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The main problem confronting the world is human-caused climate change, which is intrinsically linked to the need for energy both now and in the future. Renewable (green) energy has been proposed as a future solution, and many renewable energy technologies have been developed for different purposes. However, progress toward net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and the role of renewable energy in 2050 are not well known. This paper reviews different renewable energy technologies developed by different researchers and their potential and challenges to date, and it derives lessons for world and especially African policymakers. According to recent research results, the mean global capabilities for solar, wind, biogas, geothermal, hydrogen, and ocean power are 325 W, 900 W, 300 W, 434 W, 150 W, and 2.75 MWh, respectively, and their capacities for generating electricity are 1.5 KWh, 1182.5 KWh, 1.7 KWh, 1.5 KWh, 1.55 KWh, and 3.6 MWh, respectively. Securing global energy leads to strong hope for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as those for hunger, health, education, gender equality, climate change, and sustainable development. Therefore, renewable energy can be a considerable contributor to future fuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the issues of global energy crisis and climate change are becoming increasingly prominent in the world, urban microgrids have received widespread attention as an effective way to improve energy utilization efficiency and reduce environmental pollution. Among them, the cogeneration of heat and power (CHP) system is considered as one of the key technologies to improve the energy efficiency of urban microgrids because it can provide both electricity and heat. However, how to optimize the energy flow scheduling for CHP systems, especially in the context of increasing renewable energy sources, has become a hot topic of current research. Existing studies usually rely on the traditional dualtime-scale scheduling strategies, namely day-ahead scheduling and real-time scheduling, but both have obvious limitations in dealing with the uncertainty and volatility of new energy sources. To address the above problems, this paper proposes a thermodynamic analysis-based scheduling method for optimizing the energy flow in the CHP system of urban microgrids. First, this paper introduces the concepts of rolling schedule and real-time schedule to improve the traditional time-scale scheduling method, so as to enhance the system's adaptability to new energy power fluctuations. Second, for the absorption CHP system, this paper proposes a thermal cycle performance optimization strategy, which significantly improves the utilization efficiency of thermal energy through the cascaded recycling of system waste heat. Through these two innovations, this study not only realizes a more accurate and efficient energy management, but also provides a new strategy for the sustainable development of urban microgrids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency is, in principle, a simple idea: an output of human value, for example, vehicle-km traveled, divided by the needed input energy. Efficiency improvements are regarded as an important means of mitigating not only climate change, but also other environmental problems. Despite the vast number of articles published on energy efficiency, a few people question whether it is a useful or accurate measure in its present form; nearly all papers are either engineering studies, or address barriers to efficiency improvements. This review addresses this issue via a critical review of the literature, including not only papers on energy efficiency, but those on adjacent areas of research that can help broaden the scope, both geographically and conceptually. These shortcomings are illustrated in case studies of buildings/cities and road passenger transport. The main findings of this review are that (1) energy efficiency inevitably has an ethical dimension, as well as a technical one, in that feedbacks are more widespread than they have generally considered to be, and (2) that conventional efficiency measures omit important energy input items, particularly those concerned with the mining the materials needed for renewable energy plants. The key conclusions are that present efficiency measures are not adequate, and future research is needed to overcome these shortcomings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Africa, switching to renewable energy sources with low carbon emissions is becoming more popular. In the Economic Community of West African states (ECOWAS), the low-carbon energy transition must overcome significant obstacles, including those posed by policies put in place and their implementation. In order to replace the current fossil fuel-driven economy with low-carbon development that also advances the regional aims and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this paper analyzes the current policy landscape in the region. A total of 75 policies from four categories (energy access, energy efficiency, renewable energy, climate change) were chosen for the policy review. Multicriteria decision analysis and a thorough review of the literature have shed light on how well the policies of the ECOWAS countries could promote low-carbon development and what the main challenges to overcome are. The last step was the comparison of the progress of the two key policies in the region: the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP) and National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP). The results illustrate the amount of work still needing to be done in the region, with only 26 of the 75 policies receiving a score above 50. However, the prospect of a better energy strategy that adequately considers the difficulties of the energy transition is possible, given the progress made by the region's nations since the creation of national action plans for energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE). Our analysis has also shown that countries like Senegal have obtained quite promising results, as evidenced by the best scores of 76.88 and 73.25, respectively, obtained by its NREAP and NEEAP policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review explores the question: should the world rely wholly or