The impact of the EU ETS on the sectoral innovation system for power generation technologies – Findings for Germany

This paper provides an overview of early changes in the sectoral innovation system for power generation technologies which have been triggered by the European Emission Trading System (EU ETS). Based on a broad definition of the sector, our research analyses the impact of the EU ETS on the four building blocks ‘knowledge and technologies’, ‘actors and networks’, ‘institutions’, and ‘demand’ by combining two streams of literature, namely systems of innovation and environmental economics. Our analysis for Germany is based on 42 exploratory interviews with experts in the field of the EU ETS, the power sector, and technological innovation. We find that the EU ETS mainly affects the rate and direction of technological change of power generation technologies within the large-scale, coal-based power generation technological regime, to which carbon capture technologies are added as a new technological trajectory. While this impact can be interpreted as the defensive behaviour of incumbents, the observed changes should not be underestimated. We argue that the EU ETS’ impact on corporate CO₂ culture and routines may prepare the ground for the transition to a low-carbon sectoral innovation system for power generation technologies.     

Prospects for Jatropha biofuels in Tanzania: An analysis with Strategic Niche Management

The paper reports on research in Tanzania about the scope for developing biofuels from an oil-seed bearing plant called Jatropha curcas Linnaeus. The plant is widely seen to have potential to help combat the greenhouse effect, help to stop local soil erosion, create additional income for the rural poor, and provide a major source of energy both locally and internationally. The principal analytic tool is Strategic Niche Management (SNM), an approach rooted in evolutionary innovation theory. We analyse how the scope for an energy transition is influenced by factors at three societal levels: the overarching ‘landscape’; the sectoral setting or ‘regime’; and the ‘niche’ level where the innovation develops and diffuses. Valuable niche processes were found in a few areas, especially in cultivation, but we conclude that there are still many obstacles in Tanzania's prevailing energy regime. The development of Jatropha biofuels is still in an early phase. We list policy recommendations and discuss some methodological issues arising from the use of SNM.     

Can ‘negative net CO2 emissions’ from decarbonised biogas-to-electricity contribute to solving Poland’s carbon capture and sequestration dilemmas?

The article analyses to what extent ‘negative net CO₂ emissions’ from decarbonised biogas-to-electricity can contribute to solving Poland’s carbon capture and sequestration dilemmas. From the criteria-based evaluation of low-carbon power technologies it is found, that biogas-to-electricity is among technologies having increasing production potential in Poland. Therefore, in future biogas will be able to contribute to solving Poland’s CCS dilemmas, because it offers carbon-neutral electricity. Moreover, by applying CCS into biogas-to-electricity the ‘negative net CO₂ emissions’ can be achieved. The article examines three biogas-to-electricity technologies involving CO₂ capture, i.e. biogas-to-biomethane, biogas-to-CHP and biogas-to-electricity via the ORFC cycle. It is emphasised that the ORFC cycle offers low-cost CO₂ separation from a CO₂-H₂ mixture, low O₂-intensity, and the opportunities for advanced mass and energy integration of involved processes. Besides, energy conversion calculations show that the ORFC cycle can offer comparable cycle efficiency with air- and oxy-combustion combined cycles. In regard to the design of biogas-based energy systems it is recommended to include (i) distributed production of biogas in order to avoid costs of long-distance transportation of high-moisture content biomass and (ii) centralised large-scale decarbonised biogas-to-electricity power plants since costs of pipeline transportation of gases are low but large-scale plants could benefit from increased energy and CCS efficiencies.     

The optimal biopower capacity in co-firing plants – An empirical analysis

Biomass fuels carry appealing features in replacing traditional fossil fuels, especially coal, in power generation. Due to the bulk, sparse and low-energy density drawbacks of biomass, many studies implicitly indicate small and limited scale in biopower generation. This study contributes to the bioenergy literature by explicitly studying the optimal biopower capacity of biopower co-firing technology in coal-fired power plants, which has practical implications for potential biopower practitioners, investors, and policymakers.This study indicates that the optimal biopower capacity of biomass co-firing in coal-powered plants is intermediate (i.e., 12 MW on average) in order to take advantage of economies of scale without incurring high transportation cost. Regional variations are also found in the aspects of production cost and optimal capacity due to local characteristics. Local biomass availability plays a critical role in shaping biopower's generation cost, optimal capacity and cost changing patterns.     

