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This paper explores the role of electricity in the transition to renewable energy to mitigate climate change. A systematic literature review with the Scopus database identified 92 papers relevant to the renewable electricity transition. A PESTLE (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, and Environmental) review of the papers provided a multidisciplinary analysis. The Paris Agreement created a global movement for carbon neutrality to address the threats of climate change, calling for a transition to renewable electricity to lead the way and expand into new sectors and regions. Although smaller renewable technologies are ramping up, complexities thwarting the transition include locked-in assets, high upfront costs, variability of solar and wind energy, infrastructure, difficulty in decarbonizing transportation and industry, material resource constraints, and fossil fuel support. This research found that renewables are not replacing fossil fuels to date but adding further energy demands, so that greenhouse gas emissions rose in 2021 despite an increased renewable electricity share. Without a major shift in the trillions of dollars of subsidies and investment away from fossil fuels to renewables, catastrophic climate change is predicted. This paper found that the Paris Agreement's commitment to net-zero carbon and the transition to renewable electricity are undermined by record-high levels of subsidies and financing for fossil fuel industry expansion. Transitioning to a climate-neutral economy requires an investment away from fossil fuels into renewable energy ecosystems. Renewable electricity provides possibilities to realize sustainable development goals, climate stabilization, job creation, a green economy, and energy security with careful planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering that more than half of the world's population today lives in cities and consumes about 80% of the world's energy and that there is a problem with drinking water supply, this paper presents a way to solve the problem of the sustainability of cities by enabling their complete independence from external sources of energy and drinking water. The proposed solution entails the use of Seawater Steam Engine (SSE) technology to supply cities with electricity, thermal energy and drinking water. The system would involve the seasonal storage of electricity and thermal energy, supported by geothermal heat pumps. The strategy of the distribution network would be based on the original concept of the "loop". In cities that do not have enough space, SSE collectors would be placed above the lower parts of the city like "canopies". The city of Zagreb (Croatia) was selected as a case study due to its size, climate and vulnerability to natural disasters. The results show that Zagreb could become sustainable in 30 years with the allocation of less than 2% of GDP and could become a paradigm of sustainability for cities worldwide. This paper encourages the development of the "Philosophy of Sustainability" because the stated goals cannot be achieved without a change in consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biomass gasification, a promising sustainable technology for decentralized electricity production, has the potential to displace fossil fuels while valorizing locally produced waste. Previous studies indicate that its technical and financial viabilities vary among projects, and few projects have been successfully developed, despite the sustainability benefits. This study identified and characterized the factors that influence the economic and environmental performances of such projects using a novel, hybrid method, with qualitative analysis using the Business Model Canvas and quantitative life-cycle costs (LCCs) considering the financial and external costs. The financial LCCs and external electricity generation costs were evaluated for business models in agro-industrial factories using proprietary residual biomasses and for those in isolated grids using local agricultural waste. The business models used for biomass gasification projects affect their LCCs and externalities more than factors such as their investment costs and energy efficiencies. The relationship between the business models, the financial performances of the projects, and their impacts on society are highlighted, showing that although projects using proprietary biomass waste have lower financial costs, off-grid projects generate more positive externalities, resulting in lower costs for society. These results indicate that policy support focused on appropriate business models may contribute to optimizing the use of financial incentives to foster investment in new sustainable technologies, contributing to the energy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 effective road map for humanity to handle global climate change risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify the determinants of the decarbonisation processes in Poland within the scope of energy transformation. The purpose of the study is to identify how the public perceives decarbonisation determinants in order to develop a sustainable energy strategy for Poland. The transition of the energy market to low-carbon technology is a policy challenge. Governments must implement policies that are environmentally friendly, cost-effective, but, most of all, socially acceptable. Social acceptance risk plays a significant role in Poland, influencing the decarbonisation process. In Poland's case, the coal share is decreasing, but it is still the most important fuel for electricity production. This process of decarbonisation is a fundamental influence on the transformation of the energy sector in Poland. The social perception of solutions