Siting analysis of farm-based centralized anaerobic digester systems for distributed generation using GIS

There is growing interest in installing anaerobic digesters (ADs) on farms to use animal wastes as a biomass resource for both economic value and environmental benefit. This potential expansion prompts the need for land suitability assessment. In this paper, a GIS model is proposed for land-suitability assessment of potential energy systems featuring an AD coupled with an energy generator. A variety of environmental and social constraints, as well as economic factors are integrated in the model to help determine the optimal sites for installing such systems. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is employed to estimate the factors’ weights in order to establish their relative importance in site selection. The model is then applied to Tompkins County, New York as a case study for demonstration. A siting suitability map was produced to identify those areas that are most suitable for distributed bio-energy systems using dairy manure. The results showed that this GIS-based model, by integrating both spatial data and non-spatial information, was capable of providing a broad-scale and multidimensional view on the potential bio-energy systems development in the area of study to account for environmental and social constraints as well as economic factors. The model can be modified for evaluating other biomass resources.     

Balance of power

Energy policy in today's world is directed essentially by three main objectives: security of supply, efficiency of supply, and social and environmental sustainability. But given the varied characteristics of the many societies concerned, the emphasis in a particular region may be quite different. In effect, energy policy means very different things to Latin American countries than to the developed economies of Europe and the United States. The countries in Latin America do not yet satisfy the energy needs of much of their people, who must often rely on burning wood for heating and cooking. The additional objective of social justice and social equity becomes relevant. While some countries in the region are still facing low levels of electrification, others are crippled by insufficient investment in energy infrastructure. Finally, the region is resource rich, with a diversity of energy options (coal, gas, hydro, biomass, wind) available but unevenly distributed among the countries. Hence, cross-border supply decisions to foster the development of given technologies are always being discussed. As energy demand increases with economic development, Latin American electricity growth rates have been greater than 5% per year during the last decade. Yearly needs for investment in energy infrastructure in the region are comparable with those of the United States and Canada put together. South America alone will require about US$90 billion of investment in the power sector in the next ten years.     

Promotion of energy conservation in developing countries through the combination of ESCO and CDM: A case study of introducing distributed energy resources into Chinese urban areas

The implementation of an energy service company (ESCO) project in developing countries may result not only in reduced energy cost but also in considerable environmental benefits, including the reduction of CO₂ emissions, which can be assessed in an economic manner under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) scheme. In this way, the economic and environmental benefits of energy conservation activities can be enjoyed by both the investor and the end-user, which can reduce the investment risk and realize a rational profit allocation. This study presents a numerical analysis of the introduction of distributed energy resources (DER) into a Chinese urban area. An optimization model is developed to determine the energy system combination under the constraints on the electrical and thermal balances and equipment availability. According to the simulation results, the introduction of DER systems possesses considerable potential to reduce CO₂ emissions, especially when considering that the economic profit of the CO₂ credit will increase the incentive to adopt DER systems to an even greater extent. Furthermore, by sharing the energy cost savings with the investors under an ESCO framework, the investment risk can be further reduced, and the conditions required for the project to qualify for CDM can be relaxed.     

Carbon emission control strategies for China: A comparative study with partial and general equilibrium versions of the China MARKAL model

China's carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion had increased with an annual growth rate of 4.36% since 1980, hitting 1 GtC in 2003. The global climate change issue is becoming more and more important and hence to be the fourth challenge for China's future energy development, following energy supply shortages, energy security, and local environmental protection. This paper used three MARKAL (MARKet ALlocation) family models, that is, MARKAL, MARKAL-ED (MARKAL with elastic demand), and MARKAL-MACRO, to study China energy system's carbon mitigation strategies and corresponding impacts on the economy. The models’ structures and the economic feedback formulations used in MARKAL-MACRO and MARKAL-ED are briefly described. The endogenous demands in MARKAL-MACRO and MARKAL-ED enable them to partly satisfy carbon abatement constraints via energy service demand reductions, and the reduction levels for the 30 demand sectors from these two kinds of models for given carbon emission constraints are presented and compared. The impact of carbon mitigation on social welfare from MARKAL and MARKAL-ED, and on GDP, investment and consumption from MARKAL-MACRO are evaluated. The changes in both final and primary energy mix, changes in technology development, as well as marginal abatement costs for given carbon constraints from the three models, are analyzed.     