partially on solar geoengineering (SG) to mitigate climate change (CC), or on renewable energy, together with deep energy reductions? Recent thinking is for SG to only supplement more conventional climate change mitigation methods. However, we first show that conventional mitigation methods are not working., given that global annual CO2 emissions are still rising, so it is far more likely that SG will be called upon to counter most anthropogenic CC, as early research proposed. The paper next examines the various SG proposals that have been considered and their objectives. Future choices could be between an increasingly unpredictable climate, and SG, with its own risks and unknowns, or deep energy reductions and RE. The claim is that SG has far lower costs for a given climate forcing reduction compared with more conventional methods, and equally important, could be quickly implemented, producing temperature reductions in a year or so, compared with decades needed for more conventional mitigation approaches. SG implementation would affect not only the technical potential for key RE sources but also the actual uptake of RE and energy reductions. However, a fair comparison of RE and SG must recognise that the SG option also requires a solution to rising ocean acidification (OA). Because the material quantities needed annually to counter OA are orders of magnitude larger than for SG, its costs and energetic requirements will also be far higher, as will the time for implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present situation, renewable energy has become a vital source to mitigate energy crises and environmental threats. In order to ensure that women's contributions, knowledge and opinions represent a significant portion of the expanding energy sector, it is crucial to approach the development of renewable energy from a gender perspective. Bibliometric analysis was performed to identify prior research on two primary terms, "Gender" and "Renewable Energy", from 1995 to 2022. Identifying the most influential countries, authors, publications, journals, and co-occurrence of keywords helps to understand the evaluation and trends of the research through network visualisations by bibliometric approach. This paper presents a comprehensive bibliometric review of the influence of gender on renewable energy. The result of this paper gives details picture of the gender impact on renewable energy during the period from 1995 to 2022. The paper centred on bibliometric and cluster analysis based on the two most important databases, Web of Science and Scopus. The study involved utilising various bibliometric tools, including R Studio, VOSviewer, and Biblioshiny. The study revealed an increase in publications and citations during the third period since 2017, after the United Nations set the target of the Sustainable Development Goal. Most influential countries and productive authors belong to China, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom. Energy Research and Social Science are predominated in publications on the research topic. In addition, the co-occurrence of keywords found major keywords related to this topic, such as renewable energy, gender, women, knowledge, sustainability, climate change and sustainable development. Finally, the study observed a huge research gap because developing nations are more affected by the lack of gender-influencing policies on the growth of renewable energy. Thus, the study provides a comprehensive overview of research in this field that can help researchers and stakeholders identify potential ways for future research in gender considerations on renewable energy access by formulating effective policies to change society and reach the Sustainable Development Goals. • Gender has become a focal point of interest within the renewable energy sector. • Using network visualisation, bibliometric analysis examines research trends by keyword occurrence and country collaborations. • Publication, citation, journal, and authorship contribution trends are to be analysed. • The research growth across different periods was discussed for potential future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The promotion of renewable energy nowadays is particularly important not only to mitigate the climate change but also to increase the energy independence. Thus, the aim of this paper is to analyse the impacts of attitudes and perception of the war in Ukraine and environmental aspects on selection of green electricity in Lithuania. The survey analysis conducted in early 2023 showed that only 35% of respondents have selected green electricity. Analysis of the main determinants of green electricity selection showed that attitudes towards energy consumption together with the perception of renewable energy environmental impacts (B = 0.13, p < 0.01), as well as attitudes towards the war impact together with the perception of the renewable energy role in solving energy crisis (B = 0.09, p < 0.01), positively and statistically significantly influenced selection of green electricity. Meanwhile, the interaction of attitudes towards the war impact and the perception of the renewable energy role in achieving energy independence insignificantly (B = −0.05, p = 0.06) determined selection of green electricity. From the socio-demographic variables, only age (B = −0.02, p = 0.003) and gender (B = 0.36; p < 0.01) had a significant effect on this behaviour. Thus, this study gives an additional insight for policymakers and green electricity suppliers on how to increase green electricity selection in the context of the war in Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policies targeting energy efficiency and renewable energy are sometimes viewed as more politically feasible than carbon pricing in pursuit of emission reduction goals. This paper assesses underlying drivers of energy policy development. These factors include economic, social, environmental, and institutional variables. The between estimator for panel data is an appropriate method for our focus on some exogenous variables that vary more across countries than over time. We find that larger oil reserves per capita have a negative relationship with renewable energy policy development. Education and political globalisation have strong positive relationships with both energy-efficiency and renewable-energy policy development. These results suggest that greater participation in global political groups can be an indirect approach toward energy policy development, in cases where direct and immediate policies are hard to implement. OECD countries have higher policy scores by 33 and 25 points in energy efficiency and renewable energy respectively. Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analysis shows that these higher scores are primarily due to social and political institution predictors rather than economics and physical endowments. • Large-n cross country international sample on continuous policy score measurement. • Political globalisation is positively linked with renewables and energy efficiency policies. • Education is positively linked to energy policy development, especially for efficiency. • Higher OECD countries' policy scores are primarily due to social and political predictors. • Higher incomes are unlikely to lead to automatic improvements in energy policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming, climate change, and resource depletion have forced us to reconsider energy usage and efficiencies over the last few decades. Residential and commercial buildings are both large energy consumers, so improving energy and material usage efficiency in this sector is a common research topic. According to a recent study, the Building Sector (BS) accounts for 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. The primary objective of this paper is to examine and assess the potential of Renewable Energy Systems (RES) and their combinations for enhancing energy efficiency in the BS. Specifically, the focus will be on converting low energy-efficient buildings into highly efficient ones. The potential of the RES and their combinations for the BS is evaluated based on payback durations, energy generation, and reduction of CO 2 emissions. The optimization flow charts for the RES, feasibility studies, commercialization road maps of energy storage systems and the necessity of control mechanisms for enhancing RES efficiency were discussed. Additionally, the technology drawbacks are discussed, along with various innovative techniques recommended to direct future study in this area. Finally, this article assists the audience clear idea in the selection of the right combination of potential RES based on different conditions to achieve deep decarbonization in BSs. • Buildings sector (BS) responsible for 40% of GHG emissions. • Study assesses potential of Renewable Energy System (RES) in BS. • RES evaluated on payback, energy generation, and CO 2 reduction. • Optimization, feasibility and commercialization studies were discussed. • Article recommends right RES combinations for deep decarbonization in BS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Security of supply and progressively climate change are guiding countries' energy policy worldwide. Iceland is a paradigmatic example of gaining energy independence and decarbonizing the power sector while meeting its growing demand. In this paper, we focus on some of the main generation and transmission expansion alternatives that the country is considering for the next decade in an environment dominated by an increasing demand and a generation mix with virtually zero variable cost. We assess the medium- to long-term dimensions of security of supply as determinants of the system configuration and resources utilization. Based on a stochastic hydrothermal scheduling model that includes DC power flows and generation expansion decisions, our analysis indicates that hydro, geothermal and wind renewable resources are more competitive than fossil fuels, while demand flexibility can also contribute to gain security of supply at comparable costs. In addition, our methodology incorporates a detailed bilateral contracting structure typically used by Icelandic generators and consumers to agree on power prices and negotiated curtailments. The modeling and security evaluation could be of interest in other countries and regions where inflexible thermal generation and hydro resources create a market characterized by prices that are close to zero during long periods, but spike when resources are scarce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy has a crucial role in facing climate change. One promising strategy is the creation of energy communities that require active involvement from a bottom-up perspective. Their implementation is difficult, as they currently rely on local policies, community readiness, and technological availability. The objective of this paper is to provide a qualitative overview of energy community concepts and strategies at the European level. The aim is to identify common approaches that are framing the development of energy communities, and to understand the most successful steps leading to their creation and growth. To achieve this objective, a threefold methodology is provided: (1) an updated review on policies dealing with energy communities at the European and Italian level; (2) a qualitative overview of European-funded projects under the Horizon 2020 work program; and (3) a qualitative overview of some of the most successful existing energy communities in Europe. The results outline a series of considerations and lessons learned that are useful for implementing this transition pathway in a real case, which is also presented in the paper. The conclusions will identify some future directions of this research, particularly in relation to the results coming from the implementation of actions in the real case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of analyses, meta-analyses, and assessments, including those performed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and the International Energy Agency, have concluded that deployment of a diverse portfolio of clean energy technologies makes a transition to a low-carbon-emission energy system both more feasible and less costly than other pathways. In contrast, Jacobson et al. [Jacobson MZ, Delucchi MA, Cameron MA, Frew BA (2015) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112(49):15060-15065] argue that it is feasible to provide "low-cost solutions to the grid reliability problem with 100% penetration of WWS [wind, water and solar power] across all energy sectors in the continental United States between 2050 and 2055", with only electricity and hydrogen as energy carriers. In