The development of low-carbon vehicles in China

Reducing CO₂ emissions from vehicles in China is crucial and will significantly alleviate the environmental burden of the Earth. Some promising technologies that make possible low-carbon vehicles are reviewed in this work, including electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, hybrid vehicles, biofuels vehicles, other alternative fuel vehicles, and conventional internal combustion engine vehicles with improvement. In the short term, expanding the use of mature technologies in conventional gasoline or diesel vehicles is the most realistic, effective, and timely solution for China to meeting the urgent challenges of energy saving and greenhouse gas reduction; while in the long run biofuel is a promising candidate due to their renewability and carbon neutrality. The blueprint of low-carbon vehicles for China depends on three aspects: breakthroughs in technology, awareness of public, and government guidance.     

The delivery of low-cost,low-carbon rural energy services

The provision of both electrical and mechanical energy services can play a critical role in poverty alleviation for the almost two billion rural users who currently lack access to electricity. Distributed generation using diesel generators remains a common means of electricity provision for rural communities throughout the world. Due to rising fuel costs, the need to address poverty, and consequences of global warming, it is necessary to develop cost efficient means of reducing fossil fuel consumption in isolated diesel microgrids. Based on a case study in Nicaragua, a set of demand and supply side measures are ordered by their annualized costs in order to approximate an energy supply curve. The curve highlights significant opportunities for reducing the costs of delivering energy services while also transitioning to a carbon-free electrical system. In particular, the study demonstrates the significant cost savings resulting from the implementation of conventional metering, efficient residential lighting, and electricity generation using renewable energy sources.     

Renewable energy policy and electricity market reforms in China

The article examines the potential effectiveness of the renewable energy policy in China and its regulatory Law framework. It frames the option of renewable energy technology within the background of the long-lasting electricity problems that China has faced including serious supply shortages, reliance on coal, and severe environmental contamination. Its dual administrative and ownership system based on state and privately owned industry is discussed together with the market reform measures adopted in the sector. Current renewable energy policy is analysed, and the scope of the 2005 Renewable Energy Promotion Law is investigated. This is conducted within the context of the electricity sector reform that China adopted, and its effects upon the prospects of encouraging as well as expanding the development of renewable energy. This study draws upon primary information collected from interviews with stakeholders on the policy adequacy, and identifies three main types of shortcomings that have interfered with a more successful expansion of renewable energy in China.     

Spatial development of hydrogen economy in a low-carbon UK energy system

Hydrogen technologies and infrastructures might play a significant role in meeting ambitious climate and energy policy goals of the UK Government. Nonetheless, studies on hydrogen are either limited in scope in that they do not take into account the relationships with the wider energy system drivers and constraints or do not consider how a hydrogen network might develop geographically. This paper presents a framework where a spatially explicit hydrogen module is embedded in the UK MARKAL Energy System model to explore energy system trade-offs for the production, delivery and use of hydrogen at the sub-national level. A set of illustrative scenarios highlight the competitiveness of hydrogen related infrastructures and technologies as well as imported liquid hydrogen against a stringent emissions reduction target; the effect of emissions reduction trajectory on the development of hydrogen network; the intense resource competition between low carbon hydrogen production and electricity generation, and the importance of economies of scale in hydrogen supply and distribution.     

Maximizing efficiency in the transition to a coal-based economy

Energy is the lynchpin of modern society. Since the early 1970s, growing dependence on foreign energy sources, oil in particular, has constrained US independence in foreign policy, and at times, inhibited economic stability and growth. Addressing oil dependence is politically and economically complex. Proposed solutions are multifaceted with various objectives such as energy efficiency and resource substitution. One solution is the partial transition from an oil- to coal-based economy. A number of facts support this solution including vast coal reserves in the US and the relative price stability of coal. However, several roadblocks exist. These include uncertain recoverable reserves and the immaturity of “clean” coal technologies. This paper provides a first order analysis of the most efficient use of coal assuming the transition from oil to coal is desirable. Scenario analysis indicates two possible transition pathways: (1) bring the transportation sector onto the electric grid and (2) use coal-to-liquid fuels to directly power vehicles. The feasibility of each pathway is examined based on economic and environmental factors, among which are energy availability, affordability and efficiency, and environmental sustainability. Results indicate that partial transition of the transportation sector onto the electric grid offers the more viable solution for coal-based reduction of the US oil dependence.     