Energy and environment in the ASEAN: challenges and opportunities

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is one of the most dynamic economic regions of the world. Its economy is linked with its diverse energy resources, high-level urbanization, and rapid industrialization. ASEAN's growing economy in the last two decades has increased the concern of sustainable development in the face of deteriorating energy security, environmental pollution, and economic hardship in energy investment. However, opportunities exist to tackle these issues. Increasing energy efficiency (both supply and demand side), exploitation of renewable energy resources (mostly hydro), and an integrated approach on energy resource management are some of the important approaches toward the sustainable energy path. Because the options are capital-intensive, cooperation and development of appropriate institutional structures and decision mechanism across the region are urgently needed.     

Sustainability constraints on UK bioenergy development

Use of bioenergy as a renewable resource is increasing in many parts of the world and can generate significant environmental, economic and social benefits if managed with due regard to sustainability constraints. This work reviews the environmental, social and economic constraints on key feedstocks for UK heat, power and transport fuel. Key sustainability constraints include greenhouse gas savings achieved for different fuels, land availability, air quality impacts and facility siting. Applying those constraints, we estimate that existing technologies would facilitate a sustainability constrained level of medium-term bioenergy/biofuel supply to the UK of 4.9% of total energy demand, broken down into 4.3% of heat demands, 4.3% of electricity, and 5.8% of transport fuel. This suggests that attempts to increase the supply above these levels could have counterproductive sustainability impacts in the absence of compensating technology developments or identification of additional resources. The barriers that currently prevent this level of supply being achieved have been analysed and classified. This suggests that the biggest policy impacts would be in stimulating the market for heat demand in rural areas, supporting feedstock prices in a manner that incentivised efficient use/maximum greenhouse gas savings and targeting investment capital that improves yield and reduces land-take.     

Community-scale renewable energy systems planning under uncertainty—An interval chance-constrained programming approach

In this study, an inexact community-scale energy model (ICS-EM) has been developed for planning renewable energy management (REM) systems under uncertainty. This method is based on an integration of the existing interval linear programming (ILP), chance-constrained programming (CCP) and mixed integer linear programming (MILP) techniques. ICS-EM allows uncertainties presented as both probability distributions and interval values to be incorporated within a general optimization framework. It can also facilitate capacity-expansion planning for energy-production facilities within a multi-period and multi-option context. Complexities in energy management systems can be systematically reflected, thus applicability of the modeling process can be highly enhanced. The developed method has then been applied to a case of long-term renewable energy management planning for three communities. Useful solutions for the planning of energy management systems have been generated. Interval solutions associated with different risk levels of constraint violation have been obtained. They can be used for generating decision alternatives and thus help decision makers identify desired policies under various economic and system-reliability constraints. The generated solutions can also provide desired energy resource/service allocation and capacity-expansion plans with a minimized system cost, a maximized system reliability and a maximized energy security. Tradeoffs between system costs and constraint-violation risks can also be tackled. Higher costs will increase system stability, while a desire for lower system costs will run into a risk of potential instability of the management system. They are helpful for supporting (a) adjustment or justification of allocation patterns of energy resources and services, (b) formulation of local policies regarding energy consumption, economic development and energy structure, and (c) analysis of interactions among economic cost, system reliability and energy-supply security.     

Multi-criteria assessment of new and renewable energy power plants

The multi-criteria evaluation of new and renewable technologies demonstrates the potential analysis of complex systems. Every energy system under consideration is an entity by itself, defined by the respective number of parameters which are deterministically interrelated according to the physical laws. Sustainability indicators take into account the economic and environmental resources parameters. This paper presents selection of criteria and options for the new and renewable energy technologies assessment based on the analysis and synthesis of parameters under the information deficiency method. In order to present an evaluation of the new energy technologies, a number of options featuring some of the characteristics measured by the selected sustainability indicators are taken into consideration. For each option under consideration, the sustainability indicators are defined in order to verify their rating under the specific constraints and to obtain the generalised index of sustainability rating of all options. The aim of this paper is to define energy indicators used in the assessment of energy systems which meet the sustainability criterion. In this respect, the following indicators are taken into consideration: energy resources, environment capacity, social indicators and economic indicators.     

