Available Energy Resources Research Articles

Symbiotic readiness: Factors that interfere with the industrial symbiosis implementation

In a context of raw material scarcity and environmental concerns, the Industrial Symbiosis (IS) emerges as a strategy that collaborates to increase the resources circularity and sustainability. Despite its relevance, companies still have difficulties to assess whether they have conditions to implement IS. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to identify factors that interfere with the readiness of co-located companies to implement IS. To achieve this objective, theoretical, empirical and statistical research procedures were employed. As a theoretical procedure, a Symbiotic Readiness Assessment Instrument (SRAI), previously developed, was adapted. For the empirical procedure, a survey with 201 co-located companies in industrial parks was applied using the SRAI adapted. For the statistical procedure, a factor analysis was carried out to obtain the main factors that interfere with the IS implementation. As a result, five factors were identified. In view of this, to assess symbiotic readiness, companies must analyze: the availability of water and energy resources; the possibility of exchanging material resources such as waste and by-products; the accessibility of data, such as production information from others companies; the possibility of sharing information and bonds of trust between co-located industries; and access conditions, infrastructure and partnership for the symbiosis realization.

Modeling the Energy Flexible Job Shop with a Disaggregated Load Approach for Changeable Manufacturing

Volatility in the availability of energy resources is a key challenge to master in the transition to sustainable energy sources. Especially with a rising share of renewable energy sources the situation is expected to intensify. To leverage the situation within an industrial context, energy-aware scheduling could be used. However, state-of-the-art simulation techniques use state-based energy determination, which is merely suitable for recurring manufacturing of products.In order to enable energy-aware scheduling within a changeable manufacturing environment, an alternative approach is researched. The approach aims to disaggregate the used manufacturing entities and identify the individual load patterns. Based on the individual load patterns, a simulation and optimization architecture was derived to conduct energy-aware scheduling in future applications.The used methods include the analysis of current methods for scheduling and energy consumption prediction and derivation of the component-based simulation approach based on the state-of-the-art. Depending on the inclusion of environmental dependencies two optimization architectures were created. A case study with a small-scale demonstrator was conducted to present and validate the approach. Within the scope of the small-scale demonstrator the approach could be validated. The main contribution of the publication is the provision of an approach for scheduling orders for merely non-recurring jobs.

Machine Learning Prediction Based Adaptive Duty Cycle MAC Protocol for Solar Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks

The dynamic nature of energy harvesting rate, arising because of ever changing weather conditions, raises new concerns in energy harvesting based wireless sensor networks (EH-WSNs). Therefore, this drives the development of energy aware EH solutions. Formerly, many Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols have been developed for EH-WSNs. However, optimizing MAC protocol performance by incorporating predicted future energy intake is relatively new in EH-WSNs. Furthermore, existing MAC protocols do not fully harness the high harvested energy to perform aggressively despite the availability of sufficient energy resources. Therefore, a prediction-based adaptive duty cycle (PADC) MAC protocol has been proposed, called PADC-MAC, that incorporates current and future harvested energy information using the mathematical formulation to improve network performance. Furthermore, a machine learning model, namely nonlinear autoregressive (NAR) neural network, is employed that achieves good prediction accuracy under dynamic harvesting scenarios. As a result, it enables the receiver node to perform aggressively better when there is sufficient inflow of incoming harvesting energy. In addition, PADC-MAC uses a self-adaptation technique that reduces energy consumption. The performance of PADC-MAC is evaluated using GreenCastalia in terms of packet delay, network throughput, packet delivery ratio, energy consumption per bit, receiver energy consumption, and total network energy consumption using realistic harvesting data for 96 consecutive hours under dynamic solar harvesting conditions. The simulation results show that PADC-MAC provides lower average packet delay of the highest priority packets and all packets, energy consumption per bit, and total energy consumption by more than 10.7%, 7.8%, 81%, and 76.4%, respectively when compared to three state-of-the-art protocols for EH-WSNs.

