The achievement,significance and future prospect of China's renewable energy initiative

China's high-speed economic growth and ambitious urbanization depend heavily on the massive consumption of fossil fuel. However, the over-dependence on the depleting fossil fuels causes severe environmental problems, making China the largest energy consumer and the biggest CO₂ emitter in the world. Faced with significant challenges in terms of managing its environment and moving forward with the concept of sustainable economic development, the Chinese government plans to move away from fossil fuels and rely on renewables such as hydropower, wind power, solar power, biomass power and nuclear power. In this paper, the current status of China's renewable energy deployment and the ongoing development projects are summarized and discussed. Most recent developments of major renewable energy sources are clearly reviewed. Additionally, the renewable energy development policies including laws and regulations, economic encouragement, technical research and development are also summarized. This study showcases China's achievements in exploiting its abundant domestic renewable energy sources to meet the future energy demand and reducing carbon emissions. To move toward a low carbon society, technological progress and policy improvements are needed for improving grid access (wind), securing nuclear fuel supplies and managing safety protocols (nuclear), integrating supply chains to achieve indigenous manufacture of technologies across supply chains (solar). Beyond that, a preliminary prediction of the development of China's future renewable energy developments, and proposes targeted countermeasures and suggestions are proposed. The proposal involves developing smart-grid system, investing on renewable energy research, improving the feed-in tariff system and clarifying the subsidy system.     

Integrated hydrogen production options based on renewable and nuclear energy sources

Due to varied global challenges, potential energy solutions are needed to reduce environmental impact and improve sustainability. Many of the renewable energy resources are of limited applicability due to their reliability, quality, quantity, and density. Thus, the need remains for additional sustainable and reliable energy sources that are sufficient for large-scale energy supply to complement and/or back up renewable energy sources. Nuclear energy has the potential to contribute a significant share of energy supply with very limited impacts to global climate change. Hydrogen production via thermochemical water decomposition is a potential process for direct utilization of nuclear thermal energy. Nuclear hydrogen and power systems can complement renewable energy sources by enabling them to meet a larger extent of global energy demand by providing energy when the wind does not blow, the sun does not shine, and geothermal and hydropower energies are not available. Thermochemical water splitting with a copper–chlorine (Cu–Cl) cycle could be linked with nuclear and selected renewable energy sources to decompose water into its constituents, oxygen and hydrogen, through intermediate copper and chlorine compounds. In this study, we present an integrated system approach to couple nuclear and renewable energy systems for hydrogen production. In this regard, nuclear and renewable energy systems are reviewed to establish some appropriate integrated system options for hydrogen production by a thermochemical cycle such as Cu–Cl cycle. Several possible applications involving nuclear independent and nuclear assisted renewable hydrogen production are proposed and discussed. Some of the considered options include storage of hydrogen and its conversion to electricity by fuel cells when needed.     

Energy demand and supply,energy policies,and energy security in the Republic of Korea

The Republic of Korea (ROK) has enjoyed rapid economic growth and development over the last 30 years. Rapid increases in energy use—especially petroleum, natural gas, and electricity, and especially in the industrial and transport sectors—have fueled the ROK's economic growth, but with limited fossil fuel resources of its own, the result has been that the ROK is almost entirely dependent on energy imports. The article that follows summarizes the recent trends in the ROK energy sector, including trends in energy demand and supply, and trends in economic, demographic, and other activities that underlie trends in energy use. The ROK has been experiencing drastic changes in its energy system, mainly induced by industrial, supply security, and environmental concerns, and energy policies in the ROK have evolved over the years to address such challenges through measures such as privatization of energy-sector activities, emphases on enhancing energy security through development of energy efficiency, nuclear power, and renewable energy, and a related focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The assembly of a model for evaluating energy futures in the ROK (ROK2010 LEAP) is described, and results of several policy-based scenarios focused on different levels of nuclear energy utilization are described, and their impacts on of energy supply and demand in the ROK through the year 2030 are explored, along with their implications for national energy security and long-term policy plans. Nuclear power continues to hold a crucial position in the ROK's energy policy, but aggressive expansion of nuclear power alone, even if possible given post-Fukushima global concerns, will not be sufficient to attain the ROK's “green economy” and greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals.     

