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All sectors of the process industries depend on water and energy resources to transform raw materials into a large number of products demanded by society. The sustainability issue is an essential consideration in process design, which drives significant efforts to improve both water and energy efficiency. Most of these processes display strong interactions between water and energy use such that any changes to the energy network often impact the water network, although this impact is seldom followed in any systematic way by process-design engineers. Due to a number of market externalities, the economic balance between energy and water is heavily inclined towards energy. However, with water shortages becoming more frequent throughout the world, it is likely that the balance will change in the near future. Other environmental aspects associated with chemical process design include energy-related issues such as greenhouse gas and other air emissions as well as water quality. This chapter reviews several useful Process Integration (PI)-based concepts recently developed across a number of worldwide research teams, in support of process-design applications dealing with problems characterised by strong energy and water interactions.

Electricity Systems in europe are experiencing major changes due to targets for renewable energy integration, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and energy efficiency. Different studies show that there is a growing need for more flexibility and active stakeholder involvement at all levels (from small consumers to pan-European networks) to ensure the efficient and reliable operation of the electricity system, particularly to deal with growing volumes of renewable energy sources, from transmission-level wind and solar farms to household-level photovoltaic generation. Other key evolutions that aim to decarbonize the energy sector beyond electricity, such as those based on the electrification of energy end uses (e.g., the development of electric vehicles and the electrification of heating), are also expected to have a substantial impact.

Summary Addressing climate change with the rising global energy usage necessitates electricity sector decarbonization by rapidly moving toward flexible and efficient off-grid renewable energy systems (RESs). This paper analyzes the wind and solar micro-grids, with batteries and pumped hydro storage for a robust off-grid RES techno-economic operation, while considering diverse multi-objective optimization cases. This research has considered the RES variable operational losses in the developed methodology and relations between different indicators are evaluated, revealing a basic understanding between them. The results reveal that the reliability index is inversely related to the oversupply index, while directly related to the system self-sufficiency index. The cost of energy is more sensitive to technical indicators rather than the storage cost and so can be used as a primary monetary index. Energy and cost balance analysis showed that 16%–20% of the used energy was drained in RES operational losses, which were usually ignored in previous studies., Graphical abstract, Highlights • A robust techno-economic design is critical for off-grid renewables • Storage cost is less sensitive to technical indicators compared with energy costs • Non-used electricity for considered off-grid cases is 45%–55% • High initial cost (>80%) is the main hindrance to the wide deployment, Earth sciences; Energy policy; Energy engineering; Energy systems

Energy transitions are ongoing processes all over the world. While sustainable solutions are envisioned for the future, many societies are still under high-carbon and high-pollution energy regime borne by fossil fuels. How to design pathways towards sustainable energy transition has attracted worldwide concerns. Understanding the possible transition pathways of the energy system requires the integration of new energy technologies, environmental sciences, economics and management. This Special Issue of Journal of Cleaner Production targets to collect the latest research results on sustainable energy systems, discover innovative avenues and inspiring models and share knowledge on energy system modelling and management. In this paper, we identify 4 themes on sustainable energy transition pathways including: (1) Sustainable energy economics and management; (2) Renewable energy generation and consumption; (3) Environmental impacts of energy systems; and (4) Electric vehicle and energy storage. Theories, technologies, innovative models, and successful experiences are discussed accordingly. It is suggested that creative, robust and audacious strategies in governance, management and education are needed to boost sustainable energy transition across various scales and sectors.

100% renewable energy systems require high penetration of variable renewable electricity (VRE) generation. This causes the net load in the system to be more variable and could cause operational problems in local power grids. Demand side management (DSM), such as fuel or energy carrier switching in response to a price signal, can provide flexibility to meet the increased variability. This study investigates the impact of VRE production on electricity prices and their potential to act as an incentive to control district heating power-to-heat (P2H) production in order to shave VRE production peaks. Also, the potential to increase P2H production flexibility with additional heat storages is studied. Electricity prices are simulated by modification of historical electricity market supply curves. A heat storage component is implemented in an existing model for district heat production. The results show that P2H production is significantly increased (up to 98%) when electricity prices are influenced by VRE production. Thermal storages further increase the P2H production by up to 46%. The increased P2H production, however, does not necessarily coincide with the peaks of VRE. Thus, in conclusion, the pricing mechanism on the Nord pool electricity market is insufficient to control P2H production for shaving VRE production peaks.

This paper investigates joint investment planning of transmission lines and energy storage. Energy storage can be seen as a complement to transmission infrastructure and can be used for transmission deferral. On the other hand, under certain conditions, when the expected profit of both sectors depends on congestion in the system, transmission and energy storage can be seen as competitors. The transmission sector is in this study assumed to be a natural monopoly and operation and planning of transmission lines is performed by an independent company whereas the energy storage owner company operates and invests under competitive market rules. Three main questions are addressed in this paper. First of all, will additional energy storage capacity contribute to the growth of social welfare? Second, how will incentive regulation of the transmission network affect the need for energy storage? Third, how will the choice of incentive regulation affect the value of energy storage. This paper first provides an overview of incentive regulation which can be applied to transmission investments. Then case studies based on a 6-node power system network and the IEEE 118-node system are proposed in order to answer the aforementioned questions. The results of the case studies show that energy storage investments complement transmission expansion and contribute to higher social welfare values. The benefits from energy storage investments are significantly higher under two investigated incentive regulations as compared to the case without incentive regulation. Thus, the transmission investment planning process should consider energy storage options. Keywords: Transmission investments, Energy storage, Incentive regulation, Wind generation, Stochastic programming

In today's district heating (DH) energy market, it is common to use user functional categories in price models to determine the heat price. However, users in the same category do not necessarily ha ...

Visualization of energy consumption within the built environment, both in the private and public sectors, can be a potent tool for increasing conservation behavior. For instance, dynamics visualiza ...

With the incorporation of higher shares of intermittent renewable energies (RES), more flexible resources are required in power systems to keep load balance. Under some extreme circumstances, the f ...

