Assessing the impact of energy storage in Greece in achieving energy and climate targets, using LEAP-NEMO energy model

Canadian renewable energy prospects

Public preferences and the economic value of forests affected by fires in Mexico City

Justice in solar energy development

As decarbonization and climate policy are gaining relevance in the European Union (EU) energy policy, the present paper seeks to present both priorities and challenges for of the EU energy transition. As priorities, we outline the key targets and initiatives proposed and set by the European institutions in relation to the energy matters. The EU identifies renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and reduction of the greenhouse gas (GHG) as the three pillars to achieve its carbon neutrality. The final goal for to the EU energy and climate targets is to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Nevertheless, since given energy policy is being a “shared competence” between the EU institutions and Member States, each Member State plays a critical role for the achievement of the EU energy transition. Different socioeconomic structures and the energy mix across Europe have caused the implementation process of each EU target to develop at a different pace among European countries. We illustrate this drawing on four countries: Italy, the UK, Germany and Poland. We assess their political commitment to the energy transition and their actions regarding energy transformation. These four countries are only an example of the different pace in the implementation of the EU energy and climate targets. The last part of the paper is devoted to the ambitious plan, called Green New Deal, launched by the present Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen. It sets key priorities, reaffirming European commitments to the energy and climate transition. However, the plan faces significant obstacles. For example, division among Member States (North-South and West-East) might be a factor that could undermine the achievement of the European energy transition, due to multiple and divergent interests (also on the future role of the energy transition in the aftermath of COVID-19 and the resulting economic crisis). Another challenge is constituted by popular opposition, especially from those people that see the energy transition — and consequent economic and industrial transformation — as a potential threat to their well-being and jobs, as the French gilets jaunes show. Lastly, we explain that the European energy transition will impact also its external relations, for example with Russia, proposing how the two blocs can preserve their energy relationship in light of the energy transition, notably through the conversion of natural gas to hydrogen and storing/using the resulting CO2.

In alignment with the European Union’s legislation, Greece submitted its final 10-year National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) in December 2019, setting more ambitious energy and climate targets than those originally proposed in the draft version of the document. Apart from higher penetration of renewable energy sources (RES), the final NECP projects also zero carbon use in power generation till 2030. Although decarbonization has long been regarded beneficial for economies that base their energy production on coal, as it is the case with Greece, the macroeconomic and societal ramifications of faster transitions to carbon-free economies remain highly unexplored. Under this context, in this paper, we soft-link energy models, namely Times-Greece and Primes, with a macroeconomic model, namely Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP), to measure the effects of the final and draft NECPs on the Greek economy and evaluate the impact of higher decarbonization speeds. We find that the faster transition scenario displays both economic and societal merits, increasing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and household income by about 1% and 7%, respectively.

The challenges posed by climate change, biodiversity loss and harmful land-use are deeply interconnected. Successful co-managing of these drivers requires innovative methods that can prioritize and target management actions against multiple criteria, while also enabling evaluation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from different sources and integrated land use planning. The EU aims at reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 and Finland by 2035. We have conducted spatially explicit integrated modelling and evaluation in boreal landscapes and regions in Finland, considering national climate and biodiversity targets and sustainable forestry strategies. Results of three spatially distributed model systems (FRES, PREBAS, Zonation) were integrated to evaluate the potential to reach these goals at both national and regional scale in Finland, by simultaneously considering protection targets of the EU biodiversity strategy. We used different spatial databases and scenarios until 2050 based on mitigation measures of the national climate and energy strategy, forestry policies and predicted climate change. We then evaluated how implementation of these scenarios would affect GHG fluxes, carbon storages, and the possibility to reach the carbon neutrality target (Fig. 1 , Forsius et al. 2023, Holmberg et al. 2023, Junttila et al. 2023). Forested areas important for biodiversity protection were identified based on spatial prioritization. The policy-relevant aim has been to provide detailed spatial, scenario-based information at different scales for key end-users (e.g., communities, provinces, forestry districts, ministries, Alam et al. (2023)). This information can be used for e.g., regional land-use and energy strategy planning/management, and sustainability assessment. We have used data from eLTER/ICOS sites for model developments and evaluation (Forsius et al. 2021). Key general conclusions from our studies are: The potential to reach carbon neutrality in the different administrative regions in Finland varies widely. Reaching both the national and most regional carbon neutrality targets by 2035 assuming current forest harvesting levels is challenging. Integrated evaluation of biodiversity and climate targets enables development of cost-efficient measures. Carbon sequestration of forests is enhanced with climate change, but uncertainties caused by disturbances increase also. The potential to reach carbon neutrality in the different administrative regions in Finland varies widely. Reaching both the national and most regional carbon neutrality targets by 2035 assuming current forest harvesting levels is challenging. Integrated evaluation of biodiversity and climate targets enables development of cost-efficient measures. Carbon sequestration of forests is enhanced with climate change, but uncertainties caused by disturbances increase also. Key aims for future work are to develop process descriptions in our model systems, conduct uncertainty modelling and assessment, and continue co-operation with regional actors to evaluate regional targets.

