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The energy sector in South Africa is highly driven by coal, making the country one of the highest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters in the world. As one of the signatories to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the country is determined to reduce its carbon footprint. In this paper, the role of green hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources to the South African energy sector is presented with the objective of increasing the share of renewable energy in the country's energy mix. First, an overview of the South African energy sector is presented with the aim of pointing out the energy inputs and the usage patterns. Thereafter, the potential of renewable energy resources that could support green hydrogen production is highlighted. Some of the key findings show that 67% of total primary energy sources in South Africa is coal. Industrial and residential sectors account for the bulk of energy usage with 53% and 19%, respectively. It is also revealed that industrial and transportation sectors account for 51% and 38%, respectively, of GHG emission with the residential sector contributing only 2%. The renewable energy resources in South Africa are encouraging for green hydrogen production. Solar has an average 2500 h of sunshine per year with daily total solar irradiation between 4 and 6.5 kWh/m2 day. The annual average wind speed ranges from 5.6 to 8.7 m/s with power density between 218 and 693 W/m2 at 10 m anemometer height in the coastal region of the country. The biomass potential is estimated as 83.91 Teragram per annum with hydropotential of 4.851 GW. This paper is important as it will serve as a firsthand scientific information for optimal development and investment in green hydrogen production in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most significant basis for sustainable development, as well as one of the most critical concerns of today's human societies, is energy and how it is consumed. In Iran, about 40% of energy is consumed in residential, commercial, and office buildings. Considering the importance of energy for sustainable development, buildings with zero energy consumption have found a lot of supporters. In the present paper, buildings with zero energy consumption in the north of Iran (Qa'emshahr city) were studied, and the feasibility study for constructing such buildings in this humid mountainous area was done. In this regard, a residential building with a conventional condition was considered as a sample, and energy efficiency parameters were investigated; using different methods, energy consumption of the building was reduced to zero. The research method in this study was based on two principles. At first, using scientific resources, new methods for reducing energy consumption in buildings and how they are managed were researched; in the second step, which is the main part of this paper, using DesignBuilder Software, the energy consumption of the building was determined. In the final step, the power generation capacity and panel area and economic considerations in the payback period were calculated per month. For this purpose, an average of 63 m2 of the solar panel was considered to be the electrical power of the building, which was able to fully produce the building's electricity requirement in 8 months. According to the results, with activities, the amount of electrical energy used for air conditioning in the building has been released by 80% and has been detracted from 34 MW to 7 MW. In the case of return on investment (R0I), to supply the required power generation for the building, it would be possible to receive about 15 000 $per year from the Iranian Ministry of Energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In high energy consumption countries of the world, wind power plant construction plays a significant role in the sustainable development, especially in China. This paper develops a bi-level model based multi-agent system for the decentralized multi-mode resource constrained multi-project scheduling problem (DMRCMPSP) of energy companies, which normally manage several wind power plant construction projects at the same time. In the bi-level DMRCMPSP model, there is an auction agent (AA) in charge of the allocation of global resources in the upper level, while in the lower level, several project agents (PAs) are correspondingly in charge of several projects. The bid and auction mechanism is employed to build up the internal competition, and maximizing self-interest is taken as the objective for both AA and PAs. Finally, a practical application in a Chinese energy company demonstrates the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs) depends on the access of modern, sufficient, and efficient energy to all people. Currently, developing countries including sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are the most vulnerable to the environmental problems associated with the use of non-renewable energy. All countries are striving to develop and use sustainable renewable energy (RE) with zero, low, or neutral greenhouse gas emissions. However, there are a lot of challenges that hinder effective utilization of RE resources in SSA. Therefore, this paper attempts to explore RE potentials for sustainable development in sub-Saharan African countries and provides an in-depth discussion on the challenges facing the exploitation of renewable energy resources. Additionally, it examines ways forward to improve the situation. This study systematically reviews the RE and sustainable development sector in SSA based on the relevant studies published between 2012 and 2020. Relevant data and information from various bibliographic sources such as Web of Science were collected, selected, organized, analyzed, interpreted, and presented in themes, graphs, and tables. The study revealed that despite the abundance of RE resources such as hydropower, wind and solar energy, and bio and geothermal power in SSA, there are various drawbacks curtailing their exploitation. These include inadequate technical, financial, and human resources, weak institutional and regulatory frameworks, and sociopolitical barriers. Thus, the study recommends the strengthening of the institutional and regulatory framework, capacity building, and harmonization of financial