Changes In Energy System Research Articles

Heterogeneous evolution and driving forces of multiple hazardous air pollutants and GHGs emissions from China's primary aluminum industry

The booming of China's primary aluminum industry (PAI) brought substantial emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) and greenhouse gases (GHGs). By using life cycle assessment and bottom-up method, a comprehensive emission inventory for multiple typical HAPs and GHGs from China's PAI during 1990–2021 was developed and explored for the first time. Our results show that spatial-temporal emissions trends of HAPs and GHGs from PAI in China diverse significantly. The conventional atmospheric pollutants (including SO2, NOx and particulate matter (PM)), fluoride and per fluorinated compound (PFCs) had been effectively suppressed since 2007 due to the implementation of various environmental policies; while, emissions of CO, VOCs, CH4, heavy metals and CO2 had increased at different rates unexpectedly. From the spatial distribution perspective, Henan, Shanxi, Guizhou, Guangxi and Shandong dominated the emissions of PAI in China, but with consumption expansion and environmental constrains, PAI plants start to expand to northwest and southwest areas where are richer in sufficient and cheaper power resources, thus bring significant emission increasing there, particular for conventional atmospheric pollutants in northwest and CO and VOCs in southwest China. By underlying driving forces of PAI emissions, results show that end-of-pipe control measures at various stages have played different roles to reduce emissions of the concerned species at each period, but its reduction effect diminished gradually. Future reduction should seek underlying changes in production technology and energy system. Under constrains of environmental regulation and resource endowment, promoting circular economic development for PAI would be a key strategy to reduce HAPs and GHGs emissions simultaneously in PAI.

Introduction to Topical Collection: Changing Values and Energy Systems

This paper is the introduction to a topical collection on “Changing Values and Energy Systems” that consists of six contributions that examine instances of value change regarding the design, use and operation of energy systems. This introduction discusses the need to consider values in the energy transition. It examines conceptions of value and value change and how values can be addressed in the design of energy systems. Value change in the context of energy and energy systems is a topic that has recently gained traction. Current, and past, energy transitions often focus on a limited range of values, such as sustainability, while leaving other salient values, such as energy democracy, or energy justice, out of the picture. Furthermore, these values become entrenched in the design of these systems: it is hard for stakeholders to address new concerns and values in the use and operation of these systems, leading to further costly transitions and systems’ overhaul. To remedy this issue, value change in the context of energy systems needs to be better understood. We also need to think about further requirements for the governance, institutional and engineering design of energy systems to accommodate future value change. Openness, transparency, adaptiveness, flexibility and modularity emerge as new requirements within the current energy transition that need further exploration and scrutiny.

Integration of Electric Vehicle Power Supply Systems—Case Study Analysis of the Impact on a Selected Urban Network in Türkiye

Undoubtedly, the transition to electromobility with several million new, efficient charging points will have consequences for the energy industry, and in particular for network operators of the distribution infrastructure. At the same time, in the coming years the energy landscape will change into a system in which an increase in decentralized systems based on renewable energy sources will take over the leading function. This transformation process will further increase the complexity and overall pressure for change in energy systems over the next decade. In order to be able to ensure the energy supply and the reliable system operation of the grids in the future as well, communicative networking of generators, storage systems, electrical consumers and grid equipment is indispensable. This study aims to investigate the consequences of including electric vehicles in Istanbul’s power system using a unit commitment simulation model. The presented considerations analyze how uncertain and managed charging strategies affect the power system in terms of operating costs and renewable resources. The presented simulations indicate that, in economic terms, the use of a managed charging strategy saves 2.3%, reducing the total cost from USD 66.71 million to USD 65.18 million. The recipients of the presented research are both the demand and supply sides of the future energy transformation based on the idea of synergy of electromobility and renewable energy sources within the framework of the smart city idea.

