A Tale of Two Energy Crises: Between a Neoliberal Policy Paradigm and Electro-Capitalism

The present energy crisis is one which is rooted in the contradictions of the neoliberalisation of energy. The UK is one of the pioneers of energy neoliberalisation and has been experimenting with different market arrangements since the 1980s, yet has found itself particularly exposed to the impacts of a global energy price shock. Through an analysis of policy documents, regulatory reports and historical energy policy literature, I identify how privatisation, regulatory experiments and market engineering under a neoliberal policy paradigm helped to create the conditions for the present crisis. Drawing on Hall's conception of policy paradigms, I argue that the neoliberal policy paradigm, for energy, is locked in a cycle of interventions at the second order to manage the contradictions of the third order priority of securing privatised energy markets and maintain legitimacy for the neoliberal energy system. The current energy crisis has led to the government making increasingly extreme second order interventions to stabilise the energy system to secure the interests of electricity capital and fossil capital. The present crisis, however, exposes the limits to a socio-ecological fix (for people, and for capital) within neoliberal hegemony.

The socio-economic consequences of the energy and price crisis caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war for Ukraine, Poland, and EU countries in general are analyzed. The price growth trends for various goods and services in Ukraine and Poland are considered. The cycle of current and potentially possible socio-economic phenomena and processes determined and interconnected with the energy crisis and the growth of inflation in Poland and Ukraine is outlined. There are 13 links in this cycle, each of which is a logical continuation (or consequence) of the previous one. In particular, these are 1 – atypical demand for energy resources; 2 – shortage of energy resources; 3 – a several-fold increase in prices for energy resources; 4 – a significant increase in prices for products and services, the production of which is significantly dependent on energy resources; 5 – a significant increase in the prices of products and services, the production of which is insignificantly or indirectly dependent on the consumption and prices of energy resources; 6 – multiple price increases for all goods and services without exception; 7 – devaluation of the national currency, rising inflation; 8 – pessimistic expectations of people and businesses; 9 – change in the economic behavior of households and enterprises; 10 – significant deterioration of macroeconomic indicators; 11 – transition from inflation to stagflation; 12 – deterioration of economic structure; 13 – a threat to national security and the functioning of the state. The article emphasizes that stages 1-7 of the given cycle are actual, that is they already exist in the socio-economic and financial domains of Poland. Instead, stages 9-13 are potentially possible, if urgent and joint efforts of the state, community, and businesses do not develop and implement organizational, legal, economic, informational, and social measures to prevent the realization of pessimistic expectations and irrational behavior of households and enterprises. Attention is focused on the importance of subjective factors of the emergence and spread of the energy and price crisis. Directions for minimizing or mitigating the consequences of the considered crisis phenomena are proposed.

The energy crisis in Europe has increased the importance of energy alternatives to hydrocarbons. For example, geothermal resources have long been proven to be very efficient heat sources for conventional power cycles. To get the maximum benefit from such a system, it is essential to carefully optimize the system parameters. On the other hand, the topology and nonlinear nature of the system prevent it from being expressed as an analytical function and being differentiable. Thus, derivative-based deterministic optimization methods are difficult to apply. In this study, it is proposed to model a geothermal-based dual-flash combined heat and power system in a process simulator and use it as a black-box function generator to calculate the values of the objective and constraint functions. The system parameters that will provide the maximum combined heat and power efficiency are determined by the Genetic Algorithm. Accordingly, with the optimum system design, the total net turbine power is 132.78 kW. The amount of heat utilized is 15020.10 kW.