Putting renewables and energy efficiency to work: How many jobs can the clean energy industry generate in the US?

An analytical job creation model for the US power sector from 2009 to 2030 is presented. The model synthesizes data from 15 job studies covering renewable energy (RE), energy efficiency (EE), carbon capture and storage (CCS) and nuclear power. The paper employs a consistent methodology of normalizing job data to average employment per unit energy produced over plant lifetime. Job losses in the coal and natural gas industry are modeled to project net employment impacts. Benefits and drawbacks of the methodology are assessed and the resulting model is used for job projections under various renewable portfolio standards (RPS), EE, and low carbon energy scenarios We find that all non-fossil fuel technologies (renewable energy, EE, low carbon) create more jobs per unit energy than coal and natural gas. Aggressive EE measures combined with a 30% RPS target in 2030 can generate over 4 million full-time-equivalent job-years by 2030 while increasing nuclear power to 25% and CCS to 10% of overall generation in 2030 can yield an additional 500,000 job-years.     

An integrated scenario analysis for future zero‐carbon energy system

An integrated scenario analysis methodology has been proposed for zero‐carbon energy system in perspectives of social‐economy, environment and technology. By using the methodology, service demands in all sectors were estimated based on social‐economic data, and then the best technology and energy mixes were obtained to meet the service demands. The methodology was applied to Japan toward zero‐carbon energy system out to the year of 2100, and three different scenarios of nuclear power development are considered in light of the Fukushima accident: (i) no further introduction of nuclear, (ii) fixed portion and (iii) no limit of nuclear. The results show that, zero‐carbon energy scenario can be attained in the year 2100 when electricity will supply 75% of total energy consumption, and three power generation scenarios were proposed, 30% renewable and 70% gas‐carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Scenario 1, respective one‐third nuclear, renewable and gas‐CCS in Scenario 2, and 60% nuclear power, 20% renewable and 10% gas‐CCS in Scenario 3. Finally, Scenario 2 is rated as the most balanced scenario by putting emphasis on the availability of diversified power source, considering the inter‐comparison of the three scenarios from the four aspects of cost, CO₂ emission, risk and diversity. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analytical model of carbon dioxide emission with energy payback effect

An analytical model is proposed to account for carbon emission behaviour during replacement of power source from fossil fuel to renewable energy in which sustainability of energy supply is stressed. Logistic function of time is assumed for producing renewable power sources. Analyses show that energy payback time (EPT) should be much shorter than the doubling time of manufacturing cycle to secure adequate available energy during, as well as after, the replacement. A nuclear plant, small hydropower plant, wind power plant and photovoltaic cell are taken as representative candidates and investigated as options to replace fossil power until toward the end of this century. Nuclear or small hydropower plants are promising candidates but the photovoltaic cell needs further development efforts to reduce EPT and avoid energy expense after the replacement.     

Renewable and nuclear power: A common future?

Nuclear power and renewable energy are the main options to bring down the carbon intensity of commercial energy supply. What technology is unlimited backstop supply depends on its performance on the sustainability criteria: democratic decided, globally accessible, environmental benign, low risk, affordable.     

Renewislands—Renewable energy solutions for islands

Increase of the global energy demand and environmental problems relating to fossil energy utilization request the new energy sources to replace the traditional fossil fuels. With respect to energy production, most of the islands in European Union and in the other parts of the world, depend on importation, mainly from oil and its related products. The global development of renewable energy technologies can assure sustainable supply of power for islands. To overcome the limitation of the sources of renewable energy, hydrogen is utilized as a storage medium integrated with intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. This paper introduces the programme of “Renewislands—Renewable Energy Solutions for Islands”, the work tasks, details of the design of the activities to develop solutions integrating intermittent renewable energy supply (RES), fuel cell (FC) and hydrogen infrastructure to promote RES and innovative decentralized power systems penetration in islands; main results achieved in each work packages are presented; in addition, the development of intermittent renewable energy penetration in specific European Islands are reviewed briefly.     

