Articles

Adapting the theory of resilience to energy systems: a review and outlook

Sustainable systems must maintain their function even in the event of disruptions in order to be considered truly sustainable. The theory of resilience concerns the behavior of systems during and aftershocks. ...

Authors: Bernhard-Johannes Jesse, Heidi Ursula Heinrichs and Wilhelm Kuckshinrichs

Promoting adoption while avoiding rebound: integrating disciplinary perspectives on market diffusion and carbon impacts of electric cars and building renovations in Austria

Many countries state ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions. Their policy strategies emphasize energy efficiency by means of technological innovations. However, these strategies are at risk of severe ...

Authors: Sebastian Seebauer, Veronika Kulmer and Claudia Fruhmann

Factors influencing the environmental and economic feasibility of district heating systems—a perspective from integrated spatial and energy planning

District heating systems have been gaining importance in the last years. However, local circumstances, e.g. regarding heat demand and available heat sources, are diverse and new technologies especially in the ...

Authors: Franz Zach, Susanna Erker and Gernot Stoeglehner

Geothermal energy for desalination to secure food security: case study in Djibouti

By the year 2025, nearly 3.5 billion people in the world will have no water, including 900,000 from Djibouti. The economic losses caused by the 2000–2012 drought pushed the country to a state of disaster. This...

Authors: D. Chandrasekharam, A. Lashin, Nassir Al Arifi, Abdulaziz M. Al-Bassam and C. Varun

How and to which extent can the gas sector contribute to a climate-neutral European energy system? A qualitative approach

Mitigating climate change requires fundamentally redesigned energy systems in which renewable energy sources ultimately replace fossil fuels such as natural gas. In this context, the question how and to which ...

Authors: Christian Lebelhuber and Horst Steinmüller

Quantification and characterization of cocoa pod husks for electricity generation in Uganda

Due to limited coverage, the electricity power supply in Uganda is an obstacle to the country’s economic development. Utility firms in Uganda either lack the financial capacity to expand their grids to isolate...

Authors: George Kilama, Peter O. Lating, Joseph Byaruhanga and Saphina Biira

Biogas production from submerged macrophytes—a case study of regional biomass potentials in Germany

Utilization of energy crops for biogas production has been controversially discussed in Germany due to negative environmental effects and the “food vs. fuel” debate. This led to a search for alternative substr...

Authors: Markus Röhl, Sandra Roth, Wolfgang Schütz, Andreas Zehnsdorf and Carsten Herbes

Households’ energy preference and consumption intensity in Kenya

There have been notable joint efforts from the private and public sectors in promoting households’ access to clean and efficient energy sources. Despite the noteworthy progress realized over the years, the con...

Authors: Charity Kageni Mbaka, Joseph Gikonyo and Oscar Masika Kisaka

The impact of different GHG reduction scenarios on the economy and social welfare of Thailand using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model

The Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of Thailand intends to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20 to 25% from the projected business as usual level by 2030 with the deployment of renewable energy...

Authors: Salony Rajbhandari, Bundit Limmeechokchai and Toshihiko Masui

An assessment of threats to the American power grid

Concern has been raised that the electrical grid of this nation is vulnerable to prolonged collapse. The postulated mechanisms are geomagnetic storms, electromagnetic pulse attacks (EMP) via a high altitude nu...

Authors: Matthew Weiss and Martin Weiss

Transition governance for energy efficiency - insights from a systematic review of Swedish policy evaluation practices

The transition towards a more sustainable energy system is urgent for addressing global environmental and social challenges, and will require transformative changes including improved energy efficiency in the ...

Authors: Sofie Sandin, Lena Neij and Per Mickwitz

Off-grid opportunities and threats in the wake of India’s electrification push

In pursuing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy access for all, India’s electrification efforts are dominated by a central electricity grid, ...

Authors: Anthony P. Heynen, Paul A. Lant, Simon Smart, Srinivas Sridharan and Chris Greig

Analysis of the pattern of energy consumptions and its impact on urban environmental sustainability in Jordan: Amman City as a case study

The energy sector plays an important role in the economic growth in Jordan due to the fact that Jordan imports around 97% of its needs from primary energy. The purpose of this study is to explore the pattern o...