Consumer attitudes towards domestic solar power systems

The success of the UK policy to reduce carbon emissions is partly dependent on the ability to persuade householders to become more energy efficient, and to encourage installation of domestic solar systems. Solar power is an innovation in the UK but the current policy of stimulating the market with grants is not resulting in widespread adoption. This case study, using householders in central England, investigates householder attitudes towards characteristics of solar systems and identifies some of the barriers to adoption. The study utilises Diffusion of Innovations theory to identify attitudes towards system attributes, and isolates the characteristics that are preventing a pragmatic ‘early majority’ from adopting the technology. A group of ‘early adopters’, and a group of assumed ‘early majority’ adopters of solar power were surveyed and the results show that overall, although the ‘early majority’ demonstrate a positive perception of the environmental characteristics of solar power, its financial, economic and aesthetic characteristics are limiting adoption. Differences exist between the two groups showing support for the concept of a ‘chasm’ between adopter categories after Moore (Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-tech Products to Mainstream Customers, second ed. Harper Perennial, New York). However, if consumers cannot identify the relative advantage of solar power over their current sources of power, which is supplied readily and cheaply through a mains system, it is unlikely that adoption will follow. Recommendations concerning the marketing and development of solar products are identified.     

Comments on “Reduction in carbon dioxide and production of methane by biological reaction in the electronics industry” by Kim et al., International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2013;38:3488–3496

In the comments, energy consumption for H₂ production and CO₂ fixation are balanced to evaluate the validity of a ‘novel’ electrocoagulation defluoridation process, which was addressed to have a potential to simultaneously reduce CO₂ emission and generate energy (CH₄). After the balance calculation, it becomes clear that the proposed process seems unreasonable in energy balance. On the contrary, the process is an energy-intensive system, associated with a net CO₂ emission.     

Techno-economic appraisal of fossil-fuelled power generation systems with carbon dioxide capture and storage

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities coupled to power plants provide a climate change mitigation strategy that potentially permits the continued use of fossil fuels whilst reducing the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. This process involves three basic stages: capture and compression of CO₂ from power stations, transport of CO₂, and storage away from the atmosphere for hundreds to thousands of years. Potential routes for the capture, transport and storage of CO₂ from United Kingdom (UK) power plants are examined. Six indicative options are evaluated, based on ‘Pulverised Coal’, ‘Natural Gas Combined Cycle’, and ‘Integrated (coal) Gasification Combined Cycle’ power stations. Chemical and physical CO₂ absorption capture techniques are employed with realistic transport possibilities to ‘Enhanced Oil Recovery’ sites or depleted gas fields in the North Sea. The selected options are quantitatively assessed against well-established economic and energy-related criteria. Results show that CO₂ capture can reduce emissions by over 90%. However, this will reduce the efficiency of the power plants concerned, incurring energy penalties between 14 and 30% compared to reference plants without capture. Costs of capture, transport and storage are concatenated to show that the whole CCS chain ‘cost of electricity’ (COE) rises by 27-142% depending on the option adopted. This is a significant cost increase, although calculations show that the average ‘cost of CO₂ captured’ is £15/tCO₂ in 2005 prices [the current base year for official UK producer price indices]. If potential governmental carbon penalties were introduced at this level, then the COE would equate to the same as the reference plant, and make CCS a viable option to help mitigate large-scale climate change.     

Getting ready for carbon capture and storage through a ‘CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) Ready Hub’: A case study of Shenzhen city in Guangdong province, China

China has been building approximately 1 GW of new coal-fired power plant per week since 2005. Power plants now in construction may continue to operate until 2040. “CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) Ready” enables and eases the subsequent retrofitting of a plant to be able to capture carbon dioxide later in that plant’s lifetime. Building on the definitions of the IEA GHG (IEA Greenhouse Gas Programme) and GCCSI (Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute), this study suggests a novel concept ‘CCS Ready Hub’ for implementing CCS Ready. A CCS Ready Hub not only includes a number of new coal-fired power plants but also integrates other existing stationary carbon dioxide emissions sources into the planning for potential infrastructure. We conducted a case study of Guangdong province in China with a detailed engineering and economic assessment in Shenzhen City. The study first reviewed the potential storage sites and analysed the existing stationary emissions sources in Guangdong using a GIS (Geographic Information System) approach. Thereafter, we focused on investigating the economic benefits of a ‘CCS Ready Hub’ at a potential 4 GW new USCPC (ultra-supercritical pulverised coal-fired) power plant in Shenzhen. Using the cost of carbon dioxide avoidance in 2020 as a criterion, we found that the concept of a CCS Ready Hub to finance CCS Ready at a regional planning level rather than at an individual plant is preferred since it significantly reduces the overall cost of building an integrated CCS system to reduce carbon emissions in the future.     

