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Background: Surgical care significantly contributes to healthcare-associated greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Surgeon attitudes about mitigation of the impact of surgical practice on environmental sustainability remains poorly understood. To better understand surgeon perspectives globally, the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons and the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery established a joint Sustainability in Surgical Practice (SSP) Task Force and distributed a survey on sustainability. Methods: Our survey asked about (1) surgeon attitudes toward sustainability, (2) ability to estimate the carbon footprint of surgical procedures and supplies, (3) concerns about the negative impacts of sustainable interventions, (4) willingness to change specific practices, and (5) preferred educational topics and modalities. Questions were primarily written in Likert-scale format. A clustering analysis was performed to determine whether survey respondents could be grouped into distinct subsets to inform future outreach and education efforts. Results: We received 1024 responses, predominantly from North America and Europe. The study revealed that while 63% of respondents were motivated to enhance the sustainability of their practice, less than 10% could accurately estimate the carbon footprint of surgical activities. Most were not concerned that sustainability efforts would negatively impact their practice and showed readiness to adopt proposed sustainable practices. Online webinars and modules were the preferred educational methods. A clustering analysis identified a group particularly concerned yet willing to adopt sustainable changes. Conclusion: Surgeons believe that operating room waste is a critical issue and are willing to change practice to improve it. However, there exists a gap in understanding the environmental impact of surgical procedures and supplies, and a sizable minority have some degree of concern about potential adverse consequences of implementing sustainable policies. This study uniquely provides an international, multidisciplinary snapshot of surgeons' attitudes, knowledge, concerns, willingness, and preferred educational modalities related to mitigating the environmental impact of surgical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AAC, already produced since the 1920's, has been subject to continuous innovation and evolution over the history of its product life. The same applies to the AAC production process. Recently, the need for innovation has become more apparent than ever, driven by a serious energy crisis in Europe, combined with an increasing shortage of available labor and an increasing awareness of workers safety. Since the 70's, Aircrete Europe founding roots were highly involved in driving innovation in the AAC industry, with an emphasis on AAC panels. In every project designed by Aircrete top‐class innovation and the highest level of sustainability are always a top priority and are considered already from the very early design phase. As a result of this, Aircrete factories can be operated with the highest level of automation and energy‐saving initiatives to ensure higher operator safety, larger operating efficiency, and a minimized carbon footprint. This paper outlines how decades of experience from being involved in its own AAC operations result in how Aircrete can design a factory that is not only able to meet today's highest safety, regulatory, and environmental standards but is also future‐proof for the anticipated global trends in the industrial manufacturing and construction markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of European wind and solar power capacity is associated with increasing electricity curtailment to manage excess generation and ensure safe network operations. Instead, this surplus electricity could be used to produce hydrogen, thereby reducing the need for fossil-fueled hydrogen production in ammonia and refining industries. Based on historical data, we estimate the potential for surplus electricity from wind and solar power for 27 countries across Europe. Following an optimization-based approach, we determine the cost-optimal design and operation of a system producing hydrogen from surplus electricity, including the option of battery and hydrogen storage. Two potential applications are analyzed: (1) a fuel-saving scenario, where electrolytic hydrogen substitutes fossil-fuel-derived hydrogen, whenever surplus electricity is available, and (2) a fuel-replacing scenario, where hydrogen from surplus electricity fully replaces a subset of fossil-fueled hydrogen production facilities. Our findings suggest that hydrogen from surplus electricity could substitute 30% (1.9 Mt H2 /y) of fossil hydrogen, reducing ammonia and refinery emissions by 18% (20 Mt CO2 /y). However, fully replacing fossil-fueled hydrogen production facilities increases hydrogen production costs substantially as it requires costly battery and/or hydrogen storage capacity to balance hydrogen production and supply. Nonetheless, about 19% (1.2 Mt H2 /y) of the fossil-fueled hydrogen production could be replaced cost-effectively.