Shallow geothermal resource has been considered as a new and promising form for clean heating in some areas in China, such as Xiong’an New Area. In this paper, a real option model is established to explore the optimal investment timing and investment scale of shallow geothermal resources. According to numerical results, we found that in the reference scenario the critical value of marginal revenue is 4.30 yuan / m2, and the optimal investment scale is 1.28 million square meters. Simultaneously, the investors are advised to invest after 1.05 years and they will get the unit investment return of 39.34 yuan / m2.

District Heating (DH) is facing a tough competition in the market. In order to improve its competence, an effective way is to reform price models for DH. This work proposed a new dynamic price mode ...

Electrical power generation across the world is facing dramatic changes for a variety of reasons related to reliability, economics and environmental concerns. Over recent years a significant increase has been observed in installed capacity of photovoltaic systems. Due to their typical seasonal and diurnal energy conversion patterns their integration into power systems creates new opportunities as well as threats. This paper intends to show how photovoltaics can contribute to reducing peak load in office buildings and thereby minimise expenditure on electricity during time- and peak-load-dependent energy prices/tariffs. An additional benefit is also provided to the national power system by reducing the need for peaking power stations. The calculations are performed for energy tariffs commonly used for commercial buildings in Poland. The simulation relies on climatic and price data for 2016. The results show significant potential for photovoltaics to reduce the peak load (from almost 60 kW to slightly over 44 kW) whilst simultaneously minimising energy costs to the building (from 1.2% up to 5.8% depending on the selected tariff). This study demonstrates the economic benefits of using PV system for reducing peak loads. A sensitivity analysis with regard to photovoltaics investment costs is carried out showing that the increasing investment costs have different impact on total energy cost depending on the considered energy tariff.

Summary The high variability and intermittency of wind and solar farms raise questions of how to operate electrolyzers reliably, economically, and sustainably using predominantly or exclusively variable renewables. To address these questions, we develop a comprehensive cost framework that extends to include factors such as performance degradation, efficiency, financing rates, and indirect costs to assess the economics of 10 MW scale alkaline and proton-exchange membrane electrolyzers to generate hydrogen. Our scenario analysis explores a range of operational configurations, considering (i) current and projected wholesale electricity market data from the Australian National Electricity Market, (ii) existing solar/wind farm generation curves, and (iii) electrolyzer capital costs/performance to determine costs of H2 production in the near (2020–2040) and long term (2030–2050). Furthermore, we analyze dedicated off-grid integrated electrolyzer plants as an alternate operating scenario, suggesting oversizing renewable nameplate capacity with respect to the electrolyzer to enhance operational capacity factors and achieving more economical electrolyzer operation., Graphical abstract, Highlights • A comprehensive framework to assess levelized cost of hydrogen (LCH2) is developed. • Current and future outlook of LCH2 for the electrolyzer operations in Australia. • LCH2 ≤ A$3 kg−1 requires electrolyzer cost < A$500 kW−1, < A$30MWh−1, and WACC of, Electrochemistry; Energy policy; Energy engineering; Energy sustainability; Energy flexibility; Energy Systems

Energy not used is arguably the best, cheapest and the least environmentally damaging source of supply and nowadays the concept of "negawatts" in energy strategies world wide is being introduced as a new, significant source of energy. However, energy efficiency being typically demand side option is hard to implement and requires carefully defined approach, i.e. policy interventions are needed to fulfil existing potentials for cost-effective efficiency improvements. The task of policymakers is to design instruments to improve energy efficiency that are at the same time oriented towards cleaner environment, better standard of living, more competitive industry and improved security of energy supply. The paper discusses main pillars of successful policy making needed for energy efficiency market transformation.

An extensive and reliable electricity grid is essential for all the sectors of society.In parts of Sweden, the electricity grid has been suffering from a lack of capacity.This is something affecting all the sectors and all the people in these regions. Thecapacity problems have, however, so far, mainly been analyzed from a technical systemperspective, focusing on incumbent actors, whereas other actors have been lessresearched. This article aims to fill this gap and include a variety of perceptions ofSwedish actors’ on the lack of electricity grid capacity. It is, however, a challenge tocapture the views of others than the professionals working in the area because theelectricity grid is not something people, in general, reflect upon. The article takes anexplorative approach to the subject by analyzing the problems and the solutions raisedin four arenas: the regulative, the media, the technocratic, and the user. It also focuseson the city of Malmö in Sweden and two projects where the lack of grid capacityhas been discussed. Sweden’s lack of capacity concerns that, although electricity isavailable, the energy grid cannot transmit the required amount of electricity to all parts of the country. The article concludes that the electricity grid has been developed withina technocratic frame, with a few professionals dominating the agenda, which has ledto convergence of perspectives and narrowing options. In the regulative arena, whichoften decides what issues are prioritized and in the end implemented, there is a focus on investment in transformers and lines rather than demand-side solutions and userflexibility. Technological and economical values are dominating all arenas, and othervalues, such as user engagement and ownership, are marginalized.

Urban Photovoltaic (PV) systems can provide large fractions of the residential electric demand at socket parity (i.e., a cost below the household consumer price). This is obtained without necessarily installing electric storage or exploiting tax funded incentives. The benefits of aggregating the electric demand and renewable output of multiple households are known and established, in fact, regulations and pilot energy communities are being implemented worldwide. Financing and managing a shared urban PV system remains an unsolved issue, even when the profitability of the system as a whole is demonstrable. For this reason, an agent-based modelling environment has been developed and is presented in this study. It is assumed that an optimal system (optimized for self-sufficiency) is shared between 48 households in a local grid of a positive energy district. Different scenarios are explored and discussed, each varying in number of owners (agents who own a PV system) and their pricing behaviour. It has been found that a smaller number of investors (i.e., someone refuse to join) provokes an increase of the earnings for the remaining investors (from 8 to 74% of the baseline). Furthermore, the pricing strategy of an agent shows improvement potential without knowledge of the demand of others, and thus it has no privacy violations.

The current Brazilian and global panorama and perspective about electricity microgeneration throw photovoltaic conversion, explaining and comparing important approached points such: The Brazilian potential in generating solar energy; the solar energy production worldwide; photovoltaic energy conversion and the viability of implementation, focusing on the cost-benefit as well as its future perspectives, along with the visions of students and specialists in the Energy Engineer field.