this paper, we evaluate that study and find significant shortcomings in the analysis. In particular, we point out that this work used invalid modeling tools, contained modeling errors, and made implausible and inadequately supported assumptions. Policy makers should treat with caution any visions of a rapid, reliable, and low-cost transition to entire energy systems that relies almost exclusively on wind, solar, and hydroelectric power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy is crucial to economic progress, but the contemporary worldwide population increase that demands greater energy generated from conventional exhaustible resources, an energy price upsurge, and environmental concerns, imperils sustainable economic growth. Nevertheless, switching to renewable energy produced from naturally replenished resources promotes energy security, likewise addressing issues such as global warming and climate change. This paper aims at exploring the influence and causal relation between renewable energy, both overall and by type, and sustainable economic growth of European Union (EU)-28 countries for the period of 2003-2014. We notice that the mean share of renewable energy in the gross final energy consumption is 15%, while the mean share of renewable energy in transport fuel consumption is 3%, which are below the thresholds of 20% and 10%, respectively, as set by the EU Directive 2009/28/EC. By estimating panel data fixed-effects regression models, the results provide support for a positive influence of renewable energy overall, as well as by type, namely biomass, hydropower, geothermal energy, wind power, and solar energy on gross domestic product per capita. However, biomass energy shows the highest influence on economic growth among the rest of renewable energy types. In fact, a 1% increase of the primary production of solid biofuels increases GDP per capita by 0.16%. Besides, cointegrating regressions set on panel fully modified and dynamic ordinary least squares regressions confirm the positive influence related to the primary production of renewable energies on economic growth. A 1% increase in primary production of renewable energies increases GDP per capita by 0.05%-0.06%. However, the results of Granger causality based on panel vector error correction model indicate both in short-run and long-run a unidirectional causal relationship running from sustainable economic growth to the primary production of renewable energies, being supported the conservation hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central strategy for climate change mitigation is expanding electricity generation from renewable energy sources, with an increasing share of decentralized generation. Some of these sources are variable renewable energy (VRE) sources, such as wind and solar resources. Measures have to be enacted to integrate VRE into an existing power supply system. One approach is switching from grid electricity supply towards direct demand of VRE generation to reduce grid transportation requirements and variable electricity grid feed-in. Within this context, energy flexibility control of manufacturing systems can be used to match energy demand of manufacturing systems with on-site VRE generation. Nonetheless, due to their inherent dynamic behavior, interlinked manufacturing systems provide additional operational and technical challenges such as maintaining throughput when energy control actions are executed. Further, stochastic influences from, for example, VRE generation and manufacturing system behavior constitute the requirement for a real-time approach on the level of manufacturing execution systems. Consequently, this paper presents a method for real-time control of manufacturing systems with several processes and intermediate buffers to increase utilization of (on-site) generated VRE without compromising system throughput. An initial method for an energy flexibility control logic is presented and a simulation prototype to evaluate its effectiveness is implemented. A case study is used to demonstrate the effectiveness and to test sensitivities to system parameter changes. Impact on direct VRE demand and additional operational indicators is evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy consumption has dramatically increased in buildings over the past decade due to population growth, more time spent indoors, increased demand for building functions and indoor environmental quality, and global climate change. Building energy use currently accounts for over 40% of total primary energy consumption in the U.S. and E.U. Nevertheless, significant energy savings can be achieved in buildings if they are properly designed, constructed and operated. For this reason, building energy efficiency can provide key solutions to energy shortages, carbon emissions and their serious threat to our living environment. This paper offers a brief overview of building energy-consumption situations, relevant energy-saving approaches, and the influence of global climate change. Building energy-consumption situations based on data derived from international energy reports are initially compared between the U.S., China and the E.U. Both similarities and differences are found in aspects of building energy end-uses and final energy fuel-types among these top three building energy consumers. We then introduce the current concept of the zero-energy building (ZEB). State-of-the-art approaches for ZEB technologies are summarized in three categories: passive energy-saving technologies, energy-efficient building service systems and renewable energy production technologies. The feasibility of these technologies is reviewed. In addition, we briefly discuss the influence of global climate change on the evolution of building energy use in the future. We find that climate change significantly impacts building energy performance, particularly in space heating and cooling. Improvements on building envelope and ventilation can play an important role in reducing space heating and cooling consumption levels. We also provide some suggestions for further developing ZEBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy consumption in the world is increasing greatly owing to the growing population, and to increasing energy consumption per capita. This high energy consumption is associated with a high life quality. Due to this