Articles

Legal governance of smart heat infrastructure development under modes of liberalization; how to analyze and overcome deadlocks in heat projects

The background of this article is how the challenge to accomplish a sustainable energy transition—in service of various objectives, such as environmental and geopolitical concerns—has recently brought the develop...

Authors: Michiel A. Heldeweg, Maurits Ph.Th. Sanders and Anne V. Brunnekreef

Microwave pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass––a contribution to power Africa

Worldwide efforts are being made to increase the use of renewable energy in order to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. Africa is blessed with abundant resources of fossil fuels as well as renewable ener...

Authors: Saifuddin Nomanbhay, Bello Salman, Refal Hussain and Mei Yin Ong

A new approach to semantic sustainability assessment: text mining via network analysis revealing transition patterns in German municipal climate action plans

Various monitoring approaches have shown that urban areas and their energy systems are major contributors to climate change. Corresponding observations have mostly been based on physical data. However, text da...

Authors: Manuel W. Bickel

Understanding the expansion of energy crops beyond the global biofuel boom: evidence from oil palm expansion in Colombia

The global palm oil market experienced a remarkable boom since the year 2000. Since palm oil can be used for biodiesel production, the global expansion of oil palm cultivation has been associated with the glob...

Authors: Victoria Marin-Burgos and Joy S. Clancy

Performance assessment of an improved cook stove (Esperanza) in a typical domestic setting: implications for energy saving

Much of the Malawi’s energy source, which is biomass, is consumed using traditional household technologies. These technologies contribute to over consumption of biomass leading to increased forest degradation,...

Authors: Mapereka Francis Chagunda, Caspah Kamunda, Justice Mlatho, Chomora Mikeka and Lobina Palamuleni

The impact and challenges of sustainable biogas implementation: moving towards a bio-based economy

Engineers face increasing pressure to manage and utilize waste (whether of animal, human or municipal origin) in a sustainable way. We suggest that a solution to the problem of organic waste in rural communiti...

Authors: Ralph Muvhiiwa, Diane Hildebrandt, Ngonidzashe Chimwani, Lwazi Ngubevana and Tonderayi Matambo

Potential water requirements of increased ethanol fuel in the USA

To mitigate climate impacts associated with energy consumption, renewable fuel policies have been established in the USA that encourage production and use of corn ethanol. Current fuel usage of corn ethanol is...

Authors: Xiaowei (Vivian) Liu, S. Kent Hoekman and Amber Broch

Biogas between renewable energy and bio-economy policies—opportunities and constraints resulting from a dual role

Biogas plays a major role in two policy domains: the renewable energy domain and the bio-economy domain. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of current biogas practices with the two policy...

Authors: Swinda F. Pfau, Janneke E. Hagens and Ben Dankbaar

Erratum to: Renewable energy, energy efficiency, and eco-friendly environment (R-E⁵) in Nigeria

Authors: Joshua Sunday Riti and Yang Shu

The study of the variability of biomass from plants of the Elodea genus from a river in Germany over a period of two hydrological years for investigating their suitability for biogas production

Aquatic plants are an important component of aquatic ecosystems. They are valuable for the oxygen and carbon dioxide household and generate habitats especially for small fish and other small organisms. However...

Authors: Andreas Zehnsdorf, Lucie Moeller, Hans-Joachim Stärk, Harald Auge, Markus Röhl and Walter Stinner

Biofuel research: perceptions of power and transition

Whether biofuels represent a sustainable innovation, a creative alternative, or a gold rush, very much depends on our perception of power and change with regard to sustainability. This article provides an over...

Authors: Lena Partzsch

From cumulated energy demand to cumulated raw material demand: the material footprint as a sum parameter in life cycle assessment

Global targets for reducing resource use have been set by organizations such as the International Resource Panel and the European Commission. However, these targets exist only at the macro level, e.g., for ind...

Authors: Klaus Wiesen and Monika Wirges

From the fuel versus food controversy to the institutional vacuum in biofuel policies: evidence from West African countries

Since the early 2000s, biofuel production has been developed in West Africa with the encouragement and support of notably Europe, Brazil, and China. Yet the development of biofuels can also be viewed from the ...

