Sustainable Energy Expos 2003

IIR Exhibitions is adding an Asian version of its successful UK event later in 2003. The Sustainable Energy and Efficiency shows will take place in London and Singapore in October and November this year. The first of these events will be the UK show Sustainable Energy Expo 2003 which is being held again at Olympia from 21–23 October. As with last year Energy Efficiency Expo 2003 will run alongside this event. In addition a brand new Environmental Solutions Expo is being held this year.This is a short news story only. Visit www.re-focus.net for the latest renewable energy news.     

Sustainable energy in Baltic States

Integration of New Member States to the European Union has created a new situation in the frame of implementation of the Lisbon strategy and EU Sustainable Development. The closure of Ignalina NPP is the biggest challenge to the energy sector development of the Baltic States. The Baltic States have quite limited own energy resources and in the Accession agreement with the EU Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have verified their targets to increase the share of electricity produced from renewable energy sources (RES-E) by the year 2010. A wider use of renewable energy and increase of energy efficiency can make a valuable contribution to meeting the targets of sustainable development. The article presents a detailed overview of the present policies and measures implemented in the Baltic States, aiming to support the use of RES and the increase of energy efficiency. The review of possibilities to use the EU Structural Funds (SF) for the implementation of sustainable energy projects in the Baltic States was performed.The use of regional social–economic–environmental indicators is the main key to integrate sustainable energy development at the program deployment level. The indicators to be used should describe the contribution of energy programs to the sustainable development, medium- and long-term trends and inter-relationship between them and the typical energy indicators (saved toe, improved energy efficiency, percentage of RES). Municipalities may play a considerable role by promoting sustainable energy since local authorities are fulfilling their functions in the energy sector via a number of roles. The Netherlands’ example shows that municipalities may act as facilitators by implementing national environmental policy and increasing energy efficiency in an integral part of these activities. The guidelines for Lithuanian local sustainable energy development using the SF co-financing have been presented.     

Sustainable energy options for Pakistan

With the advent of the year 2008, Pakistan faces a gap of 4500 MW between the demand and supply of electricity, registering a shortfall of 40%. The article provides an overview of the key dimensions of the crisis, i.e. growing gap between demand and supply, diminishing indigenous oil and gas reserves, rising energy cost and security concerns. It also explores hydropower, solar energy, biomass and wind power as sustainable energy options for the country. In has been found that the total estimated hydropower potential is more than 42 GW out of which only 6.5 GW has been tapped so far. In terms of available solar energy Pakistan is amongst the richest countries in the world, having an annual global irradiance value of 1900–2200 kWh/m². Despite that fact that the biomass plays an important role in the primary energy mix by contributing to 36% of the total supplies, it has not managed to break into the commercial energy market. Wind power, also been identified as a potential source of energy, is yet to take off.     

Sustainable resilience of hydrogen energy system

Resilience is the capacity of complex system to be recovered after a sudden change of the indicator. Energy resilience is the ability of energy system to provide and maintain an acceptable level of service in the face of various challenges to normal operation. Loss of resilience can cause loss of valuable energy system services, and may even lead to rapid transitions or shifts into qualitatively different situations and configurations,     

全球风能技术--2003～2004发展回顾

2003年是全球风能工业的又一蓬勃发展年。去年在Husum Wind 2003会议上最值得称道的新产品之一是单机3MW的Vestas公司的V90机组。这种机型采用了更多代表未来发展方向的高新技术，其塔头的总质量仅104吨。在风能产业发展中最值得关注的事情是2003年12月．NEG Micon被其丹麦的竞争对手Vestals接管，涵盖单机600kW至4．2MW的20余种产品。     

可持续发展的奥地利能源技术

奥地利能源政策的原则是能源的可持续性,战略是发展可再生能源和提高能源效率,目标是高效低成本、供应安全、环境保护和社会和谐。     

Sustainable energy development: performance and prospects

Concerns about sustainability, and the harsh realities of environmental catastrophe, can be traced back at least 4000 years. This paper points out how human pressures on the surrounding environment have had severe consequences over this period, coal burning has had adverse consequences traceable over the past 750 years, and the adverse environmental impacts of using other fossil fuels have aroused attention more recently. Heightened awareness of the need for sustainable development is a modern development, evident in international and national debates since the early 1970s. With the Brundtland Commission report published in 1987 came a framework for sustainable energy development. However, performance under the four elements of that framework have been almost uniformly disappointing. Fossil fuel use has continued to rise; renewable energy use has made insufficient inroads; waste and inefficiency in energy usage continues to be far too high; too many people remain without modern energy services or are exposed to severe pollution in the home and local atmosphere; there are mounting concerns about the conventional oil resource base—and future supplies and prices of oil and natural gas; greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise and evidence of human-induced climate change continues to mount. Indices of national environmental performance suggest no country is performing adequately; population, housing and transportation pressures result in greater pollution, loss of natural habitats, and species reduction; and poor governance is frequently cited as a major cause of poor environmental performance. The prospects for sustainable energy are bleak on current trends.     