Improving the energy performance of detached houses is expected to play an important role in achieving energy and climate targets in Sweden. The majority of detached houses require energy renovations due to technical deteriorations in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems approaching the ends of their lives. Renewable energy supply system implementation leads to total energy use reduction. No previous studies provided information regarding how possible climate futures could affect subsidies required to implement these systems. This study compared the performance of an air-to-water heat pump (ASHP), a ground-source heat pump (GSHP), and an integrated system of a ground-source heat pump and photovoltaic solar panels (GSHP-PV) in reducing the total energy use of a detached house, which was initially supplied by an electric boiler. The performances of the supply systems were analysed in regard to three different climate scenarios, following the Special Report of Emissions Scenarios, A2 storyline. The effects of three different interest rates and two different lifetimes on subsidies were also investigated for all three energy supply systems. The GSHP-PV system was the most efficient system, as it secured 97%–100% of the total energy consumption, followed by GSHP and AWHP. The analyses of the results showed that variations in future climate conditions changed the subsidies required to install the supply systems. Furthermore, the results showed that changes in lifetime had greater impact on subsidies than interest rate growth. LC-Districts

Utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) parks have dominated the international market for the past few years. However, in some countries, like Sweden, utility-scale PV is on the verge to economic viability. Using existing infrastructure in a resource-efficient manner could be a crucial strategy for a successful implementation at scale. In this study, a new methodology for a utility-scale solar guide is developed by studying the hosting capacity in the local grid and identifying land appropriate for PV parks. The method is applied on a rural municipality in Sweden (512 km2) with a local distribution grid (5,000 customers). The impact on the grid, if connecting a PV park to a substation, was analyzed through power flow simulations and the geographical assessment was done using multi-criteria analysis with a Boolean approach. Three different sizes of PV parks, 1, 3, and 5 MWp, were analyzed. Results showed that 3.7% of the studied area is qualified for locating 1 MWp PV parks. However, if introducing a maximum distance threshold to the nearest substation that can host the PV generation from the park, the potential is further reduced (e.g., to 1% for a 750 m threshold). Furthermore, parts of the grid can host PV parks of 3 and 5 MWp, but only near urban areas, where qualified land is lacking. The results highlight that the proposed methodology can function as a tool in the dialog between utility companies, municipalities, PV companies, land-owners and other stakeholders in order to find resource- and system-efficient locations for PV parks.

Summary We use 36 years (1980–2015) of hourly weather data over the contiguous United States (CONUS) to assess the impact of low-cost energy storage on highly reliable electricity systems that use only variable renewable energy (VRE; wind and solar photovoltaics). Even assuming perfect transmission of wind and solar generation aggregated over CONUS, energy storage costs would need to decrease several hundred-fold from current costs (to ∼$1/kWh) in fully VRE electricity systems to yield highly reliable electricity without extensive curtailment of VRE generation. The role of energy storage changes from high-cost storage competing with curtailment to fill short-term gaps between VRE generation and hourly demand to near-free storage serving as seasonal storage for VRE resources. Energy storage faces “double penalties” in VRE/storage systems: with increasing capacity, (1) the additional storage is used less frequently and (2) hourly electricity costs would become less volatile, thus reducing price arbitrage opportunities for the additional storage., Graphical Abstract, Highlights • As storage capacity increases, hourly electricity costs become less volatile. • High-cost storage fills short-term gaps between renewable electricity generation and demand • Near-free storage provides reliable seasonal storage for variable renewable electricity • With increasing storage capacity, additional storage is used less frequently, Energy Resources; Energy Policy; Energy Engineering

The recently industrialized process of converting coal to ethanol (CTE) is a potential competitor of the conventional biomass to ethanol (BTE) conversion route. In this study, a life cycle analysis was employed to assess the energy consumption, carbon emissions and economic costs associated with CTE compared with those associated with BTE. The operation data for the world's first industrialized CTE project were incorporated into the analysis. It is estimated that energy consumption and carbon emissions are mostly from the ethanol production process. The capital investment input is largely in the form of equipment costs, and the production cost is mainly spent on purchasing feedstock and energy. Compared with BTE, CTE offers a feasible alternative for energy engineering applications, benefiting from a robust energy conservation effect and excellent economic competitiveness even with feedstock price fluctuations. However, such a promising route faces the challenge of high carbon emissions, which needs to be solved promptly. An effective way to address this issue is to improve the conversion efficiency according to sensitivity analysis. The results of this study demonstrate the energy engineering application value of CTE technology, provide important indicators for its improvement and help policymakers and the market to select the appropriate ethanol production route according to local resource conditions.

Highlights • It simulates impact of COVID-19 on energy demand for a building mix at a district. • Confinement scenarios are proposed based on a new district design in Sweden. • Confinement measures increase electricity demand of buildings in the district. • Confinement measures reduce thermal energy demand of buildings in the district., The COVID-19 outbreak is exacerbating uncertainty in energy demand. This paper aims to investigate the impact of the confined measures due to COVID-19 outbreak on energy demand of a building mix in a district. Three levels of confinement for occupant schedules are proposed based on a new district design in Sweden. The Urban Modeling Interface tool is applied to simulate the energy performance of the building mix. The boundary conditions and input parameters are set up according to the Swedish building standards and statistics. The district is at early-design stage, which includes a mix of building functions, i.e. residential buildings, offices, schools and retail shops. By comparing with the base case (normal life without confinement measures), the average delivered electricity demand of the entire district increases in a range of 14.3% to 18.7% under the three confinement scenarios. However, the mean system energy demands (sum of heating, cooling, and domestic hot water) decreases in a range of 7.1% to 12.0%. These two variation nearly cancel each other out, leaving the total energy demand almost unaffected. The result also shows that the delivered electricity demands in all cases have a relatively smooth variation across a year, while the system energy demands follow the principle trends for all the cases, which have peak demands in winter and much lower demands in transit seasons and summer. This study represents a first step in the understanding of the energy performance for community buildings when they confront with this kind of shock.