resources and enhancement of security and political environments to attract investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green growth has become an increasingly important paradigm for sustainable economic growth, resource development, and environmental protection. As the main focus in energy led green growth is a move away from fossil energy to clean energy, sustainable green growth resource development needs to measure both energy and environmental efficiencies. As the largest global energy consumer and carbon emitter, China has had to deal with serious energy and environmental issues in recent years, with its regional green growth performances being poorly assessed. Therefore, green growth clean energy-environmental efficiency assessments were examined in this paper, for which an integrated principal component analysis-data envelopment analysis based analysis approach was developed. It was found that while China's green growth has had a significant increasing trend in recent years, overall it was still at a low level, with the imbalances in China's regional economic development being reflected in its green growth. However, the excellent development and utilization of clean energy in most regions have significantly promoted a continuous improvement in China's green growth and the move toward sustainable resource development and utilization is contributing to long-term green growth. Green growth has also placed new demands on sustainable resource development in China. Therefore, underdeveloped regions that have sustainable resource endowments need to develop industrial systems that have clean energy as the main axis, and developed regions need to develop high-end industries that have low energy consumption and encourage mutual support systems between regions to ensure optimal sustainable resource, green growth development patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the largest energy consumption country, China now pays more and more attention to photovoltaic power generation because solar energy is the largest renewable and sustainable energy reserve in the world. In this case, the photovoltaic power generation plant project plays a crucial role in sustainable development, especially in the underdeveloped northwest region of China. This paper focuses on applying bi-level programing to the multimode resource-constrained project scheduling problem (MRCPSP) in photovoltaic power generation plant construction, which simultaneously considers the practical hierarchical organization structure and an uncertain decision-making environment. A bi-level fuzzy random multiple objective model is developed, wherein the government agency is in the upper decision level, while the contractor is in the lower decision level. Then, motivated by the particular mathematical nature of the proposed bi-level MRCPSP model, a hybrid intelligent algorithm is designed. Finally, a practical case from the Shenneng Futa Kashi-Tashi-Kuergan photovoltaic power generation plant project in a Chinese energy company is applied, and the results validate the practicability of the proposed model and solution algorithm for solving practical photovoltaic power plant project scheduling problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency can be seen as one of the best policies to be adopted by countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and for the contribution of the economy. Brazil, despite making some efforts aimed at the rational use of energy, is still far from being a protagonist in this area. On the other hand, countries such as Germany, Japan, and the United States have been adopting policies that aim to improve the use of energy and thus mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions, in addition to expanding the scope of business in this area. In order to achieve greater emphasis in the field of energy efficiency, the objective of this paper is to define energy efficiency policies for food and beverage industry based on international experiences and to measure their impacts in this industry. These policies are represented by technological diffusion curves and their impacts on the reduction of electricity consumption in the food and beverage industry are evaluated. There is a significant reduction in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions when adopting energy efficiency policies in this branch of industry, since energy efficiency policies provide an alternative to sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to define low carbon society (LCS) based on the phase diagram with the variables from the IPAT [Human Impact (I) on the environment equals the product of population (P) affluence (A) and technology (T)], starting from the problem definitions: (1) Economy is not everything for LCS and (2) it is not clear if speed on the constraint is more important than liberation from it. To tackle these problems, two research questions are set: (1) What are the basic indicators, objects, and constraints to shape the argument of LCSs and (2) what are the historical paths of several countries and what can be said for their future paths toward carbon societies? Time series data from 1900 or before are used, while the phase diagram with the variables from the IPAT equation is used as the core methodology. In addition to the IPAT variables, the importance of land per capita shall be considered as another basic indicator for LCS related to the carrying capacity. The three different kinds of objects [i.e., total gross domestic product (GDP), GDP per capita, and social indicator] and the two constraints (i.e., total emission and emission per capita) are considered, and it is shown that the combination of these objects and constraints strongly affects the argument of the carrying capacity of climate and land, development of economic system and economic man, and other human developments. Among the four cases analyzed in the phase diagram, the case where GDP per capita is object and total emission is constraint is given the most attention and requires the further research in the future since it does not contradict with a definition of LCS. It is also suggested that if changing the direction of the path with low carbon technology development takes time and cost, institutional arrangement would be additionally necessary in addition to market mechanism where