Authors: Rami Nabil Dar-Mousa and Zeyad Makhamreh

Network governance and the Urban Nexus of water, energy, and food: lessons from Amsterdam

Silo-thinking stands for one-dimensional and sectorial policy and decision-making in which natural resources managers do not reflect on interrelations between different sectors involved in the management of resou...

Authors: Moises Covarrubias, Gert Spaargaren and Ingrid Boas

Possibilities for using mine waters in the context of the construction of heat energy clusters in Poland

Non-renewable energy continues to remain the main link in energy production in Poland. At the end of 2016, fossil fuels (hard coal and lignite) accounted for around 82% of gross domestic energy production. Red...

Authors: Justyna Woźniak and Katarzyna Pactwa

Future compatibility of district heating in urban areas — a case study analysis in the context of integrated spatial and energy planning

District heating is widely used for thermal energy supply and offers a broad range of benefits like the possibility to integrate decentral heat supply technologies or to foster the utilisation of renewable ene...

Authors: Peter Lichtenwoehrer, Susanna Erker, Franz Zach and Gernot Stoeglehner

Interdisciplinary decision support model for grid-bound heat supply systems in urban areas

In the past two centuries, energy consumption per capita has significantly increased. At the same time the fundamentals of energy provision have continuously developed towards fossil energy sources. This exten...

Authors: Susanna Erker, Peter Lichtenwoehrer, Franz Zach and Gernot Stoeglehner

Development aid for energy in Small Island Developing States

Energy is given high priority in the national development agendas of most Small Island Developing States (SIDS) because it is intertwined with social, economic and environmental challenges. Many SIDS experienc...

Authors: Aaron Atteridge and Georgia Savvidou

Valorisation of energy services: essay on the value addition due to renewable energy

The shift from fossil fuels and traditional renewable energy to costlier modern renewable energy based on geothermal wind and solar resources is explained.

Authors: Yoram Krozer

Potential of microfinanced solar water pumping systems for irrigation in rural areas of Burkina Faso

The population in Burkina Faso is rapidly adopting irrigation to adapt to negative impacts of climate change like prolonged drought, rainfall variability and desertification. The solar water pumping systems (S...

Authors: Daniel Yamegueu, Yunus Alokore and Giulia Corso

How to keep renewable energy enterprises to reach economic sustainable performance: from the views of intellectual capital and life cycle

Intellectual capital can not only help companies to obtain sustainable competitive advantage, but also serve as a key factor in corporate performance improvement and value creation. For knowledge-intensive and...

Authors: Xin-long Xu and Cheng Kun Liu

Exploring the potential for biomethane production by willow pyrolysis using life cycle assessment methodology

Biomethane, as a potential substitute for natural gas, reduces the use of fossil-based sources, promoting bioenergy applications. Biomethane for energy use can be produced using a variety of biomass types and ...

Authors: Elham Ahmadi Moghaddam, Niclas Ericsson, Per-Anders Hansson and Åke Nordberg

Deconstructing networks, unearthing consensus: Diffusion of “cleaner” cookstoves in rural Himalayas of India

Both social structures and people’s beliefs affect the diffusion of innovations, but few studies have been able to understand how these dual influences operate simultaneously. Understanding this simultaneity i...

Authors: Arundhati Jagadish and Puneet Dwivedi

Review of the United States energy system in transition

This review article provides a synthesis of the most significant transitions taking place in the energy systems of the USA in 2018. These include the leveling off of the total consumption of primary energy and...

Authors: Peter D. Saundry

From the economist’s point of view—a review of the “The German energy transition: Design, implementation, cost and lessons” by Thomas Unnerstall

Authors: Gerhard Fuchs

Sustainability of community-owned mini-grids: evidence from India

Community-owned solar mini-grids (SMGs) are increasingly promoted to provide communities access to reliable electricity, empowering local actors as they become active stakeholders in projects. However, early f...

