Energy service companies (ESCOs) play crucial role in building energy efficiency retrofit sector. However limited access to green financing has prevented ESCOs in their expansions in China. This paper, based on a survey of 469 samples and on-site visiting to and interviewing relevant 50 actors of ESCOs, financial institutions and local housing authorities, identifies main barriers of accessing to green

Recent gas disputes between Russia and Ukraine have renewed interest in the study of energy security in the EU. This paper's main aim is to evaluate developments in gas supply security in the EU-27 Member States in the context of the gas crises of 2006 and 2009. Based on a causal classification of energy risks, two dimensions are proposed for a synthetic indicator – a Weighted Energy Security Index

This study examines the effect of the 2008 global financial crisis on the crude oil market. We use the Hurst exponent, Shannon entropy, and the scaling exponent to characterize the changes in the oil market properties (i.e., efficiency, long-term equilibrium, and collective phenomena) caused by the financial crisis. Although volatility in the oil market remained the same after the crisis, we find that

The improvement of energy efficiency is an essential strategic objective of sustainable energy sector development in the Baltic countries and can significantly facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy. The paper provides findings from comparative analysis of energy intensity trends during the period 2000–2018 in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the context of energy and climate framework of

Energy systems are becoming increasingly complex as developments such as sector coupling and decentral electricity generation increase their interconnectedness. At the same time, energy system models that are implemented to depict and predict energy systems are limited in their complexity due to computational constraints. Thus, a trade-off has to be made between high degrees of detail and model runtimes

The country with the highest nuclear power contribution to its energy matrix is France with 72.28%. The French nuclear history reveals that they trust in reprocessing option since an early stage of the nuclear power plants. Therefore, this work is devoted to studying the two options of a fuel cycle, i.e., Open Fuel Cycle (OFC) and Closed Fuel Cycle (CFC) for this country and the economics of each scenario

This synthesis paper presents the objectives, approach and cross-cutting results of the Latin American Deep Decarbonization Pathways project (DDP-LAC). It synthesizes and compares detailed national and sectoral deep decarbonization pathways (DDPs) to 2050 compatible with the Paris Agreement objectives and domestic development priorities in Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru.

‘The Belt and Road’ is a cooperation strategy between China and the relevant countries. The strategy is involved with 65 countries in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, Southern Europe, and Eastern Africa, etc. It is significant to accelerate sustainable economic development, strengthen technical and cultural exchanges. As a key part of infrastructure, electricity plays an important

The relationship between economic activities such as energy production, trade, and economic growth affects all areas of human life in terms of well-being, as well as a country's economic activities. In this study, we investigate these relationships using cointegration regression methods (FMOLS - fully modified ordinary least square and DOLS - dynamic ordinary least squares), we use the electricity

Energy security is one of the critical priorities of energy policy in the European Union and particularly in the Baltic region that is currently transforming itself from an isolated energy island to a highly interconnected area. In this paper, a comprehensive analysis of energy security in Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania in the context of the energy transition is presented. The paper explores

Load Serving Entities (LSEs) can procure electricity from their owned generation or purchase it on bilateral or organized markets. Electric utility procurement decisions have important implications for rates, resource adequacy, environmental impacts, and LSE cost recovery. However, there is little or no research on trends of utility procurement practices—or the role of wholesale market transactions

We propose a multi-objective bi-level optimization model for analyzing the different investment options (in natural gas pipelines and regasification terminals) within the EU framework under a market perspective, considering the different interest of market participants and the multiple criteria that need to be achieved simultaneously (i.e. market integration, security of supply and competition). The

Despite ample potential energy sources, most developing countries depend highly on fuelwood to meet their energy needs, with repercussions on the environment and human health. Bioenergy innovation is one way to combat this issue, the adoption rate of which remains low in many of them. Using primary data collected from Ethiopian experts in the energy field, this study combines factor analysis with ordered