What governs the transition to a sustainable hydrogen economy? Articulating the relationship between technologies and political institutions

There is a lack of integrated knowledge on the transition to a sustainable energy system. The paper focuses on the relationship between technologies and institutions in the field of hydrogen from the perspective of political theory. The paper unfolds four paradigms of governance: ‘Governance by policy networking’, Governance by government’, ‘Governance by corporate business’, and ‘Governance by challenge’, and looks into the major line of argument in support of these paradigms and into their possible bias with respect to hydrogen options. Each of these paradigms reveals an institutional bias in that it articulates specific opportunities for collaboration and competition in order to stimulate the transition to a sustainable hydrogen economy. The paper makes the observation that there is a compelling need to reframe fashionable discourse such as the necessary shift from government to governance or from government to market. Instead, specific questions with respect to the impact of guiding policy frameworks on innovation will highlight that neither ‘neutral’ nor ‘optimal’ frameworks for policy making exist, where competing hydrogen options are at stake. The identification of paradigms of governance maybe considered a methodological device for (participator) policy analysis.     

Implementing China’s national energy conservation policies at state-owned electric power generation plants

China’s 11th Five-Year Guideline identified energy conservation as one of the country’s fundamental policies and established a mandatory target: 20% reduction in national average energy intensity by 2010. Despite the various policies, laws, and administrative reforms to support energy conservation, China fell behind schedule for meeting its conservation targets in 2006 and 2007. Using a combination of available literature and an interview-based case study, this paper examines the implementation of energy conservation and investigates impediments to achieving China’s conservation goal in the electric power generation sector. Three key impediments are detailed: (1) municipal governments’ incentives to overlook conservation-related central directives primarily because of budget pressures linked to financial decentralization, (2) procedural obstacles in the form of time required to obtain project approvals for high-efficiency power generation units, and (3) financial obstacles making it difficult for power generation enterprises to raise capital for energy conservation projects. An interview-based case study of a state-owned coal-fired electric power generation company demonstrates the influence of the aforementioned obstacles. While procedural obstacles are notable, they can be managed. However, electricity pricing reforms and/or stronger subsidy programs will be needed to address the financial obstacles facing Chinese power generation companies.     

Management of variable electricity loads in wind – Hydrogen systems: The case of a Spanish wind farm

The main obstacles of most renewable energies are their variability and availability; thus, we propose the ‘hydrogen option’ as a means of energy management, and we study its feasibility in a specific wind farm. The installation will be capable to store electrochemically the surplus energy and return the electricity to the grid during the peak hours. The solution was to connect the system, so that we store the energy as hydrogen when the wind generation exceeds a threshold; this is done by an electrolyzer set, with the appropriate nominal power, where, besides the electrical conversion devices, we have designed a control programme for tuning the voltage and current densities to the optimal operation of the cells. To utilize the hydrogen downstream the storage subsystem, we have selected a fuel-cell and the output is finally converted to the grid requirements.     

The adoption of domestic solar-power systems: Do consumers assess product attributes in a stepwise process?

The adoption of an innovation is partly dependent on the consumers’ perception of the product attributes, starting with the ‘relative advantage’ a product may have over another existing product, and also include issues of compatibility, complexity, observability and trialability. Using diffusion of innovations theory as a conceptual framework, this paper describes a case study that investigated the innovation adoption process that a group of identified potential adopters of domestic solar thermal systems stated they would follow. Data was generated from the results of a postal survey to a group of 43 defined innovators and a group of 350 assumed ‘early majority’, pragmatic consumers. The survey results showed that while the pragmatic customers did follow the process as theorised in diffusion theory, the innovators disregarded the observability attributes of the innovation and went ahead with implementation without having seen the products beforehand. The group of innovators was also split in their opinion that ‘complexity’ may be a limiting factor. There were differences in the pragmatic group between certain demographic sub groups. Conclusions are drawn on how the findings may impact marketing activities.     

Restructuring energy systems for sustainability? Energy transition policy in the Netherlands

Increasingly, researchers and policy makers are confronting the challenge of restructuring energy systems into more sustainable forms. A ‘transition management’ model, and its adoption in the Netherlands, is attracting attention. Starting from the socio-technical multi-level theory that informs ‘transition management’, we analyse the ‘energy transition’ project carried out by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. Despite considerable achievements, their approach risks capture by the incumbent energy regime, thereby undermining original policy ambitions for structural innovation of the energy system. This experience presents generic dilemmas for transitions approaches.     

Blowing against the wind—An exploratory application of actor network theory to the analysis of local controversies and participation processes in wind energy

This paper analyses the deployment of wind power and the related local controversies using actor-network theory (ANT). ANT provides conceptual instruments for a fine-tuned analysis of the contingencies that condition a project’s success or failure by focusing on the micro-decisions that intertwine the material aspects of the technology, the site where it is implemented, the participation process, and the social relations in which they are embedded. By considering controversies as alternative efforts of competing networks of actors to ‘frame’ the reality and enroll others, ANT sheds light on the complex and political nature of planning a wind farm project, insofar as it consist in aligning material and human behaviours into a predictable scenario. ‘Overflows’ occur when actors do not conform to expectations, adopt conflicting positions and develop their own interpretations of the project, thus obliging designers to adapt their frames and change their plans. To demonstrate this framework, we apply it to the case of a wind farm project in the South of France, near Albi. Our analysis suggests a new approach to examining wind power projects in terms of the interaction between globally circulating technologies, unique characteristics of the site, the participation process and the social dynamics that emerge when these are combined.     