Bioenergy transition in rural China: Policy options and co-benefits

This paper reviews the current situation of bioenergy development in China, particularly on its relationship to sustainable rural development. It argues that the current government strategy, investment policy and industrial interest are over-emphasized on biomass-burning power generation as part of the clean energy development trajectories, which may not lead to the most cost-effective outcomes in terms of investments, resource use and social development objectives. It points out that there are large potentials in developing and disseminating household-based biomass technologies in rural areas, especially with energy-efficient modern biomass stoves, which can produce far more economic, social and environmental benefits than biomass power plants. It is a decentralized solution to use renewable energy resources for meeting multi-objectives. It is suggested that key incentive policies be provided by the government to encourage this technological transition, or the leapfrogging from using traditional household stoves towards modern biomass stoves, which will lead to a win–win situation in global, regional and local environmental protection, sustainable resource management and related social benefits, particularly for the poor in remote communities. Six policy recommendations are made: (1) financial schemes development; (2) preferable tax and carbon tax; (3) regulatory policy reform; (4) service industry support; (5) market research, training and capacity building for key stakeholders; (6) development of methodologies and standards for CDM projects. The potential co-benefits brought up by this massive biomass technology transition will bring new perspectives to realizing Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and global CO₂ emissions reduction targets in China, and also set an example to other developing countries.     

Integrated assessment of bioelectricity technology options

Power generation from biomass is a sustainable energy technology which can contribute to substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but with greater potential for environmental, economic and social impacts than most other renewable energy technologies. It is important therefore in assessing bioenergy systems to take account of not only technical, but also environmental, economic and social parameters on a common basis. This work addresses the challenge of analysing, quantifying and comparing these factors for bioenergy power generation systems. A life-cycle approach is used to analyse the technical, environmental, economic and social impacts of entire bioelectricity systems, with a number of life-cycle indicators as outputs to facilitate cross-comparison. The results show that similar greenhouse gas savings are achieved with the wide variety of technologies and scales studied, but land-use efficiency of greenhouse gas savings and specific airborne emissions varied substantially. Also, while specific investment costs and electricity costs vary substantially from one system to another the number of jobs created per unit of electricity delivered remains roughly constant. Recorded views of stakeholders illustrate that diverging priorities exist for different stakeholder groups and this will influence appropriate choice of bioenergy systems for different applications.     

A model for investigation of optimal hydrogen pathway,and evaluation of environmental impacts of hydrogen supply system

In order to achieve a hydrogen economy, developing widespread hydrogen supply systems are vitally important. A large number of technological options exist and are still in development for hydrogen production, storage, distribution…, which cause various pathways for supplying hydrogen. Besides the technical factors, there are other effective parameters such as cost, operability, reliability, environmental impacts, safety and social implications that should be considered when assessing the different pathways as optimal and viable long-term alternatives. To aid this decision-making process, we have developed a generic optimization-based model for the long-range energy planning and design of future hydrogen supply systems. By applying Linear Dynamic Programming techniques, the model is capable of identifying optimal investment strategies and integrated supply system configurations from the many alternatives. Also, the environmental impacts of hydrogen supply system can be evaluated through scenario analysis. The features and capabilities of the model are illustrated through application to Iran as a case study.     

