Renewable energy and the need for local energy markets

In Denmark, a technological change towards cleaner energy technologies has been developed and implemented since around 1975. This development has had two phases: The first from 1975 until around 1996, when wind power was a niche production that supplied only 3.5% of the electricity consumption and was brought close to cost competitiveness, and the present second phase, in which wind power supplies an increasing share (in 2004 18.6%) of electricity consumption along with combined heat and power plants, which supply around 50% of consumption. Denmark succeeded in overcoming the first phase, and a large green energy technology cluster was established. During the second phase, new difficulties and challenges have arisen, both with regard to local public acceptance and the need for integrating an increasing percentage of fluctuating energy sources into the energy system. In this Phase 2, a new offensive green energy policy should be introduced in order to secure both public and political acceptance. Local markets should be established in order to secure the technical integration of a large proportion of wind power and other fluctuating renewable energy sources into the energy system.     

Renewable energy technologies for international development

Renewable energy technologies have received considerable attention within the past five years for their potential to help meet basic needs in developing countries. The state-of-the-art of three technologies (wind-energy utilization, improved cook-stoves, and solar drying) is reviewed. A variety of significant activities are underway but widespread dissemination of these technologies does not yet appear to have occurred; new and renewed efforts, including research and development, are needed.     

Green waste to biogas: Renewable energy possibilities for Thailand's green markets

Today, the production of energy from waste is not a new process; however, its implementation and application continue to be a challenge in developing countries. Despite the abundance of valuable waste in the urban markets of these countries, practices aiming at renewable energy generation are missing. In Thailand, so-called green markets are replete with renewable energy potential, but the practical implementation of this potential is rare. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to show that the conversion of green waste into renewable energy is not only environmentally beneficial but also financially rewarding. This is demonstrated by exploring the energy potential of the market and conducting a benefit–cost analysis under two scenarios. The results illustrate that for the selected market, converting organic waste into biogas is advantageous both environmentally as well as financially; further, the benefit–cost ratio is three times higher after conversion, compared to before. Additionally, there is a huge margin of conversion and production of biogas. The policy makers and planners of Talaad Thai (Thailand's largest green market) should invest greater effort in initiating plans, and set an example for other markets in Thailand, in order to make this planet clean and green.     

国际电动机能效政策法规研究与分析

作为生产量大、使用面广的工业通用产品之一,电动机的节能政策自诞生起就吸引了全球的关注.分析目的地国家的电动机能效政策法规已成为我国电机生产企业在从事进出口贸易过程中必不可少的环节.通过研究和介绍了世界范围内主要电动机进出口贸易地区的能效政策法规,涵盖亚洲、欧洲、北美洲、南美洲、澳洲等五大洲共计超过10个国家,覆盖面广,实用性高,适用性强.同时分析相关政策的差异和关联性.为我国相关政策的制订和完善提供技术支持.     

Optimal design of inter-plant waste energy integration

In this paper, a new superstructure for heat integration of an eco-industrial park is proposed. Intra and inter-plant heat exchange for the process streams is allowed. For a proper reuse of the waste heat at low temperature, a set of organic Rankine cycles (ORCs) can be integrated inside the eco-industrial park. This way, the proposed superstructure allows proper heat integration to reduce the use of external cooling and heating utilities as well as the consumption of external electric energy. The proposed superstructure is modeled through a mathematical programming formulation where the objective function considers the simultaneous minimization of the operating and capital costs for the units involved in the system as well the possible revenues from the sales of electricity. The model is formulated in such a way that avoids numerical complications during its solution. Results from the application of the proposed approach show that the interplant-integration offers significant savings compared to the traditional single-plant integration with and without considering ORCs.     