Re-envisioning the role of hydrogen in a sustainable energy economy

This paper addresses the fundamental question of where hydrogen might fit into a global sustainable energy strategy for the 21st century that confronts the three-pronged challenge of irreversible climate change, uncertain oil supply, and rising pollution. We re-envision the role of hydrogen at national and international strategic levels, relying entirely on renewable energy and energy efficiency. It is suggested the time for an exclusive ‘hydrogen economy’ has passed, since electricity and batteries would be used extensively as well. Yet hydrogen would still play a crucial role: in road and rail vehicles requiring a range comparable to today’s petrol and diesel vehicles; in coastal and international shipping; in air transport; and for longer-term seasonal storage on electricity grids relying mainly on renewables. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are proposed where medium and long distance trips are required, with plug-in battery electric vehicles reserved for just short trips. A hierarchy of spatially-distributed hydrogen production, storage and distribution centers relying on local renewable energy sources and feedstocks would be created to limit the required hydrogen pipeline network to the main metropolitan areas and regions by complementary use of electricity as a major energy vector. Bulk hydrogen storage would provide the strategic energy reserve to guarantee national and global energy security in a world relying increasingly on renewable energy. It is recommended that this vision next be applied to specific countries by conducting detailed energy-economic-environmental modeling to quantify its net benefits.     

Stakeholder perceptions towards the transition to a hydrogen economy in Poland

Poland has significant reserves of energy in the form of coal. However, the exploitation of these reserves could lead to significant carbon emissions. Hydrogen technologies present a potentially sustainable option for the Polish energy system. This paper reviews the existing Polish energy system, resources, policies and measures from the perspective of planning a transition to a hydrogen-based economy. The key challenges and opportunities gathered by systematic consultation of senior stakeholders are presented. Coke oven gas and coal gasification are the major short and medium term sources of hydrogen. Underground conversion of coal deposits with integrated carbon capture and storage (CCS) is most important in the long term. Other opportunities include development of renewables, by-product hydrogen and nuclear power. Current lack of infrastructure, particularly for CCS, hydrogen pipelines and clean coal is seen as a significant barrier. Regional and central government should cooperate with industry to develop a portfolio of demonstration projects to provide experience and stimulate demand for hydrogen.     

Challenges to China's transition to a low carbon electricity system

We examine the challenges to China's transition to a low carbon electricity system, in which renewable energy would play a significant role. China's electricity system currently lacks the flexibility in planning, operations, and pricing to respond to conflicting pressures from demand growth, rising costs, and environmental mandates in a way that simultaneously maintains reliability, decarbonizes the system, and keeps prices within acceptable bounds. Greater flexibility crucially requires the ability to more systematically and transparently manage and allocate costs. This will require re-orientating sector institutions still rooted in central planning, and strengthening independent regulation. Some of the necessary changes require fundamental political and legal reforms beyond the scope of energy policy. However, the system's flexibility can still be increased through the development of traditional planning and regulatory tools and approaches, such as an avoided cost basis for energy efficiency investments, more integrated planning to improve the coordination of generation, transmission, and demand-side investments, and a transparent ratemaking process. The judicious application of OECD electricity sector experience and skills can support these developments.     

The role of hydrogen in the transition from a petroleum economy to a low-carbon society

A radical decarbonization pathway for the Norwegian society towards 2050 is presented. The paper focuses on the role of hydrogen in the transition, when present Norwegian petroleum export is gradually phased out. The study is in line with EU initiatives to secure cooperation opportunities with neighbouring countries to establish an international hydrogen market. Three analytical perspectives are combined. The first uses energy models to investigate the role of hydrogen in an energy and power market perspective, without considering hydrogen export. The second, uses an economic equilibrium model to examine the potential role of hydrogen export in value creation. The third analysis is a socio-technical case study on the drivers and barriers for hydrogen production in Norway. Main conclusions are that access to renewable power and hydrogen are prerequisites for decarbonization of transport and industrial sectors in Norway, and that hydrogen is a key to maintain a high level of economic activity. Structural changes in the economy, impacts of new technologies, and key enablers and barriers in this transition are discussed.     

China's energy development strategy under the low-carbon economy

The long-term goal of 50% mitigation of the green house gas till 2050 was determined by the participants of G8 summit in July 2008. As long as this goal was set, the emission from China economy and energy industry development has to be reduced significantly. In order to cope with the climate change and to promote China's economic growth and the energy security, low-carbon economy should be adopted. Clean energy, including the new energy and the renewable energy, should be developed and deployed; related laws, statutes, the management institutions and mechanisms should be established; and public awareness of energy saving and green house gas (GHG) mitigation has to be enhanced.     