The carbon footprint of ports is an essential step in understanding the most impactful activities in ports and designing reduction strategies to comply with the ambitious target set up by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) of cutting GHG emissions by 50% until 2050 (compared to 2008 levels). Acknowledging the importance of decarbonization, several ports have started to report their carbon emissions in recent years. However, currently, there is not a commonly acknowledged approach to quantify the carbon footprint of ports, making the benchmarking of ports that is the main goal of this paper, a challenging task. The focus is on the topmost polluting European ports, although other major ports outside Europe are also considered. Results show that considering only GHG emissions controlled by port authorities (Scope 1) and emissions related to purchased electricity by port authorities (Scope 2), the carbon footprint of EU ports ranges from 0.017 kg CO 2 eq./tonne to 1.27 kg CO 2 eq./tonne. When, in addition, indirect emissions from sources not owned or controlled by port authorities (Scope 3) are considered, then the range of values varies from 2.0 to 5.4 kg CO 2 eq./tonne. Moreover, results show that Scope 3 is usually neglected in the inventory of emissions of ports due mainly to the complexity of setting the boundaries and extensive data collection. However, when emissions associated with vessels are considered, the contribution of Scope 3 becomes dominant, with shares higher than 97%. Finally, given the importance of having consistent benchmarks for the carbon footprint of ports, this paper further suggests the need for adopting a standardized approach to calculate the carbon footprint of ports., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The share of industry in final global energy consumption was more than 30% in 2020, of which, the hard-to-abate sectors accounted for almost 60% of total final consumption in industry. Similarly, in Europe, industry accounts for around 25% of final energy consumption. In order to reduce the impact of industry in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, Europe has set many policies that support and regulate the sector, including pricing carbon emissions in a cap-and-trade scheme called the European Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS). According to the EU ETS, in 2021 the verified emissions of all stationary installations were around 1.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. In 2021, the total allocated allowances amounted to around 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, half of which were freely allocated. After reviewing the existing modeling approaches for industrial clusters and the available datasets, and assessing the energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions at plant level using a geographical information system approach (GIS), a taxonomy for industrial cluster decarbonization was introduced. This taxonomy shows that describing industry as sets of clustered installations rather than based on the conventional sectoral economic classification provides more insights into energy transition. First, the cluster description provides a more accurate techno-economic assessment based on a finer characterization of economies of scale compared to traditional energy systems models. Second, the industrial clustering approach may more realistically show the feasibility, in addition to the costs and benefits from coupling industry with transport (e.g., industrial fleets and logistics) or buildings (e.g., city scale), due to a more detailed representation of the energy sources and sinks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has generated intense concerns from public authorities and international institutions with regard to shaping the behavior of companies, consumers, investors, and other stakeholders so as to manage this challenge as efficiently as possible. In order to address the climate emergency in the post-pandemic era, recovery plans need to trigger decarbonization, and a green transition, including specific investments and providing a more adaptive structure of the sources of energy in different regions, able to meet the need for a systemic shift towards a more sustainable economy that works for both people and the planet. The main measurable effect of energy production and consumption is by far represented by carbon emissions. In the present paper, we aim to identify the statistical significance of several factors influencing the carbon dioxide emission per capita in the European countries—level of economic development, level of globalization, trade openness, and the intensity of energy transition measured by the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption. The results show an increased interest of the experts in energy consumption model shift through green energy increased share, with relatively high differences among the 42 European countries analyzed. The analysis was conducted for the period 1990–2018 and policy differences depending on variables (GDP/capita, globalization index, trade openness, and renewable energy share in total energy consumption) were identified. The results showed that the carbon dioxide emission per capita evaluation designed model is representative of the European countries. The fact that the targets set by