Examining the Impact of Renewable Energy on the Economy Using the ARDL Method

Objective: With the continual increase in the global population and the limited availability of energy resources, energy consumption has become a concern for all countries. Today, renewable energies have made it possible to utilize all natural potentials for energy production. However, a comprehensive examination in this field must be conducted to meet the country's energy needs and identify all areas for exploiting renewable energies. Subsequently, the creation of infrastructure and suitable environments for the exploitation, development, and provision of energy becomes significantly important. The results indicate that there is an asymmetric relationship between economic growth, energy consumption, and financial development, such that in the long and short term, a positive shock in energy consumption and financial development has led to a decrease in economic growth. The positive shock in energy consumption shows that producers' efforts to reduce energy consumption cause a reduction in economic growth in the short term. Methodology: This research investigates the impact of renewable energies on the economy using the ARDL method. Findings: The first objective of this issue is to minimize the construction costs of regional warehouses in Tehran under various scenarios, and the second objective is to minimize the costs of supply, maintenance of goods in regional warehouses; minimize the costs of sending and maintaining goods in the central warehouse; minimize the costs related to sending goods to demand points, and minimize the costs related to leftover goods in each region at the end of each period. Conclusion: The results show that the designed model optimizes the logistics costs of relief and rescue.

Constructing Energy: “Wood Supply” in Salt Works in the Russian North in the 17th Century

The availability of energy resources of the required quality and in the required quantity was an important factor in the development of the economy and industry of the early Modern times. In this article, the author, based on the data of income and expenditure books, explores, firstly, the system for ensuring the production of salt with firewood, and, secondly, the idea of the forest as an energy resource and ways of describing it by the people, who were directly involved in the production management process.

THE ROLE OF FORING DIRECT INVESTMENTS IN THE ECONOMY AND THEIR STIMULATION MECHANISM

THE ROLE OF FORING DIRECT INVESTMENTS IN THE ECONOMY AND THEIR STIMULATION MECHANISM

Analysis of industrial symbiosis case studies and its potential in Saudi Arabia

Industrial symbiosis (IS) involves sharing waste, by-products, heat, and logistics streams. Participating entities are benefitted by reducing resource utilization and waste disposal cost, improving reuse, and creating job opportunities. Hence, countries have used it to ensure clean and sustainable economic growth. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has initiated a few IS-related approaches that focus mainly on the power sector. However, the role of IS in Saudi industries is still limited, and there is significant potential for the enhancement of the major sectors, including oil and gas, petrochemicals, iron and steel, power generation, desalination, cement, and paper and pulp industries. This study investigated 11 successful IS cases and proposed a symbiotic exchange framework. A roadmap for IS implementation is also developed by considering the enablers and the barriers and by outlining the framework, initial steps, and policy levels. However, to deploy IS activities in KSA, technological, economic, and regulatory obstacles must be overcome and the enablers should be enhanced to conserve resources, reduce environmental impacts, and improve social well-being. The future studies should focus on unique challenges of the Kingdom including availability of energy resources at low price, dependency on fossil-fuels, dispersed development, limited availability of water resources, and limited R&D focus on IS.

Development and validation of management assessment tools considering water, food, and energy security nexus at the farm level