Authors: Charly Gatete and Marie-Hélène Dabat

Low-carbon development strategy for the West African electricity system: preliminary assessment using System dynamics approach

Policy makers seek to understand the trade-offs needed between economic growth and climate change. This provides the context to explore low-carbon development (LCD) pathways for the West African electricity sy...

Authors: Abiodun Suleiman Momodu, Ahmad Addo, John-Felix Kayode Akinbami and Yacob Mulugetta

Factors influencing the adoption of biogas digesters in rural Ethiopia

Increasing energy demands on farm households in Ethiopia have escalated challenges related to land degradation, indoor air quality, and rural economic development. Soil deterioration followed by reduced carbon...

Authors: Melaku Berhe, Dana Hoag, Girmay Tesfay and Catherine Keske

Assessing the energy justice implications of bioenergy development in Nepal

The emerging concept of energy justice has focused on the justice implications of conventional energy systems (oil, gas, coal, etc.). Instead, we focus on the meaning of energy justice in the context of unconv...

Authors: Caroline Damgaard, Darren McCauley and Jed Long

The production of hydrogen as an alternative energy carrier from aluminium waste

Aluminium dross is a valuable resource that is often redirected to landfill as there are no real viable solutions for the utilisation of this industrial waste. A study has been conducted to provide a recycling...

Authors: Esam Elsarrag, Ammar Elhoweris and Yousef Alhorr

A case study of a procedure to optimize the renewable energy coverage in isolated systems: an astronomical center in the North of Chile

Renewable energy resources show variabilities at different characteristic time scales. For a given resource and demand pro le, there is an absolute maximum achievable coverage (when limiting the fraction of en...

Authors: H. Abos, M. Ave and H. Martínez-Ortiz

Innovative offices for smarter cities, including energy use and energy-related carbon dioxide emissions

Concentration of knowledge work in cities generates innovations entailing economic development. This paper addresses the challenge of turning around the present trend of urban sprawl toward the concentrated kn...

Authors: Yoram Krozer

Are decisions well supported for the energy transition? A review on modeling approaches for renewable energy policy evaluation

This study reviews energy policy evaluation approaches on their capability to estimate a successful implementation of renewable energy policies. This is predominantly done via energy system modeling and analys...

Authors: Thomas Horschig and Daniela Thrän

Impact of flexible bioenergy provision on residual load fluctuation: a case study for the TransnetBW transmission system in 2022

The transition towards a renewable based power system in Germany largely depends on variable renewable energy sources (vRES) like wind power and solar PV. Their high variability over time poses new challenges ...

Authors: Philip Tafarte, Christiane Hennig, Martin Dotzauer and Daniela Thrän

Ecological evaluation of biogas from catch crops with Sustainable Process Index (SPI)

Ever increasing global population requires to find additional options or increase the efficiency of food and feed supply to fulfil its dietary needs. In agricultural sector, competing situations with energy su...

Authors: S. Maier, M. Szerencsits and K. Shahzad

A spatial explicit scenario method to support participative regional land-use decisions regarding economic and ecological options of short rotation coppice (SRC) for renewable energy production on arable land: case study application for the Göttingen district, Germany

Renewable energy (RE) production is a land-use driver with increasing impact on landscape configuration and a matter of controversial debate. Woody biomass cropping provides an opportunity to interlink RE supp...

Authors: Gerald Busch

Indicator system for the sustainability assessment of the German energy system and its transition

In response to climate change, the limited availability of fossil fuels and the risks associated with nuclear energy, Germany’s energy transition aims to achieve a sustainable, environmentally sound supply of ...

Authors: Christine Rösch, Klaus-Rainer Bräutigam, Jürgen Kopfmüller, Volker Stelzer and Patrick Lichtner

Smart design rules for smart grids: analysing local smart grid development through an empirico-legal institutional lens

This article entails an innovative approach to smart grid technology implementation, as it connects governance research with legal analysis. We apply the empirico-legal ‘ILTIAD framework’, which combines Elino...

Authors: Imke Lammers and Michiel A. Heldeweg

The role of bioenergy in the German “Energiewende”—whose demands can be satisfied by bioenergy?