The Republic of Colombia is a country situated in the northwest of South America, with territories in Central America. In 2005, the interconnected electricity system served 87% of the population, a percentage that is below the 95% average for Latin America and the Caribbean. The Colombian government is making massive efforts to increase the electrification, especially at very remote and rural places. However, there are still several rural communities isolated from the main grid in Colombia. Also, although some communities have already been connected to the distribution system, the security and reliability are still an issue. One key element in the effort of electrification is the use of very small microgrids projects called “nanogrids.” A nanogrid is a small power system that uses a combination of renewable and conventional energy sources to supply power to small local loads. The total load in a nanogrid is typically less than 20 kW, as an industrial site, small rural village. or a household. The generators are primarily based on clean energy such as solar arrays, wind turbines, and fuel cells. In Colombia, the Caribbean coastline, Andes Mountains, and strong agriculture provide the country with abundant distributed renewable energy resources that might largely surpass the fast-growing electricity demand. In this framework, the nanogrids emerge as a solution to supply energy for some communities, located far away from the network, improving the inhabitant’s quality of life. Moreover, the nanogrids might improve the security and reliability levels of the distribution system. This chapter discusses good practices and proposed some solutions to overcome challenges detected in nanogrid projects developed in Colombia. In essence, this chapter is a case study of nanogrid systems; it focuses on a full detailed explanation of 23 nanogrid projects developed in Colombia considering location, installed power, purpose, etc. Then the nanogrid projects are evaluated, and it gives the opportunity to identify some characteristics that hinder or benefit the operation of these systems. Some of them are the growth of the demand, the appropriate and inadequate use of energy and drinking water, the changes of habits in the users in the presence of energy or the increase in the reliability of the energy supply and how it affects the maintenance or lack this, the operation of the systems.

12.9% of the energy use in the EU originates from the commercial and public sector. It has therefore become a priority to optimize energy efficiency in these buildings. The purpose of this study has been to explore how energy demand in a new office building is affected by different internal heat gains, location, orientation, and facade design, and also to see how different indicators can change perspective on energy efficiency. The study was performed with simulations in IDA-ICE with different facade design and changes in internal heat gains (IHG), orientation, and location. Energy demand was then compared to two different indicators. Using a facade designed to lower solar heat gains had little effect on energy demand in the north of Sweden, but slightly more effect further south. The amount of internal heat gains had significant effect on energy demand. Making deeper studies on design and internal heat gains should therefore be prioritized in the beginning of new building projects so the most energy-efficient design can be chosen. When the indicator kWh/m(2) was used, the cases with low internal heat gains were perceived as the most energy efficient, while when kWh/(m(2) x hpers) (hpers = hours of use) was used, the cases with high occupancy and low electricity use were considered to be the most energy efficient. Therefore, revising the standardized indicator is of great importance. Funding Agencies|Sankt Kors Fastigheter AB, Linkoping, Sweden; KK-foundation (KK-stiftelsen, Stiftelsen for Kunskaps och Kompetensutveckling) [20150133]

The Swedish system for determining fairway dues at the national level is acknowledged as being unique in attempting to consider the environmental performance of vessels. Between 1998 and 2014, vessels could get a SOX discount and between 1998 and 2017 a NOx discount, both based on certificates. In 2018, the Swedish government initiated a new system comprising more environmental impacts requiring operators that want to benefit from it, to register their vessels for a score in the Clean Shipping Index (CSI). The CSI covers performance in five categories: NOX, CO2, SOX/PM, Chemicals and Waste. Based on received scores, vessels can get 10%, 30% or 90% discount. In this paper, the short-term outcome of the new system is analysed and compared to the old NOX-based system. The comparison is based on revealed preferences of the involved vessel operators. Vessel specific data about the discounts and scores are analysed as well as the regional distribution of discounts and impacts on different vessel types. The paper shows that the Swedish Maritime Administration has succeeded in creating a system that attracts more vessel types and encompasses more environmental categories, but that the incentives to reduce NOX emissions have been reduced. Ex-post cost-benefit analyses of the earlier certificate-based systems have proven them beneficial to society. However, it is unclear how the outcome of the new system will be. The paper suggests that there are efficiency gains in harmonising the system SMA has introduced with the different systems for environmentally differentiated port fees in Sweden.

In view of the climate crisis, the development and the path of growth and expansion of renewable energy systems is an urgent task, but must carried out with great care on environmental compatibility and protection. Renewable energy supply systems that are suitable for grid-bound heat supply, particularly in urban areas in Europe, are geothermal binary plants that provide power as well as power and heat. This paper will present studies whose objective was the assessment of hydrogeothermal power and heat generation in low-enthalpy regions from the environmental standpoint. The German Environment Agency published results of a network of studies conducted between 2008 and 2016 on the analysis of detailed and comprehensive environmental impacts of the geothermal energy generation in Germany and has continuously evaluated these findings. In this article, the results of the Life Cycle Assessment are discussed, taking into account all effects and material flows within the entire life cycle. Based on these balances, differing geothermal systems are compared to each other and to other renewable and fossil energy generation systems in order to assess the ecological advantages and disadvantages of these systems. Taking into account local environmental impacts as well a comprehensive ecologic evaluation of potential environmental and human health impacts becomes possible. The paper presents the results of a) the mass and energy fluxes of the process chain along the life cycle, and b) the local environmental impacts along the life cycle with regard to the environmental indicators of these cases. The focus is on the impact of site and plant parameters. Concluding, it can be summarised that geothermal power and heat generation is a very low-carbon technology and can contribute to a sustainable energy supply. Hydrogeothermal plants show a significantly low surface consumption, and environmental impacts are only locally relevant and technically controllable. Through the development of optimised overall concepts, geothermal based power and heat generation can achieve minimal environmental impacts in all areas. The combined heat and power generation from geothermal resources is by far the most environmentally and climate-friendly energy supply compared to all other regenerative and fossil systems.