European non-EU member states for reducing CO2 emissions are lower than for the EU is influencing the dynamics of the energy transition, with implications for the size and destination of funds to finance the development of renewable energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to showcase different decarbonization pathways for Europe with varying Carbon dioxide (CO2) constraints until 2050. The Global Energy System Model (GENeSYS-MOD) framework, a linear mathematical optimization model, is used to compute low-carbon scenarios for 17 European countries or regions. The sectors power, lowand high-temperature heating, and passenger and freight transportation are included, with the model endogenously constructing capacities in each period. Emission constraints differ between different scenarios and are either optimized endogenously by the model, or distributed on a per-capita basis, GDP-dependent, or based on current emissions. The results show a rapid phase-in of renewable energies, if a carbon budget in line with established international climate targets is chosen. It can be shown that the achievement of the 2° target can be met with low additional costs compared to the business as usual case, while reducing total emissions by more than 30%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the LNG trade in 2040, focusing on the role of Europe as an LNG importer. The conducted analysis reveals the complexities of Europe's strategy of simultaneously achieving decarbonization objectives and resolving energy security concerns regarding LNG. The study proposes an optimization model to determine the optimal global LNG trade between exporters and importers. As an alternative for Europe to solely rely on imports, the potential substitution of imports with domestic natural gas production equipped with carbon capture and storage is considered. Herein, two scenarios (low and high LNG demand) are examined. The findings indicate that Europe plays a pivotal role in the global LNG market solely in the ambitious sustainable scenario, whereas its significance diminishes in the high-demand scenario. Examining the volumes of LNG sent to Europe, African exporters appear to be notably significant in meeting the demand. However, as global LNG demand rises, the discernibility of genuinely stable trends or patterns in trade declines. The value of long-term contracts may experience a resurgence in the future. Future work should include long-term contracts, allowing for fixed volumes of LNG to be traded. Furthermore, our obtained LNG supply costs for Europe can be seen as valuable inputs for large-scale energy system models aiming to optimize the sustainable transition of Europe's energy infrastructure. • Global LNG trade dynamics in 2040 with a focus on European supply. • Geopolitical tensions' influence on LNG imports and costs to Europe in 2040. • Substituting LNG imports with domestically produced gas equipped with CCS studied. • African exporters emerge notably significant for Europe's LNG supply. • Resurgence expected in the value of long-term contracts in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Endogenous supply and demand modelling of the European heavy-duty road transport. • Decarbonization means deep electrification (up to 90 % of trucks and 96 % of buses). • Though, electricity needed is below 4 % of the European power demand (<320TWh). • Demand-side and energy efficiency efforts can unlock sizeable emission reductions. • Long-term planning with stable and clear technology choice signalling is crucial. The decarbonisation of heavy-duty road transport is subject to many uncertainties regarding fuel choices and the role of efficiency and demand-side measures. Moreover, the various segments of heavy-duty road transport exhibit distinctive characteristics, posing challenges in identifying a one-size-fits-all solution. In a scenario-based analysis with coupled modelling of the European energy system and its endogenous transport demand (driver training, improved logistics and collective mobility) we study the decarbonisation of European heavy-duty road transport through 2050, with a granular representation of its segments in the modelling exercise. Our modelling results show that battery electric vehicles are the key enablers of climate neutrality, representing 60 %–89 % of trucks and 79 %–96 % of buses by 2050. Yet, this important level of electrification, in a climate-neutral Europe, represent at most 4 % (320 TWh) of final electricity consumption. While shifting to electric and hydrogen vehicles brings significant fuel savings (41 %–66 %) and emission reductions (33 %–60 % cumulatively), demand-side operational measures can quickly and cost-effectively complement fuel switching, bringing up to 50 % of cumulative emission savings. The modelling results are highly sensitive to policy assumptions, especially regarding those related to the role of clean hydrogen. This calls for long-term planning with stable and clear signalling of technology choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from steel production, several large industry decarbonization projects have emerged in Europe. The commercialization of low-emission steel technology, however, faces systemic barriers such as a lack of infrastructure and unclear demand for greener steel. As part of its new commitment to climate-neutrality, the