Clean Energy Services:

More heat and light

It is abundantly clear that adequate, reliable and clean energy services are vital for the achievement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In essence, energy access has come to represent one of the intractable challenges in development, and therefore emblematic of the call for poverty eradication, and economic and social transformation. This focus issue on ‘Energy Access for Sustainable Development’ is initiated to draw broadly from the ideas and emerging experiences with energy activities and solutions that sought to enhance sustainable development through expansion of energy access. The focus issue includes several contributions from authors on some of the knowledge gaps this field, including: (i) the role of off-grid and mini-grid energy systems to meet multiple SDGs; (ii) the impacts of the evolving suite of off-grid and distributed energy services on inequalities across gender, and on minority and disadvantaged communities; (iii) the opportunities that the evolving technology base (both of energy services and information systems) plays in expanding the role of off-grid and mini-grid energy systems; (iv) energy options for cooking; (v) new insights into energy planning as well as the political economy, institutional and decision challenges across the energy system. Drawing from papers in this focus issue and other literature, this paper provides a sketch of the key issues in energy access.

Clean Energy Services: Universal Access as Enabler for Development?

On the HYway—sustainable assets in Germany's energy state's portfolio

Partnerships for access to modern cooking fuels and technologies

Energy is central for the global decarbonization and the achievement of a sustainable future for all. This calls for a fundamental energy-systems transformation that would bring multiple co-benefits for health, climate and other challenges facing humanity and especially those without access to affordable and clean energy services. Pervasive transformation toward zero-carbon electricity and electrification of energy end use are central to achieving higher efficiencies, decarbonization and net-zero emissions. This is not merely a technical and economic issue. It is about people, about societies and about values and behaviors. Technology is an integral part of the society and an expression of collective intentionality through aggregation of sundry individual choices. The next disruptive transformation toward a sustainable future may indeed be powered by the digital revolution. It poses dangers for privacy, dissemination of alternative realities and erosion of evidence-based information but it also offers a great promise of catalyzing the emergence of a sustainable future by augmenting human capabilities by new, more convenient, more efficient and decarbonized goods and services. The key question is whether humanity will have the political will to collectively achieve the energy-systems transformation toward a sustainable future and net-zero emissions in merely three decades.

A reference architecture for orbiting solar reflectors to enhance terrestrial solar power plant output

Hydropower is a renewable energy source that provides clean energy services and contributes to climate change mitigation by replacing fossil fuel energy production sources. The Upper Citarum Watershed in West Java, Indonesia, is described as a giant basin known as the Bandung Basin, which is type by mountainous relief with an elevation of 750-2300 meters above sea level, a slope of 30-90%, and a radiating river flow pattern. This study focuses on the potential of small hydropower with a run-of-river scheme that acts as a filler for the study of hydropower potential with a pump storage scheme by the Australian National University. Climate data in the study area were analyzed using the SWAT model to obtain Cumulative Discharge Frequency and identify potential discharge by adopting the method of previous studies. The results identified 7 SHPs with P exceeding 500 kW and below 2000 kW. BHUMI ATR BPN can predict land value and land cover in areas designated for hydropower development. The findings suggest improvements in aspects such as proper forecasting, on-the-ground valuation, and calculations relating to economically viable sustainability.

Renewable energy policy: How will clean energy services be provided in the future?

The techno-economic performance of district energy systems is evaluated for two specific Canadian locations. The comprehensive life cycle cost analyses based on detailed engineering cost data suggest that district energy systems are economically feasible today. In addition to economic attractiveness, district energy involves a number of urgent environment-related issues.

Promoting sustainable agricultural development is pivotal to realizing sustainable development goals. This study initially constructs a comprehensive indicator to delineate the landscape of agricultural sustainable development (ASD) across China. While ASD in China demonstrates an upward trajectory, it remains relatively low and exhibits disparities across regions. Ensuring food security with minimal energy consumption in agriculture is particularly critical for China, and fostering access to affordable and clean energy services in rural areas is essential for expediting the transition to sustainable agriculture. This study investigates the impact of rural energy poverty (REP) on ASD across 30 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2017, revealing that the eradication of REP yields tangible benefits for ASD. Furthermore, considering regional disparities, the elimination of REP significantly enhances ASD, particularly in non-major grain-producing areas compared to major grain-producing regions. These findings underscore the imperative of integrating efforts to alleviate energy poverty with initiatives aimed at advancing ASD. Such integration is indispensable for driving the overarching transition toward sustainable agriculture.

Climate change is a serious threat to all nations. This raises the question of why continuous treaty negotiations for more than two decades have failed to create a viable or adequate international climate regime. The current strategy of addressing climate change misdiagnoses the issue as a pollution problem by focusing on symptoms (emissions) and not on underlying causes (unsustainable development). In short, the wrong treaty is being negotiated. Drawing on negotiation analysis, it is argued that the existing and proposed climate treaties fail to meet the national interests of any party. An alternative strategy for addressing climate change is proposed that reframes the overall approach to reflect all countries’ development needs and links climate protection goals to the development structure of the treaty. The current deadlock over emissions reductions might be overcome and a mutual gains agreement reached by directing international cooperation towards promoting the provision of clean energy services for development and ensuring universal access to those services as part of an ‘early action’ agenda that will complement efforts to utilize forests and reduce other GHGs from multiple sectors.

Clean Energy Services: Universal Access as Enabler for Development?

Historically, women have been invisible in the energy sector and energy infrastructure and services are often and incorrectly considered to be `gender neutral'. The role of women in energy development is a recent area of study that emerged in the 1980s and a substantial body of feminist research has been built up since then. With 675 million people in developing Asia having no access to electricity, the gender analyses of energy access finds that this `energy poverty' is a gender biased poverty, with poor women bearing much of the burden of limited access to electricity and modern energy services. In rural Asia women and men in poor communities continue to rely predominantly on traditional biomass, such as wood, charcoal, straw and dung, for cooking and indoor heating, which are very inefficient and a significant health risk due to indoor air pollution, especially for women and children. A key challenge is the provision of energy in an environmentally sustainable manner based on renewable energy sources and applications. It has been argued that ignoring the social context determining energy access, characterised by gender roles and traditions, can negatively affect the potential of renewable energy as a sustainable and alternative energy resource. This paper looks at the linkages between gender and clean and renewable energy. Its conclusions suggest that while there are no purely technological solutions to achieving progress on gender equality and women's empowerment, nevertheless, in the context of South Asia (and especially in rural South Asia) where women's lives are marked by gender inequalities, access to clean and renewable energy services, if also targeted at improving women's access and welfare, can catalyse economic, social and cultural processes that improve gender equality and women's empowerment. This study does not include an analysis of specific renewable energy technologies or applications. It is based on findings in existing research on the subject. While there is no standard definition of clean energy or technologies, for the purpose of this study clean energy can be considered to be zero or low carbon technologies that do not have significant environmental or social impact. Renewable energy can be defined as clean energy coming from naturally replenished resources, i.e. solar, geophysical or biological sources.

Green businesses in a clean energy economy: Analyzing drivers of green business growth in U.S. states