scholarly journals Policy and market drivers for advancing clean energy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Dahlke ◽  
John Sterling ◽  
Colin Meehan

This chapter reviews important policies and market trends shaping the global development of clean energy technologies. Stimulus policies in the form of feed-in tariffs, tax relief, and renewable portfolio standards along with substantial research & development enabled clean energy projects to overcome early commercialization barriers. As a result, clean energy project costs are now competitive with or lower than conventional fossil fuels in most markets around the world. Policymakers and energy consumers are responding by increasing clean energy targets to high levels approaching 100% in a growing number of jurisdictions. Business models are adapting to this new environment and energy market structures are evolving to enable successful operations of high renewable energy systems. Markets structures, policies, and technologies that enhance system flexibility for efficient renewable energy integration represent the most promising future area of research in this field.

2015 ◽  
Vol 77 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Baluch ◽  
S. Mohtar ◽  
A. S. Ariffin

The climate change, the global warming, the population growth and the continuous demand on energy and electricity in specific made renewable energy one of the most appropriate and fitting to answer all these changes of our environment. However, the vested interested groups belonging to the fossil fuel cartel continue working tirelessly to discourage the use of renewable energy and renewable energy solutions in the world. Despite the recusant efforts of the Oil Cartel, renewable energy use has grown much faster than anyone anticipated. This paper: defines green and renewable energy; highlights its benefits; and illustrates that clean energy technologies are prepared for accelerated and widespread expansion in the global power sector. The paper critically examines the recusant efforts of the Oil Cartel undermining green renewable energy sector by bankrolling the production of unconventional oil and gas; and demonstrates that over-reliance on fossil fuels for power generation has significant health, environmental, and economic risks and is not a long-term solution to our energy needs. The paper concludes that a global transition to renewable energy is already underway. Renewable Energy offers an alternative to conventional sources and grants us greater control over future energy prices and supply. The energy choices we make during this pivotal moment will have huge consequences for our health, our climate, and our economy for decades to come.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-27
Author(s):  
Maximilian Bonnici ◽  
◽  
Henry Greene ◽  
Isabelle Bonnici ◽  
◽  
...  

Clean energy may offer a more environmentally friendly outcome than fossil fuels. However, clean energy is beset by uncertainties when the sun does not shine through and the wind does not blow. Worse still, science has not yet overcome scalability issues that are compounded by lack of technological knowhow on how to store solar and wind energy. The electrical “green-outs” of August 2020 in California are a reminder that without storage facilities for clean energy, utilities are driven to spot markets for electricity rendered from traditional sources of energy as economic setbacks occur due to compromised supplies of electricity. Without means of energy storage, new technology cannot fully replace the old. One can only hope that the dream to build a future based on renewable energy will lead to discoveries that will overcome scalability and storage issues.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phuoc Quy Phong Nguyen ◽  
Van Huong Dong

The world is constantly seeking new sources of energy to replace the use of coal and fossil fuels to generate electricity. And a strong source of energy from the ocean is one of the hopes of scientists around the world. Ocean energy is an endless renewable energy source for making electricity used for the world. Marine technology was once considered too expensive to be a viable source of alternative clean energy, especially compared to already developed products such as wind and solar. However, with the increased price of oil and the issues of global warming and national security, U.S. coastal sites are looking to add ocean energy to their renewable energy portfolios. This paper gives an overview of ocean energy technologies, focusing on two different types: wave, tidal. It outlines the operating principles, the status, and the efficiency and cost of generating energy associated with each technology.


Author(s):  
Chiara Candelise

Crowdfunding in energy begins as a response to reduced investments (both governmental and private) into the transition to decarbonized energy systems and to the spread of innovative business models and approaches conductive of greater participation of citizens and communities in distributed renewable energy projects. This chapter presents results of a worldwide overview of the use of crowdfunding in the energy industry. Evidence gathered from available energy crowdfunding platforms highlight a very new, but quite dynamic sector. The crowdfunding tool has been applied in most of its forms, ranging from peer-to-business lending to pure donation, with strong environmental and social mission and the explicit aim of increasing participation of citizens in sustainable energy investment. Evidence also shows that, despite maintaining their environmental and clean energy focus, some energy platforms have begun to move from niche, grass root initiatives into larger projects and collaboration with energy private sector and institutional finance.


2017 ◽  
pp. 1680-1701
Author(s):  
Chiara Candelise

Crowdfunding in energy begins as a response to reduced investments (both governmental and private) into the transition to decarbonized energy systems and to the spread of innovative business models and approaches conductive of greater participation of citizens and communities in distributed renewable energy projects. This chapter presents results of a worldwide overview of the use of crowdfunding in the energy industry. Evidence gathered from available energy crowdfunding platforms highlight a very new, but quite dynamic sector. The crowdfunding tool has been applied in most of its forms, ranging from peer-to-business lending to pure donation, with strong environmental and social mission and the explicit aim of increasing participation of citizens in sustainable energy investment. Evidence also shows that, despite maintaining their environmental and clean energy focus, some energy platforms have begun to move from niche, grass root initiatives into larger projects and collaboration with energy private sector and institutional finance.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
ShuoYan Chou ◽  
Truong ThiThuy Duong ◽  
Nguyen Xuan Thao