European Commission has announced plans to more actively create and reshape markets for green basic materials. The approach is inspired by the recent success story of renewable energy, where market interventionist policy has successfully led to cost reductions and supported the diffusion of wind and photovoltaics. However, the applicability of this type of policy to decarbonize basic materials has so far not been investigated. In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness, feasibility, efficiency and fairness of early commercialization policy support for the decarbonization transition of steel. We compare two approaches: demand side market creation and direct production subsidies through carbon contracts for difference. We find that the subsidy approach can more effectively enable the realization of primary green steel production. A complementary use of market creation policy instruments can reduce the production subsidy volumes needed and aid the global diffusion of new production methods. Although effective, we find that production subsidies will distribute the costs and benefits of the transition unequally. In order to improve effectiveness and fairness of the policy, parallel programmes such as electricity price guarantees and transitional assistance policies for disadvantaged regions are needed. Key policy insights Carbon contracts for difference are the most promising policy instrument to commercialize low-emission primary steel but are likely to lead to unequal distribution of transition costs. Market creation policies can support the global diffusion of low-emission primary steelmaking. Material efficiency and demand reduction can reduce the need for primary steel production by more than 50%. Regions without access to large amounts of renewable electricity are especially disadvantaged. Unclear EU ETS benchmarks currently create a perverse incentive that keeps firms from investing in breakthrough technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and geopolitical risks call for the rapid transformation of electricity systems worldwide, with Europe at the forefront. Wind and solar are the lowest cost, lowest risk, and cleanest energy sources, but their variability poses integration challenges. Combining both technologies and integrating regions with dissimilar generation patterns optimizes the trade-off between maximizing energy output and minimizing its variability, which respectively give the lowest levelized cost and lowest integration cost. We apply the Markowitz mean-variance framework to a rich multi-decade dataset of wind and solar productivity to quantify the potential benefits of spatially integration of renewables across European countries at hourly, daily and monthly timescales. We find that optimal cross-country coordination of wind and solar capacities across Europe's integrated electricity system increases capacity factor by 22% while reducing hourly variability by 26%. We show limited benefits to solar integration due to consistent output profiles across Europe. Greater wind integration yields larger benefits due to the diversity of regional weather patterns. This framework shows the importance of considering renewable projects not in isolation, but as interconnected parts of a pan-continental system. Our results can guide policymakers towards strategic energy plans that reduce system-wide costs of renewable electricity, accelerating the clean energy transition. • Optimizing wind-solar installed capacities increases mean capacity factor and reduces its variability. • Combining wind and solar improves the output-variability tradeoff at all timescales. • The EU reference scenarios appear to overlook these substantial benefits. • Optimizing Europe's renewables increases output by 22% with 26% lower variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To mitigate global warming within 1.5 °C, it is critical to leverage the resources of the marine system to reduce the magnitude of CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere. Recent progress of the decarbonization in the ocean and the underlying subsurface sedimentary basin is reviewed in this study. Considerable research effort has gone into the decarbonization of cargo ships and offshore oil and gas platforms, which mainly includes two aspects: 1) replace and integrate the current fuel with clean energy, and 2) deploy the carbon capture technology. Many technologies have been demonstrated to be effective in decarbonization with some being commercialized recently. Wind turbines have been linked with emerging battery technologies to provide power to offshore projects, while other renewable energies such as wave, solar and tidal energies are in the research stage. Comparison of different CO 2 storage technologies shows that CO 2 storage in the offshore saline aquifers/reservoirs is more achievable from the perspectives of cost and environmental concerns. The offshore CCUS projects under operation and planning until 2022 have been summarized, most of which are planned by companies in Europe near the North Sea. Nevertheless, ocean-based negative emission technologies (NET) are still in the early stage. Due to the high cost and the potential environmental concerns, there is still a long way to go before NET can be widely deployed for application. • Carbon-neutral fuels have been applied to decarbonize maritime