New technologies are being invented and energy demand is increasing. Growth of population has always been and will remain one of the major causes of energy demand. Science is therefore looking for new major and minor energy resources to keep world in progress. The main focus of energy engineering and technology in the field of energy generation is to harvest energy by any mean from any source. A theoretical research is introduced in this paper which will contribute its reasonable share in the field of renewable and green energy sector. This energy generating system is named as energy generating gymnasium system (EGGS). The core idea behind this energy harvesting system is that, the human being is also a source of renewable energy and it is possible to harness electrical energy from people by the use of EGGS. Human energy is wasted when excessive calories of body are burnt during exercise in gymnasiums to achieve the desired fitness. EGGS will provide an opportunity to return expended energy in the form of electrical energy from gymnasium equipment and cardiovascular machines. This electrical energy will be cheap and also green since it will not emit any carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) gas during the process. This system can increase the potential of renewable energy area and the electrical energy generated from EGGS can be sold back to the national utility via micro grids (MG). The proposed system will be very beneficial for such countries that are facing energy crises as well as the third world countries. Authors have discussed a gymnasium machine named as “Pull-down machine” and proposed a theoretical modification to make it as an energy generating gymnasium machine (EGGM) in the presented research. Citation: Saeed, M., Saleem, I., and Iqbal, F. (2019). Theoretical Design of Energy Generating Gymnasium Pull-down Machine for Green, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Production. Trends in Renewable Energy, 5, 47-59. DOI: 10.17737/tre.2019.5.1.0086 Â

To reduce human impact upon the environment, a transition from fossil to renewable energy sources such as biomass is imperative. Biomass from animal waste such as horse manure has unutilized potential as it has yet to be implemented at a large scale as an energy source. Research has demonstrated the technical feasibility of using animal waste for energy conversion, though their supply chain cost poses a barrier, as does a gap in research regarding the specific design of efficient horse manure-to-energy supply chains. In response, we investigated the design of horse manure-to-energy supply chains through interviews and site visits at stables, as well as through interviews with transport companies. Our findings show that horse manure-to-energy supply chains have distinct attributes at all stages of the supply chain such as the geographical spread of stables that determines supply chain design and hampers efficiency. They share several such attributes with forest biomass-to-energy supply chains, from which important needs can be identified, including the industrial development of trucks dedicated to the purpose, mathematical modeling to handle the trade-off of cost of substance loss in storage and cost of transport, and business models that reconcile the conflicting goals of different actors along the supply chains.

Introduction. In the conditions of dependence on the imported energy resources there is a problem of ensuring stability of the energy industry with counteraction to changes of the ambient and a possibility of reacting to actions for providing competitive positions and advantages of the state. A number of problems in energy industry need a support of necessary level of the energy security on the basis of providing own extraction with volume reduction of imported energy resources, increasing of the national products’ competitiveness in the world markets, development of innovations and investments into energy efficient technologies. In such conditions, it’s important to apply actions for ensuring economic security of the energy sector through the creating of an efficient program for the protection of the national interests in the energy sector, which will contribute to the national economy development. Aim and tasks. The purpose of article is a researching of energy security and developing actions for state regulation of energy security. Research results. The article outlines the priority directions of the state policy on ensuring the energy sector development which are identified as a main risks and adverse factors of influence on functioning of energy industry of Ukraine. And the necessity of energy security systems formation at the state level is grounded. The perspective increasing directions of energy security are the establishment of more adapted to transformations system of state regulation with market self-regulation elements. The state regulation of energy security in conditions of high level internationalization of national economy should be aimed at the harmonization of its technological and institutional aspects which influence the development and implementation of energy technologies and projects related to renewable energy sources. The state regulation requires further active development of institutional conditions for use of alternative energy resources and energy saving based on renewable energy. Conclusion. To provide energy security it is necessary to improve the complex program of its development which will involve wide use of state regulation methods as well as public-private partnership development so the support of the implementation of investment projects will be provided. The important aspect in development of energy engineering is ensuring its economic security which will allow to level possible threats of the industry and to provide requirements of fuel and energy complex and industry for a long term. Energy security should be directed towards increasing energy efficiency which will promote reducing imports and depending on the supply of energy resources by other countries. State regulation of energy security should ensure the rational use of the energy sector potential and stable functioning of the energetic supply system which includes: implementation of energy efficiency and energy saving policies; increase of investment in energy engineering; reduction of environmental impact and emissions.

In order to promote the development of energy storage industry and relieve the retirement pressure of EV batteries, the application of retired EV batteries in energy storage for second-life use has gained significant attentions. Considering that distributed battery storages are still not economically attractive enough at present, the booming of sharing economy may provide a more feasible option. Based on a non-cooperative game theoretical model, this study aims to explore the impact of sharing business models on economic performance of retired EV batteries integrated with distributed PV systems. Four scenarios were proposed, including: a traditional scenario of S1 - individual battery storages, the sharing scenarios of S2 - shared battery storage, S3 - shared PV generation, and S4 - shared battery storage and shared PV generation. Through a case study in Beijing, the obtained results show that: (i)although sharing business models may not guarantee to bring economic benefits to each individual, they can contribute to a reduction in electricity expenses of the whole community; (ii) sharing business models can enhance PV self-consumption ratio and battery utilization ratio; (iii) sharing business models can improve the NPV by 1995 RMB-6975 RMB compared to the traditional scenario.

National electrification plans for many countries with a low level of electrification promote the implementation of centralized and decentralized electrification in parallel. This paper explores di ...

Here, the implications of different design strategies and measures in minimising the heating and cooling demands of a multi-storey residential building, designed to the passive house criteria in Southern Sweden are analysed under different climate change scenarios. The analyses are conducted for recent (1996–2005) and future climate periods of 2050–2059 and 2090–2099 based on the Representative Concentration Pathway scenarios, downscaled to conditions in Southern Sweden. The considered design strategies and measures encompass efficient household equipment and technical installations, bypass of ventilation heat recovery unit, solar shading of windows, window size and properties, building orientation and mechanical cooling. Results show that space heating demand reduces, while cooling demand as well as risk of overheating increases under future climate scenarios. The most important design strategies and measures are efficient household equipment and technical installations, solar shading, bypass of ventilation heat recovery unit and window U-values and g-values. Total annual final energy demand decreased by 40–51%, and overheating is avoided or significantly reduced under the considered climate scenarios when all the strategies are implemented. Overall, the total annual primary energy use for operation decreased by 42–54%. This study emphasises the importance of considering different design strategies and measures in minimising the operation energy use and potential risks of overheating in low-energy residential buildings under future climates.