The construction and operation of large-scale reservoirs changes the flow regimes downstream, and thus has negative impact on the aquatic organisms. As an important indicator species, fish is sensitive to flow regimes, which provide stimulus for physiological activity, such as spawning and immigration. On the other hand, the grid-connected large-scale hydropower stations often carry out multiple functions

Urbanization is a key component for the sustainable development of affordable and efficient electric services in urban and rural area, driving economic growth and electricity consumption. This paper identifies the causal effects of urbanization and metropolitan economic performance on electricity consumption by a dynamic general equilibrium theoretical framework and time series econometric models using

Electrifying transport to meet local pollution and overall net zero carbon ambitions is now a key UK policy focus, but this will have important impacts on the energy system, the economy, and the environment. Understanding the changes that the electrification of transport will bring is crucial for developing sustainable policies for net zero goals and a just transition. A literature is emerging to analyse

Decarbonisation of the global economy is necessary to achieve the climate targets set by the Paris Agreement at COP21. Significant investments are required in low-carbon technologies on the supply and demand side of energy systems; the scale of these may pose challenges to national economies. In this paper, an energy forecast model, a cost-optimisation model and an input-output model are combined to

In this study, meteorological data from sixty-two locations in MENA (the Middle East and North Africa) region have been used to simulate the technical and the economic performances of a 50 MWe CSP (Concentrating Solar Power) power plant with parabolic troughs technology and two-tank storage system. As a first step, and due to the difference of the DNI (Direct Normal Irradiance) values in the different

Environmental regulations can take many forms, from command and control to market-oriented regulations, but their success commonly depends on the active participation of the target. This study surveyed all companies in the Republic of Korea implementing national level emission trading system (ETS) to examine how external conditions and internal perceptions determine companies' response and technology

Nuclear energy utilization became an emerging issue in the global energy security agenda after the Fukushima nuclear accident. Thus, it is crucial to develop a multifaceted measure to assess the performance of security of nuclear energy supply and to aid policy decisions relevant to nuclear energy utilization. For this purpose, quantitative evaluation method for security of nuclear energy supply has

As population and economies continue to grow on a global scale, so too does the demand for energy. To improve reliability and independence of energy supplies, the U.S. and many other countries are seeking internally-sourced renewable energy; solar is one such renewable-energy source that meets these criteria. However, all energy sources exert some environmental impacts. In the case of solar, direct

The Global Calculator (GC) can be used to assess a wide range of climate change mitigation pathways. The GC is an accessible integrated model which calculates the cumulative emissions of a basket of the main greenhouse gases that result from a set of technological and lifestyle choices made at the global level and as defined by the user within a single system dynamics tool. Using the GC, we simulated

The transition of the energy system to a renewable energy source based system requires methods on how to incorporate uncertainty in modeling the energy system. There are different approaches starting from mainly variation based approaches up to including stochastic programming. For this work, a modified version of stochastic dual dynamic programming (SDDP) has been implemented into the open source

Increased biomass for energy production features as a key part of the transition to a competitive low-carbon EU energy system. Not all energy strategies however will lead to reduced emissions, and extensive biomass production inherently compete with, e.g., agricultural systems for key natural resources like water and land. This paper investigates the ramifications of three potential energy pathways

Over the past several decades, sustained economic growth has led to a surge in energy consumption in Northeast Asia, most notably, in China, Japan and South Korea. However, domestic supply has failed to meet the demand in energy, leading to two related outcomes: First, the widening gap between production and consumption has led to dependency on external sources of energy. Second, it has forced the

The anthropogenic impact of conventional energy sources encourages the utilization of renewable energy, as it has become a strategic commodity for economic growth. On the other hand, institutional stability is the pre-requisite without which environmental quality cannot be assured and the economy cannot function. However, in recent literature, very little consideration has been given to this important

Both carbon tax and cap-and-trade systems are widely applied to reduce emission. This article compares the clean innovation effects of carbon tax with cap-and-trade systems by a static optimal model. Firstly, both cap-and-trade system and carbon tax stimulates clean innovation and reduce emission. Secondly, cap-and-trade system is more efficient to reduce emission and to promote clean innovation than

The solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has gained global importance to overcome the global warming and meet future energy needs. The performance of a solar PV plant depends on many factors such as solar irradiance, weather conditions, various types of energy losses and system degradation over time. Although the deterministic models nicely predict the PV performance at a single instant in time, however

Access to modern energy services including electricity is fundamental to fulfilling basic social needs, driving economic growth and fueling human development, hence, the pathway out of poverty to prosperity. This study examined the impact of income level, inequality in the distribution of income and the control of corruption on access to electricity from 1990-2017 in South Africa, using Bayesian and

Reliable and stable power system operation requires flexibility, in addition to capacity adequacy. Traditional system components either have limited flexibility to suppress extensive system variation, or their role is limited due to lack of proper regulatory provisions and inefficient market design. Large-scale integration of renewable energy (RE) resources (e.g., solar, wind) imposes additional variability

The electricity sector in Korea is facing complex sustainability issues with recent government energy policy reprioritizing social and environmental concerns over economics. As a response, we developed a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) model linked to an energy-system model to assess the sustainability of different policy scenarios in the Korean electricity sector. Our analysis shows that, while

We describe a new approach for analyzing the socio-economic impacts of a low carbon transition. It consists in feeding a traditional macroeconomic model of a national economy, namely Belgium, with the results of a participative modelling exercise based on a prospective energy accounting model, the so-called Calculator. While contributing to overcoming important economic modelling barriers, this approach

Renewable energy resource assessment critical input to national development planning. This paper analyses a multi-criteria decision support system to estimate wind energy resources in central Iran. The Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method and site selection criterion for wind resource assessment using ArcGIS are described and developed for the study area. Structural, topographical, and ecological

Cement industry is one of the most energy intensive industrial sub-sectors. It accounts for almost 15% of the total energy consumed by manufacturing. Numerous energy efficiency initiatives and measures have been introduced and employed in this industry. To implement the most appropriate solutions for a certain cement plant, both technological and non-technological constraints need to be considered

In this study, a hybrid stochastic model (BScA model) using Bayesian approach and scenario analysis to forecast long term energy demand is developed. The main objective of this study is to design and develop a model for energy analysis in demand side and describe the energy saving and GHG reduction potential on the other. For this, total energy demand is selected as the response variable and primary

This research explores the feasibility of 100% renewable energy (RE) systems for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region for assumptions of the year 2030. The demand for three sectors are taken into account: power, non-energetic industrial gas and seawater desalination. Three strategical scenarios are discussed, namely Region, Area and Integrated, mainly differing in level of regional grid interconnection

We explore the relationship between economic growth and energy consumption using regional level data for 2004–2014 period. Data on electricity consumption for regional distributional areas cannot be used with the economic data for county/regional level since the borders of regional electricity distributional areas do not correspond to administrative NUTS-3 borders. We use a proprietary dataset of actual

Meeting the European Union's natural gas demand will require increasing volumes of imports in the foreseeable future. Recognizing the need to ensure uninterrupted and secure supplies of natural gas imports at all times, the European Union (EU) has actively sought to diversify its sources of supply, including obtaining natural gas from Azerbaijan through the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). In pursuit of

This paper explores the relationship among resource complementarity, diversification and strategic investment in a power market with two energy sources: water and wind. A review of diversification studies shows that the strategic aspects of investment, which arise from the oligopolistic structure of power markets, are often overlooked. Similarly, studies of strategic investment usually focus on price

The flexible use of energy is seen as a key option to facilitate the integration of volatile renewable energy sources (RES) into the electricity sector. In this study, we focus on flexibility in the service sector, in terms of flexible technologies, experiences and willingness to participate in demand response (DR) actions. We analyse the technically possible future deployment of flexibility, the practically

An energy system transition in the European Union is required to meet the decarbonisation targets determined in the Paris Agreement. To realise this transition, a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050 is required. However, ambitions are being raised towards carbon neutrality. Such transition will likely imply deep changes across all sectors of the EU economies