Renewable energy in a market-based economy: How to estimate its potential and choose the right incentives

A model to explain and predict market-driven investment in renewable energy capital is proposed. The model is suitable for application to the biomass, wind, solar and ocean-derived energy industries. It basically assumes that, given a set of prices and a specific technology, the marginal efficiency of capital invested in these industries only depends on the productivity of the project's site and on its energy transport distance. As suggested by traditional investment theory, the model supposes that only those projects offering marginal efficiencies of capital above the current available rate of interest would be implemented, thus demarcating a region in the productivity–energy transport distance space where all the economically viable projects should lie. By relating this region to the geographic space available for development, total potential investment can be deduced. By using cash flows defined in variable energy transport distance and mean wind speed, a case study for the Chilean wind energy industry is presented. The use of the model to analyse the effect of alternative support schemes for wind energy in Chile is briefly demonstrated. It is concluded that for increasing the area economically available for the development of new wind farms, a research and development support scheme aimed at reducing investment cost of wind turbines by 25% is equivalent to a 20% price subsidy on energy.     

Development of a renewable hydrogen economy: Optimization of existing technologies

There is an increasing need for new and greater sources of energy for future global transportation applications. One recognized possibility for a renewable, clean source of transportation fuels is solar radiation collected and converted into useable forms of electrical and/or chemical (hydrogen) energy. This paper describes methods for utilizing and combining existing technologies into systems that optimize solar energy collection and conversion into useful transportation fuels. Photovoltaic (PV)-electrolysis (solar hydrogen) and PV-battery charging systems described in this paper overcome inefficiencies inherent in past concepts, where DC power from the PV system was first converted to AC current and then used to power electrical devices at the point of generation, or fed back to the grid to reduce electricity costs. These past, non-optimized concepts included efficiency losses in power conversion and unnecessary costs. These drawbacks can be avoided by capitalizing on the unique feature of solar photovoltaic devices that match their maximum power point to the operating point of an electrolyzer or a battery charger without intervening power transformers. This concept is illustrated for two systems designed, built, and tested by General Motors for fueling a fuel cell electric vehicle and charging an automotive propulsion battery. Based on this research, we propose a scenario in which individual home-owners, businesses, or sites at remote locations with no grid electricity, can capture solar energy, store it as hydrogen generated via water electrolysis, or as electrical energy used to charge storage batteries. Such a decentralized energy system provides a home refueling option for drivers who only travel limited distances each day.     

Balancing energy and environment: The effect and perspective of management instruments in China

The rapid growth of Chinese economy has tremendously stimulated the expansion of energy consumption. The structure of energy consumption in China is featured with the coal domination. Air pollution is becoming increasingly severe. As a result, we are confronted with the extremely arduous task to balance energy consumption and environmental protection. In order to coordinate the relationship between energy consumption and environmental protection in a strategic way, this paper analyzes comprehensively the instruments, effects and perspectives of energy-related environmental management. Meanwhile, this paper illustrates the barriers and challenges facing the energy and energy-related environmental management in China, and suggests a priority strategy of management instrument, mainly composed of energy-saving, optimization of energy structure, promulgation of environmental standards, advance in environmental technologies, internalization of environmental costs, establishment of a public benefit fund and adoption of a Renewable Portfolio System.     

An experimental study on the efficiency of the submerged plate wave energy converter

Several studies have been made using submerged plates for wave-damping purpose. A pulsating flow occurs opposite to the direction of wave propagation below these wave breakers. This water flow can be used for energy production purposes. In this study, the energy efficiency of the plate wave energy converter is determined experimentally. The length of the plate L=1 m, the water depth d=60 cm, the width of the plate b=60 cm and the thickness t=2 cm were held constant through all the experiments. Each experiment set has a total number of 20 different wave properties composed of T=1.16, 1.50, 1.87 and 2.05 s wave periods and H=2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 cm wave height values. The velocity and the wave length of the water flow occuring below the plate were measured for several conditions such as: 1. the plate only, 2. the plate and a triangular structure below it, with five different heights, 3. The plate and a vertical wall below it, with two different heights. In this manner, the submerged plate wave energy converter efficiency values were determined for 20 different conditions. It is understood that the efficiency of the submerged plate wave energy converters can reach up to 60% and the existence of a vertical wall below the plate rather than a triangular form is more efficient.     