Authors: Aparna Katre, Arianna Tozzi and Subhes Bhattacharyya

Morocco’s sustainable energy transition and the role of financing costs: a participatory electricity system modeling approach

Morocco is facing major challenges in terms of its future energy supply and demand. Specifically, the country is confronted with rising electricity demand, which in turn will lead to higher fossil fuel import ...

Authors: Thomas Schinko, Sönke Bohm, Nadejda Komendantova, El Mostafa Jamea and Marina Blohm

Intercomparison between Switch 2.0 and GE MAPS models for simulation of high-renewable power systems in Hawaii

New open-source electric-grid planning models have the potential to improve power system planning and bring a wider range of stakeholders into the planning process for next-generation, high-renewable power sys...

Authors: Matthias Fripp

An empirical analysis of rural and urban populations’ access to electricity: evidence from Pakistan

This study explores the electricity access to rural and urban populations and its impact on the economic growth in Pakistan.

Authors: Abdul Rehman, Zhang Deyuan, Abbas Ali Chandio and Imran Hussain

Exploring governance for sustainability in contexts of violence: the case of the hydropower industry in Colombia

The hydropower industry in Colombia is developing in contexts of violence because of armed conflict. The companies that drive hydropower development are usually large and benefit today from lessons that have b...

Authors: Jorge-Andrés Polanco

Trace element delivery for biogas production enhanced by alternative energy crops: results from two-year field trials

Energy crop production for biogas still relies mainly on maize, but the co-digestion of alternative energy crops (legumes, amaranth, ryegrass, flower mixtures) with maize can have several advantages. First, a ...

Authors: Wiebke Fahlbusch, Katharina Hey, Benedikt Sauer and Hans Ruppert

Towards marketing biomethane in France—French consumers’ perception of biomethane

French energy policy calls for ambitious growth in the biogas sector, with the quantity of biomethane fed into the public grid targeted at 8 TWh per year by 2023. Although today biomethane in France serves pre...

Authors: Carsten Herbes, Simon Chouvellon and Joachim Lacombe

The myth and the reality of energy recovery from municipal solid waste

Any manner of development can be sustainable only if the waste generated by it is not allowed to accumulate but is fully reused/recycled/recovered. Among the strategies to attain this goal have been the attemp...

Authors: S A Abbasi

Grid-based multi-energy systems—modelling, assessment, open source modelling frameworks and challenges

The transition to a sustainable future challenges the current energy grids with the integration of variable, distributed renewable energy sources. On a technical level, multi-energy systems may provide the nec...

Authors: Lukas Kriechbaum, Gerhild Scheiber and Thomas Kienberger

A review of material development in the field of carbon capture and the application of membrane-based processes in power plants and energy-intensive industries

This review highlights recent developments and future perspectives on CO₂ capture from power plants and energy-intensive industries to reduce CO₂ emissions. Different types of membrane materials for CO₂ capture w...

Authors: Xuezhong He

Protected areas as strategies for preserving vegetation cover in the vicinity of hydroelectric projects in the Brazilian Amazon

There are several studies associating the construction of power plants to the increase in deforestation rates. However, there are no case studies analyzing deforestation near power plants, seeking to find a lo...

Authors: Orleno Marques da Silva Junior, Marco Aurélio dos Santos, Claudio Fabian Szlafsztein, Jose Manoel Antelo Gomez and Juliana Pinto Pereira

Spatiotemporal modelling for integrated spatial and energy planning

The transformation of the energy system to a renewable one is crucial to enable sustainable development for mankind. The integration of high shares of renewable energy sources (RES) in the energy matrix is, ho...

Authors: Luis Ramirez Camargo and Gernot Stoeglehner

Collaborative energy visioning under conditions of illiberal democracy: results and recommendations from Ecuador

Sociotechnical transitions require pressure to be exerted from inside or outside of the prevailing ‘regime’, without which various path dependencies combine to maintain the status quo. Change agents including ...