De-regulated electric power markets and operating nuclear power plants: the case of British energy

One issue addressed in almost all electric power restructuring/de-regulation plans in both the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) was the recovery of operating nuclear power plant's spent fuel disposal costs and the expenditures to decommission the units when they are retired. Prior to restructuring, in theory at least, in both countries, electricity consumers were paying for the back end costs from operating nuclear power plants. Moreover, in virtually all cases in the US, states included special provisions to insure that consumers would continue to do so after power markets were de-regulated. When power markets in the UK were initially restructured/de-regulated and nuclear power privatized, the shareholders of British Energy (BE) were initially responsible for these costs. However, after electricity prices fell and BE collapsed, the British government shifted many of the costs to future taxpayers, as much as a century forward. If this was not done, the book value of BE's equity would have been about −3.5 billion pounds. That is, BE's liabilities would have been about −3.5 billion pounds greater than their assets. It is difficult to see how BE could remain viable under such circumstances.     

The value of compressed air energy storage in energy and reserve markets

Storage devices can provide several grid services, however it is challenging to quantify the value of providing several services and to optimally allocate storage resources to maximize value. We develop a co-optimized Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) dispatch model to characterize the value of providing operating reserves in addition to energy arbitrage in several U.S. markets. We use the model to: (1) quantify the added value of providing operating reserves in addition to energy arbitrage; (2) evaluate the dynamic nature of optimally allocating storage resources into energy and reserve markets; and (3) quantify the sensitivity of CAES net revenues to several design and performance parameters. We find that conventional CAES systems could earn an additional $23 ± 10/kW-yr by providing operating reserves, and adiabatic CAES systems could earn an additional $28 ± 13/kW-yr. We find that arbitrage-only revenues are unlikely to support a CAES investment in most market locations, but the addition of reserve revenues could support a conventional CAES investment in several markets. Adiabatic CAES revenues are not likely to support an investment in most regions studied. Modifying CAES design and performance parameters primarily impacts arbitrage revenues, and optimizing CAES design will be nearly independent of dispatch strategy.     

Technical and economic aspects of ancillary services markets in the electric power industry: an international comparison

We present a comparative analysis of technical and economic aspects of ancillary services on the markets of England and Wales, Nordic Countries, California, Argentina, Australia and Spain, comparing the services of voltage control, frequency regulation and system restoration. All the analyzed markets rely on the existence of an administrator of ancillary services, function that leads to the figure of the system operator. Among the services analyzed, the mandatory nature of voltage control and primary frequency regulation stands out, being both the ancillary services with the higher market price and the shortest period of time requirements. In general, the recognized costs of the services correspond to investments operation, maintenance, and opportunity costs. In the provision of these ancillary services, there are no clear preferences for a particular resource allocation mechanism, where mandatory provision, auctions, competitive offers and different time length bilateral contracts are combined.     

Poised for growth? : Renewable energy crops in the UK

In the past year the UK has witnessed a veritable “dash for (mostly offshore) wind”, with major energy companies and utilities poised to enter the renewables market in a manner and scale not hitherto witnessed. In contrast, despite the grants and funding incentives which have been announced in the UK, reaction and interest in the development of energy crop generation projects has so far been more muted. Can energy crops now begin to emerge as a second major source of new renewable energy for the UK? Roy Collins, Impax Capital reports.     

Solar energy integration into advanced building design for meeting energy demand and environment problem

The dangerous effects of burning fossil fuels on global warming, alternative energy sources will become indeed important in the future. Because of fossil fuels energy sources shall run out by the early 22nd century given the present rate of consumption. Atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases is trapping heat radiated from the Earth's surface, which cause global warming and environmental problems such as greenhouses effect, stratospheric ozone depletion, acid precipitation, and flooding of coastal settlements. This implies that sooner or later humanity will rely heavily on renewable energy sources. Here we have introduced light energy at an idealized large‐scale application to produce solar energy, where exterior skin and roof of buildings shall be at least 25% blackbody‐assisted photovoltaic to capture solar energy during the whole year. Simply, it is a calculative reaction of solar irradiance on innovative building design to capture sunlight most efficiently that would be the cutting edge technology for the ultimate solution of global energy, environment, and climate crisis. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Renewable energy for rural areas of Bolivia

This paper analyses the current status of rural renewable energy in Bolivia and provides and employs an analysis framework to study the network of stakeholders that determines the adoption, absorption and diffusion of renewable energy technology. The study, moreover, illustrates the impact and implications of traditional indigenous knowledge on the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.     