A novel multicriteria assessment framework for evaluating the performance of the EU in dealing with challenges of the low-carbon energy transition: an integrated Fermatean fuzzy approach

Climate change, global warming, greenhouse gas emissions, and many other reasons have motivated countries worldwide to change energy systems to move toward low-carbon energy systems; however, the low-carbon energy transition has faced many challenges that motivate the present study to identify the challenges and evaluate the performance of the EU according to challenges. To this end, seventeen challenges were identified through a systematic literature review and classified into five groups: economic, institutional, technical, social, and environmental. Subsequently, fifty-three indicators were selected to measure the performance of the EU in dealing with challenges. Furthermore, a Fermatean “Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis” method was applied to determine the subjective weight of identified challenges, while the method based on the removal effects of criteria was applied to determine the objective weight of selected indicators. Afterward, the “Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution” method was applied to evaluate the performance of the EU in dealing with the challenges of the low-carbon energy transition for 2015 and 2020. The results indicated that energy justice, mitigation costs, land use, and lack of infrastructure are the most significant social, economic, environmental, institutional, and technical challenges. Also, the Netherlands had the best performance in 2015, followed by Germany; in contrast, Germany improved its energy system and took first place in 2020.

Energy democracy, public participation, and support for local energy system change in Canada

In the face of climate change and associated energy system change, there is a growing literature and more general recognition of the ‘four Ds’ (decarbonization, decentralization, digitalization, and democratization). Yet there has been very little quantitative work that analyzes public perceptions of these changes. Utilizing data from a Canada-wide, nationally representative survey (n = 941), this study conducted provincial and regional assessments to spatially explore the public's views of moves toward innovative local energy system change through the development of what we call Local Smart Grids (LSGs). Through descriptive statistics and t-tests, we sought to answer three main questions: i) To what extent does the public support energy democracy via new local energy systems? ii) What does the public desire in terms of participation? and iii) What motivates the public to participate? We find overall support for energy democracy across Canada, yet varied support among provinces and regions. Canadians seem to want to participate in moves toward energy democracy, although we found a strong preference for more passive participatory actions. Additionally, support and a desire to participate is predominantly motivated by environmental factors, including combating climate change, with community and social motivations playing a secondary role, followed by financial motivations. These findings, some of the first of their kind in the realm of energy democracy in Canada, provide useful insights relevant to scholars, policymakers, and practitioners working on LSG implementation as well as others with an interest in socio-technical innovation and energy system change.

Explaining energy transition: A systemic social mechanisms approach illustrated with the examples of Germany and Poland

In our conceptual paper, we develop a systemic social mechanisms model to explain change and inertia of energy systems. Situational, action-formation, and transformational mechanisms that drive change in a transition require corresponding framing and framing contests to create legitimacy for that transition. We conceptualize mechanisms of socio-technical transitions and of creating legitimacy for transitions as mutual drivers and outcomes, with framing contests as crucial for achieving legitimacy for change. We propose that the social mechanisms approach supports evidence-based policy-making, underlines the need for flexibility in the face of changing contexts, and highlights the key role of framing contests for meaning making and for activating further mechanisms. We illustrate our proposition with two examples, the Polish and the German electricity system.

Effective Communication of Energy Science and Technology

Although research, development, and deployment of advanced energy technologies are essential for the clean energy transition, communication about these technologies is equally important to their success. Energy is part of everyday life; therefore, changes in energy systems should be accepted by communities and industries. Yet details about energy generation, transmission, and environmental impacts are complex. The combination of commonality and complexity requires communications to use visualization, localization, narrative, and understandable terminology to reach a range of stakeholders. Collaboration between technology experts and communications professionals builds integrity and accessibility of energy information that enables community‐based solutions for energy.