Sustainable development of the Belgrade energy system

Cities are the most important energy consumers of any country in all energy vector components. Nowadays, Belgrade as a cultural, educational, scientific, administrative, political, and business center of the region with its own structure of production, transportation, services, and urban system, represents significant consumer of different energy forms. Only useful and final energy is delivered to energy consuming sectors of a city. Simulation model MAED was used in this paper to estimate energy demand in city for a long time period. On the basis of energy demand forecast for three major ‘energy consumers’ (sectors of household/service, industry, and transportation) until 2020, the sustainable development ‘scenarios’ of Belgrade energy system are developed (2005–2010, 2010–2015, 2015–2020). For each ‘scenario’, the energy systems of primary resources are determined so to satisfy the predicted differences in energy consumption for the mentioned time intervals until 2020. In this case different ‘scenarios’ are evaluated. The evaluation of ‘scenarios’ sustainability is obtained by method of multi-criteria analysis. Using energy indices for sustainable development, the following indices are taken into consideration for the assessment of scenario sustainability: economical, social, and environmental. The obtained results can be used by experts in decision-making process.     

Sustainable energy policy indicators: Review and recommendations

Nowadays, the development of a sustainable indicators’ framework towards the sustainable energy policy making should be characterized by clarity and transparency. Even though the energy policy making has been the subject of many researchers, studies proposing an appropriate framework of sustainable indicators that have to be used are not present in the international literature. The purpose of the current paper is to present an integrated review of the methodologies and the related activities of the energy indicators and to recommend an operational framework of appropriate indicators supporting thus the policy makers/analysts/citizens towards a sustainable energy policy making.     

Sustainable development of energy systems for western China

The distribution of energy and industry in China is extremely uneven. The western region is rich in energy resources but relatively economically backward, while the eastern region, particularly, the southeast coastal area, is an industrially-developed area but is short of energy resources. On the basis of such a situation, this paper recommends the sustainable development of energy systems for the western region. The specific innovative energy systems adopted here can convert the western region's fossil fuels to alternative fuels and electricity with higher efficiency, lower investment cost, and less impact upon the environment. As one of such innovative energy systems, the MES (multi-functional energy system) can achieve 10–14% in the energy conservation ratio, 4–8% reduction of investment cost, and a 10–37% decrease of main pollutants. Moreover, its adoption will increase the income and accelerate the development of the energy industry in the western region, as well as meet the energy demand of the eastern region. The analysis in this paper presents a feasible energy road map for the rapid yet sustainable development of China's western region.     

云南太阳能可持续发展对策

一２０年的回顾改革开放２０年来 ,我省的太阳能利用在科研、设计、生产、推广应用及售后服务方面都有了显著的发展 ,形成了新兴的太阳能产业 ,建立了一支太阳能科研、生产、销售队伍和质量监督检验机构。产品不仅在省内国内销售 ,而且进入了国际市场 ,同时带动了我省金属材料、塑料橡胶行业的发展。据不完全统计 ,我省的太阳热水器生产厂家已由２０世纪８０年代初的五六家发展到现在的１５０多家 ,年生产能力达４０多万平方米 ,年销售收入３亿多元 ,成为我国太阳热水器生产、应用大省 ,受到国内外广泛关注。在太阳电池方面 ,我省的云南半导…     

Sustainable energy: A review of gasification technologies

Biomass has been widely recognized as a clean and renewable energy source, with increasing potential to replace conventional fossil fuels in the energy market. The abundance of biomass ranks it as the third energy resource after oil and coal. The reduction of imported forms of energy, and the conservation of the limited supply of fossil fuels, depends upon the utilization of all other available fuel energy sources. Energy conversion systems based on the use of biomass are of particular interest to scientists because of their potential to reduce global CO₂ emissions. With these considerations, gasification methods come to the forefront of biomass-to-energy conversions for a number of reasons. Primarily, gasification is more advantageous because of the conversion of biomass into a combustible gas, making it a more efficient process than other thermochemical processes. Biomass gasification has been studied widely as an efficient and sustainable technology for the generation of heat, production of hydrogen and ethanol, and power generation. Renewable energy can have a significant positive impact for developing countries. In rural areas, particularly in remote locations, transmission and distribution of energy generated from fossil fuels can be difficult and expensive, a challenge that renewable energy can attempt to correct by facilitating economic and social development in communities. This paper aims to take stock of the latest technologies for gasification.     