The transformation of the energy system and especially the electricity system into a renewable-based system requires systemic changes of the different system components. The planned progressive decommissioning...

Authors: Eva Hauser and Bernhard Wern

Analysing Gordon’s trade-off by adapting Thurow’s approach of pure public good to the German energy sector

We analyse Gordon’s trade-off by adapting Thurow’s approach of pure public good using the example of the German energy sector which is in a transition process to a low-carbon sustainable energy system (Energie...

Authors: Holger Schlör, Wolfgang Fischer and Jürgen-Friedrich Hake

Village differences in rural household energy consumption within the Loess hilly region of China

There are obvious differences in rural household energy consumption, which vary according to the location of the households. At the village level, geographic factors significantly influence household energy ch...

Authors: Guozhu Li, Jinxin Sun and Ailin Dai

Sustainability of rural electrification programs based on off-grid photovoltaic (PV) systems in Chile

Mainly based on expanding the grid, Chile has reached an impressive electrification rate. However, due to unviable grid expansion to islands and remote areas of the country, the government started implementing...

Authors: Sarah Feron, Harald Heinrichs and Raul R. Cordero

How education orientation affects attitudes toward wind energy and wind farms: implications for the planning process

Three groups of stakeholders are mainly involved in the planning, assessment, and approval processes for wind parks: the planners, the public, and the responsible public authorities. These groups have varying ...

Authors: Vendula Betakova, Jiri Vojar and Petr Sklenicka

Process upsets in a full-scale anaerobic digestion bioreactor: over-acidification and foam formation during biogas production

Biogas plays a worthwhile role as a renewable, storable energy source. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the core process in biogas production. The two most common process upsets that occur during this biotechnologi...

Authors: Lucie Moeller and Andreas Zehnsdorf

Electricity peak demand in Uganda: insights and foresight

Availability of reliable energy supply plays a critical role in the social, economic, and cultural transformation of society. The Uganda electricity sector has suffered long standing supply side constraints th...

Authors: Geofrey Okoboi and Joseph Mawejje

Fresh banana pseudo-stems as a tropical lignocellulosic feedstock for methane production

The banana pseudo-stem is a low-lignin-content lignocellulosic biomass that can be used for methane production. In recent years, anaerobic digestion (AD) of dried banana stems for methane production has attrac...

Authors: Chao Li, Gangjin Liu, Ivo A. Nges, Liangwei Deng, Mihaela Nistor and Jing Liu

Raising awareness in model-based energy scenario studies—a transparency checklist

The focus of the paper is on scenario studies that examine energy systems. This type of studies is usually based on formal energy models, from which energy policy recommendations are derived. In order to be va...

Authors: Karl-Kiên Cao, Felix Cebulla, Jonatan J. Gómez Vilchez, Babak Mousavi and Sigrid Prehofer

Multi-criteria assessment of hybrid renewable energy systems for Nigeria’s coastline communities

Nigeria’s rural coastline communities have long suffered from the consequences of both poor rural electrification and environmental degradation. Therefore, there is an urgent need to provide an optimal sustain...

Authors: E. O. Diemuodeke, S. Hamilton and A. Addo

To integrate or to segregate food crop and energy crop cultivation at the landscape scale? Perspectives on biodiversity conservation in agriculture in Europe

Biodiversity is severely declining in intensively managed agriculture worldwide. In response, land-management strategies for biodiversity conservation on farmland are in debate, namely ecological intensificati...

Authors: Jens Dauber and Saori Miyake

Theory of global cooling

Due to the consequence of industrial CO₂ emission, the surface temperature of Earth is rising at an alarming rate, causing accelerating deadly effects on the environment and living beings. Thus, an approach to mi...

Authors: Md. Faruque Hossain

Smart energy systems for smart city districts: case study Reininghaus District

Dense settlement structures in cities have high demands of energy. Usually, these demands exceed the local resource availability. Individually developed supply options to cover these demands differ from place ...

Authors: Stephan Maier

Prosumption and the distribution and supply of electricity

Increasing numbers of households install renewable energy production systems like photovoltaic panels thereby contributing to a more sustainable energy system. Other developments, like in-home storage or peer-...