International Journal of Therapy and RehabilitationVol. 29, No. 10 EditorialThe energy crisis in Europe 2022: new challenges ahead for rehabilitationMassimiliano PolastriMassimiliano PolastriCorrespondence to: Massimiliano Polastri; E-mail Address: [email protected]Department of Continuity of Care and Integration, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna, Bologna, ItalySearch for more papers by this authorMassimiliano PolastriPublished Online:31 Oct 2022https://doi.org/10.12968/ijtr.2022.0134AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail View article References Chamber. The UK's first hospital to be completely powered by solar energy. 2022. https://tinyurl.com/5n962ws7 (accessed 4 October 2022) Google ScholarEuronews. UK consumers face 80% rise in energy bills from October as regulator raises price cap. 2022. https://tinyurl.com/3srpxu7x (accessed 4 October 2022) Google ScholarEuropean Central Bank. Natural gas dependence and risks to Euro area activity. 2022. https://tinyurl.com/5n7pmr75 (accessed 4 October 2022) Google ScholarEuropean Commission. New solar energy system at Potenza's San Carlo hospital. 2017. https://tinyurl.com/jmwxd9tw (accessed 4 October 2022) Google ScholarEurostat. Natural gas price statistics. 2022a. https://tinyurl.com/2f849ja4 (accessed 4 October 2022) Google ScholarEurostat. Electricity price statistics. 2022b. https://tinyurl.com/2md5ksv5 (accessed 4 October 2022) Google ScholarNHS England. Solar power sparks an electrical future for Milton Keynes University Hospital. 2021. https://tinyurl.com/mr32mead (accessed 4 October 2022) Google ScholarÖnal G, Güney G, Gün F, Huri M. Telehealth in paediatric occupational therapy: a scoping review. Int J Ther Rehabil. 2021;28(7):1–16. https://doi.org/10.12968/ijtr.2020.0070 Link, Google ScholarPanda S, Bali S, Kirubakaran B, Hagenberg A. Telerehabilitation and total knee arthroplasty: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Int J Ther Rehabil. 2015;22(Suppl 8):S6. https://doi.org/10.12968/ijtr.2015.22.Sup8.S6 Link, Google ScholarPolastri M. Telerehabilitation in patients with COVID-19. Int J Ther Rehabil. 2022;29(5):1–3. https://doi.org/10.12968/ijtr.2022.0065 Google ScholarSkalamera M. The Ukraine crisis: the neglected gas factor. Orbis. 2015;59(3):398–410. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orbis.2015.05.002 Crossref, Google ScholarTrading Economics. EU natural gas. 2022. https://tinyurl.com/584rj6j (accessed 4 October 2022) Google ScholarWorld Health Organization. Joint statement: working together towards COVID-19 and seasonal influenza vaccinations for this winter. https://tinyurl.com/4ezajy6u (accessed 24 October 2022) Google Scholar FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byThe ongoing energy crisis and the provision of electrophysical therapiesMassimiliano Polastri, Maurizio Borsari, Luca Macrelli25 January 2023 | International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, Vol. 30, No. 1 2 October 2022Volume 29Issue 10ISSN (online): 1759-779X Metrics History Published online 31 October 2022 Published in print 2 October 2022 Information© MA Healthcare LimitedPDF download

The onset of the 2022 energy crisis, the impact of which is felt by the whole world, and especially Europe, has radically changed the existing mechanisms of the European Union energy policy. It is therefore necessary to assess energy policy’s new directions and implementation measures. After providing a summary of the key reasons for the energy crisis in Europe, the article assessed the new measures and mechanisms, as well as the reasons for their adoption by the European Commission. The article revealed the influence of the actions taken on the state of the energy sector of the European Union, as well as their role in the emergence of disagreements between Brussels and EU member states. Ultimately, it was concluded that the European Union’s response to the energy crisis is insufficient. While there are prerequisites for a continuation of the crisis in 2023, the European Union is primarily pursuing geopolitical goals without addressing the underlying causes of price increases. There is the prospect of increasing pressure on the Commission to intervene more in the electricity market and more effectively support business and households.

One of the important features of low-carbon electric power system is the massive deployment of renewable energy resources in the advent of a new carbon-strained economy. Wind generation is a major technology of generating electric power with zero carbon dioxide emission. In a power system with the high penetration of wind generation, the displacement of conventional synchronous generators with variable speed wind turbines reduces system inertia. This leads to larger system frequency deviation following a loss of large generation. In this paper, the impact of the reduction of system inertia on system frequency is analyzed as the result of the integration of a significant amount of wind generation into power systems. Furthermore, we present a preliminary study of the impact of the distribution of the inertia contributions from those online conventional synchronous generators on the rate of change of frequency (ROCOF) based on the total energy injected into the system due to the fault. The total fault energy is represented using Hamiltonian formulism. With the IEEE 39-bus system, it is shown that for a fault with the given injected total energy, clearing time, and location, the distribution of inertia contributions can significantly affect the magnitude of ROCOF. Moreover, for such a fault with different locations, the average of the magnitudes of ROCOF caused by the fault at different locations is larger when the distribution of the inertia contributions is more dispersed.

To address the increasingly urgent issues of global energy security and environmental degradation, General Secretary Xi Jinping has proposed the "dual carbon" goal and the construction of a new power system dominated by new energy sources. It is one of the important ways to promote low carbon energy transition and achieve "dual carbon" goal to construct the demand response market transaction mode of load aggregator under new power system. Therefore, this paper puts forward a dispatching method for load aggregators to participate in the demand response market under the low-carbon power system, and gives some policy suggestions for load aggregators to participate in the demand response market under the low-carbon power system. Firstly, in the framework of the low-carbon power system, the definition of load aggregator is given, and the market function, technical function, voltage level limit, load response capacity requirement, grid access specification and technical standard of grid safety are analyzed. Second, research the load aggregators to participate in demand response market framework, combined with the new peak power system design cut demand response scenario, with the lowest cost of power grid operation, peak sharpening effect is best, at the same time meet the target of minimum carbon emissions, establish the low-carbon power system under load aggregators in optimal operation model of response to market demand; Finally, taking the receiving end system of China's low-carbon power as an example, the numerical simulation and analysis are carried out to prove the scientific nature of the optimal dispatching method of the load aggregator participating in the demand response market under the low-carbon power.