Harmonizing nuclear and renewable energy: Case studies

Climate change is one of the grand global challenges facing the world community. With the global warming threat and the attendant public health risks caused by poor air quality and harmful fine particles, the two different energy sources—nuclear and renewables—may have found a common ground and thread to form an alliance to meet these grand global challenges. The latest advent of technologies enables load-follow flexibility of nuclear power, which has mainly provided baseload power, making nuclear energy an ideal partner for renewable energy, leveling the uncertainty and accommodating the unpredictability associated with renewables. The progress in small modular reactor (SMR) technology, which can be deployed to remote areas, can further facilitate the linking of the two energy resources. Some investigators have recently pioneered the ideas to inosculate these two energy resources with the aid of energy storage devices. This paper presents a series of case studies on meeting demand forecasts by coupling nuclear and renewable energy resources for various practical scenarios. The paper also proposes a paradigm shift in thinking in order to eliminate (or minimize to a certain extend) the need for energy storage devices in the combined energy production system by replacing the energy storage devices with some industrial facilities to directly utilize any excess power supplied by renewable energy. As an example, a desalination facility appended to the nuclear-renewable integrated system is shown to absorb surplus power from renewable energy to produce water, thereby satisfying the demand for both power and water in a typical small remote village. Case studies are also performed to extend the concept to include the effect of weather condition and seasonal variation in solar energy conditions. The promising role of disruptive emerging technologies in the nuclear-renewable combined system is also addressed.     

EU renewable energy support policy: Faith or facts?

The recent EU Commission proposal for promoting the supply of power from renewable energy sources was originally based on a pan-European, harmonised tradable green certificate (TGC) scheme. We suggest, on the basis of a multi-disciplinary analysis, that a pan-EU TGC system is not the way forward for Europe. It is vital that the Commission (and the majority of Member States) avoids implementation of such policy designs put forward by a coalition of vested interests. They should instead look at, and act upon, the available evidence from those countries that have experimented with TGCs (e.g. Flanders, UK and Sweden) and design policies that stand a better chance of meeting the criteria of effectiveness, efficiency and equity. In particular, the policies must enable EU to meet the immense innovation/industrialisation challenge by inducing the development of a capital goods industry that can, eventually, diffuse a broad range of technologies that use renewable energy sources. Only then we can acquire an ability to implement an industrial revolution in the energy system in a way that broadly meets the criteria of effectiveness and dynamic efficiency.     

Renewable energy sources in European energy supply and interactions with emission trading

This paper presents a model-based approach, which allows to determine the optimised structure and operation of the EU-15 electricity supply under different political and economic framework conditions, with a focus on the integration of renewable energy sources for electricity generation (RES-E) in the EU-15 countries. The approach is designed to take into account the characteristics of power production from both renewable and conventional sources, including the technological and economic characteristics of existing plants as well as those of future capacity expansion options. Beyond that, fuel supply structures are modelled, as well as the international markets for power and CO₂-certificates with their restrictions. Thus, a profound evaluation of the exploitation of mid-term renewable potentials and an assessment of the market penetration of the various renewable power generation technologies under the (normative) premise of a cost-optimised evolution of the power system becomes possible. Results show that a promotion of renewable energies reduces the scarcity of CO₂-emission allowances and thus lowers marginal costs of CO₂ reduction up to 30% in 2030. Despite the higher overall costs, a diversification of the energy resource base by RES-E use is observed, as primarily natural gas and nuclear fuels are replaced.     

福岛核危机后日本新能源格局的转变及其影响与启示

日本新能源的发展趋势会对全球的能源变革产生巨大作用。从第一次石油危机至今,日本的新能源无论是总量还是在能源结构中所占的份额都有了质的飞跃,这不仅是因为新能源的技术和设备有了长足进步,更重要的是来自日本政府能源政策的支持,但2011年的福岛核危机将彻底改变日本的能源格局。日本政府宣布将中止核电发展计划,可再生能源将成为下一步能源发展战略的核心。然而日本的规模化可再生能源过程也面临着如何弥补核电站退役后的电力缺口、国土面积狭小、电网网架薄弱以及因电价过高导致的巨额补贴费用等诸多困难。与此同时也给日本带来了新的发展机遇,可再生能源将成为日本经济新的增长点。日本核危机使全球核能遭遇低潮期,而可再生能源将迎来新的发展机遇,这有可能催生第三次产业革命。同时也认识到,能源来源的过于单一化使得能源风险加剧,需要建立健全的、快速的能源应急机制,加大国际间能源合作,突破能源技术壁垒。此次日本核危机促使中国反思自身的核电发展策略。中国具有丰富的可再生能源资源,当前应抓住这一发展机遇,加大产品技术含量,切勿盲目扩大生产规模,同时拓展非主流型可再生能源生产设备市场。政府要把握整体布局,避免出现区域性生产"过度"。     