optimal solutions are found on constraint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy is essential for the development of a city. The energy structure of China, dominated by coal, has caused serious problems, such as resource depletion, environmental pollution, and climate change. These problems have posed severe challenges to the sustainable development of mega--cities such as Shanghai. In order to ensure security of energy supply and alleviate the corresponding environmental pollution, these cities should effectively restructure their energy supply. This paper quantitatively analyzed the future energy consumption demand in Shanghai and its effects on environmental quality based on the MARKAL model with the aim of providing theoretical support for the government decision regarding energy policy, energy technology, adjustment of energy supply structure, etc. Different scenarios have been set up in light of the natural gas distributed supply system, clean and efficient coal-fired power technologies, energy-saving of industrial boilers technologies, Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (advanced power generation technology), and wind power technologies. The results obtained by the MARKAL model show that total consumption of the whole society energy in Shanghai will reach 143 572 700 tons of standard coal in 2015, and 199 645 800 tons of standard coal in 2020. Thus, the future demand for energy consumption is huge astronomical, with about an average annual growth rate of 4%. The consumption of coal and other primary energy could decline by improving the energy efficiency and increasing renewable energy use, which would reduce pollutants emissions. At the same time, Shanghai should continue research on carbon dioxide emissions technology and its application in response to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the use of sugar cane and corn for the production of ethanol, with a focus on global warming and the current international debate about land use competition for food and biofuel production. The indicators used to compare the products are CO2 emissions, energy consumption, sugar cane coproducts, and deforestation. The life cycle emission inventory as a methodological tool is taken into account. The sustainability of socioeconomic development and the developing countries’ need to overcome barriers form the background against which the Brazilian government energy plans are analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social progress is inseparable from the utilization of energy, signals of extreme consumption of fossil energy and energy crisis appear frequently around the world. Human beings are paying more and more attention to new technologies and the sustainable development of energy collection and conversion. The emergence of piezoelectric, electromagnetic, electrostatic, and triboelectric mechanisms provides a variety of effective methods for new environmental energy collection and conversion technologies. Among them, the piezoelectric–electromagnetic hybrid energy harvester (P-EHEH) has been widely studied due to its high output power, simple structure, and easy miniaturization. Continuous progress has been made in the research of P-EHEH through theoretical exploration, structural optimization, and performance improvement. This Review focuses on the review of P-EHEH at the application level. A detailed introduction summarizes the research status of P-EHEH applied to human body devices, monitoring sensors, and power supply devices, as well as the development status of back-end electronic modules and interface circuits. The future challenges and development prospects of P-EHEH are anticipated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last decade, energy demand has increased manifold in India. To cope up with the rising energy demand, the Indian government has announced the National Solar Mission to generate 100 GW solar power by 2022. Large-scale solar power developers have been allotted around 60% of the National Solar Mission target. Therefore, it becomes pivotal to find the ground reality of solar power developers. To fulfill this objective, we selected the solar sources of the country and adopted a hybrid research methodology. The solar irradiation data were collected for one year in the four big cities of India, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, and Bangalore during 2019 to evaluate the efficiency of photovoltaics (PVs). MATLAB and RETScreen were employed for data analysis and evaluating the efficiency of photovoltaics. We take this a step further by performing the Life Cycle Assessment analysis to scrutinize the different features of solar energy, including fuel consumption, price, average lifetime, maintenance and operation expenses, land requirements, and greenhouse gas emissions. The results reveal that all these cities have an enormous solar power potential, as they are located in an area where solar irradiations are consistently available all over the year (except for monsoon season). Moreover, solar energy is more durable, cost-saving, and easy to maintain. Furthermore, we identified the significant barriers over the whole solar energy spectrum by conducting semi-structured interviews with industry experts. These barriers are broadly classified into technological, policy, regulatory, financial, transparency, accountability, infrastructural, and trade policy categories. Finally, essential policy recommendations have been suggested for all stakeholders in order to fulfill the country's energy demand on its way to a future of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind energy, with an average growth rate of 30%, is the fastest growing source of renewable energy in the world. India occupies the fifth place in the world in wind energy generation after USA, Germany, Spain, and China and has an installed capacity of more than 9756 MW as of January 31, 2009. New technological developments in wind energy design have contributed to the significant advances in wind energy penetration and to get optimum power from available wind. In this study, an attempt has been made to analyze and review the development and dissemination of wind energy in India. The diffusion prospect of wind energy generation in the potential states of India is also analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]