transport. • Post-combustion carbon capture system is being tested on vessels. • Hybrid energy storage system has been deployed on offshore drilling rigs. • Different from tidal and wave energy, wind energy is mature to supply sustainable electricity. • Geological CO 2 storage method is successful in removing million tons of CO 2 per year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transition to a low-emission society requires radical emissions reductions in the electricity generation sector. Imposing that hourly load has to be served solely by wind power, solar PV and an energy storage technology, it is shown, using optimization and simulations of re-analysis data, how the EU can design a completely CO 2 emission-free electricity generation sector. For such a system, the optimal battery energy capacity should be 32 times of average hourly consumption of electricity in the EU. However, total production of electricity over a 10 year period is as much as 43% above total consumption of electricity. • Modeling of a CO2 free electricity system in Europe. • Using optimization and simulations of spatial re-analysis data. • Battery capacity should be 32 times of average hourly consumption of electricity. • Total production of electricity has to exceed total consumption by 43%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

[Display omitted] • The relevance of PV self-consumption to satisfy electricity demand in hospitals. • The electricity consumption curves of hospitals favour direct self-consumption. • New consumption indicator to estimate photovoltaic potential of buildings. • Self-sufficiency rates around 25–30% by using 30–50% of the roof surface. • Buildings with high CO 2 emission reduction potential. A proposal is made for the energy modernization of a group of hospitals in south-western Europe, through the installation of photovoltaic self-consumption systems based on their electricity consumption patterns. For this purpose, the energy demand of these hospitals was examined in detail, self-consumption photovoltaic systems were designed with simulation software and the energy and environmental results were studied. The average annual consumption curve of the hospitals favoured the optimal exploitation of the photovoltaic systems, obtaining very high self-consumption rates. Furthermore, by using 30–50% of the roof surface, an average of 25–30% of the annual electricity demand could be covered and potentially reduce CO 2 emissions. Thus, the incorporation of photovoltaic systems for self-consumption in hospitals located in a Mediterranean climate is a very interesting solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mainstream community of energy experts is not aware of the long-term impacts that carbon policies directly concerned with promoting the development of low-carbon technologies produce on the electricity market regime. Long-term market coordination should be replaced by public coordination with long-term arrangements. The current market coordination makes carbon pricing ineffective in orienting investors towards capital-intensive low-carbon technologies. Fossil fuel generation technologies are preferred because their investment risks are much lower in the market regime, even with a high but unstable carbon price. Thus, in order to avoid delaying investment that is aimed at the decarbonization of the electricity system, a number of new market arrangements that lower the investment risk of low-carbon technologies and provide output-based subsidization have or are being selected by governments. As the use of low-carbon equipment to produce electricity develops, long-term market coordination for other technologies (e.g. peaking units, combined cycle gas turbine) will fade away because they alter the market price setting. Thus it is likely that, in the future, public coordination and planning will replace the decisions of market players not only for low-carbon technologies but also for every other type of capacity development. Policy relevance The development of renewables as promoted by both feed-in tariffs and green certificate obligations, which answer to different market failures, is well known. Similar long-term arrangements, which both subsidize and de-risk low-carbon investments for every small-sized and large-sized technology, shift learning costs and risks onto consumers. Energy experts and regulators have ignored that the expansion and generalization of these arrangements are changing the coordination function of the electricity markets. Apart from those in the UK, they are still unaware of the impacts that such technology-focused policies produce on the electricity market regime. The transition from market coordination to public coordination, which is inconsistent with the market principles of European electricity legislation, and long-term contracting is inevitable and should be anticipated. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author reflects on the Low-carbon Roadmap and the Energy Roadmap 2050 of the European Commission for green economy. The author asserts that the approaches make impressive cases for the green growth agenda but reservations against a power sector completely based upon renewables are flawed. He suggests that political and institutional factors might have influenced the assumptions and methodological choices for greening the economy.