Energy system changes in the agricultural sector: testing a value-congruent communication approach to foster positive attitudes

Multiple sectors, including agriculture, are subject to decarbonization and wide-ranging system changes. With a growing distance between agriculture and the public, communicating changes and fostering public acceptance as crucial factors for the success of these changes has become challenging. Therefore, understanding public attitudes towards emerging system changes in unfamiliar sectors helps identify appropriate communication strategies and provides information about possible responses from different stakeholders. To address the scarcity of studies on system changes in agriculture and their acceptability, a multidimensional evaluation of attitudes was undertaken using a factorial survey to test the utility of value-congruent information for enhancing positive attitudes. Electrical field cultivation (EFC) served as a case example for one potential energy system change in agriculture. The data were collected via an open scientific survey panel in Germany (N = 300) using a written vignette in the form of a newspaper article; different benefit foci and hypotheses were tested using path analysis. Although the different benefit foci did not reveal significant differences, problem awareness and knowledge were found to predict positive attitudes toward EFC. For once, results highlight the need to foster overall problem awareness for fossil fuels to garner public support for various pathways. Additionally, results underscore the perceived lack of personal affectedness by transition pathways as a barrier to responding to communication strategies, specifically in unfamiliar sectors such as agriculture. The study outlines the need for stakeholders to design communication strategies under consideration of fostering personal affectedness and overall problem understanding.

The “four Ds” and support for Local Smart Grids: analysis from national surveys in the UK and Canada

Abstract Local Smart Grids are emerging during the climate crisis, as governments and industry recognize the need to better integrate intermittent renewable energy, storage, transportation, heating, and smart technologies. Such projects can represent profound changes to the status quo of energy and citizen lifestyles. They are also being associated with the “four Ds,” whereby Local Smart Grids are decarbonizing, decentralizing, digitalizing, and potentially democratizing energy systems. Yet, due to their recent arrival, there is very little social scientific research that has aimed to better understand public views, expectations, and support for this change. We attempt to fill this important gap in the literature through the analysis of two nationally representative surveys in the UK (n = 3034) and Canada (n = 941). This analysis highlights within- and between-country trends, including how the variation in responses regarding the “four Ds,” demographic factors, and other variables may explain the differences we see in terms of support for energy system change in the UK and Canada. Our analysis also shows that there are common elements, including the importance of the decentralization, and especially the democratization of energy in shaping support. We hope that this study will help governments, industry, community groups, and local residents themselves in both countries come together to advance the kind of Local Smart Grids that address climate change and represent a supported, just energy transition.

Available Energy Analysis of Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Hybrid Energy System

The issue of energy and power systems is the main challenge faced by electric unmanned aerial vehicles for long endurance. Under the power demand conditions of typical mission profiles of electric drones, this paper establishes an energy balance equation between the hybrid energy system power supply of electric drones and the power demand of drones. Considering the impact of operating temperature of each battery on power generation performance, a heat transfer model for solar cells, fuel cells, and lithium batteries was established. The heat transfer process of hybrid energy systems was analyzed. Based on the heat transfer model of hybrid energy systems, the heat transfer changes of solar cells, fuel cells, and lithium batteries were analyzed, and the heat transfer changes of hybrid energy systems were studied. The heat loss changes of each battery subsystem with operating temperature were given. The results show that the hybrid energy system has the best power generation performance at the reference temperature, and changes in operating temperature will cause thermal losses and reduce power generation.

Environmental problem shifting from climate change mitigation: A mapping review

Abstract Climate change mitigation will trigger major changes in human activity, energy systems, and material use, potentially shifting pressure from climate change to other environmental problems. We provide a comprehensive overview of such “environmental problem shifting” (EPS). While there is considerable research on this issue, studies are scattered across research fields and use a wide range of terms with blurred conceptual boundaries, such as trade-off, side effect, and spillover. We identify 506 relevant studies on EPS of which 311 are empirical, 47 are conceptual–theoretical, and 148 are synthetic studies or reviews of a particular mitigation option. A systematic mapping of the empirical studies reveals 128 distinct shifts from 22 categories of mitigation options to 10 environmental impacts. A comparison with the recent IPCC report indicates that EPS literature does not cover all mitigation options. Moreover, some studies systematically overestimate EPS by not accounting for the environmental benefits of reduced climate change. We propose to conceptually clarify the different ways of estimating EPS by distinguishing between gross, net, and relative shifting. Finally, the ubiquity of EPS calls for policy design which ensures climate change mitigation that minimizes unsustainability across multiple environmental dimensions. To achieve this, policymakers can regulate mitigation options—for example, in their choice of technology or location—and implement complementary environmental policies.