Pandemics, political instability, social conflict and unrest, the economic crisis resulting from changes in energy supply contracts, terrorism, and civil and international wars exert a negative impact on the lives of millions of people. These events undermine economic and social stability, and they affect travel behaviour (TB). Understanding preferences in travel behaviour is essential for designing effective and sustainable transport systems. Agenda 2030 (the global sustainable development strategy) assigns a central role to mobility and transport in sustainable development and its components: economic, social, and environmental. Relevant research is scarce, which is why potential threats, including changes in socioeconomic factors that affect TB in functional urban areas (FUAs), should be identified and prioritised. The main aim of this study was to determine changes in the prioritisation of threats to TB resulting from the socioeconomic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the energy crisis in Europe. The study involved an analysis of the literature, a comprehensive classification of potential threats that could impact TB, as well as an expert survey. The results of these analyses were used to develop a list of 46 factors that were grouped into six categories of key threats: social, economic, legal, infrastructural, technological/SMART, and environmental. The level of significance, similarities, and differences in the prioritisation of threats during the COVID-19 pandemic and the energy crisis after the outbreak of the military conflict in Ukraine (duration and range) were compared across 22 European countries.

The energy crisis in Europe, triggered by growing demand for fossil fuels and exacerbated by recent health emergencies and geopolitical tensions, is putting additional pressure on an environmental context already made fragile by the increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events caused by climate change. These events have significant consequences on both natural and anthropogenic systems. In addition, the exponential increase in population, concentrated mainly in urban areas, amplifies dependence on external primary resources. In fact, contemporary settlement patterns, combined with lifestyles characterized by high consumption of resources such as food, water, and energy, accentuate socioeconomic and/or environmental impacts resulting from climate change.Interrelated and overlapped crisis conditions represent a new field of investigation for the experimentation of approaches, strategies, and technical solutions in response not only to climate adaptation and mitigation objectives but also to the satisfaction of needs, expression of emergent habitat complex conditions.In this context, the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) nexus approach emerges as a key response to understanding and managing the interconnectedness of resources, external drivers of climatic, geopolitical, demographic, and/or socioeconomic nature, and the impacts on affected communities. This integrated system approach emphasizes how the three dimensions - food, energy, and water - are closely interdependent and mutually affect each other. The nexus approach aims to consider these resources synergistically, recognizing that decisions and actions developed for one of the considered topics, can significantly impact the others.  Addressing challenges in these three dimensions in a coordinated way can help reduce environmental impacts and promote more efficient and sustainable use of global resources.The FEW nexus integrated approach examines the complex dynamics associated with the development of innovative strategies and technologies. This approach allows to realize an assessment of alternatives of technological solutions and build a coherent set of indexes to make a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of performances and benefits of integrated food and energy production systems at different scales.Among complex systems, Agrivoltaic systems represent a challenging case study to test the FEW nexus integrated approach, being integrated systems capable of dual exploitation of the soil both as a productive green area for food cultivation and energy generation from renewable sources. Such systems, both in open spaces and combined in the built environment, emerge as potential examples of convergent innovation and represent a model of integration between innovative technologies and sustainable strategies, addressing complex contemporary issues in a systemic way.The goal is to promote self-production and resource management in the urban context, preserving ecosystem services and generating co-benefits that can have widespread positive spillovers in terms of environmental and social benefits and economic opportunities.The implementation of integrated systems and the application of systems approaches such as the FEW nexus form the basis for pursuing sustainable and resilient solutions for urban systems in response to the pressing challenges imposed by the climate and energy crises and the resource scarcity they entail.

Today, against the backdrop of European sanctions against Russia, the idea of abandoning Russian energy resources is being actively promoted. The EU is focusing on substituting imports from Russia with imports from other countries and green energy. At the same time, there is exceptional volatility in the energy markets, we can talk about an energy crisis. The price that the EU pays for the rejection of Russian energy is extremely high, moreover, the crisis observed today in the European energy market is primarily associated with the rejection of cheap Russian energy. The article proves that the current situation is a crisis for the EU, it is linked to anti-Russian sanctions. The author proved that with a planning horizon of less than 10 years, the EU will not be able to fully abandon Russian energy sources, and green energy will not be able to replace oil and gas from the Russian Federation. Separately, the question of how green energy can be compared with traditional energy sources is investigated and it is proved that the latter can exist without green energy sources, while the former needs duplication.

