Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Research, Development, and Deployment in Meeting Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Goals. The Case of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2007 (S. 2191)

This report identifies the major opportunities for climate change mitigation through industrial energy efficiency and fuel switching in South Africa. The potential for greenhouse gas reduction (outlining areas of possible resultant CDM investment) in local industry, a CO2 mitigation cost curve and accounting of emissions reductions in existing and future industrial plants, will provide the basis for realising these opportunities. Greenhouse gas mitigation in the industrial sector is closely linked with 2 groups: energy efficiency improvements and fuel switching; and these options are outlined in more detail in this report.

Download Full-text

Renewable Energy and EU 2020 Target for Energy Efficiency in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13040965 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 965 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jacek Brożyna ◽

Wadim Strielkowski ◽

Alena Fomina ◽

Natalya Nikitina

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

Energy Efficiency ◽

Renewable Energy ◽

Czech Republic ◽

Energy Consumption ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Energy Policy ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

The Czech Republic ◽

The Eu

Our paper focuses on the renewable energy and EU 2020 target for energy efficiency in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We study the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in these two EU Member States through the prism of the Europe 2020 strategy and the 3 × 20 climate and energy package and economic growth (represented by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that allows to measure the national dynamics and provide cross-country comparisons) without attributing specific attention to issues such as the electrification of transport or heating, and thence leaving them outside the scope of this paper. Both Czech Republic and Slovakia are two post-Communist countries that still face the consequences of economic transformation and struggle with the optimal management of natural resources. Both countries encountered profound system transformation after 1989 that are apparent in all three measures of sustainable development used in our study. We show that it is unlikely that the planned increase in renewable energy in the Czech Republic and Slovakia will reach its targets, but they might succeed in reducing their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Our findings show that the energy intensity of Czech and Slovak economies increased in the early 2000s and then stabilized at a level about twice of the EU average. It appears that this value is likely to remain the same in the forthcoming years. However, implementation of GHG emissions in the Czech Republic and Slovakia may be at risk in case the proper energy policy is not maintained. Moreover, our results show how the increase in the share of renewable energy and improvement in energy efficiency go hand-in-hand with mining and exploiting the energy sources that is notorious for the transition economies. We also demonstrate that a proper energy policy is required for effectively reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. There is a need for commitments made by relevant stakeholders and policymakers targeted at achieving sustainable economic growth and energy efficiency. In addition, we demonstrate that there is a need for maintaining a proper balance between economic development and environmental protection, which is a must for the EU sustainable energy development agenda and all its accompanying targets for all its Member States.

Download Full-text

Electricity generation in a carbon constrained world: the role for gas

The APPEA Journal ◽

10.1071/aj08049 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 49 (2) ◽

pp. 576

Author(s):

Jon Stanford

Keyword(s):

Power Generation ◽

Renewable Energy ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Greenhouse Gas Mitigation ◽

Australian Government ◽

Stated Objective ◽

The World ◽

Year 2000 ◽

Base Load ◽

Load Generation

In March 2009, the Australian government published draft legislation for its proposed emissions trading scheme—the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). The CPRS is the main instrument that will be employed to achieve Australia’s stated objective of greenhouse gas mitigation, together with the new renewable energy target (RET) mandating that 20% of Australia’s electricity will be provided by renewable energy by 2020. The stated objective is to achieve a 5% reduction in emissions from the year 2000–2020. The objective of a 5% reduction in emissions (identified as CPRS-5 in the Treasury modelling undertaken for Garnaut and the Australian Government) is a more modest target than scientific opinion tells us is required to achieve temperature stabilisation at a level around two degrees higher than the average level now. Yet this target has been selected on the assumption that the rest of the world does not take more substantial action. If Australia seeks to achieve more than the rest of the world there will be a negligible impact on global emissions while we will export investments and jobs to less ambitious countries. In any case, a 5% reduction in emissions from 2000 levels will be difficult to achieve in the absence of major technological change being realised before 2020. It represents a reduction from the year 2000’s levels of 25% in per capita terms, and around 25% from projections of emissions under business-as-usual assumptions. Stationary energy, mainly power generation, is responsible for about half of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. Because this is also a sector where low emissions technologies are already available, it is expected that much of the heavy-lifting in regard to greenhouse gas mitigation will have to come from this sector. Much of the new investment in the power generation sector to 2020 will come from renewables so as to meet the RET, which equates to around 45,000 GWh of renewable generation by 2020. But what of base load generation? Apart from geothermal, that has yet to be technically and commercially proven in Australia, renewables are generally ill-suited to base load generation. Base load power in Australia has traditionally been provided by black and brown coal and with its high emissions it is unlikely to be seen as a future option in a carbon-constrained world. Lower emissions options for base load generation include: coal with carbon capture and storage (CCS); geothermal energy; nuclear energy; and, combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT). The first three options are all problematic in Australia, and would not be able to provide significant generation capacity before 2020.