Energy plays a central part in economic development, yet alongside fossil fuels bring vast environmental impact. In recent years, renewable energy has gradually become a viable source for clean energy to alleviate and decouple with a negative connotation. Different types of renewable energy are not without trade-offs beyond costs and performance. Multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) has become one of the most prominent tools in making decisions with multiple conflicting criteria existing in many complex real-world problems. Information obtained for decision making may be ambiguous or uncertain. Neutrosophic is an extension of fuzzy set types with three membership functions: truth membership function, falsity membership function and indeterminacy membership function. It is a useful tool when dealing with uncertainty issues. Entropy measures the uncertainty of information under neutrosophic circumstances which can be used to identify the weights of criteria in MCDM model. Meanwhile, the dissimilarity measure is useful in dealing with the ranking of alternatives in term of distance. This article proposes to build a new entropy and dissimilarity measure as well as to construct a novel MCDM model based on them to improve the inclusiveness of the perspectives for decision making. In this paper, we also give out a case study of using this model through the process of a renewable energy selection scenario in Taiwan performed and assessed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 92 (8) ◽  
pp. 1305-1320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yulia H. Budnikova ◽  
Vera V. Khrizanforova

AbstractNowadays, hydrogen has become not only an extremely important chemical product but also a promising clean energy carrier for replacing fossil fuels. Production of molecular H2 through electrochemical hydrogen evolution reactions is crucial for the development of clean-energy technologies. The development of economically viable and efficient H2 production/oxidation catalysts is a key step in the creation of H2-based renewable energy infrastructure. Intrinsic limitations of both natural enzymes and synthetic materials have led researchers to explore enzyme-induced catalysts to realize a high current density at a low overpotential. In recent times, highly active widespread numerous electrocatalysts, both homogeneous or heterogeneous (immobilized on the electrode), such as transition metal complexes, heteroatom- or metal-doped nanocarbons, metal-organic frameworks, and other metal derivatives (calix [4] resorcinols, pectates, etc.), which are, to one extent or another, structural or functional analogs of hydrogenases, have been extensively studied as alternatives for Pt-based catalysts, demonstrating prospects for the development of a “hydrogen economy”. This mini-review generalizes some achievements in the field of development of new electrocatalysts for H2 production/oxidation and their application for fuel cells, mainly focuses on the consideration of the catalytic activity of M[P2N2]22+ (M = Ni, Fe) complexes and other nickel structures which have been recently obtained.


Author(s):  
Ifeoluwa Garba ◽  
Richard Bellingham

Access to energy is crucial in tackling many of the current global development challenges that impact on people’s economic, health and social well-being as well as the ability to meet the commitments of reducing carbon emissions through clean energy use. Despite increased attention from multiple governments and agencies, energy poverty remains a serious sustainable development issue in many developing countries. To date, most research have focused on general access to electricity and the generation of clean energy to replace fossil fuels, failing to address the lack of basic access to clean energy for cooking and heating. More people in the world lack access to clean cooking fuels than to electricity. This issue is one aspect of a broader research which investigates the impacts of optimized energy policy and energy business models on sustainable development in developing countries.


Author(s):  
Kathleen Araújo

The discovery of oil in Pennsylvania in 1859 was a relatively inconspicuous precursor to what would become an epic shift into the modern age of energy. At the time, the search for “rock oil” was driven by a perception that lighting fuel was running out. Advances in petrochemical refining and internal combustion engines had yet to occur, and oil was more expensive than coal. In less than 100 years, oil gained worldwide prominence as an energy source and traded commodity. Along similar lines, electricity in the early 1900s powered less than 10% of the homes in the United States. Yet, in under a half a century, billions of homes around the world were equipped to utilize the refined form of energy. Estimates indicate that roughly 85% of the world’s population had access to electricity in 2014 (World Bank, n.d.b). For both petroleum and electricity, significant changes in energy use and associated technologies were closely linked to evolutions in infrastructure, institutions, investment, and practices. Today, countless decision-makers are focusing on transforming energy systems from fossil fuels to low carbon energy which is widely deemed to be a cleaner, more sustainable form of energy. As of 2016, 176 countries have renewable energy targets in place, compared to 43 in 2005 (Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century [REN21], 2017). Many jurisdictions are also setting increasingly ambitious targets for 100% renewable energy or electricity (Bloomberg New Energy Finance [BNEF], 2016). In 2015, the G7 and G20 committed to accelerate the provision of access to renewables and efficiency (REN21, 2016). In conjunction with all of the above priorities, clean energy investment surged in 2015 to a new record of $329 billion, despite low, fossil fuel prices. A significant “decoupling” of economic and carbon dioxide (CO2) growth was also evident, due in part to China’s increased use of renewable energy and efforts by member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to foster greater use of renewables and efficiency (REN21, 2016).


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiangwu Yan ◽  
Weichao Zhang

Due to the irreversible energy substitution from fossil fuels to clean energy, the development trend of future power systems is based on renewable energy generation. However, due to the incompatibility of converter-based non-dispatchable renewable energy generation, the stability and reliability of traditional power systems deteriorate as more renewables are introduced. Since conventional power systems are dominated by synchronous machines (SM), it is natural to utilize a virtual synchronous generator (VSG) control strategy that intimates SM characteristics on integrated converters. The VSG algorithm developed in this paper originates from mimicking mathematic models of synchronous machines. Among the different models of implementation, the second-order model is simple, stable, and compatible with the control schemes of current converters in traditional power systems. The VSG control strategy is thoroughly researched and case studied for various converter-interfaced systems that include renewable generation, energy storage, electric vehicles (EV), and other energy demands. VSG-based integration converters can provide grid services such as spinning reserves and inertia emulation to the upper grids of centralized plants, distributed generation networks, and microgrids. Thus, the VSG control strategy has paved a feasible way for an evolutionary transition to a power electronics-based future power grid. By referring to the knowledge of traditional grids, a hierarchical system of operations can be established. Finally, generation and loads can be united in universal compatibility architecture under consolidated synchronous mechanisms.


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