Authors: Eduardo Noboa, Paul Upham and Harald Heinrichs

Returns, setbacks, and future prospects of bio-energy promotion in northern Ethiopia: the case of family-sized biogas energy

Solid biomass-based energy is expected to retain its position as a sole fuel source for households in the rural part of Ethiopia unless alternative energy sources are introduced. Synthesizing small-scale renew...

Authors: Haftu Etsay Kelebe

Anaerobic digestion and integration at urban scale: feedback and comparative case study

The anaerobic digestion process is well studied and developed since the last 50 years, notably for farming implementation. Furthermore, the international energy agenda has shifted in favor of renewable resourc...

Authors: J. R. Bautista Angeli, A. Morales, T. LeFloc’h, A. Lakel and Y. Andres

Drivers and risks for renewable energy developments in mountain regions: a case of a pilot photovoltaic project in the Swiss Alps

When renewable policies are in place, the mismatch between policy targets and lack of technology diffusion indicates a gap between codifying a policy and implementing it. In Switzerland, photovoltaic (PV) elec...

Authors: Paula Díaz and Oscar van Vliet

Towards a smart and sustainable residential energy culture: assessing participant feedback from a long-term smart grid pilot project

Smart grid tools (e.g., individualized disaggregated data, goal setting, and behavioural suggestions/feedback) increase opportunities to reduce or shift residential electricity consumption, but can they shape ...

Authors: Bronwyn Lazowski, Paul Parker and Ian H. Rowlands

Pakistan’s energy scenario: a forecast of commercial energy consumption and supply from different sources through 2030

The energy sector in Pakistan is facing several challenges resulting from insufficient production. The major objective of this study is to identify and forecast commercial energy consumption and supply from di...

Authors: Abdul Rehman and Zhang Deyuan

Transformation pathways of phasing out coal-fired power plants in Germany

While there are plenty of studies investigating the market penetration of new technologies, phase-out processes of a predominant technology are rarely analyzed. The present study explores the case of a declini...

Authors: Stefan Vögele, Paul Kunz, Dirk Rübbelke and Theresa Stahlke

Research on technology clusters and the energy efficiency of energy-saving retrofits of existing office buildings in different climatic regions

During the period of the “12th Five-Year Plan,” energy demand exhibited a rigorous growth trend along with the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization and the constant upgrading of consumption struc...

Authors: Qibo Liu and Juan Ren

Brette Pearl Spar Mable (BPSM): a potential recoverable catalyst as a renewable source of biodiesel from Thevetia peruviana seed oil for the benefit of sustainable development in West Africa

The energy requirements are globally on a rapid escalation, as technology advances, which is also true for a developing country like Nigeria, which is dependent on fossil fuels and its derivatives. Apart from ...

Authors: T. F. Adepoju, B. E. Olatunbosun, O. M. Olatunji and M. A. Ibeh

Quantitative scenario design with Bayesian model averaging: constructing consistent scenarios for quantitative models exemplified for energy economics

Scenario design is currently not a standardised process. The formulation of storylines representing different dimensions (for example economic or societal developments) demands an investigation of assumption c...

Authors: Monika Culka

Using aquatic plant biomass from de-weeding in biogas processes—an economically viable option?

Landscape maintenance in Germany today requires regular and extensive de-weeding of waterways, mostly to ensure water runoff and provide flood protection. The costs for this maintenance are high, and the harve...

Authors: Carsten Herbes, Vasco Brummer, Sandra Roth and Markus Röhl

Challenges for business change in district heating

The Swedish district heating sector is successfully transitioning to a low-carbon energy system. The industry has expanded since the 1950s and currently meets more than half the Swedish heat demand. The heat m...

Authors: Kristina Lygnerud

Spatial differences in the influence of science popularization resources development on the energy consumption carbon footprint in provincial regions of China

Science popularization resources development is an important means to improve public scientific literacy and has a crucial influence on the formation of public consumption habits, patterns and concepts, and ul...

Authors: Gang Ding, Yu Ding and Pingping Weng