The energy crisis in Europe in 2022 and its consequences have brought changes to approaches towards the issue of energy security, energy policy, and the ability to react to crisis phenomena in the energy market in a short period of time. European countries that are dependent on Russian fossil fuels have faced numerous dilemmas and challenges in 2022. This paper aims to analyse the instruments and energy policies introduced as the reactions of European countries, specifically with the examples of Poland and Germany, to the ongoing fossil fuel crisis in the context of a short period. Due to the specificity of the energy market, the countries’ energy policies mainly concern long- and medium-term goals. In 2022, there was an unprecedented situation in which many European countries had to make significant changes to their fossil fuel imports quickly. We analyse and evaluate how two European countries that are heavily reliant on imported energy resources responded in a short time to the necessity of modifying their patterns of fossil fuel supply and demand. The results of our research are models that illustrate both countries’ reactions to the disturbances in the energy market during the initial months of the energy crisis. As part of the research, we conducted an analysis of the energy mix of Poland and Germany, their import energy dependency, and self-sufficiency. We then compared them with the short-term energy policies of both countries. As a result, we elaborate on a comparative analysis of the models of Poland’s and Germany’s responses to the crisis. The research also assesses the similarities and differences in the response models in Poland’s and Germany’s short-term energy security policies. The results of our research may help, in the future, to choose the available short-term instruments in the energy policy of countries in the face of a sudden need resulting from disruptions in supply chains. The article contributes to the future discussion on renewed national and regional energy security, as well as efficiency concepts. Our research findings could be valuable in selecting appropriate short-term energy policy tools for countries during supply chain disruptions. This article provides significant input for future deliberations on enhancing national and regional energy security, and also efficiency strategies.

This chapter analyzes the energy crisis in Europe, which has been an emerging problem in recent years. Though it has been making efforts to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, especially on Russia, it has not been able to achieve much success. A primary reason for this is that energy demand has increased while investments in renewable resources and other forms of alternative energy have not kept pace. This chapter implies a qualitative approach to explaining empirical data of the EU's policy on energy security. The study also focuses on to what extent the EU maintains energy issues during this crisis. What is the relationship between the EU and Russia during the war on energy issues? This research also answers the following question: What are the EU measures on the energy crisis in Europe?

Ammonia and methanol are essential to modern societies, but their production has been heavily reliant on natural gas, which contributes to supply disruptions and significant CO2 emissions. While low-carbon or green production routes have been extensively researched, their adoption has been hindered by higher costs, making them unsustainable. However, a recent energy crisis in Europe has created a unique opportunity to shift towards greener production technologies. Here we show that, green ammonia, produced through wind-powered water electrolysis, had the potential to outperform its fossil counterpart for six months as of December 2021, while methanol produced through CO2 capture and wind-based water electrolysis became an economically appealing alternative. With a coordinated effort from academia, industry, and policymakers, Europe can lead the grand transition towards more sustainable practices in the chemical industry.

The chapter analyses and evaluates the ascent of a neo-liberal and neo-conservative higher education policy, global university rankings, internationalization, quality assurance, entrepreneurial and competition for international students among universities, both locally and globally. Higher education policy reforms reflect aspects of a dominant ideology of neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism. Neo-liberal policies are largely based on dominant market-oriented ideologies, rather than democratic policy reforms. The commodification of higher education, with its focus on vocationalism and labour market prospects for highly skilled and competent graduates, is a vivid outcome of market-driven economic imperatives of neo-liberal ideology. The chapter analyses the shifts in methodological approaches to globalisation, and neo-liberalism, and their impact on education policy. The chapter critiques globalisation, policy and education reform and suggests the emergence of new economic and political dimensions of neo-liberalism as cultural imperialism. Such hegemonic shifts in ideology and policy are likely to have significant economic and cultural implications for national education systems, reforms and policy implementations.KeywordsAcademic achievementAuthentic democracyBusiness-oriented model of educationCompetitive market forcesCritical discourse analysisCultural imperialismDiscourses of globalisationEconomic inequalityEducation reformsGlobal citizenshipGlobal university rankingGlobalisationGlobal university rankings,governanceHigher education policyHuman capitalHuman rights educationIdeologyIntercultural understandingInternationalizationMacro-social perspectiveMarketisationNeo-conservatismNeo-liberal higher education policyNeo-liberal ideologyParadigmsPerformance indicatorsProgressive pedagogyQuality education for allSocial inequalitySocial stratificationSocial justiceSocial stratificationTransformative pedagogy

The paper examines the relationship between neoliberal policies and the Great Recession with a focus on the persistence of the policy paradigm in spite of overwhelming evidence of its role in creating the crisis. These economic problems are only the latest that have arisen in the wake of the three long decade experiment with these policy packages. The paper investigates the ideological, methodological, historical, theoretical, political and economic interests underlying the perpetuation of neoliberalism.