct investment (FDI) and financial development (FD) in BRIC nations for the period 1997q1−2018q4. The study applied unit root tests following Ng-Perron and Zivot and Andrews for detecting variable’s stationary properties. The long-run cointegration was evaluated by implementing Bayer, Hanck combined the cointegration test, Bound testing approach, and tBDM test. Both linear and non-linear ARDL were implemented to evaluate long-run and short-run shocks, and directional causality was assessed through a non-granger causality test. Furthermore, the study implemented robustness by implementing fully-modified OLS, dynamic OLS, and canonical cointegrat... [more]

Renewable energy (RE) is one of the most popular public policy orientations worldwide. Compared to some other countries and continents, Europe has gained an early awareness of energy and environmental problems in general. At the theoretical level, free-market environmentalism indicates that based on the principle of private property rights, with fewer state interventionist and regulation policies, entrepreneurs, as the driving force of the market economy, can provide better services to meet the necessity of offering RE to protect the environment more effectively. Previous studies have revealed that Germany, Denmark, and the United Kingdom have made some progress in using the market to develop RE. However, this research did not analyze the three countries’ RE conditions from the perspective of free-market environmentalism. Based on our review of the principles of free-market environmentalism, this paper originally provides an empirical study of how Germany, Denmark, and the United Kingd... [more]

We add to the emerging body of literature highlighting cracks in the foundation of the mainstream energy transition narrative. We offer a tripartite analysis that re-characterizes the climate crisis within its broader context of ecological overshoot, highlights numerous collectively fatal problems with so-called renewable energy technologies, and suggests alternative solutions that entail a contraction of the human enterprise. This analysis makes clear that the pat notion of “affordable clean energy” views the world through a narrow keyhole that is blind to innumerable economic, ecological, and social costs. These undesirable “externalities” can no longer be ignored. To achieve sustainability and salvage civilization, society must embark on a planned, cooperative descent from an extreme state of overshoot in just a decade or two. While it might be easier for the proverbial camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for global society to succeed in this endeavor, history is replete... [more]

The European Union considers that offshore wind power will play a key role in making the EU the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Currently, the potential of offshore wind energy is still untapped in Spain. Furthermore, the characteristics of the coastline in Spain require floating technology, making it challenging to install wind farms due to their current high cost. This work seeks to quantify the impact that Spanish offshore wind energy would have on the Iberian electricity market. Several offshore wind scenarios are evaluated by combining available information in relation to areas suitable for installing wind farms and wind resource data. The impact on the day-ahead electricity market has been obtained by reproducing the market, including these new offshore wind generation scenarios. The introduction of this renewable energy results in a market cost reduction in what is known as the merit-order effect. According to our estimates, for each MWh of offshore wind energy introduc... [more]

Oil price forecasts are of crucial importance for many policy institutions, including the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve Board, but projecting oil market evolutions remains a complicated task, further exacerbated by the financialization process that characterizes the crude oil markets. The efficiency (in Fama’s sense) of crude oil markets is revisited in this research through the investigation of the predictive ability of technical trading rules (TTRs). The predictive ability and trading performance of a plethora of TTRs are explored on the crude oil markets, as well as on the energy sector ETF XLE, while taking a special focus on the turbulent COVID-19 pandemic period. We are interested in whether technical trading strategies, by signaling the right timing of market entry and exits, can predict oil market movements. Research findings help to confidently conclude on the weak-form efficiency of the WTI crude oil and the XLE fund markets throughout the 1999−2021 period rel... [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]

Evidence collected by researchers over several decades suggests that the successful implementation of the Energy Efficiency Obligation Scheme (EEOS) may deliver significant, cost-effective energy savings over many years. However, before starting EEOS in Latvia, predictions by energy efficiency policy researchers envisaged that it is at high risk of savings shortfalls. This study aims to carry out an ex-post policy evaluation of EEOS in Latvia and assess its ability to deliver significant savings in the first phase of the new EEOS. This paper questions whether the new EEOS can reach savings goals without prior experience with voluntary agreement schemes and emulation of successful EEOS from other countries. The second goal of the research is to create a web-based optimization tool as an Interactive Learning Environment to help policymakers and EEOS-obliged parties to create goal-oriented strategies. The study has found that, contrary to expectations, Latvia has reached and even overfulf... [more]

In the light of climate change, the drive for zero carbon buildings is known as one response to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Within New Zealand, research on climate change mitigation and environmental impacts of buildings has received renewed attention. However, there has been no detailed investigation of zero carbon building practices. This paper undertakes an exploratory study through the use of semi-structured interviews with government representatives and construction industry experts to examine how the New Zealand construction industry plans and implements zero carbon buildings. The results show that New Zealand’s construction industry is in the early stage of transiting to a net-zero carbon built environment. Key actions to date are focused on devising a way for the industry to develop and deliver zero carbon building projects. Central and local governments play a leading role in driving zero carbon initiatives. Leading construction firms intend to maximise the carbon reducti... [more]

This article introduces new roles in future peer-to-peer electricity trading markets. Following a qualitative approach, firstly, the value network of the current electricity market is presented. To do so, service streams, critical roles, activities, and their setting in the electricity market are identified. Secondly, in order to identify the main sources of uncertainty, the business model matrix framework is utilized to analyze peer-to-peer electricity trading. Thirdly, four future scenarios are built based on user involvement and customer ownership. The outcome of the scenario building is the emergence of new roles, brokers, and representatives in the future peer-to-peer electricity markets. Fourth, based on the four future scenarios, changes in the value network, new roles, and emerging/evolving activities are identified. Finally, the two new roles are discussed from grid structure, security and privacy, legal, and data protection perspectives. The data is gathered by conducting sem... [more]