Local energy management: A base model for the optimization of virtual economic units

As non-renewable resources are limited and the overall CO2 emissions need to be reduced drastically, there is an increasing need in making the energy supply more sustainable. This leads to a needed change in the traditional energy system, in which decentralized local energy resources must be better integrated. In order to face the challenges for a future energy management, the consideration of the domestic level is gaining more attention. In this paper, we aim to get insights into the potential value of local cooperations and focus on economic and control issues as to whether and how the domestic level can participate in upcoming solutions. We introduce a possible setup for a virtual economic unit representing a hybrid cooperation of domestic energy participants, whereby the objective of this cooperation is to realize the maximum possible savings for the community with specified individual contracts between the participants and assuming that participants continue to have additional contracts with their energy service provider. We propose a deterministic linear optimization model for determining optimal energy load profiles of the participants with the external suppliers and energy exchange between participants in a virtual economic unit. To efficiently solve this model and get an exact assignment of supply and demand, we present a maximum saving flow algorithm taking into account the underlying bipartite structure of this problem. The solution achieved is specified as a peer-to-peer allocation between the participants involved and provides insights into the aspects that determine the concrete assignment. It also has the advantage of leading to a robust solution within the collaboration case studies for a basic set-up demonstrate the impact of this approach on the economic potential of aggregating local generation and demand at the same time.

Institutional work and social skill: the formation of strategic action fields for local energy systems in Britain

The concept of Strategic Action Fields (SAF) is combined with analysis of institutional work to investigate the tactics actors adopt to support or deter policy for integrated local energy systems. Integrating heat, power, and mobility systems at local or regional scale would entail highly significant changes in energy systems yet is an area of increasing policy interest. We explore how this field is being constituted differently across the devolved jurisdictions of Great Britain, but faces similar challenges. The obduracy of legacy centralised institutions is a powerful force in blocking new sustainable energy SAFs, with Government retaining significant countervailing power. Additionally we demonstrate how overlaps between policy domains can obstruct the formation of new rule structures; notably emerging local energy planning rules are constrained by wider limitations in devolved governance powers. These findings raise questions about whether net zero can happen, and in what form, under current multi-level governance structures.

Environmental temperature variation and electricity demand instability: A comprehensive assessment based on high-frequency load situation

Climate change is causing profound changes in energy and power systems around the world. Although many papers have confirmed the impact of environmental weather on electricity demand, the complex nexus of regional environmental temperature and electricity demand instability remains incomplete, especially neglecting the understanding from the perspectives of multi-quantiles. This paper uses a unique dataset of 15-min the high-frequency grid load situation of Datong, a northern city in China, to construct a comprehensive indicator to measure the regional electricity demand instability. Then, employing the Quantile-on-Quantile approach, this paper evaluates the association between intraday temperature difference and both the composite and multidimensional electric instability indicators. According to the empirical analysis, a larger environmental temperature difference always rises the instability of the electricity demand, which is stronger when both two variables are at higher quantile states. There are heterogeneities among the effects on multi-dimensional indicators of electricity demand instability. Environmental temperature difference provides a negative influence on the load rate, while it will magnify other instability indicators. Furthermore, we also assess the impact of daily extreme temperatures and divide the realized volatility of load into two directions for discussion. Our research presents important knowledge about responding the climate change-induced electric system risk.

Energy justice and energy democracy: Separated twins, rival concepts or just buzzwords?