Given the role of the agricultural sector in consuming critical resources like water and energy, a balance should be achieved between the harvest and exploitation of these resources and the amount of agricultural produce by their proper management. Security measurement indicators are a criterion for managerial evaluating of farmers regarding water, food, and energy security nexus. Therefore, this study aimed to develop and validate a tool for managerial evaluating of farmers as the best local facilitators regarding the water, food, and energy security nexus in two phases. The geographical scope of the research is Iran. The first phase was related to reviewing the previous literature and extracting indicators for measuring water, food, and energy security, and the second phase focused on validation. The face and content validity of the questionnaire were conducted quantitatively and qualitatively by surveying subject matter experts and calculating CVR and CVI. The results identified 85 indicators for the managerial evaluation of farmers in three areas of water security (30 indicators), food security (37 indicators), and energy security (18 indicators). The use of soil moisture control, pressurized irrigation (access dimension), groundwater resources (availability dimension), and salinity-resistant cultivars (stability dimension) were significantly valid in measuring water security. Achieving product direct sale marketing (access dimension), using early yielding cultivars (availability dimension), and producing organic products in farms and orchards and attention to the calendar and planting time in the production process (dimension of stability) were the highly valid indicators in food safety assessment. Moreover, the most valid indicators in the field of energy security measurement were energy consumed to produce and transport the product (accessibility dimension), use of geothermal energy resources (availability dimension), and bioenergy production rate (stability dimension). Challenges to achieving water, food, and energy security at the farm level can be minimized using the extracted indicators and correct management principles obtained from reviewing the indicators. Therefore, researchers, planners, decision-makers, and executives in agriculture and horticulture are recommended to use these indicators approved by subject matter experts.

Systematic Modeling and Policy Analysis on the Urban Water–Energy Nexus for Sustainable Resources Management

Urbanization in developing countries has imposed great pressure on the availability of water and energy (WE) resources, while single-sector strategies may cause several unanticipated consequences. To find sustainable solutions for resource management, this study develops an integrated approach to assess urban WE from a nexus perspective. With the city Shenzhen as a case study, the existing WE nexus on the supply and demand sides of urban areas is first quantified. Subsequently, a system dynamics model (SDM) is constructed to reveal the complex interactions in the urban nexus, and the trends of WE supply and demand by 2035 are simulated. To narrow the potential resources gap, a policy analysis considering the interest and influence of various stakeholders is conducted to formulate policy scenarios. As revealed from the results, the resources gap will expand continuously by 2035, especially for water resources. Compared to the demand side, the policies implemented on the supply side exhibit a better performance, and the scenario of import expansion could independently achieve the desirable result. Moreover, as the demand side displayed more complexities, the implementation of future policies should rigorously weigh the priorities and difficulties of a range of stakeholders’ involvements.

Energy Policy, Energy Research, and Energy Politics: An Analytical Review of the Current Situation

Energy policy is becoming a key aspect of the everyday worldwide agenda, and the decisions in this field are directly affecting many aspects, such as energy security, energy supply, and consumer final prices, as well as environmental aspects, among others, and will also affect conditions in the coming years with regard to aspects such as energy resource availability decay, climate change effects, or air contamination. During the last decades, many specific efforts in energy planning research have been carried out by different scientists around the world, but very few of their scientifically based conclusions and recommendations have been transferred into energy planning and energy policy. As a consequence, the energy availability and the environmental situation of the world are worsening; the objectives which aim to achieve a maximum of a 1.5 °C increase are far from being achieved, and many different regions are suffering energy supply disruptions and lack of accessible and secure energy access. This paper analyzes how current energy policy is based more on the direct influence of stakeholders, energy politics, and citizens’ beliefs or preferences than on a scientific approach. It also proposes a different approach that would combine scientific energy planning as a driver for stakeholders and the political decisions which are necessary to consider as soon as possible; this is the only possible way to ensure a sustainable future.