Current trends in energy supply and use within the building sector in Egypt are patently unsustainable and uneconomical; they are not environmentally and sometimes not even socially viable. Renewable energy has recently started to attract considerable attention as a future energy source. After major problems with electricity blackouts the photovoltaic (PV) market, in particular, has been growing significantly in Egypt over the last 5 years. This study was conducted to develop an evaluation method to assess the potential of applying passive design and low carbon and construction strategies together with PV systems for electricity power supply. A one year Building Performance and Post Occupancy Evaluation was carried out for a selected case study in Baharia, Egypt using records of energy use, demand profiles, and monitored thermal behaviour in indoor environments, together with a review of occupants’ satisfaction. The outcome of this study offers an applicable methodology for assessing the performance of mixed use off-grid low carbon and PV plus-energy buildings. The results aim to serve as a base for future national legal requirements for a zero carbon and PV plus-energy solar building practice especially in off-grid desert settlements in Egypt.

An increase in environmental awareness in both the aviation industry and the wider global setting has led to large bodies of research dedicated to developing more sustainable technology with a lower environmental impact and lower energy usage. The goal of reducing environmental impact has necessitated research into revolutionary new technologies that have the potential to be significantly more energy efficient than their predecessors. However, for innovative technologies in any industry, there is a risk that adoption will be prohibitively expensive for commercial application. It is therefore important to model the economic factors of the new technology or policy at an early stage of development. This research demonstrates the application of a Techno-economic Environmental Risk Assessment framework that may be used to identify the economic impact of an energy-efficient aircraft concept and the impact that environmental policy would have on the viability of the concept. The framework has been applied to a case study aircraft designed to achieve an energy saving of 60% in comparison to a baseline 2005 entry-into-service aircraft. The model compares the green aircraft concept to a baseline conventional aircraft using a sensitivity analysis of the aircraft direct operating cost to changes in acquisition and maintenance cost. The research illustrates an economically viable region for the technology. Cost margins are identified where the increase in operating cost due to expensive novel technology is counterbalanced by the reduction in cost resulting from low energy consumption. Viability was found to be closely linked to fuel price, with a low fuel price limiting the viability of energy-efficient aviation technology. In contrast, a change in environmental taxation policy was found to be beneficial, with the introduction of carbon taxation incentivising the use of an environmentally optimised aircraft.

Abandoning fossil and nuclear energy sources in the long run and increasing amount of renewable energies in electricity production causes a more volatile power supply. Depending on external realities, renewable energy production emphasizes the need for measures to guarantee the necessary balance of demand and supply in the electricity system at all times. Energy intensive industry processes theoretically include high Demand Response potentials suitable to tackle this increasing supply volatility. Nevertheless, most companies do not operate their production in a flexible manner due to multiple reasons: among others, the companies lack know-how, technologies and a clear business case to introduce an additional level of flexibility into their production processes, they are concerned about possible impacts on their processes by varying the electricity demand and need assistance in exploiting their flexibility. Aside from fostering knowledge in industry companies, an IT-solution that supports companies to use their processes’ Demand Response potential has become necessary. Its concept must support companies in managing companies’ energy-flexible production processes and monetarize those potentials at flexibility markets. This paper presents a concept, which integrates both companies and energy markets. It enables automated trading of companies’ Demand Response potential on different flexibility markets.

The article presents the results of life cycle assessment of different scenarios of biomass use to produce energy in a selected company. The study is made on the case of Lesaffre Polska S.A. and its facility in Wolczyn which is one of the most modern biomass plants in Central Europe. The company is one of the leaders of using the environmental criteria in its strategic decision-making. Its goal is to avoid any waste and to form its own circular business system. One of its recent investments is a biomass fired steam boiler that uses agricultural and woody biomass to produce energy. Previously, biomass was sold to power plant and co-fired with coal. The scope of the paper is to assess the actual change in the environmental impact of biomass use in the Wolczyn facility. For that purpose, the life cycle assessment is used with the ReCiPe endpoint indicator. The assessment is based on the comparison of two scenarios: one assuming the biomass combustion in a new boiler, and the second one, assuming co-firing biomass with coal. The results of the study show that the investment is making a significant difference as far as the overall environmental impact is. Through avoiding the co-firing related emissions the company makes a big step ahead towards the decrease of their environmental impacts. The analysis shows that the significant impact in the co-firing scenario is posed in such categories as fossil depletion, climate change with impacts on human health and on ecosystems, particulate matter formation and agricultural land occupation. In the biomass combustion scenario, the above categories are complemented with metal depletion, natural land transformation, urban land occupation and human toxicity categories but with 4 times decrease of the overall impact. The study also shows that the change of the combustion system makes the most significant difference, while all the other factors, like biomass cultivation and processing, biomass transport have much lesser impact.

The number of consumers producing electricity at home, i.e., “prosumers”, is rapidly increasing in many European countries. This article analyses the electricity consumption and energy-saving behaviours of households that own photovoltaic (PV) systems in Sweden. Earlier studies of how home production of electricity affects consumption patterns are few and their results are mixed. We interviewed prosumers in Sweden and collected electricity-consumption data one year before and after they installed PVs. The differences between households were large and no general behavioural change could be detected. The interviews indicated that awareness of the energy system increased among all prosumers, but led to no substantial changes in how or when activities were performed. Most prosumers thought that the benefits of shifting their electricity load to other times were too small. The changes prosumers did make mostly concerned smaller adjustments. Households that increased their consumption justified this by their access to “free” electricity. Automation, i.e., using a timer, was relatively unknown or not used when known.