Potential of renewable energy in electrical energy production and sustainable energy development of Turkey: Performance and policies

Generating electricity, from renewable energy sources has become a high priority in the energy policy strategies at a national level as well as on a global scale. Although Turkey has many energy resources only coal and hydropower are significant at present, and as demand had risen, it has been necessary to import fuels to meet the total energy demand. The fossil resources, both indigenous and imported, have become expensive and also have undesirably high emissions. Turkey has an extensive shoreline and mountains and is rich in renewable energy potential. The share of renewables on total electricity generation is 35% while that of thermal power is 65% for the year 2010. Turkey is one of those countries that are considered rich and abundant in renewable energy resources.Turkey is facing serious challenges in satisfying its growing energy demand. To fuel a rapidly growing economy, the country’s electricity consumption is increasing by an average of 8–9% every year, and significant investments are needed in generation, transmission and distribution facilities to balance the power system’s supply and demand. With very limited oil and gas reserves, Turkey is increasingly turning to renewable energy sources as a means to improve its energy security and curb dependence on imported gas from Russia and Iran. This paper investigates the potential of renewable energy resources in Turkey at present and the magnitude of their present and future contributions to the national energy consumption. Energy politics are also considered.     

Multidimensional evaluation of global investments on the renewable energy with the integrated fuzzy decision‐making model under the hesitancy

This study aims to assess global investment alternatives with respect to renewable energy. Within this framework, five different renewable energy types (biomass, hydropower, geothermal, wind, and solar) are determined as investment alternatives. Moreover, eight different criteria are selected by considering the four different dimensions of balanced scorecard. Additionally, the fuzzy‐based decision making trial and the evaluation laboratory under the hesitancy (HF‐DEMATEL) model are taken into the account to weight these dimensions and criteria and the technique for order the preferences by the similarity to the ideal solution with the fuzzy hesitant methodology (HF‐TOPSIS) is considered to select the alternatives of renewable energy investments. The novelties of this study are to propose an integrated model and provide the balanced scorecard–based evaluations of global renewable energy investment alternatives. The findings show that learning and growth and customer are the most important dimensions for the investment on renewable energy. It is also identified that market potential, product customization, and technological development are the most significant criteria for this situation. On the other side, solar and wind energy are the most important renewable investment alternatives. These results explain that technological improvement should be maintained, and customer expectations should be met by the companies. Furthermore, solar power plant and wind power plant should be developed in the countries. For this purpose, governments should give necessary incentives to the investors, such as allocating appropriate lands. These actions can attract the attentions of the potential investors for these renewable energy alternatives. Owing to this issue, it can be possible to increase the capacity of electricity productions in the countries with a potential minimum cost.     

Review of Japan's power generation scenarios in light of the Fukushima nuclear accident

Following on from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, the Japanese government is now in the throes of reviewing its power policy. Under continuing policies of economic revival and greenhouse gas reduction, it is crucial to consider scenarios for the country to realize reliable, low‐carbon, and economic electricity systems in the future. On the other hand, the social acceptance of nuclear power will affect the final political decision significantly. Therefore, in the present study, proposed power generation scenarios in Japan in light of the Fukushima accident were reviewed comprehensively from economic, environmental, technological, resource, security, and social perspectives. The review concludes that in Japan, (i) renewable energy mainly solar and wind needs to be developed as fast as possible subject to various constraints, (ii) more gas power plants will be used to absorb the fluctuations of intermittent renewable energy and supply electricity gap, (iii) nuclear power will be reduced in the future, but a 0% nuclear power scenario by 2030 is unlikely to be a reasonable choice on most measures and (iv) the effective communication with the public is vital important. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Societal penetration of hydrogen into the future energy system: Impacts of policy,technology and carbon targets