Design of an isolated renewable hybrid energy system: a case study

In addition to the fact that most renewable energies such as solar and wind energy have become more competitive in the global energy market, thanks to the great development in conversion technologies, it believes that renewable energy can play a crucial role in global environmental issues. However, in Palestine, the situation is different from anywhere else; renewable energy is not only an economic option, but an absolute necessity to get out of the energy crisis that Palestinian cities suffer from long years ago and continue nowadays. The cornerstone of the present research is focusing on the availability of renewable energy resources in Jenin Governorate (JG)—West Bank (WB)—Palestine. Two-year time-series of hourly solar, wind, biomass, and 1-year hourly electrical load data are used in the analysis in this paper. The energy potentials were estimated using System Advisor Model software (SAM), and the optimum combination and sizing of the hybrid renewable energy system were determined using Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER). The proposed Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES) consists of an 80 MW PV solar field, 66 MW wind farm, and 50 MW biomass system with an initial investment of $323 M. The proposed HRES generates 389 GWh/yr and is enough to meet 100% of the electrical demand of JG (372 GWh/yr) with excess in electricity generation of about 4.57% and the unmeet electric load is about 109.6 MWh/yr which is equivalent to less than 2 h off in a year. The estimated Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) was found as 0.313 $/kWh.

Multi-criteria decision analysis for evaluation of potential renewable energy resources in Malaysia

Switching to renewable energy resources as an alternative is critical for developing countries in order to ensure energy security and diversify their energy supply. Malaysia is endowed with biomass, solar, waste-to-energy, wind, and hydro energy potentials, although these have not been fully explored. This is because the country continues to rely extensively on conventional fossil-fuel energy sources such as coal and petroleum to generate power and consume energy. On the other hand, demand for energy is increasing as a result of population growth and a booming economy. Thus, this study intends to identify suitable potential renewable energy resources that can benefit Malaysia by analysing the outcomes of Focus Group Discussions (FGD) using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as an analytical technique. Five renewable energy resources were evaluated: biomass, solar, waste to energy, wind, and hydro energy while five criteria were identified: carbon production, operational costs, location characteristics, energy, and availability of renewable energy resources. The outcome suggested a strategic focus on solar energy for Malaysia due to consideration in carbon production. This information will assist decision-makers in strategizing the most suitable renewable energy resources for Malaysia.

Çin’in Güncel Enerji Görünümü

The study analyzes China's current energy outlook. Today, energy is one of the most important parameters that determines the position of states in international politics, but also one of the important tools in the creation of domestic and foreign policies. China's emergence as a rising military, political and economic power in recent years has been one of the most important variables in the reform of international energy geopolitics. In particular, China's growing industry, growing population and increasing human capacity have made the country's energy consumption inevitable. For energy security, China focuses on the availability of energy resources, the acceptability of resources for human health and the environment, the continuous flow of energy resources and their affordability. Therefore, new roads, new resources and new countries have entered the purge. Therefore, in the study presented, it was first analyzed how China is doing according to its energy sources and based on this, china's position in international energy geopolitics was tried to be conveyed. Keywords: Petrol, Natural gas, Coal, Renewable Energy, Energy Dependency, China.

Challenges and opportunities in decarbonizing the U.S. energy system

The United States has pledged to develop a 100% carbon-free electric power system by 2035 and a net-zero-emissions economy by 2050. While important advancements have been made in the scale, performance, and economics of clean energy technologies, meeting the nation's ambitious goals will not only require their deployment at scale, but also additional innovation and effective integration of different solutions. Technological developments across the broad suite of low-carbon energy solutions are advancing rapidly, with ongoing innovations in renewable electricity generation, industrial processes, and energy-saving technologies and services, including LED lighting, induction heating, electric vehicles, energy storage solutions, and mobility as a service, plus smart devices, controls, and more efficient and smart buildings. Combining renewable electricity with biotic and abiotic pathways to produce chemicals, fuels, and materials promises to deliver new solutions. Grid-interactive buildings and communities, integrating transportation infrastructure and vehicles, are likely to be significant components of any zero-carbon energy strategy. Low-carbon industrial manufacturing will also make strong contributions to a net-zero economy. While the technical prospects appear promising, variations in the state of infrastructure, jurisdictional and social equity, pollution, economic and socio-cultural constraints, energy resource availability, and supply chain dynamics found in different locations present a range of challenges and demand customized solutions. This paper provides a critical review and offers new insights into the technical, infrastructure, analytic, political, and economic challenges faced in translating the nation's ambitious net-zero-emissions goals into feasible and reliable implementation action plans.