The production of renewable hydrogen using water electrolysis has emerged with the increasing penetration of renewable energy sources. The energy management system (EMS) plays a key role in the production of renewable hydrogen by controlling electrolyzer’s operating point to achieve operational and economical benefits. In this regard, this article introduces the optimal scheduling for an EMS model for a hydrogen production system integrated with a photovoltaic (PV) system and a battery energy storage system (BESS) to satisfy electricity and hydrogen demands of an industrial hydrogen facility. The proposed EMS model aims to minimize the cost of hydrogen (CoH) production by minimizing the system net costs of industrial hydrogen facility while maintaining a reliable system operation. Furthermore, the proposed EMS model enables the application of seasonal hydrogen storage by incorporating the Z-score statistical measure of historical electricity prices, which follows seasonal electricity price trends. This allows the storage of hydrogen during periods of relatively low electricity prices. To demonstrate the validity of this model, it is tested for both intraseasonal and seasonal storage. Four case studies are used to prove the techno-economic benefits of the proposed EMS model. Furthermore, the impact of the electrolyzer’s capacity factor, the size of the hydrogen storage, and the PV share is investigated in terms of their techno-economic benefits to the system.

The current paper completes the empirical literature on the European Union (EU) climate and energy policy design and evaluation, namely the implementation part related to the development, assessment and approval of the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) of the Member States (MS) for the period 2021-2030. These strategic documents are foreseen by the Governance Regulation no. EU 2018/1999 as the main tools used to implement the climate and energy policies and targets by 2030. This paper is organized as follows: the abstract gives an overview of the paper and its main conclusions. Section 1 depict the introduction and background about the whole process around NECPs and the main provisions related under the Governance Regulation. Section 2 reviews literature from the perspective of the EU negotiations on 2030&2050 energy and climate targets, legal aspects of climate and energy governance and the process of NECPs development and approval. It also includes a short presentation of the data used for the analysis, including their sources. Section 3 gives an insight about the approval of Romania‘s NECPs by the European Commission. At the same time, this section briefly comments on proposals made by the national authorities and the recommendations using as starting point Romania‘s position in 2014 during the 2030 climate and energy negotiations while taking into account the dynamic of the geopolitical situation to date. Section 4 concludes.

The operations of electricity and natural gas transmission networks in the U.S. are increasingly interdependent, due to the growing number of installations of gas fired generators and the penetration of renewable energy sources. This development suggests the need for closer communication and coordination between gas and power transmission system operators in order to improve the efficiency and reliability of the combined energy system. In this paper, we present a co-simulation platform for examining the interdependence between natural gas and electricity transmission networks based on a direct current unit-commitment and economic dispatch model for the power system and a transient hydraulic gas model for the gas system. We analyze the value of day-ahead coordination of power and natural gas network operations and show the importance of considering gas system constraints when analyzing power systems operation with high penetration of gas generators and renewable energy sources. Results show that day-ahead coordination contributes to a reduction in curtailed gas during high stress periods (e.g., large gas offtake ramps) and a reduction in energy consumption of gas compressor stations.

A “lifeline out of the <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 crisis”? An ecofeminist critique of the European Green Deal

Introduction: To date, a variety of studies have been published on the topic of long term energy system transition. Most studies on future energy systems, however, have a shorter time frame or adopt a supranational focus (e.g. the Energy Roadmap, 2011 or the World Energy Outlook, 2015). It then constitutes a sincere challenge to perform a national energy system transition study with as time horizon 2050 and covering a far-reaching transformation of the energy system. VITO, together with the FPB (Federal Planning Bureau) and ICEDD, performed a study to scrutinise the transition of the Belgian national energy system towards a future mix entirely based on renewable energy sources. The focus on renewable energy sources and on building a national energy system completely running on renewable energy can be traced back to three main concerns: – Climate change: Renewable energy sources (RES) are a major instrument in the fight against climate change as RES do not release (net) greenhouse gas emissions. – Security...

The European Green Deal was published at the end of 2019 and represents EU's biggest action to reach climate neutrality. The European Recovery Fund was presented in July 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 crisis. This study looks at the role that photovoltaics could play to support the successful implementation of these initiatives, in particular in regard to the increased climate ambition. The European Commission proposal of September 2020 (55% emission reduction in 2030 compared to 1990) and the European Parliament proposal that followed soon after (−60%), have changed the level of greenhouse gas reduction ambitions. Energy system modelling shows that achieving the updated targets will require large quantities of renewables deployed at an unprecedented pace. Over the past 10 years solar PV has achieved the technological and market maturity to spearhead EU efforts to reach the energy and climate targets. The paper looks at future projections of solar PV deployment, also considering ongoing sectorial policies (e.g. the EU hydrogen strategy, the building renovation wave) and overarching aims for system integration and a just transition.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the EU: From a sustainable energy transition to a green transition?