fact, and to the energy price and availability and to the potential threat of global climate changes, there is a great motivation to use energy from renewable sources such as solar energy. Jordan is a developing non-oil production country and its energy needs are imported from abroad as oil and petroleum products. On the other hand, Jordan has an abundance amount of solar radiation 300 days a year. Photovoltaic modules provides safe, reliable, maintenance-free, without noise, and environmentally friendly source of power. This paper evaluates the performance of different solar modules in semi arid climate as in Jordanian. An experiment to investigate the performance of two photovoltaic modules is conducted at different times of the year. The measured parameters in this paper are: output open circuit voltage and short circuit current from the PV modules, ambient temperature and solar intensity. The relationship between the performance and the efficiency of monos crystalline PV and multi crystalline PV is measured in this experiment. The performance value of the PV solar module is identified and compared with the output values supplied by the producer of the PV modules and with other PV models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against an academic and policy backdrop of interest in (and concerns about) the issue, this paper draws on a range of academic writing in various disciplines to explore visual strategies of climate change communication. The geographic scope of the investigation is the United Kingdom, with particular attention to recognizable icons of climate change in UK media and the images used in political campaigns. The paper is in two parts. The first part concentrates on various efforts to put a 'face' on the climate change issue, while part two suggests that weather and renewable energy are the dominant alternative motifs. The paper draws a basic distinction between fear-laden representations of climate change and a variety of visual efforts to use so-called inspirational imagery. All of the images reviewed suggest an affirmative answer to the question in the title, there are multiple efforts underway to move beyond polar bears and represent climate change in more creative and meaningful ways. The bigger question addressed is one raised already by photographers as well as academics, i.e. whether documentary photography (rather than particular types of images) is the more fundamental issue. The answer in the paper is that photographs are no different from other visual images in their capacity to draw attention to messages. The challenge is to use visuals creatively, in ways that prompt positive engagement with climate change without enhancing public disengagement and fatalism. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific evidence of climate change as a result of greenhouse gas emissions which causes ozone layer depletion is becoming increasingly obvious and clear. Findings revealed that energy from the fossil fuel is the major source of greenhouse emission which destroys the environment and makes it unhealthy for living beings. In Nigeria, conventional energy (oil and gas) with gas flaring has the highest percentage of 52% and liquid fuel of 32% of carbon dioxide (CO2) respectively. This sector contributes revenue of over 70% to Nigeria s economy and generates an average total 21.8% of greenhouse gas emission. In Nigeria, there is a much more potential for share renewables with 15.4% of total energy production and 8.6 % of energy consumption. In reality with global environmental concern, Nigeria s carbon dioxide emissions have increased with energy production and consumption. The Integrated Renewable Energy Master Plan of 2008 projects a 26.7% renewable energy contribution to the Nigeria s energy use and this is expected to reduce CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions at 38% by2025. Nigeria has not been playing significant role by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. This paper highlights Nigeria s climate change situation and penetration requirements for various renewable energy deployments as mitigating instrument for climate change towards healthy and productive environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the topics receiving much attention in recent years is climate change and the potential of its integration in impact assessment, both in terms of achieving mitigation and adaptation. Renewable energy projects are part of the efforts to mitigate climate change, replacing the use of fossil fuel with CO2-neutral energy sources. A variety of these projects are subject to environmental impact assessment (EIA), which raises the following questions: What role does an impact assessment play? When is the project environmentally friendly? How are climate change-related impacts assessed in projects with inherent positive effects on climate change? This paper reviews practice, and takes up these questions based on a document study of 19 EIA reports of renewable energy projects in Denmark. The results show that climate change mitigation is included in 18 of the EIA reports reviewed, while adaptation is absent. Also, the results show an emphasis on positive impacts in the reports, and in a few cases discussions of enhancements. Identification and assessment of negative climate change impacts are less apparent. This leads to a discussion of the results in the light of the purpose of EIA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In an effort to diversify economies and reduce high oil dependency, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries plan to increase the use of renewable energy sources to meet the challenges of a post-oil future. The Accession to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, which require a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has started a process of environmental awakening in the GCC countries. This paper reviews the publications on renewable energy with reference to the GCC countries since 2005. The objective was to investigate the benefits of funding and investing in renewable energy projects in the GCC countries. The article shows that the GCC countries have begun to adopt a more pro-active approach toward renewable energy that will help progress the GCC countries towards sustainability. The reorientation of strategies and policies toward renewable