Recent advances in the energy harvesting device technology using hetero-atom doped carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes, graphene, and fullerene are forms of carbon finding widespread applications in numerous fields such as energy storage devices such as batteries and fuel cells, cosmetics, nano-electronics, nano-pharmaceuticals, nano-biotechnology, military devices and equipment, construction, coatings, cutting tools, catalysis and many more. The huge technological advancements, globalization, and never seen industrialization can gain more momentum only with the ready availability of sufficient energy resources and their harvesting. Fossil fuels remained one of the most important primary fuels all over the world and now the shift is towards more use of non-renewable energy resources. At the end of the last century, Svante Arrenius firstly proposed the interconnection between the increased concentration of gases such as CO2 in the atmosphere and the rise in the average temperature through global warming on our planet. This effect gets pronounced effects in various other natural cycles too as observed through various natural events in the 21st century. There are several global warming gases, but the principal emission associated with this change is carbon dioxide. Due to such environmental issues, emphasis is on the use of non-conventional energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, ocean, etc. Besides such sources, extensive work is going on the use of fuel cells and modern battery technology using carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs and MWCNTs). Presently, various advanced batteries and fuel cells are being developed using CNTs on an Industrial scale. In the last decade, efforts are taken to control the optical and electronic properties of CNTs incorporating hetero-atom (N, P, Si, S, Al, Ni, etc.) as a dopant for desired structural functionalization. The recent advancements in the field of energy harvesting devices (batteries or fuel cells) using hetero-atom-doped CNTs have been discussed here.

Competing water uses between agriculture and energy: Quantifying future climate change impacts for the Portuguese power sector

Climate change may increase water needs for irrigation in southern Europe competing with other water uses, such as hydropower, which may likely be impacted by lower precipitation. Climate change will also potentially affect the variability and availability of other renewable energy resources (solar and wind) and electricity consumption patterns. This work quantifies the effect of competition for water use between irrigation and hydropower in the future 2050 Portuguese carbon-neutral power sector and under Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 climate change projections. It uses the power system eTIMES_PT model to assess the combined effects of climate change on the cost-optimal configuration of the power sectorconsidering changes in irrigation, hydropower, wind and solar PV availability. eTIMES_PT is a linear optimisation model that satisfies electricity demand at minimal total power system cost. Results show that, by 2050, climate change can lead to an increase in annual irrigation water needs up to 12% in Tagus and 19% in Douro watersheds (from 2005 values), with substantially higher values for spring (up to 84%). Combining these increased water needs with the expected reduction in river runoff can lead to a decline in summer and spring hydropower capacity factors from half to three times below current values. By 2050, concurrent water uses under climate change can reduce hydropower generation by 26–56% less than historically observed, mainly in summer and spring. Higher solar PV, complemented with batteries’ electricity storage, can offset the lower hydropower availability, but this will lead to higher electricity prices. Adequate transboundary water management agreements and reducing water losses in irrigation systems will play a key role in mitigating climate impacts in both agriculture and power sector.

Combining the Water–Energy–Food and Food Waste–Food Loss–Food Security Nexuses to Reduce Resource Waste

The availability of water, energy and food plays a key role in meeting the basic needs of the world population and allowing them to achieve prosperity and supports the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). These three fundamental resources are closely interrelated, with their deep interdependencies reflected in various concepts of the ‘water–energy–food nexus’ (W–E–F). One-third of the total food produced globally results in food loss and waste (FL and FW), which also means the waste of resources used for their production, mainly energy and water. We thus propose a fusion of the W–E–F nexus and the FS–FW–FL nexus to achieve a better correlation between food production and food consumption in order to avoid additional negative effects. We explore the research problem of how the availability of water, energy and food resources can be improved by reducing FW and FL. The objective of this paper is to present an overview of opportunities to reduce the negative effects of FWL. The review paper is based on a comprehensive analysis of the literature, exploration of various (basic and extended) W–E–F models and their linkages with SDG and the entirety of the food supply chain from field to table. In addition to a literature analysis, we applied comparative methods, modeling, visualization and basic indicators of descriptive statistics. Although the amount of literature on this topic is growing, we found that systematic knowledge is still scarce, with each new study putting forth yet more new solutions. Although the data in various studies show somewhat different results, we conclude that reducing FW and FL has a positive, harmonizing effect on the W–E–F nexus.

