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In times of great transition of the European construction sector to energy efficient and nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB), a market observation containing qualitative and quantitative indications should help to fill out some of the current gaps concerning the EU 2020 carbon targets. Next to the economic challenges, there are equally important factors that hinder renovating the existing residential building stock and adding newly constructed high performance buildings. Under these circumstances this paper summarises the findings of a cross-comparative study of the societal and technical barriers of nZEB implementation in 7 Southern European countries. The study analyses the present situation and provides an overview on future prospects for nZEB in Southern Europe. The result presents an overview of challenges and provides recommendations based on available empirical evidence to further lower those barriers in the European construction sector. The paper finds that the most Southern European countries are poorly prepared for nZEB implementation and especially to the challenge/opportunity of retrofitting existing buildings. Creating a common approach to further develop nZEB targets, concepts and definitions in synergy with the climatic, societal and technical state of progress in Southern Europe is essential. The paper provides recommendations for actions to shift the identified gaps into opportunities for future development of climate adaptive high performance buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Long term field evaluation of forecast control of heating. • Easy integration with existing installations in buildings. • Widely applicable measure for energy savings around 10%. • Payback time below one heating season. The priority for reaching carbon neutral buildings by 2050 is to first increase energy efficiency in existing buildings by use of easily and widely applicable measures that are verified based on long-term field research. One such solution is a forecast control of heating systems, which can be quickly and easily integrated to existing weather based controls. However, there are still no long-term field evaluation and detailed analyses of the main features of such a system, which would provide a clear picture about the system's energetical and economical features and thus increase their wide application in existing buildings. This paper provides the data from a long term field evaluation of an innovative forecast control of heating systems (forHEAT), which can be easily installed (in less than 2 h) and integrated with existing installations in millions of existing buildings in Europe and throughout the world. The energy consumption for heating was evaluated in seven residential buildings and three public office buildings before and after the installation and use of the forecast control. The resulting energy savings averaged 13.4% in the residential and 10.7% in the public buildings located in continental European climate, with very cold winters. The payback time averaged a 0.6 heating season and in most case studies does not exceed a single heating season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how the European electricity and heating system is impacted when medium-scale energy communities (ECs) are developed widely across Europe. We study the response on the capacity expansion of the cross-border transmission and national generation and storage within the European electricity and heating system with and without ECs in selected European countries. The representation of ECs has a special focus on flexibility, and we analyze the difference between flexibility responses by ECs towards local versus global cost minimization. Results show that EC development decreases total electricity and heating system costs on the transition towards a decarbonized European system in line with the 1.5 °C target, and less generation and storage capacity expansion is needed on a national scale to achieve climate targets. We also identify a conflict of interest between optimizing EC flexibility towards local cost minimization versus European cost minimization. • We study investments in the European energy market with energy community roll-out. • We compare flexibility responses with local versus European perspective. • Energy communities partly replace centralized generation and storage capacity. • Energy community roll-out shifts investments from onshore to offshore wind. • There is conflicting interest between local and European flexibility utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In Europe the work on the specification and design of a demonstration power plant (DEMO) is being carried out by EFDA in the power plant physics and technology (PPP&T) programme. DEMO will take fusion from experimental research into showing the potential for commercial power generation. During the fusion reaction, components in the tokamak become highly activated. The estimated dose rate levels after shutdown (zero decay time) due to 60dpa accumulation in steel (blanket) and 30dpa (divertor) are 13.1–17.4kGy/h (blanket); 8.8–11.6kGy/h (divertor) [1], much higher than those to be encountered at ITER. Upon removal from the tokamak, components would be transported to the hot cell facility with attention to minimizing the spread of activated dust and tritium contamination. It is proposed to use a sealed cask of ∼20tonnes, running on air castors with 50% lifting capability redundancy. Due to the number and complexity of the routes taken by this transporter it would have to be an un-tethered semi-autonomous system. This poses some technical challenges, including providing sufficient battery capacity, reliable guidance and a fail safe un-tethered control system. The mass of the components being moved is assumed here to range from a few tonnes to in excess of one hundred tonnes. Before the removed in-vessel components can be processed in the hot cell, they would require a period of cooling, approximately 2.5 years, to allow dose rate and decay heating to reduce. This reduces the decay heating level to ∼1–1.5kW/m3 and a contact dose rate to ∼250Sv/h, which is more suited to dexterous man-in-the-loop remote handling (RH). During maintenance, many components would require replacement or refurbishment. The hot cell facility would have to provide all the associated RH functions and operate fully remotely. With no human intervention, an accordingly robust RH recovery system would be required. This paper describes the first steps being taken towards the design of the DEMO hot cell. It will show a comparison of the current DEMO in-vessel maintenance concepts from a hot cell perspective, describe a proposed ex-vessel transport system, and summarize the facilities that have been identified as required within the hot cell, examine current RH technology and discuss the identified critical development issues. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The paper analyses effects of changes in temperatures on heating and cooling demands in Europe until 2050. Specifically, the study addresses changes in trends (10-year mean) and extremes (10-year min/max). The analysis is based on two GHG emission climate scenarios (RCP2.6 and RCP4.5) and eight high-resolution regional climate models and results are provided as relative and absolute changes on grid and country scales. Population density is used as proxy for spatial distribution of demands. Projected future temperatures are proportional with RCP scenario and distance into the future and the highest relative changes occur towards north-eastern Europe and for high-altitude areas. The temperature changes lead to general decreased heating demands and corresponding increased cooling demands. In general, higher spreads are seen between demand change ratios for individual models when addressing extremes as opposed to trends: The general 2010–2050 change ratios for heating between countries are 0.85–95 for model means and average 0.69 for the extreme analysis. For cooling, corresponding ratios are 1.25–1.5 for model means and average 2.76 for model maxima. For absolute demand changes, some countries are projected to experience significant changes e.g. exceeding a doubling in cooling demands. The results are suggested as a basis for energy system analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, most of the district heat is produced from fossil energy sources such as coal or natural gas. Together with the intention to divert municipal waste from landfill, which is still the main way of treatment in approximately half of the EU countries, there is a potential for the construction of waste-to-energy plants (WtEP) that can partially replace fossil fuels. An important factor in planning the construction of new WtE plants is the assessment of the project's economy. However, the ecological aspect of the project, namely the greenhouse-gas (GHG) savings, is becoming a topic of discussion nowadays. In terms of GHG savings, WtE plant integration into an existing district heating system (DHS) has a positive impact, but its level is often only roughly estimated. The paper presents a comprehensive mathematical optimization tool working on a daily time interval that is able to evaluate the impact of changing current technology or WtE plant construction on global warming potential. The technical parameters such as boiler output range, energy efficiency, etc. are considered. The tool also allows to put in the context the GHG savings and economic benefits of the project. These two factors are very difficult to compare. The study answers the question of how to deal with this issue and presents the possibility of comparison, which is generally transferable to any two parameters. Due to two poorly comparable criteria, the result does not include a single optimal solution, but clearly illustrates the view of the overall issue and gives a good basis for the final decision. The method used are illustrated in real-world DHS with various parameters where the relationship between GHG savings and the economic benefits of the integration of a WtE plant is evaluated. The whole problem is the task of linear integer programming and is implemented in the GAMS programming environment. • A multi-criteria optimization tool for WtE plant integration is introduced. • Economic and environmental aspects are put into context. • The optimal capacity is determined depending on the emphasis on both aspects. • The cost of removing a tonne of CO 2 by WtE in a particular location is calculated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Net-zero emissions are modelled for electricity, heating and cooling in Europe. • System cost decreases thanks to heat savings, but not for climate change scenarios. • Lower heat demand disfavours heat pumps as surplus electricity is used by resistors. • Cheaper heat pumps impact resistive heaters substantially, but not the opposite. To limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 °C, fossil-free energy systems will be required eventually. To understand how such systems can be designed, the current state-of-the-art is to apply techno-economical optimisation modelling with high spatial and temporal resolution. This approach relies on a number of climatic, technical and economic predictions that reach multiple decades into the future. In this paper, we investigate how the design of a fossil-free energy system for Europe is affected by changes in these assumptions. In particular, the synergy among renewable generators, power-to-heat converters, storage units, synthetic gas and transmission manage to deliver an affordable net-zero emissions system. We find that levelised cost of energy decreases due to heat savings, but not for global temperature increases. In both cases, heat pumps become less favourable as surplus electricity is more abundant for heating. Demand-side management through buildings' thermal inertia could shape the heating demand, yet has modest impact on the system configuration. Cost reductions of heat pumps impact resistive heaters substantially, but not the opposite. Cheaper power-to-gas could lower the need for thermal energy storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]