Renewable energy for sustainable urban development: Redefining the concept of energisation

It is widely recognised that access to and supply of modern energy play a key role in poverty alleviation and sustainable development. The emerging concept of energisation seems to capture this idea; however, there is no unified definition at the point of writing. In this paper, the aim is to propose a new and comprehensive definition of the concept of energisation. The chronological development of this concept is investigated by means of a literature review, and a subsequent critique is offered of current definitions and usage of the concept. Building upon these first insights, two planned cases of energisation in post-apartheid South Africa are contrasted to an unplanned one: they are the national electrification programme, the integrated energy centres initiative, and a wood fuelled local economy in Khayelitsha, Cape Town's biggest township. Especially the latter case, based on original data collection by the authors, provides a new understanding of specific elements affecting energisation. Finally, a new and detailed definition of the concept of sustainable energisation is developed by systematically reiterating three key elements: the target group, the concept of energy services, and sustainable development.     

Well-functioning balancing markets: A prerequisite for wind power integration

This article focuses on the design of balancing markets in Europe taking into account an increasing wind power penetration. In several European countries, wind generation is so far not burdened with full balancing responsibility. However, the more wind power penetration, the less bearable for the system not to allocate balancing costs to the responsible parties. Given the variability and limited predictability of wind generation, full balancing exposure is however only feasible conditionally to well-functioning balancing markets. On that account, recommendations ensuring an optimal balancing market design are formulated and their impact on wind generation is assessed. Taking market-based or cost-reflective imbalance prices as the main objective, it is advised that: (1) the imbalance settlement should not contain penalties or power exchange prices, (2) capacity payments should be allocated to imbalanced BRPs via an additive component in the imbalance price and (3) a cap should be imposed on the amount of reserves. Efficient implementation of the proposed market design may require balancing markets being integrated across borders.     

Renewable energy for sustainable development in Africa: a review

Renewable energy usage in Africa has been reviewed using South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Mali as case studies. The various national energy policies of these countries were analysed and areas that require attention to achieve sustainability were highlighted. On the overall, the success of sustainable development in Africa lies in addressing the imminent energy crisis in the continent. Excessive usage of fuel wood is already creating considerable environmental problems especially in the Sahel. Africa has all the potentials to solve its energy problems if appropriate infrastructural support can be provided for harnessing the abundant renewable resources in the continent, and if skills are pooled together and experiences shared in addressing the key issues.     

Renewable generation and demand response integration in micro-grids: development of a new energy management and control system

The aim of this research resides in the development of an energy management and control system to control a micro-grid based on the use of renewable generation and demand resources to introduce the application of demand response concepts to the management of micro-grids in order to effectively integrate the demand side as an operation resource for the grid and improve energy efficiency of the elements. As an additional result, the evaluation of reductions in the total amount of CO₂ emitted into the atmosphere due to the improvement of the energy efficiency of the system is assessed.     

Reshaping markets for the benefit of energy saving

Energy saving is an important option for preventing emission of greenhouse gases. Furthermore, when energy saving is reducing the spatial and temporal density of energy consumption, it supports a rising market share of renewable energy sources. Last but not the least, energy saving plays a role in reducing the vulnerability for import dependency and supply disruptions. Despite these virtues energy saving and energy efficiency, being typically demand side options, appear to be harder to ‘sell’ than the other options which focus on the supply side. The currently prevailing market-based approach in energy policy initially brought setbacks for energy saving. The introductory article and the selected contributions to this special issue intend to show that markets can and should be shaped to the benefit of the uptake and of the potential of energy saving. To this end, all elements of the energy efficiency delivery context should be addressed in energy-saving policies. Learning, measurement and observation are important tools in this reshaping process. All contributions are based on papers of the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy 2003 Summer Study.