Eco-Friendly customer engagement Practices in hotels: A Qualitative Study

Hospitality industry especially hotels consume a good amount of natural resources and results in wastegeneration. Hotel Industry is considered as main customer oriented industry, were there is huge consumptionof energy resources. As we know that limited availability of energy resources on planet earth has made itessential feature of every industry and hospitality industry is not untouched to go for energy conservation.To contribute effectively, hotels have started exercising green practices which include reusing linen practices,natural temperature control techniques, 3R’s principle and many more. There is huge significance ofenvironment related issues that continues to rise in hotel industry because of increased knowledge aboutenvironmental issues. Keeping this information in mind, the current study stresses on exploring the ecofriendlycustomer engagement practices with respect to hotel location, hotel design exercised in hotels ofGulmarg, Kashmir as well as its impact on repurchase intention of services in hotels. A checklist wasdeveloped to receive data from the hotel managers/ supervisors. The outcome specified that someenvironmental friendly practices like plantation drives, walking through the wilderness, waste watermanagement tools, linen reuse, horse ridding as means of transportation, trekking through the green forests,use of natural light and installation of well designed ventilation and LED lighting etc are mostly exercisedpractices in the hotels of Gulmarg, Kashmir. The study revealed that eco friendly customer engagementpractices involve customers effectively and leaves an ever lasting impression on the customer and attractsthem again towards the destination.

Local development applied to the energy scheme using the geographic information system for decision making

<span>The availability of endogenous energy resources in the province of Manabí can play an important role in achieving a diverse and sustainable territorial energy matrix. This research work shows the results of the project called geographic information system for sustainable development through the use of renewable energy sources. For the management of the project database, the geographic information system was used, and the information analysis took into account the works published in the main international databases on the use of renewable sources, planning energy, decision-making, and local development. The work allows revealing the energy potential that the territory of Manabí has in terms of the availability of renewable energy sources using the geographic information system, which can help in the decision-making process that contributes to the achievement of a diverse and sustainable territorial energy matrix.</span>

Assessing the energy security of European countries in the resource and economic context

Research background: In recent years, much attention in the literature has been paid to the economic and environmental conditions of energy development as a key sector for the development of national economies. The issue of availability of individual energy resources and related energy security is receding into the background, most often due to the strong globalization of economies and the associated assumption of free international flow of goods and services, and thus practically unlimited possibilities of buying on the international commodity markets and energy exchanges. Nevertheless, the importance of energy security increases significantly in crisis situations. Purpose of the article: Bearing in mind the circumstances indicated above, the main objective of this article is to assess the energy security of European countries carried out in the context of resource and economic conditions. Methods: The article proposes its own methodological approach to the assessment of energy security based on the analysis of the energy mixes of 32 European countries and the availability of their own internal energy sources. In the process of classifying the studied economies into homogeneous groups in terms of resource and economic determinants (GDP per capita), principal component analysis was used. Findings & value added: The theoretical and methodological added value of the article results from the development of the author's approach to the assessment of energy security using individual and aggregated energy sufficiency index. Empirical added value is related to the results of energy security assessment in European countries, which can be used in shaping energy policies. Therefore, most of the 32 European countries assessed have a low level of energy security, which is due to the dominant use of non-renewable energy resources in their energy mixes. Countries with a high level of energy security have their own non-renewable resources or use alternative energy carriers in the form of renewable sources, hydropower or nuclear energy.