energy is evolving in the GCC countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Modern agriculture is heavily based on the energy supply obtained mainly from fossil fuels. In this sense, it can be defined as a technology that transforms fossil fuels into food. However, the available amount of fossil hydrocarbons is not infinite and climate change is creating a critical necessity of reducing their use. Therefore, it is not too early to start considering how agriculture could be adapted to sustainable sources of energy which do not cause climate change. In the present paper, we discuss how agriculture could be restructured in order to utilize the electric power provided by renewable energy technologies such as wind and photovoltaics. In this sense, the problem can be stated as the need of developing technologies able to turn electricity into food. In our analysis, we find that renewable electric power could provide some of the services for the farm produced today by fossil fuels at costs which are not outside reasonable ranges. However, not all the problems of modern agriculture can be solved simply shifting from one power source to another and the limited availability of mineral fertilizers, such as phosphates, remains a fundamental limitation. We conclude that renewable electric power in the farm should be seen as part of a more general transition that will require considerable transformations and adaptation of the current agricultural process in order to develop a truly sustainable agriculture. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Suvilahti, a suburb of the city of Vaasa in western Finland, was the first area to use seabed sediment heat as the main source of heating for a high number of houses. Moreover, in the same area, a unique land uplift effect is ongoing. The aim of this paper is to solve the challenges and find opportunities caused by global warming by utilizing seabed sediment energy as a renewable heat source. Measurement data of water and air temperature were analyzed, and correlations were established for the sediment temperature data using Statistical Analysis System (SAS) Enterprise Guide 7.1. software. The analysis and provisional forecast based on the autoregression integrated moving average (ARIMA) model revealed that air and water temperatures show incremental increases through time, and that sediment temperature has positive correlations with water temperature with a 2-month lag. Therefore, sediment heat energy is also expected to increase in the future. Factor analysis validations show that the data have a normal cluster and no particular outliers. This study concludes that sediment heat energy can be considered in prominent renewable production, transforming climate change into a useful solution, at least in summertime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing awareness of climate change and the scarcity of fossil fuel reserves have made many nations consider energy alternatives. Wind appears everywhere on the globe, and wind power technology, including offshore wind power could offer a qualified solution. The objective of this paper is to analyze the key actors in the offshore wind power markets, and to evaluate how new entrants with novel products could enter the market. The evaluation is based on a literature review and financial, patent and potential partner analyses. The results reveal the leading players, new entrants and challengers, in collaboration with whom a new small-scale entrant could execute the commercialization of novel products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing awareness of climate change and the scarcity of fossil fuel reserves have made many nations consider energy alternatives. Wind appears everywhere on the globe, and wind power technology, including offshore wind power could offer a qualified solution. The objective of this paper is to analyze the key actors in offshore wind power markets, and to evaluate how new entrants with novel products could enter the market. The evaluation is based on a literature review and financial and potential partner analyses. The results reveal leading players, new entrants and challengers, in collaboration with whom a new small-scale entrant could execute the commercialization of novel products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons for ever growing energy consumption in buildings and to give enhanced supervision strategies for reduction of building energy consumption compared to regular ones. A case study of Ningbo city was used to make a detail analysis. Several factors were determined as the reasons for ever growing building energy consumption including climate change, household electricity load increase, the growth of real estate, fast-growing household electrical appliances, high energy consumption in existing buildings, changes in industrial structure and the lack of enhanced government supervision. Then the discussion of suitable countermeasures shows that only enhanced supervision strategies are currently applicable. Finally, it is concluded that enhanced government supervision strategies, including the establishment of a strict control system for new built buildings through information integration and encryption, establishing an energy efficiency supervision system of large-scale public building and a carrot-and-stick approach with added expert checklist for the building application of renewable energy, showed great advantages in promoting building energy efficiency in Ningbo, compared with other cities. These supervision strategies are applicable in other cities as they are in the similar situations in the enforcement of building energy efficiency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Coastal and terrestrial fisheries communities in Europe, often economically marginalised, are likely to face severe impacts as climate change becomes more acute. Although progress on climate mitigation and adaptation from national governments remains slow, local development actions can also address these impacts from the bottom up. In this paper we analyse the Fisheries and Sea Operational Programme 2014–2020 and 36 Local Development Strategies prepared within the framework of this programme for the case of Poland. The strategies, which were prepared by cross-sectoral, area-based partnerships known as Fisheries Local Action Groups, are analysed