Decarbonization of the energy system is a key goal of the Paris Agreements, in order to limit temperature rises to under 2° Celsius. Hydrogen has the potential to play a key role through its versatile production methods, end uses and as a storage medium for renewable energy, engendering the future low-carbon energy system. This research uses a global model cognizant of energy policy, technology learning curves and international carbon reduction targets to optimize the future energy system in terms of cost and carbon emissions to the year 2050. Exploring combinations of four exploratory scenarios incorporating hydrogen city gas blend levels, nuclear restrictions, regional emission reduction obligations and carbon capture and storage deployment timelines, it was identified that hydrogen has the potential to supply approximately two percent of global energy needs by 2050. Irrespective of the quantity of hydrogen produced, the transport sector and passenger fuel cell vehicles are consistently a preferential end use for future hydrogen across regions and modeled scenarios. In addition to the potential contribution of hydrogen, a shift toward renewable energy and a significant role for carbon capture and storage is identified to underpin carbon target achievement by 2050.     

Carbon capture and storage potential in coal-fired plant in Malaysia—A review

Secure, reliable and affordable energy supplies are necessary for sustainable economic growth, but increases in associated carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, and the associated risk of climate change are a cause of major concern. Experts have projected that the CO₂ emissions related to the energy sector will increase 130% by 2050 in the absence of new policies or supply constraints as a result of increased fossil fuel usage. To address this issue will require an energy technology revolution involving greater energy efficiency, increased renewable energies and nuclear power, and the near-decarbonisation of fossil fuel-based power generation. Nonetheless, fossil fuel usage is expected to continue to dominate global energy supply. The only technology available to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from large-scale fossil fuel usage is carbon capture and storage (CCS), an essential part of the portfolio of technologies that is needed to achieve deep global emission reductions. However, CCS technology faces numerous issues and challenges before it can be successfully deployed. With Malaysia has recently pledged a 40% carbon reduction by 2020 in the Copenhagen 2009 Climate Summit, CCS technology is seen as a viable option in order to achieve its target. Thus, this paper studies the potential and feasibility of coal-fired power plant with CCS technology in Malaysia which includes the choices of coal plants and types of capture technologies possible for implementation.     

Filling the gaps: Policy supports and interventions for scaling up renewable energy development in Small Island Developing States

SIDS have both opportunities and challenges – economic, social and environmental vulnerability – for low carbon development. Economically, they are highly dependent on international trade; they have limited domestic markets, too small to provide significant scale economies; their exports are constraint by their isolation and remote location. We provide an overview of current energy situation in SIDS, their goals to adopt low carbon economic development paths, policies already in place or required to achieve the goals and challenges to implement their plans and strategies. The focus is on energy policy landscape that needs to be addressed in order to scale-up renewable energy technologies needed to stimulate low carbon economic growth. We find that SIDS face four key barriers to renewable energy development: information to improve the energy information network by strengthening existing information systems and building awareness of renewable energy; financing mechanisms for renewable energy projects, including regional loan structures and technical assistance to banks; policy supports to implement regulatory frameworks that enable renewable energy development; and building technical capacity among players in the renewable energy field. We recommend “policy enablers” that underlie what could positively impact on renewable energy goals and more broadly energy efficiency and climate change.     

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.     

The role of hydrogen and fuel cells to store renewable energy in the future energy network – potentials and challenges

The penetration of renewable energy sources is expected to rapidly increase from 15% to 50% in 2050 due to their vital contribution to the global energy requirements, sustainability and quality of life in economical, environmental and health aspects. This huge rise highlights the necessity of development of energy storage systems, especially for intermittency renewable energies such as solar photovoltaic and wind turbine, in order to balance the energy network. In this study, renewable energy options including pumped hydro, pressurized air, flywheels, Li ion batteries, hydrogen and super-capacitors are compared based on a specific set of criteria. The criteria considered are energy/power density, ease of integration with the existing energy network, cost effectiveness, durability, efficiency and safety. Our study showed that storing renewable energy sources in the form of hydrogen through the electrolysis process is ranked as the most promising option considering the mentioned criteria. It brings about several benefits suggesting that hydrogen and fuel cells are promising contributors towards a more sustainable future, both in energy demand and environmental sustainability.