Identification of optimal strategies for energy management systems planning under multiple uncertainties

Management of energy resources is crucial for many regions throughout the world. Many economic, environmental and political factors are having significant effects on energy management practices, leading to a variety of uncertainties in relevant decision making. The objective of this research is to identify optimal strategies in the planning of energy management systems under multiple uncertainties through the development of a fuzzy-random interval programming (FRIP) model. The method is based on an integration of the existing interval linear programming (ILP), superiority–inferiority-based fuzzy-stochastic programming (SI-FSP) and mixed integer linear programming (MILP). Such a FRIP model allows multiple uncertainties presented as interval values, possibilistic and probabilistic distributions, as well as their combinations within a general optimization framework. It can also be used for facilitating capacity-expansion planning of energy-production facilities within a multi-period and multi-option context. Complexities in energy management systems can be systematically reflected, thus applicability of the modeling process can be highly enhanced. The developed method has then been applied to a case of long-term energy management planning for a region with three cities. Useful solutions for the planning of energy management systems were generated. Interval solutions associated with different risk levels of constraint violation were obtained. They could be used for generating decision alternatives and thus help decision makers identify desired policies under various economic and system-reliability constraints. The solutions can also provide desired energy resource/service allocation and capacity-expansion plans with a minimized system cost, a maximized system reliability and a maximized energy security. Tradeoffs between system costs and constraint-violation risks could be successfully tackled, i.e., higher costs will increase system stability, while a desire for lower system costs will run into a risk of potential instability of the management system. Moreover, multiple uncertainties existing in the planning of energy management systems can be effectively addressed, improving robustness of the existing optimization methods.     

从经济学角度论节能环保的战略意义

节能环保是一个技术性的概念,更是一个经济学意义上的概念,它不仅具有微观经济属性,而且也具有宏观经济属性。微观经济属性表现在,作为生产经营主体的企业在节能环保投资和决策中首先表现的是经济人的属性,注重投资和回报的比例关系,追求利益最大化;而宏观经济属性则表现在对于整个国家经济生活的影响,涉及一个国家的低碳经济发展战略、能源价格、国家能源安全、经济结构调整以及可持续发展等诸多方面。节能环保的宏观经济属性相对其微观经济属性更具有长远的战略意义。节能环保不仅为经济社会的可持续发展提供动力和坚强后盾,而且其本身也具有重要的经济价值和产业带动效应。在节能环保框架体系中,存在着管理者、实施者和利益相关者三方行为人之间的博弈。经济价值与社会责任的兼顾,使得三方行为人经过相互妥协最终形成一个多方都能接受的共同目标,促成三方合作博弈,以激励政策和制度约束为纽带,结成利益共同体,实现节能环保产业的快速发展。     

Promoting bioenergy through the clean development mechanism

This paper explores the potential of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol to promote modern bioenergy options in developing countries. The starting point is that developing countries need to be given a major role in the implementation of the Convention on Climate Change because of their increasing energy demands and the pressing need to mitigate climate change. The role of CDM is discussed in the context of sustainable development, formation of carbon markets, and promotion of bioenergy options. Besides contributing to mitigate climate change, CDM can be used to demonstrate and disseminate new technologies, reduce investment risks and enhance the cost-efficiency of projects, while also creating jobs and improving environmental conditions. In this context, bioenergy projects are attractive and CDM provides a complementary bridge for international cooperation towards sustainable development. However, since CDM is project-based, a broader policy framework is needed to integrate such projects in regional and global bioenergy systems solutions.     

World energy analysis: H2 now or later?

This is a study of world energy resource sustainability within the context of resource peak production dates, advanced energy use technologies in the transportation and electricity generation energy use sectors, and alternative fuel production including hydrogen. The finding causing the most concern is the projection of a peak in global conventional oil production between now and 2023. In addition, the findings indicate that the peak production date for natural gas, coal, and uranium could occur by 2050. The central question is whether oil production from non-conventional oil resources can be increased at a fast enough rate to offset declines in conventional oil production. The development of non-conventional oil production raises concerns about increased energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and water issues. Due to the emerging fossil fuel resource constraints in coming decades, this study concludes that it is prudent to begin the development of hydrogen production and distribution systems in the near-term. The hydrogen gas is to be initially used by fuel cell vehicles, which will eliminate tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions. With a lowering of H₂ production costs through the amortization of system components, H₂ can be an economic fuel source for electricity generation post-2040.     