The European energy system is undergoing, and will continue to in the future, a transition towards a more sustainable energy system. An important part of this will be the deployment of smart energy solutions in the household sector, including smart meters, controls, appliances, and their integration in home networks. This study is in support of the Commission's work related to smart energy solutions in the framework of the SET plan, in particular in understanding methods to develop indicators that can be used to measure progress under the Declaration of Intent for the Action 3.1 on Initiative for Smart solutions for energy consumers. First, ‘smart energy solutions’ are defined and the type of technologies that this includes are detailed. Once the scope has been established, existing indicators that are able to monitor the levels of deployment of such technologies will be reviewed. This includes indicators being proposed or used by international and Member State level energy agencies and other organisations. It is not intended that this study will comprehensively assess the actual deployment of smart energy solutions across all EU Member States. Instead, selected countries who are more advanced in the deployment of such technologies are considered in more detail. These include France, Switzerland, Ireland, UK, and Sweden. Finally, we review estimates of the potential of demand response in Europe to achieve goals related to energy efficiency, cost savings, and renewable energy penetration. Keywords: Smart meters, Demand side management, European union

Distributed energy systems (DESs) on a local scale constitute a promising niche to leverage the provision of renewable energy. DESs such as micro-cogeneration and multi-energy hubs integrate renewable energy sources, small-scale combined heat/power production, various energy storage methods, and active demand-side management. Research on adopting these systems within existing neighborhood contexts remains scarce, however, particularly on the role of local actors such as local energy utilities, ownership, and the spatial scale of implementation for accelerating the adoption of DESs. In this study, we conducted a systematic review of the relevant scientific literature on the adoption and social acceptance of DESs, followed by a series of semi-structured interviews with representatives of DES pilot implementations. Our findings indicate that local co-ownership and awareness of local benefits tend to improve the acceptance of distributed energy infrastructures. The study found that established energy actors such as energy utilities and grid operators currently test DESs on a local scale in terms of the systems' technical and financial feasibilities. The study also identified major regulatory and structural barriers to DES market adoption that must be overcome to accelerate the current rate of niche development; the study thus contributes to developing DES adoption strategies. We provide future research trajectories that would address the role of spatial proximity and deployment models to attain a more dynamic understanding of the social acceptance of new energy technologies.

From an environmental point of view, reduced use of energy remains a cornerstone in global greenhouse gas mitigation. However, without full internalization of external costs, greenhouse gas mitigation as such may not be highly prioritized among business leaders. Rather, it is the magnitude of production costs and ultimately the size of market revenue that articulates success or failure for business leaders. Nevertheless, reduced energy use or improved energy efficiency can have a vast impact on profitability even for companies with low energy costs, as the reduced energy costs directly lead to increased profits. In this paper, a review of ten years of empirical research in the field of industrial energy management in Swedish industry is presented. Based on the review, the paper proposes success factors for efficient energy management, factors which could help guide individual energy managers as well as policy makers in order to close the energy efficiency and management gaps. The paper also presents an overview of important industrial energy management tools, which would facilitate in-house energy management in industry.

The residential sector is gaining a more active role in the management of energy resources with the deployment of microgeneration based on renewables, the development of bidirectional communication infrastructures, and the new technologies of the power grid systems including smart metering. The consumer becomes an active agent and should be able to make decisions about the usage of his loads, while keeping the quality of the energy services provided. We propose an integrated energy management approach using Markovian processes that, based on weather conditions, local storage of renewable energy, time based tariffs, and grid/technical constraints, optimally allocates the available resources to fulfill the energy requirements. The goal is to reduce the energy bill, while maintaining the consumer’s satisfaction. The results show that a significant bill reduction can be obtained depending on the tariff structure and technology used. A comparison with a genetic algorithm used for the same purpose is also provided.

Technological improvements of HVAC-systems, buildings and other energy consuming products can support a reduction of CO2 emissions. The implementation of energy efficient technology is important to reach the climatic goals of the Paris agreement. As cities are the main contributors of greenhouse gas emissions, they offer great potential for implementation of energy efficiency measures and emission reduction. Thus, the question arises on how to support the implementation process. The main challenge is not only the implementation and usage of technologies, but also the optimisation of existing local instruments, processes and frameworks to efficiently support the implementation of energy strategies in communities. This paper summarises results of the Annex 63 − Implementation of Energy Strategies in Communities − within the Energy in Buildings and Communities Program (EBC) of the International Energy Agency (IEA). It includes procedures and best-practice examples to implement optimized energy strategies in communities. The implementation strategies deals with visions and targets, renewable energy strategies, legal frameworks, design of urban competition processes, tools supporting the decision making process, monitoring, stakeholder engagement, socio-economic criteria and organisation structures. For all of these strategic measures, specific guidelines were elaborated together with a worldwide network consisting of representatives from cities, urban and energy planners, consultants, universities and many other stakeholder groups.

Hydropower plays an important role in the safe, stable and efficient operation of power systems, especially with current trends toward renewable energy systems. The total global potential of gross, technical, economic, and exploitable hydropower are still enormous in the future, and the developments of new hydropower stations (HPSs) are of great importance. For constructions of new HPSs, the condition of setting surge tanks (CSST) is crucial for various perspectives, e.g. safety, stability and economy of HPSs. In this review, the CSST are summarized and analyzed from the three aspects: regulation assurance, operation stability, and the regulation quality, with an aim of providing a reference and guidance for research and engineering applications regarding surge tanks. Upstream and downstream surge tanks in conventional HPSs and pumped storage power stations are all included. Moreover, a comprehensive comparison of CSST under different conditions is conducted. One of the main focuses of this review is on Chinese studies, for introducing many meaningful results written in Chinese to more readers all over the world.