2003中国太阳能界的盛会

由中国太阳能学会主办,上海交通大学、上海航天局和上海太阳能学会承办,青海新能源研究所协办的“第七次全国代表大会暨2003中国太阳能学会学术年会”于2003年10月10日～12日在上海光大会展中心及上海航天大厦隆重召开。“2003上海可再生能源国际博览会”同时同地举办。这是第一次在上海举办的中国太阳能学会学术年会,第一次公开出版了年会论文集,第一次把年会和可再生能源国际博览会联合举办,第一次邀请到诺贝尔环境奖得主马丁·格林教授到会作学术交流,也是第一次把众多相关的新能源会议合并在一起“打包”进行。因此与会的许多代表交口称…     

Sustainable cities – modelling urban energy supply and demand

A model of urban energy consumption has been developed using energy supply data and post-code information. The model simulates spatial and diurnal variations in energy demand, and also models the effect of energy-management measures and associated reductions in CO₂ emissions. A linear programming optimisation module is used to identify the most cost-effective measures to achieve specified CO₂ or energy reduction-targets. When combined with data from an associated attitudinal survey, the model can be used to assess the potential for CO₂ reduction in the urban environment.     

Sustainable energy system – A case study from Chile

This paper presents some of the results of a power system analysis for Chile. The two major Chilean electric systems are roughly modelled and optimized using a linear programming method with the option to integrate renewable energy sources like wind power, solar power, mini-hydropower and biomass-fired power and also “municipal waste”. A total of four different scenarios are outlined: reference system, new production units, gas and coal price variations and a policy measure to encourage power production based on renewable energy. The objective of the scenarios was to illustrate under what conditions integration of the different energy sources in the existing production system is possible. The study shows that even under current conditions, mini-hydro and waste to energy plants are economically viable. Wind power might be interesting alternatives if policy instrument measures are applied. On the other hand, it is hard for the other energy sources to enter the system even when higher price levels of gas and coal are applied. The system is more sensitive to coal price increases than to gas price increases and this mainly encourages CO₂ emission reduction.     

Sustainable biogas energy in Poland: Prospects and challenges

The article investigates prospects and challenges for expanding of sustainable biogas energy in Poland. The number of Polish biogas fuelled power plants and installed electrical power during the 2001-2010 decade is presented. Current economical incentives for biogas energy are discussed. It is emphasized that some revisions to the Polish tradable certificate system are urgently needed in order to encourage energy crop cultivation and the use of best available power technologies. Further, promising, but mostly unexplored feedstocks, such as energy crops, grasses and sorted municipal organic wastes are analyzed. It is also revealed that agrobiogas is characterized by a unique feature of ‘negative net’ CO₂ atmospheric emissions and thus the role of agrobiogas in solving Polish CCS dilemmas is discussed. In regard to biogas energy systems it is stressed, that the cost of electricity from biogas is almost independent on the size of agrobiogas CHP power plants in the range of 0.2-5 MW_e. Therefore agrobiogas energy is well suited for distributed energy systems involving small-scale agrobiogas power plants offering more green jobs and improved local waste management characteristics. Finally, reliable technologies suitable for biogas energy conversion and upgrading of biogas fuel to marketable gaseous fuels are briefly characterized.     

Sustainable energy policy in Honduras: Diagnosis and challenges

In view of having a still unexploited potential of natural resources available for clean energy and the possibility of using the regional electricity market in Central America, Honduras has several potential energy sources. The growing dependence on oil and the imminent increase in international prices of fossil fuels, coupled with the necessity of changing the energy sector arrangement, the State of Honduras has taken the lead for the development of a long-term sustainable energy policy. This energy policy must be able to develop various energy sources and guide both, the government and the private sector, to the planning and development of alternative energy sources and sustainable growth of the Honduran economy. In this paper, the various energy diagnoses and the potential for changing the Honduran energy mix are presented, as well as the investment required for sustainable management of the energy sector. Furthermore, the objectives of the energy policy and plan up to the year 2030 are presented, outlining the investment possibilities for the energy sector development, showing their costs and timeframes.