Europe anchored aspiring targets in achieving climate neutrality and this motivates the research communities to analyze, investigate and frame strategies to achieve the goals in the stipulated timeframe. This study reviews the effective decarbonization strategies in the context of Europe's climate neutral vision. Initially, the study analyzes the reasons for ever-increasing emissions and investigates the perception of decarbonization in line with various influencing factors such as population size, economic growth, energy intensity, emission intensity, innovation, affordability and time. Subsequently, an in-depth qualitative analysis is performed to force out the challenges that Europe faces in decarbonizing the heating sector from the aspects, such as using clean energy resources, effective heat energy conversion and management approaches. Sustainable approaches and practices are proposed to mitigate carbonization and to promote carbon sink in line with the major problems associated with various sectors such as building, energy, industry and transportation sector. Furthermore, the roles of digitalization in decarbonization are explored and the inherent challenges are also discussed. This study also reviews various decarbonization policies that can direct the governments' action to effectively make a transition towards a climate-neutral society. The key findings highlight that solar energy utilization in small-scale is relatively not preferable for heat energy conversion in Europe due to climatic conditions, while district heating network with bio- and geothermal energy resource highly favors clean heat transformation scenario. In addition, 3D printing has a prodigious role to reduce building lifecycle emissions and hybrid policies as well as reward-based policies yields better outcomes. Promoting hydrogen utilization and carbon capture storage and utilization technologies can pivot climate neutrality in the sectors that are difficult to decarbonize. On the other hand, it can be observed that more focus is provided to reduce emissions and significantly less attention is focused on carbon sink. • Serious complexity exists in decarbonization with the influence of numerous interlinked factors. • Bio- and geothermal based CHP and district heating can effectively decarbonize the heating sector. • The transport and industrial sector depend on hydrogen energy to witness effective decarbonization. • Coherent policies across borders are suggested for strengthening Europe's decarbonization vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, electrification is considered a key option to obtain a cleaner production of steel at the same time as the electricity system production portfolio is expected to consist of an increasing share of varying renewable electricity (VRE) generation, mainly in the form of solar PV and wind power. We investigate cost-efficient designs of hydrogen-based steelmaking in electricity systems dominated by VRE. We develop and apply a linear cost-minimization model with an hourly time resolution, which determines cost-optimal operation and sizing of the units in hydrogen-based steelmaking including an electrolyser, direct reduction shaft, electric arc furnace, as well as storage for hydrogen and hot-briquetted iron pellets. We show that the electricity price following steelmaking leads to savings in running costs but to increased capital cost due to investments in the overcapacity of steel production units and storage units for hydrogen and hot-briquetted iron pellets. For two VRE-dominated regions, we show that the electricity price following steel production reduces the total steel production cost by 23% and 17%, respectively, as compared to continuous steel production at a constant level. We also show that the cost-optimal design of the steelmaking process is dependent upon the electricity system mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The power-to-methane technology is promising for long-term, high-capacity energy storage. Currently, there are two different industrial-scale methanation methods: the chemical one (based on the Sabatier reaction) and the biological one (using microorganisms for the conversion). The second method can be used not only to methanize the mixture of pure hydrogen and carbon dioxide but also to methanize the hydrogen and carbon dioxide content of low-quality gases, such as biogas or deponia gas, enriching them to natural gas quality; therefore, the applicability of biomethanation is very wide. In this paper, we present an overview of the existing and planned industrial-scale biomethanation facilities in Europe, as well as review the facilities closed in recent years after successful operation in the light of the scientific and socioeconomic context. To outline key directions for further developments, this paper interconnects biomethanation projects with the competitiveness of the energy sector in Europe for the first time in the literature. The results show that future projects should have an integrative view of electrolysis and biomethanation, as well as hydrogen storage and utilization with carbon capture and utilization (HSU&CCU) to increase sectoral competitiveness by enhanced decarbonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy transition driven by the need of a deep decarbonization to limit the world temperature rise requires coordinated actions across the whole energy sector. Among other measures, the strong development of renewable energy sources in the power sector is gaining momentum in different parts of the world. The possibility of producing low-carbon electricity leads to a renovated interest in increasing electricity penetration in final sectors, especially in transport and buildings heating. However, a large share of renewable electricity comes from non-dispatchable sources, notably wind and solar PV, and their daily and seasonal variability needs to be matched with the demand