Electrolysers for mitigating wind curtailment and producing ‘green’ merchant hydrogen

The implementation electrolysis plant in combination with wind power plant is proposed, to absorb wind generation otherwise curtailed while generating ‘green’ hydrogen for the merchant hydrogen market. The objective are to (i) achieve exceptionally high wind power penetrations in future power systems, and (ii) derive hydrogen for sale in the existing merchant industrial market from surplus (zero cost) renewable electricity. The economic rationale is investigated for an isolated power system as a function wind penetration, wind curtailment target, electrolyser cost, hydrogen system efficiency and hydrogen sales price. The main outputs are the total annualized cost of wind power plant with electrolysis plant, net annual revenues and discounted pay-back periods. Unprecedented low values of pay-back period are attainable, relative to the implementation of wind power plant at low wind penetrations (Φ_W). For example, at Φ_W = 50%, a wind curtailment target of 80% allows the investment to be recovered after 4-7 years, provided the hydrogen system efficiency is ≥50% and the hydrogen sales price is 20-30 $/kg. Making use of some non-curtailed wind electricity to boost the utilization of the electrolyser stock is also investigated as a means for improving the return on investment.     

Explaining the failure of the Dutch innovation system for biomass digestion—A functional analysis

Since the 1970s research on energy conversion technologies, such as biomass digestion, has been carried out in the Netherlands. However, after 30 years biomass digestion has not been implemented on large scale. The aim of this paper is to create insight into the underlying factors of this troublesome trajectory by applying the ‘Functions of Innovation Systems’ framework. This results in clear understanding of the (lack of) activities that took place in the innovation system of biomass digestion and the role of government policy in both inducing and blocking this development. The analysis provides several lessons to take into account when developing policies for the acceleration of the development and diffusion of biomass energy.     

The energy and monetary implications of the ‘24/7’ ‘always on’ society

This paper reviews the trends in society, technology and energy demand of the past 30 years, together with the growth of the ‘on-demand’ culture. The ‘24/7’ or ‘always on’ society can be defined as one where people demand—and generally receive—what they want ‘now’. It has grown up in parallel with developments in information technology, which have produced the services needed to meet that demand. Larger numbers of appliances, resulting from greater affluence and disposable income, have increased energy use, despite energy efficiencies in other areas. While monetary factors suggest that changes brought about by the 24/7 society will generally be self-correcting at the macro-economic level, there will nevertheless be effects for individuals, such as potentially severe impacts on the fuel poor as electricity prices rise.     

Industrial combined heat and power (CHP) planning: Development of a methodology and application in Greece

This paper establishes a methodology for the estimation of the primary energy savings of an industrial (sub)-sector and the primary energy savings of the total energy system due to CHP. A primary energy savings indicator within a (sub)-sector and a total primary energy savings indicator are developed which are related with the actual energy use of a (sub)-sector and the way of disposal of the excess CHP energy produced. The methodology is applied in an industrial sub-sector in Greece according to the ‘power match’ and the ‘thermal match’ CHP sizing scenarios; subsequently results are presented and the developed indicators are fully explained. It was found that the primary energy savings indicator of a sub-sector is determined by the efficiencies of the relevant technologies, and the interrelation of the ‘power to heat’ ratio of the CHP technology used and the ‘power to heat’ ratio of the sub-sector examined; the total primary energy savings indicator is determined by the efficiencies of the relevant technologies and the percentage of the CHP energy exported from the sub-sector. The methodology can be utilized for optimum CHP planning.     

Economic comparison of solar hydrogen generation by means of thermochemical cycles and electrolysis

Hydrogen is acclaimed to be an energy carrier of the future. Currently, it is mainly produced by fossil fuels, which release climate-changing emissions. Thermochemical cycles, represented here by the hybrid-sulfur cycle and a metal oxide based cycle, along with electrolysis of water are the most promising processes for ‘clean’ hydrogen mass production for the future. For this comparison study, both thermochemical cycles are operated by concentrated solar thermal power for multistage water splitting. The electricity required for the electrolysis is produced by a parabolic trough power plant. For each process investment, operating and hydrogen production costs were calculated on a 50 MW_th scale. The goal is to point out the potential of sustainable hydrogen production using solar energy and thermochemical cycles compared to commercial electrolysis. A sensitivity analysis was carried out for three different cost scenarios. As a result, hydrogen production costs ranging from 3.9–5.6 €/kg for the hybrid-sulfur cycle, 3.5–12.8 €/kg for the metal oxide based cycle and 2.1–6.8 €/kg for electrolysis were obtained.