using a content analysis approach. The aim was to assess the degree to which local stakeholders sought to address the climate challenge. We found that the mitigation of climate impacts and the development of renewable energy did not feature prominently in the analysed documents, suggesting that both central policymakers and local stakeholders in Polish fisheries regions had a low level of awareness about the climate problem and their potentially important role in addressing it. Transformation to a post-carbon society undoubtedly requires additional, targeted support and extensive educational activities at the local level, in Poland and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Avoiding dangerous climate change is likely to require policies to mitigate CO2 emissions that are substantially more ambitious than those currently being considered. For such policies, the issue of endogenous technological change becomes important, both to estimate the overall costs and to identify the intertemporally cost-effective combination of mitigation options. In this paper, we first discuss the recent literature that evaluates the potential for endogenous technological change to reduce mitigation costs, and the efforts to incorporate endogenous technological change into pre-existing integrated assessment models. Then we formulate our own integrated assessment model, the Model of INvestment and Technological Development (MIND), which allows analysis of the relationship between specific mitigation options and the costs of ambitious climate protection objectives. Our model reveals two important results. First, the incorporation of technological change in a portfolio of mitigation options can reduce the costs of climate policies substantially. Achieving the ambitious policy goals necessary to avoid dangerous climate change becomes feasible without significant welfare losses. Second, the different mitigation options are of different importance in achieving climate protection goals: improving energy efficiency becomes too costly as a major mitigation option in the long run. In the long run, fossil fuels have to be substituted by renewable energy sources because a backstop technology with the potential of learning-by-doing has the strongest impact on reducing the welfare losses due to climate protection. Furthermore, Carbon Capturing and Sequestration can allow for further reduction in the costs of climate protection and can postpone the need to transform the energy system from a fossil-fuel-based one to a renewables one. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In recent years, the threat of global climate change, high fuel import dependence, and rapidly rising electricity demand levels have intensified the quest for more sustainable energy systems. This in turn has increased the need for policy makers to promote electricity generation from renewable energy sources. Guaranteed prices coupled with a buy-back obligation for electricity fed into the grid is a popular renewables promotion instrument, especially in Europe. More recently, driven mainly by electricity market liberalisation efforts, quota targets for the share of renewables in combination with tradable ‘green’ certificates (TGC) have received considerable attention. TGC offer a greater theoretical potential for economic efficiency gains, due to price competition and the greater flexibility assigned to the obliged parties. While guaranteed prices and TGC schemes support the operation of renewable energy technology systems, bidding schemes for renewable energy generation capacity are used to raise economic efficiency on the plant construction side. All of these policy instruments suffer from the shortcoming that they do not explicitly account for the often widely varying environmental, social and economic impacts of the technologies concerned. In this paper, we propose a methodology for the design of renewable energy policy instruments that is based on integrated assessment. In particular, we argue that using participatory multicriteria evaluation as part of the design of renewable energy promotion policies would make it possible: (1) to differentiate the level of promotion in a systematic and transparent manner according to their socio-ecological economic impact, and (2) to explicitly account for the preferences of stakeholders. A further problem of existing TGC and bidding schemes is that diversity of supply could be severely diminished, if few low-cost technologies were allowed to dominate the renewable energy market. To ensure a certain diversity of technologies, our scheme suggests the use of different technology bands for technologies that are relatively homogeneous with respect to their maturity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Green bonds have increasingly been utilized around the world as a source of financing for renewable energy development, designed with compliance requirements and measurable economic returns to investors, while mitigating climate change. However, the efficacy of green bond arranged in the emerging economies for financing renewable energy assets and how the underlying risks are managed have remained to be explored. The paper aims to examine the evolving green financial system sponsored by both public and private institutions in managing such risks within China's emerging economy. A case study of green financing for a bundle of wind power assets led by a state-owned enterprise (SOE) reveals an alternative approach by structuring public–private collaboration while stipulating market-based financial incentives to institutional stakeholders under a political economy. This institutional consortium is composed of a state development bank, a commercial bank, credit rating agencies, institutional and private investors, regional power purchasers, and carbon trading entities. Financial stakeholders' risk in such emerging sustainable investment is moderated by these participating institutions and structured "upsides" from carbon trading aligned with the framework of green finance and standards for green bond development. The results reveal the potentials of scaling up the development of renewable energy by adequately managing and sharing key risks, while allocating substantial funding into renewable energy projects under such a green financial system that is to be complementary with a scalable post COVID-19 