Authors: Sandra Bellekom, Maarten Arentsen and Kirsten van Gorkum

An integrated ecosystem incorporating renewable energy leading to pollution reduction for sustainable development of craft villages in rural area: a case study at sedge mats village in Mekong Delta, Vietnam

The sedge mats (dyeing, weaving processes, and small-scale livestock farm at the same place) craft villages in the Mekong Delta (Vietnam) are the most popular craft villages in Vietnam, especially in the Mekon...

Authors: Thanh Hai Le, Van Thanh Tran, Quoc Vi Le, Thi Phuong Thao Nguyen, Hans Schnitzer and Gerhart Braunegg

Governance of energy transitions: about inclusion and closure in complex sociotechnical problems

When societies are faced with complex technological problems such as energy transitions, two basic approaches to governance are usually mobilized. On the one hand, there are methods that emphasize the need for...

Authors: Govert Valkenburg and Giancarlo Cotella

Assessing the societal impacts of green demonstration homes: a Canadian case study

This article investigates the overall societal impacts of the REEP House for Sustainable Living (REEP House) in Kitchener, Canada.

Authors: Alina Rehkopf, Ian H. Rowlands and Danielle Tobert

Assessment of local solar resource measurement and predictions in south Louisiana

The accessibility of reliable local solar resource data plays a critical role in the evaluation and development of any concentrating solar power (CSP) or photovoltaic (PV) project, impacting the areas of site ...

Authors: Jonathan R. Raush, Terrence L. Chambers, Ben Russo and Keith Crump

Public perception of bioenergy in North Carolina and Tennessee

The goal of the study is to examine the general public’s understanding and perceptions of bioenergy and biofuels in North Carolina (NC) and Tennessee (TN). The study focuses on the public concerns, support and...

Authors: Robert I. Radics, Sudipta Dasmohapatra and Stephen S. Kelley

Renewable energy deployment to combat energy crisis in Pakistan

The huge deficiency of electricity due to heavy reliance on imported fuels has become a significant impediment to socio-economic development in Pakistan. This scenario creates an increase in local fuel prices ...

Authors: Abdul Raheem, Sikandar Ali Abbasi, Asif Memon, Saleem R. Samo, Y. H. Taufiq-Yap, Michael K. Danquah and Razif Harun

Urban household cooking energy choice: an example of Bauchi metropolis, Nigeria

The use of traditional energy sources such as wood, animal dung and agricultural residue by households has been in practice since time immemorial. This has however been identified as a cause of environmental p...

Authors: Danladi Yusufu Bisu, Aondoyila Kuhe and Humphrey Aondover Iortyer

Assessment of potential local and regional induced economic impact of an energy policy change in rural Northwestern Ontario

In 2002, the province of Ontario introduced plans to ban coal in thermoelectric power production. Rural communities with a high proportion of power plant jobs (such as Atikokan, Ontario, Canada) grappled with ...

Authors: Jason E. E. Dampier, Chander Shahi, R. Harvey Lemelin and Nancy Luckai

Renewable energy, energy efficiency, and eco-friendly environment (R-E⁵) in Nigeria

Renewable energy (RE) has been talked about for more than 30 years while there is an increased use of fossil fuels accompanied by subsequent negative environmental impacts and supply decline. This study explor...

Authors: Joshua Sunday Riti and Yang Shu

RELCA: a REgional Life Cycle inventory for Assessing bioenergy systems within a region

The last decade has seen major development and adoption of bioenergy, particularly in Germany. This has resulted in a scattering of decentralised bioenergy plants across the landscape, due to their dependency ...

Authors: Sinéad O’Keeffe, Sandra Wochele-Marx and Daniela Thrän

Modelling the effect of different agricultural practices on stream nitrogen load in central Germany

Understanding the response of nitrogen fluxes to changes in land use and agricultural practices is crucial for improving the instream water quality prediction. In central Germany, the expansion of bioenergy cr...

Authors: Seifeddine Jomaa, Sanyuan Jiang, Daniela Thraen and Michael Rode