Review on wind power development and relevant policies in China during the 11th Five-Year-Plan period

Since 2005, there has been dramatic progress in China's wind power industry. The annual growth rate of newly constructed capacity reached a miracle of 105% and the total installed capacity has increased from 1.27 GW in 2005 to 44.73 GW in 2010, which has exceeded the target of China's energy long-term planning for 2020. During the 11th Five-Year-Plan (FYP), the Chinese government has issued a series of polices to promote and regulate the development of wind power industry, which is the underlying force driving its rapid development. This paper is a systematical review on the current status and policies of wind power industry in China. Firstly the current status including achievements and shortcomings is presented, and then the relevant polices and regulations released during the period of 11th FYP are reviewed. Meanwhile, the main approaches of the policies and regulations in promoting the development of wind power industry are discussed and the issues of the current policies are analyzed. Finally, the paper concludes on the perspectives of wind power policies in China.     

A quadratic helix approach to evaluate the Turkish renewable energies

The first renewable energy law concerning the ‘Use of Renewable Energy Resources for the Generation of Electrical Energy’ was adopted from European Union regulations on 18 May 2005 in Turkey. The purpose of the Law is to expand the utilization of renewable energy resources for generating electricity. Renewables are defined in the Law as generation facilities based on wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, biogas, wave, current and tidal energy resources, hydrogen energy and hydroelectric generation facilities. The aim of the study was to use strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis to identify Turkish renewable energy market strategy and perspective by focusing on four different concepts: policy, market, technology and the social dimension. Different information gathering strategies have been applied such as monitoring of all statements and press releases published in the newspapers by all Turkish renewable energy parties starting from the launch of the law, articles presented in the events between 2000 and 2008 and face-to-face interviews. Our results demonstrated the importance of technology development and knowledge creation for gaining competitiveness on the global arena and the need for a systematic approach for transforming the created know-how into economic and social benefits.     

河南省能源问题及其对策研究

河南省化石能源资源丰富,但易开采的能源资源已濒临枯竭,可再生能源资源开发不足.以煤为主的能源结构和过多的高耗能产业是造成河南省能源短缺和环境污染等问题的主要原因.政府部门应提前谋划,通过资金、政策的方法鼓励发展先进能量技术等才是解决河南能源问题正确途径.     

A methodology for the electrical energy system planning of Tamil Nadu state (India)

In this paper, an energy planning optimisation procedure of a selected territory is illustrated and applied using an energy flow optimisation model. The developed approach takes into account various electricity generating options to meet the energy needs of various demand sectors. Energy saving techniques and hybrid technologies are considered and various scenarios are developed by assessing the contribution of renewable energy technologies over the planning period. The procedure aims to reduce the total actualised cost of energy generation over selected time horizon and predicts the additional installations required along with the existing facilities to meet the energy demand. At the same time the role of renewable energy technologies and of energy saving measures is evaluated by imposing suitable constraints on CO₂ emissions and primary energy sources exploitation. The procedure is applied to the territory of Tamil Nadu state (India) by considering different energy planning scenarios.     

The importance of comprehensiveness in renewable electricity and energy-efficiency policy

Based on extensive research interviews and supplemented with a review of the academic literature, this article assesses the best way to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. It begins by briefly laying out why government intervention is needed, and then details the four most favored policy mechanisms identified by participants: eliminating subsidies for conventional and mature electricity technologies, pricing electricity accurately, passing a national feed-in tariff, and implementing a nationwide systems benefit fund to raise public awareness, protect lower income households, and administer demand side management programs. Drawing mostly from case studies in the United States, the article also discusses why these policy mechanisms must be implemented comprehensively, not individually, if the barriers to renewables and energy efficiency are to be overcome.     

Losing the roadmap: Renewable energy paralysis in Spain and its implications for the EU low carbon economy

After many years at the forefront of renewable energy (RE) implementation both in Europe and worldwide, Spain experienced a sudden transformation in 2012 to its RE development model in which national government backing and financial incentives for renewables were removed, throwing the RE sector into a paralysis which continues to the present day. This is in marked contrast to the case of the other major European RE leader, Germany, where it has been argued that RE implementation has produced a “regime shift” that has transformed the energy generation model to a new resilient pathway. In this paper, key differences between Spanish regions are identified in the way the RE implementation process has been carried out. The research brings these different characteristics into focus and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the RE implementation process in each region. If stakeholders at all levels are empowered and motivated towards the implementation process goal, it is less likely that a few, very powerful actors (e.g. multinational energy companies or governments) can dominate the process, and thus systemic instability can be reduced. In this way, lock-down situations like the current one can be avoided in future and a more resilient system can be designed.