economic recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate changes necessitate measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The European Union's climate and energy policy places particular emphasis on the development of renewable energy, considered to be the primary mean in achieving the climate neutrality goal by 2050. Having in mind the aforementioned, the study was conducted to determine time delay in the development of renewable energy sources between the Visegrad Group (V4) countries and Germany, considered the most advanced country in developing renewable energy and having the greatest impact on shaping European Union climate and energy policy. The time delay econometric method was used in four of its variants. The research results show that, despite the existence of support mechanisms, the development of renewable energy sources (RES) in the V4 countries has a high mutual correlation. There is a hight correlation between RES penetration in energy mix and UE goals of the climate and energy policy until 2020. At the same time, the available data from the analysed period 2004–2019 indicate growing time delay between the reference facility—Germany and the surveyed group. The paper identifies the primary factors behind the identified time delay and proposes research areas that could direct the future research of those aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper focuses on green defaults as demand-side policies supporting the uptake of renewable energy in Germany. It sets out to gain a better understanding of whether and for whom green electricity defaults work. The present study is one of the first to use a large-scale data set to investigate this question. We combine micro-level data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) covering private households (including a wealth of individual information) with macro-level information such as population density of a region and proportion of energy suppliers in a given region that use a green opt-out tariff within their basic supply. We show that in Germany, green defaults, automatically enrolling customers in renewable energy sources, tend to stick, especially but not only among those who are concerned about the problem of climate change. This finding, based on real-world rather than experimental evidence, attests to the power of automatic enrollment in addressing environmental problems in Germany and potentially beyond, including climate change, and also adds to the growing literature on the substantial effects of shifting from opt-in to opt-out strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing demand for energy and the impacts generated by CO2 emissions make it necessary to harness all possible renewable sources of energy, like wave power. Nevertheless, climate change may generate significant variations in the amount of wave energy available in a certain area. The aim of this paper is to study potential changes in the wave energy resource in the Mediterranean coast of Morocco due to climate change. To do this, wave datasets obtained by four institutes during the Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment in the Mediterranean Region (Med-CORDEX) project are used. The future conditions correspond to the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios from the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The results show that projected future wave power is very similar to that of the present considering the whole area, although at some specific points there are slight changes that are more evident for the RCP8.5 scenario. Another remarkable result of this study is the significant increase of the temporal variability of wave power in future scenarios, in particular for RCP8.5. This will be detrimental for the deployment of wave energy converters in this area since their energy output will be more unevenly distributed over time, thus decreasing their efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world's ever-increasing population, combined with economic and technological growth and a new, modern way of life, has led to high energy demand and consumption. Fossil fuels have been the main energy source for many years, but their use has many negative impacts on the environment. This has made the transition to renewable energy sources necessary in order to address climate change and meet the 1.5 °C goal. This paper is a review of the different types of renewables, their potentials and limitations, and their connection to climate change, economic growth, and human health. It also examines consumers' willingness to pay for renewables in different countries, based on the existing literature. IEA (International Energy Agency) data are analyzed, concerning renewables' current use, the evolution of their usage, and forecasts about their future usage. Finally, policies and strategies are recommended in order to address climate change and fully integrate renewables as a sustainable energy source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forests provide a range of ecosystem services, including bioenergy supply and carbon sequestration, both contributing to significant climate change mitigation. Oleaginous trees have potential to provide bioenergy supplies through biodiesel-producing seed yield as well as contributing to carbon sequestration. This paper aims to show the provisions of bioenergy and carbon savings through forest rotation management and it will investigate the potential of oleaginous forest management in China. We use the land expectation value (LEV) model to calculate the optimal joint values of timber, seed and total carbon savings, including carbon sequestration from forest and carbon reductions through energy substitutions. The results indicate that combining both values of seeds and carbon savings increase the LEV and rotation age (167,611 Yuan/ha, 78 years) compared to sole timber value (26,053 Yuan/ha, 55 years). The optimization of the LEVs and the resulting optimal rotation ages are significantly sensitive to the discounting rate. Annual biodiesel potential production from Pistacia chinensis can take up 1.7% of the national diesel consumption in China. We conclude that China can use improved forest rotation management as an effective means for achieving goals in its low-carbon energy strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]