that can be applied was examined. The Polish natural environment is poisoned. Poles suffer from diseases related to the burning of coal for energy production. Societal awareness, how people perceive the government's actions, and what they expect in this regard is crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strengthening of ecological conflicts due to the increase of the destructive impact from industrial companies on the environment provokes the development and implementation of the eco-innovation technologies. Besides, such technologies should allow obtaining not only the ecological benefits (the decrease of the negative impact on the environment) but also the economic and social advantages which correspond to sustainable development principles. This paper aims to justify the social, ecological and economic effects from implementing a new electricity production technology from post-process gas heat at companies. The data for empirical justification were obtained from the experiment of applying the electricity production technology from post-process gas heat at Polish industrial companies. In the first stage, bibliometric analysis was used for highlighting the scientific background of economic evaluation of the innovative activity on energy technologies of industrial companies and its impact on the environment and public health. Secondly, the economic and ecological efficiency of electricity production technology for the selected company was estimated. The results of the analysis confirm that new technologies allowed increasing the energy efficiency of the company by decreasing energy consumption, increasing productivity, etc. The findings prove that one of the ecological effects was the decrease of CO2 and SO2 emissions in the air. In this case, the link between the volume of CO2 emissions and the rate of morbidity if such innovative technologies were scaled was checked. The findings show that decreasing CO2 emissions by 1% leads to a decline in the death rate by 0.5%. If the new technology were scaled and implemented among similar industrial companies, it could decrease the rate of morbidity by 0.01% The results obtained could be used by the companies' management and policymakers in the framework to achieve sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aims to assess the impacts of climate change on photovoltaic (PV) electricity in two Italian cities, with different latitudes and Köppen–Geiger climate classifications. This was undertaken using the recent EURO-CORDEX set of high-resolution climate projections and PV power generation models, implemented on TRNSYS software. Data for two variables (surface air temperature and solar radiation) were analysed over a long period from 1971 to 2100. For future periods, two of the Representative Concentration Pathway scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) used in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report were considered. In both RCP scenarios and both locations, it is estimated that the yearly PV energy produced in the future period will not undergo significant variations on average given that the rate of decrease is foreseen almost constant; instead, a slight reduction in the PV energy was detected in the past period. It can be concluded that the PV market in Italy will grow in the next years considering that the reduction in the foreseen PV purchase costs will be also supported by the slight positive effect of climate change on PV manufacturability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in global electricity demand, along with its impact on climate change, call for integrating sustainability aspects in the power system expansion planning. Sustainable power generation planning needs to fulfill different, often contradictory, objectives. This paper proposes a multi-objective optimisation model integrating four objective functions, including minimisation of total discounted costs, carbon emissions, land use, and social opposition. Other factors addressed in the model include renewable energy share, jobs created, mortality rates, and energy diversity, among others. Single-objective linear optimisations are initially performed to investigate the impact of each objective function on the resulting power generation mix. Minimising land use and discounted total costs favoured fossil fuels technologies, as opposed to minimising carbon emissions, which resulted in increased renewable energy shares. Minimising social opposition also favoured renewable energy shares, except for hydropower and onshore wind technologies. Accordingly, to investigate the trade-offs among the objective functions, Pareto front candidates for each pair of objective functions were generated, indicating a strong correlation between the minimisation of carbon emissions and the social opposition. Limited trade-offs were also observed between the minimisation of costs and land use. Integrating the objective functions in the multi-objective model resulted in various non-dominated solutions. This tool aims to enable decision-makers identify the trade-offs when optimising the power system under different objectives and determine the most suitable electricity generation mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents estimates of short run impacts of a carbon price on the electricity industry using a cost-minimizing mathematical model of the U.S. market. Prices of $25 and $50 per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions cause electricity emissions reductions of 17% and 22% from present levels, respectively. This suggests significant electricity sector emissions reductions can be achieved quickly from a modest carbon tax, and diminishing reductions occur when increasing from $25 to $50. The model captures short run effects via operational