Purpose of the paper : Firms’ efficient use of energy contributes to social, environmental and economic sustainability, as well as to their competitiveness. The discrepancy between optimal and actual implementation of energy efficiency measures has been described in literature as the ‘energy efficiency gap’. Recently, some scholars have related this gap to both technology and energy management, thus introducing, an ‘extended energy efficiency gap’. Given these premises, this study investigates the extended energy efficiency gap from the perspective of the Italian small and medium industrial enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, it intends to identify possible solutions to overcome the major barriers to energy efficiency, in terms of technology investments and energy management. Methodology : This is a conceptual study which adopts a solution-building approach based on literature review and secondary data analysis. Research findings: This study proposes a framework that can be used to explore and reduce the extended energy efficiency gap for Italian industrial SMEs. The possible solutions to improve energy efficiency include distributed generation, cluster energy management, result-based economic incentives and smart grids. Research limits : Qualitative and quantitative studies should be conducted to further investigation of the major barriers of efficiency, as perceived by SMEs. Households’ and policy makers’ perspectives could also be addressed in future studies. Practical implications : This study suggests that, through collaboration, firms could improve their energy efficiency, thus increasing their economic sustainability and competitiveness. Moreover, policy makers should encourage energy efficiency through result-based incentives and the development of smart grids. Originality of the paper : This is one of very few studies that address the extended energy efficiency gap for Italian SMEs. Additionally, it proposes a framework of analysis that takes into account the relationship between barriers and efficiency gap levels.

Summary The energy-only-market implemented in China cannot strongly support large-scale renewable energy expansion because the renewable energy expansion may disorderly phase out non-renewable power capacity. However, non-renewable power capacity, particularly the coal-fired power capacity in China, can provide vital power system adequacy needed by renewable energy expansion. We introduce capacity payments to orderly retire current coal-fired power capacity by transforming some of it into reserve capacity in order to support renewable energy expansion. Using generation and transmission expansion results from the SWITCH-China model, this paper proposes an orderly retirement path based on the assumption of implementing capacity payments. Our results show that roughly 100–200 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power capacity can continue to serve through 2050, and most of it is used as reserve capacity. Capacity payments of 400–700 billion yuan are needed to achieve this retirement path, and a higher adequacy requirement needs higher payments., Graphical abstract, Highlights • Renewable energy integration brings contradictory effects to the power system • Decarbonization of China's power system is a multi-objective decision-making process • Coal-fired capacity can support renewable energy expansion through capacity payments, Energy engineering; Energy flexibility; Energy policy; Energy resources; Energy systems

Summary Sustaining, maintaining, and upgrading the electricity grid, while meeting decarbonization goals is a challenge facing policymakers, regulators, grid operators, and investors. Simultaneously meeting demands for future capacity, retiring older inefficient technologies, and addressing externalities from energy production and use requires more diverse and inclusive technologies to avoid constraints and shortfalls in grid capability. Changing the energy production paradigm by encouraging alternative technologies was a key driver for FERC Order 2222. This stimulus for developing new small-scale generation will complement and supplement the existing fleet only if it attracts new investment. This investment must reflect technology that goes beyond the energy-only characteristics of traditional generation, creating systems where suites of energy-equivalent outputs are enhanced by environmental quality benefits and offsets. We use energy system designs to highlight the contribution that measuring and accounting for equivalency values provides net increases in capacity, electricity, and alternative fuels while simultaneously reducing carbon waste impacts., Graphical abstract, Highlights • Methodology for calculating net carbon impact from energy systems is proposed • Alternative energy system contributions to the grid are evaluated • Reducing net carbon emissions using distributed energy resources are investigated • Electric capacity and heat offsets are offered as systems options for grid operators, Energy resources; Energy engineering; Energy systems

Positive Energy District (PED) is recently proposed to be an integral part of a district/urban energy system with a corresponding positive influence. Thus, the PED concept could become the key solution to energy system transition towards carbon neutrality. This paper intends to report and visualize the initial analytical results of 60 existing PED projects in Europe about their main characteristics, including geographical information, spatial-temporal scale, energy concepts, building archetypes, finance source, keywords, finance model and challenges/barriers. As a result, a dedicated date base is developed and it could be further expanded/interoperated through an interactive dashboard. It is found that Norway and Italy have the most PED projects so far. Many PED projects state a ‘yearly’ time scale while nearly 1/3 projects have less than 0.2 km2 area in terms of spatial scale. The private investment together with regional/national grants is commonly observed. A mixture of residential, commercial and office/social buildings are found. The most common renewable energy systems include solar energy, district heating/cooling, wind and geothermal energy. Challenges and barriers for PED related projects vary from the planning stage to the implementation stage. Furthermore, the text mining approach is applied to examine the keywords or concentrations of PED-related projects at different stages. These preliminary results are expected to give useful guidance for future PED definitions and proposals of ‘reference PED’.

With rapid urbanization and economic development, the world has been experiencing an unprecedented increase in energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While reducing energy consumption and GHG emissions is a common interest shared by major developed and developing countries, actions to enable these global reductions are generally implemented at the city scale. This is because baseline information from individual cities plays an important role in identifying economical options for improving building energy efficiency and reducing GHG emissions. Numerous approaches have been proposed for modeling urban building energy use in the past decades. This paper aims to provide an up-to-date review of the broad categories of energy models for urban buildings and describes the basic workflow of physics-based, bottom-up models and their applications in simulating urban-scale building energy use. Because there are significant differences across models with varied potential for application, strengths and weaknesses of the reviewed models are also presented. This is followed by a discussion of challenging issues associated with model preparation and calibration.

The distributed energy system (DES) is an energy efficient and economical alternative to the centralized energy system (CES). However, quantitative performance assessment, the influential factors and the impacts of energy policies in cooling dominated regions are still not well studied. This paper therefore presents an investigation on the building integrated DES in Hong Kong, a typical city with cooling demand year-around. Considering the characteristics of the energy demands, DESs, which integrate distributed generations, chillers and the utility grid, are designed. The performance of DESs in buildings is tested on a simulation platform using dynamic models. The primary energy saving and the payback period are estimated. The impacts of major design parameters and energy policies on the DES performance are studied. Results show that DESs achieve energy saving only when integrated in large-scale buildings of certain functions. Moreover, the performance can be improved by optimizing the equipment capacities. The comparison between two different energy policies with respect to the grid interaction illustrates that DESs can achieve better performance when selling electricity is permitted. The gas price has very significant impacts on economic benefits of DESs and the current market gas price could allow cost-effective application in some circumstances.