Download Full-text

Smart Solutions for Sustainable Cities—The Re-Coding Experience for Harnessing the Potential of Urban Rooftops

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app10207112 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (20) ◽

pp. 7112

Author(s):

Valeria Todeschi ◽

Guglielmina Mutani ◽

Lucia Baima ◽

Marianna Nigra ◽

Matteo Robiglio

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Renewable Energy ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Geographical Information Systems ◽

Urban Landscape ◽

Geographical Information ◽

Renewable Energy Resources ◽

Gas Emissions ◽

The City

Urban rooftops are a potential source of water, energy, and food that contribute to make cities more resilient and sustainable. The use of smart technologies such as solar panels or cool roofs helps to reach energy and climate targets. This work presents a flexible methodology based on the use of geographical information systems that allow evaluating the potential use of roofs in a densely built-up context, estimating the roof areas that can be renovated or used to produce renewable energy. The methodology was applied to the case study of the city of Turin in Italy, a 3D roof model was designed, some scenarios were investigated, and priorities of interventions were established, taking into account the conditions of the urban landscape. The applicability of smart solutions was conducted as a support to the review of the Building Annex Energy Code of Turin, within the project ‘Re-Coding’, which aimed to update the current building code of the city. In addition, environmental, economic, and social impacts were assessed to identify the more effective energy efficiency measures. In the Turin context, using an insulated green roof, there was energy saving in consumption for heating up to 88 kWh/m2/year and for cooling of 10 kWh/m2/year, with a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 193 tCO2eq/MWh/year and 14 tCO2eq/MWh/year, respectively. This approach could be a significant support in the identification and promotion of energy efficiency solutions to exploit also renewable energy resources with low greenhouse gas emissions.

Download Full-text

Energies and Its Worldwide Research

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13246700 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (24) ◽

pp. 6700

Author(s):

Nuria Novas ◽

Alfredo Alcayde ◽

Isabel Robalo ◽

Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro ◽

Francisco G. Montoya

Keyword(s):

Energy Efficiency ◽

Renewable Energy ◽

Energy Storage ◽

Power Systems ◽

Smart Grids ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Scientific Journal ◽

Electric Energy ◽

Electrical Energy ◽

Energy Research

Energy efficiency and management is certainly one of the key drivers of human progress. Thus, the trends in the energy research are a topic of interest for the scientific community. The aim of this study is to highlight global research trends in this field through the analysis of a scientific journal indexed exclusively in the energy and fuels category. For this purpose, a journal has been selected that is in the center of the category considering its impact factor, which is only indexed in this category and of open access, Energies of the publisher MDPI. Therefore, a bibliometric analysis of all the contents of the journal between 2008 and 2020, 13,740 documents published, has been carried out. Analyzing the articles that are linked to each other by their citations, 14 clusters or research topics have been detected: smart grids; climate change–electric energy community; energy storage; bioenergy sources; prediction algorithms applied to power; optimization of the grid link for renewable energy; wind power; sustainability of power systems; hydrocarbon improvements; conversion of thermal/electrical energy; electric motor advancements; marine renewable energy; hydropower and energy storage; and preventive techniques in power transformers. The main keywords found were electric vehicle, renewable energy, microgrid, smart grid, and energy efficiency. In short, energy research remains necessary to meet the future challenge of sustainable energy with high efficiency and the exploration of new renewable resources, all for increasingly sustainable cities.

Download Full-text