Growth curves and sustained commissioning modelling of renewable energy: Investigating resource constraints for wind energy

Several recent studies have proposed fast transitions to energy systems based on renewable energy technology. Many of them dismiss potential physical constraints and issues with natural resource supply, and do not consider the growth rates of the individual technologies needed or how the energy systems are to be sustained over longer time frames. A case study is presented modelling potential growth rates of the wind energy required to reach installed capacities proposed in other studies, taking into account the expected service life of wind turbines. A sustained commissioning model is proposed as a theoretical foundation for analysing reasonable growth patterns for technologies that can be sustained in the future. The annual installation and related resource requirements to reach proposed wind capacity are quantified and it is concluded that these factors should be considered when assessing the feasibility, and even the sustainability, of fast energy transitions. Even a sustained commissioning scenario would require significant resource flows, for the transition as well as for sustaining the system, indefinitely. Recent studies that claim there are no potential natural resource barriers or other physical constraints to fast transitions to renewable energy appear inadequate in ruling out these concerns.     

Sustainability assessment of renewable energy projects for off-grid rural electrification: The Pangan-an Island case in the Philippines

Renewable energy systems (RESs) have been promoted for rural electrification as an answer to the growing energy needs of communities while simultaneously satisfying environmental and resource scarcity problems. These off-grid systems however have several challenges in the perspective of sustainability due to the technically and financially weak recipients and users of the projects. There is still, however, less detailed understanding how the technical and economic aspects of the projects can properly match the social aspects to promote sustainability. This paper aimed to further understand the challenges and social impacts of rural electrification projects using RES through a case study of a centralized off-grid solar plant in the Philippines. The study used multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) to identify essential user attributes which explain the users’ electricity consumption behaviors. The community cooperative had difficulties maintaining the facility in the long term due to financial and capacity related challenges. A holistic approach dealing with the technical, economic and social aspects in developing RES projects promote sustainability.     

A novel multicriteria sustainability investigation of energy storage systems

Affordable, clean, efficient, flexible, and reliable energy storage is an important component of sustainable energy systems. There are several studies in the literature concentrating on improving the sustainability performance of energy storage systems from economic and technical perspectives. However, a comprehensive performance investigation of energy storage systems that take economic, environmental, social, and technical criteria into account is still needed. For that reason, in the present study, it is aimed to perform a complete assessment and analysis of the sustainability of energy storage systems for residential applications in communities and cities. Pumped hydro, conventional batteries, high‐temperature batteries, flow batteries, and hydrogen are the selected energy storage systems. In order to handle the vagueness and ambiguity during the assessment and to eliminate the perceived hesitancy in the decision makers' preferences, an innovative method, a hybrid hesitant fuzzy multicriteria decision‐making (MCDM) methodology composed of hesitant fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (HFAHP) and hesitant fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (HFTOPSIS), is utilized to assess the sustainability of the selected systems. In this study, four different performance criteria: economic (power cost and energy cost), environmental (pollutant emissions, area requirement, wastewater quality, and solid waste production), social (safety, accessibility, ease of use, and public acceptance), and technical (efficiency, storage capacity, cycling limit, and performance degradation) are taken into consideration. The performance evaluation results indicate that technical performance has the highest influence and social performance has the lowest influence when evaluating the sustainability of the selected energy storage systems. And hydrogen has the highest sustainability performance compared with the other selected energy storage options.     

The renewable energy market in Brazil: Current status and potential

Renewable energy offers a range of options with which to meet the growing demand for energy, particularly in the context of the pursuit (especially in developing countries) of economic development which takes into account social and environmental issues. Brazil has abundant natural sources of renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, hydraulic energy, small hydroelectric plants, ethanol and bio-diesel. These sources form part of the Brazilian strategy aimed at satisfying the demand for 6300 MW of fresh capacity per year arising out of projected economic growth of 5.1% per year over the next 10 years. Renewable energy sources currently provide 47.2% of the internal supply of primary energy in Brazil. Brazil has been pursuing a strategy of maintaining its renewable energy matrix and developing and providing incentives for further low carbon initiatives.In this study we set out an overview of the renewable energy options available in Brazil, their current status, the main positive results obtained to date and future potential. We describe the market for renewable energy in Brazil and examine specific public policies aimed at overcoming barriers to this market, thereby promoting its consolidation and expansion.