The European Green Deal has set ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve climate neutrality by 2050. To achieve these, carbon sequestration and long-term storage must be increased not only through technological carbon capture and storage solutions, but also through nature-based carbon pools. Bioeconomy sectors have an important role to play as they include sustainable practices in agriculture, forestry and marine ecosystems that contribute to carbon sequestration. The new Common Agricultural Policy programming period (2023–2027) sets more ambitious environmental and climate targets than previous periods, including carbon farming practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon. This approach prepares and motivates farmers to switch to sustainable practices at an early stage. This is important because once the voluntary EU Certification Framework of the CRCF Regulation (EU) 2024/3012 is fully operational, interested farmers and foresters will be able to actively participate in a new business model by trading carbon credits alongside conventional products. In order to better understand the role of the CRCF Regulation in the context of the EU’s climate neutrality objectives and its interaction with other EU policy planning documents and legal acts, a content analysis was carried out, which led to the identification of key drivers and opportunities of the new CRCF Regulation. The results show that the CRCF Regulation plays an important role in the EU decarbonisation processes and in increasing carbon sequestration, in particular in the agriculture and forestry sectors. Certified activities will contribute to carbon removals and sequestration in both ecosystems and industry, while preserving biodiversity and ecosystem integrity. In addition, carbon sequestration and storage in construction products can contribute to a carbon neutral construction sector. Carbon farming offers a new business model where land managers are rewarded for sustainable management practices that increase carbon sequestration in biomass and soils. Keywords – Carbon credits; carbon farming; carbon removal; certification framework; EU climate policy; EU policy planning; sustainable agriculture

Europe is taking the lead in the urban transition to climate neutrality to strengthen its role as a global driver of sustainable growth, creating synergies between European and international climate initiatives and stakeholders. The Mission on Climate Neutral and Smart Cities is a challenging and ambitious endeavor where cities commit to a new form of sustainable urban transformation for the benefit of quality of life and sustainability. The European Green Deal announced by the European Commission will transform the EU into a modern resource efficient and competitive economy and is the strategy through which to achieve EU climate neutrality by 2050. Cities have the potential to lead the efforts to deliver on the European Green Deal, because they produce about 72% of all global greenhouse gas emissions although cities cover about 3% of the land on Earth. Moreover, cities are growing fast and in Europe, it is estimated that by 2050 almost 85% of Europeans will be living in cities. Therefore, the climate emergency must be tackled by cities and by citizens. This is the rationale behind the work of the EU Mission Board on Climate Neutral Cities and after consultations with citizens all over Europe the Mission Board proposes the following mission: “100 climate neutral cities by 2030 - by and for the citizens”. The main objective of the proposed Mission is to support, promote and showcase 100 European cities in their systemic transformation towards climate neutrality by 2030. The mission would make these cities into experimentation and innovation hubs for all cities, thus leading on the delivery of the European Green Deal and on Europe’s efforts to become climate neutral by 2050. To achieve in ten years what Europe plans to achieve in 30 years is a huge challenge that requires a systemic transformation of European cities. This is urgent and necessary for acting on the global climate emergency and for delivering co-benefits that will create better jobs and enhance people’s well-being. It is also feasible with the availability of technologies and innovative solutions for sustainable energy, transport, food, water and material systems. Climate neutrality is achieved by reducing greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible and compensating for any remaining emissions. The transition to a net-zero emissions society requires action on all fronts such as; energy, transport, mobility, buildings, and shifting towards greener, digital and circular economies. The Mission considers and deals with the international dimension as climate neutrality is a global problem that requires international dialogue and cooperation. Although the focus is on the intra-European content and setup of the mission, the issue of the international outreach of the mission is considered a priority, to facilitate and create synergies between European and international climate initiatives and stakeholders – academia, business and citizens. The international dimension of the Mission is also characterised by its contribution to the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development that provides a global policy framework for ending all forms of poverty, fighting inequalities and tackling climate change in a socially inclusive manner. A holistic and transformative mission for climate neutral cities, based on citizen participation and social inclusiveness, can contribute and help EU progress towards multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The approach to cities’ climate-related challenges is at the core of SDG 11 - “Sustainable Cities and Communities” and contributes significantly to other SDGs such as “Good Health and Well-Being”, “Decent Work and Economic Growth” and “Affordable and Clean Energy”. In this respect and as energy production and use is currently responsible for 75% of EU greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption in all its forms needs to be reduced, especially in urban areas where consumption is highest. Cities are encouraged to connect to international networks in order to accelerate learning, replicability and scaling-up of solutions through sharing of good practices and joint actions and ultimately serve as an inspiration for cities across the world.