changes at existing U.S. power plants, mostly by switching production from coal to natural gas. A state-level analysis yields the following conclusions: (1) states which reduce the most emissions are high coal-consumers in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions, (2) 15 states increase emissions after carbon policy because they increase natural gas consumption to offset coal consumption decreases in neighboring states, and (3) a flat per-capita rebate of tax revenue leads to wealth transfers across states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of two marine bulk terminals in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States are currently under review and would open up additional thermal coal exports to Asia on the order of almost 100 million additional tonnes per year. The major exporters of coal to Asian markets include Indonesia and Australia. This life cycle analysis (LCA) seeks to understand the role of transportation and mining in the cradle-to-busbar environmental impacts of coal exports from the Powder River Basin (PRB) to Asian countries, when compared to the competitor countries. This LCA shows that: (1) the most significant greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts in the cradle-to-busbar life cycle of coal for power generation come from the combustion of coal in a power plant, even when 90% carbon capture is applied; (2) for non-GHG air impacts, power plant combustion impacts are less dominant and variations in upstream impacts (mining and transportation) are more important; and (3) when comparing impacts between countries, upstream impacts vary for both GHG and non-GHG results, but conclusions that rank countries cannot be made. Future research should include expansion to include non-air impacts, potential consequential effects of coal exports, and a better understanding around the characterization of non-GHG ocean transport impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A feasible way to avoid the risk of energy decline and combat climate change is to build a 100% renewable global energy mix. However, a globally electrified economy cannot grow much above 12 electric terawatts without putting pressure on the limits of finite mineral reserves. Here we analyze whether 12 TW of electricity and 1 TW of biomass (final) power will be able to fuel a future post-carbon economy that can provide similar services to those of a contemporary economy. Contrarily to some pessimistic expectations, this analysis shows that the principle economic processes can be replaced with sustainable alternatives based on electricity, charcoal, biogas and hydrogen. Furthermore, those services that cannot be replaced are not as crucial so as to cause a return to a pre-industrial society. Even so, land transport and aviation are at the limit of what is sustainable, outdoor work should be reorganized, metal primary production should be based on hydrogen reduction when possible, mineral production should be increasingly based on recycling, the petrochemical industry should shrink to a size of 40%-43% of the 2012 petrochemical sector, i.e., a size similar to that the sector had in 1985-1986, and agriculture may require organic farming methods to be sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy sources (RES) play an important role in the European Union's energy sector as a result of the energy policy framework adopted. Its share in the final energy consumption varies depending on the country and the adopted energy policy. The article presents the structure of electricity production from renewable energy sources in Poland in the years 2002–2019. It was found that the share of energy production from hydroelectric power plants in Poland in relation to the amount of energy produced from renewable energy sources in the analyzed years has strongly decreased. The reason for this state was an increase in the production of energy coming from wind and biomass energy combined with an increase in subsidies for these energy producers. Additionally, unstable hydrological conditions, mainly low river flows, may be the reason for the low share of energy produced in power plants. As a case study, data for five small hydropower plants (SHP) located on the Gwda river (north-western Poland) were analyzed. Electricity production volumes were analyzed depending on the size of the Gwda river flow. It was found that the lower amount of electricity produced at SHPs on the Gwda river is mainly due to lower flows in the river. In the future, unstable electricity production from renewable energy sources may have a significant impact on achieving Poland's energy targets in 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformation of the European electricity system could generate unintended environment-related trade-offs, e.g., between greenhouse gas emissions and metal depletion. The question thus emerges, how to shape policy packages considering climate change, but without neglecting other environmental and resource-related impacts. In this context, this study analyzes the impacts of different settings of potential policy targets using a multi-criteria analysis in the frame of a coupled energy system and life cycle assessment model. The focus is on the interrelationship between climate change and metal depletion in the future European decarbonized electricity system in 2050, also taking into account total system expenditures of transforming the energy system. The study shows, firstly, that highly ambitious climate policy targets will not allow for any specific resource policy targets. Secondly, smoothing the trade-off is only possible to the extent of one of the policy targets, whereas, thirdly, the potential of recycling as a techno-economic option is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]