profiles of those sectors. In particular, the charge of electric vehicles shows a relatively constant demand on a seasonal basis while attention must be paid on the daily operational logic to fully exploit available power from solar and/or wind. On the other hand, the operation of heat pumps for building heating shows a strong seasonality that may be an issue in countries that have a larger renewable production during summer. This research work is focusing on this specific issue, with the aim of improving the common practice of evaluating energy consumption and emissions on an annual basis, thanks to a detailed analysis based on hourly time-step, both for the electricity generation mix and for the heat pumps demand. To increase the significance of the results, different countries across Europe have been analyzed and compared. • The performance of different heat pumps is evaluated with high time resolution. • The seasonality of the renewable generation and the heat pump demand may not match. • An accurate electricity mix is calculated and compared with an average annual value. • High penetrations of renewables in power generation lead to higher differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• By 2050, the fuel share of electricity in the EU road transport sector reaches 37%. • By 2050, the share of power-to-x fuels in EU road transport reaches 27%. • Road transport sector drives additional electricity demand of 1200TWh in EU in 2050. • Decoupling the two sectors may significantly overestimate the total system costs. • Decoupling causes production costs to be miscalculated and distorts merit order. Despite regulation efforts, CO 2 emissions from European road transport have continued to rise. Increased use of electricity offers a promising decarbonization option, both to fuel electric vehicles and run power-to-x systems producing synthetic fuels. To understand the economic implications of increased coupling of the road transport and electricity sectors, an integrated multi-sectoral partial-equilibrium investment and dispatch model is developed for the European electricity and road transport sectors, linked by an energy transformation module to endogenously account for, e.g., increasing electricity consumption and flexibility provision from electric vehicles and power-to-x systems. The model is applied to analyze the effects of sector-specific CO 2 reduction targets on the vehicle, electricity and power-to-x technology mix as well as trade flows of power-to-x fuels in European countries from 2020 to 2050. The results show that, by 2050, the fuel shares of electricity and power-to-x fuels in the European road transport sector reach 37% and 27%, respectively, creating an additional electricity demand of 1200 TWh in Europe. To assess the added value of the integrated modeling approach, an additional analysis is performed in which all endogenous ties between sectors are removed. The results show that by decoupling the two sectors, the total system costs may be significantly overestimated and the production costs of power-to-x fuels may be inaccurately approximated, which may affect the merit order of decarbonization options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A zero-emission pathway for the Nordic and Baltic region in Europe is described based on the comprehensive policy and scenario analyses, accompanied by energy system modelling. The analyses show that a least-cost strategy would massively employ renewable energy, particularly in the power sector. Through strong coupling across energy sectors and countries, electricity would play a central role in the decarbonization of the main energy sectors. In particular power-to-heat conversion, where heat storage appears important in addition to existing hydropower. Technical and regulatory barriers in front of increased sector coupling and flexibility were identified, and policy measures are proposed to overcome these. In addition to a high carbon price, dynamic tariffs and taxation of electricity would be important to allow market signals for flexibility to reach end-users. A stronger power transmission connection from the Nordics to the mainland-Europe and the United Kingdom would be beneficial for the emission reductions and renewable energy use. The transition pathway analysis points out socio-technical issues such as social acceptance of large-scale new infrastructures (e.g., wind, cables). The energy system optimizations indicate that most of the investments needed for the zero-emission pathway until 2050 would take place already by 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to achieve a high renewable share in the electricity system, a significant expansion of cross-border exchange capacities is planned. Historically, the actual expansion of interconnector capacities has significantly lagged behind the planned expansion. This study examines the impact that such continued delays would have when compared to a strong interconnector expansion in an ambitious energy transition scenario. For this purpose, scenarios for the years 2030, 2040, and 2050 are examined using the electricity market model PowerFlex EU. The analysis reveals that both CO2 emissions and variable costs of electricity generation increase if interconnector expansion is delayed. This effect is most significant in the scenario year 2050, where lower connectivity leads roughly to a doubling of both CO2 emissions and variable costs of electricity generation. This increase results from a lower level of European electricity trading, a curtailment of electricity from a renewable energy source (RES-E), and a corresponding higher level of conventional electricity generation. Most notably, in Southern and Central Europe, less interconnection leads to higher use of natural gas power plants since less renewable electricity from Northern Europe can be integrated into the European grid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]