Many new concepts have emerged to better capture socio-technical change in energy systems from a normative perspective. Two of the most visible, popularized, and politically charged are Energy Justice and Energy Democracy, but it is the tension between them that has drawn recent controversy. Instead of arguing for the superiority of one over the other, this paper's aim is to demonstrate their differential contribution and areas of productive overlap using both quantitative and qualitative measures. It presents the results of the systematic review of 495 articles on Energy Democracy and Energy Justice in the Web of Science database, with attention to the geographical focus, scale, technology, and social groups dominant in both literatures. We find that both the concepts and literatures employing them are very closely related, almost like twins. The key difference is the failure of the Energy Democracy literature to engage with questions of energy poverty and distributional (in)justice. For Energy Justice, we find that despite lip service paid to, for example, the Global South, normative research in energy transitions sphere remains highly Western-centric. We highlight, too, that both terms are most often used as buzzwords and that this undermines knowledge building and the radical potential for change which is inherent in the two concepts and their applications.

Unleashing Sociotechnical Imaginaries to Advance Just and Sustainable Energy Transitions: The Case of Solar Energy in Puerto Rico

A central challenge for energy policy is to simultaneously accelerate the transition to carbon neutrality to tackle climate change while also addressing diverse forms of energy inequality and injustice. In this article, we argue that the public imagination is central to efforts to successfully confront this dual challenge. Specifically, we argue that theories of sociotechnical imaginaries have the potential to be leveraged both to strengthen public support for and engagement in carbon-neutral energy transitions and to identify and catalyze integrated sociotechnical designs and solutions that deliver on both accelerated technological change and just, equitable, and inclusive transitions. To explore these ideas, we present an in-depth case study of an emergent sociotechnical imaginary surrounding solar energy technologies in Puerto Rico. The results of our case study suggest that new imaginaries have the potential both to create powerful public support for renewable energy technologies that can accelerate energy systems change and, at the same time, help illuminate strategies for deploying energy technologies in ways that create meaningful impact and value in people’s lives in diverse communities and thus contribute to making energy transitions more just and inclusive.

Technopolitics of future-making: The ambiguous role of energy communities in shaping energy system change

Implementing the EU Clean Energy Package (CEP) and its provisions for strengthening energy communities – the cooperative production and management of energy at local level by citizens, a concept emphasising citizen participation and empowerment – has opened a new arena for contestations over energy futures in Sweden. An aim of CEP is to contribute to just energy transitions through citizen participation and democratisation by using the potential of energy communities to reconfigure socio-material relations of the energy system. However, different actor constellations claim interpretative privilege about the role and importance of energy communities in a low-carbon future. To better understand political contestations over energy futures, we unpack broader discursive patterns and their socio-material enactments related to legally define and regulate the operation of energy communities in Sweden. Through the analytical lens of socio-technical imaginaries and technopolitics, we explore struggles over energy futures within conduits of institutionalised policymaking and attempts by energy communities to navigate technopolitical barriers in relation to grid infrastructure, power relations, actor constellations, rules and regulations and knowledge claims. We find that energy communities are not easily accommodated to the dominant socio-technical imaginary of Sweden’s energy future. What is at stake in processes related to the transposition of the CEP into national law is essentially different political ideas of how society should be organised.

Biophysical economic interpretation of the Great Depression: A critical period of an energy transition

AbstractThe objective of this paper is to explain the cause and proceedings of the 1930s Great Depression from a biophysical economic perspective. The Depression was a painful episode in the socio‐technological transition from a coal/railroad regime to one based on hydrocarbons, motor vehicles, and electricity. The beginning—the Great Crash of October 1929—corresponded with drastic cuts in oil prices and announcement of oil supply certainty, following discovery of huge oilfields in the US Southwest. The Depression principally centered on a change from railroads to motor‐vehicle‐based transportation, but was long and drawn‐out due to the hegemonic power that the railroads held over the US economy. The late 1920s saw increased use of hydrocarbon‐based technologies, but the emerging technologies were still reliant on the old technological system. Methods of biophysical economics, mapping energy flows to capital formation, show the critical role of railroads in the Depression. In 1929, railroads accounted for 24% of the non‐residential capital stock; they delivered between 70% and 76% of energy needs; and 69% of energy required for capital formation. Thus a hypothesis emerges that dwindling investment in the railroads was a major constraint on the economy. In biophysical terms, the US economy's main energy delivery system—coal carried by railcars—was hamstrung. Energy flow Sankey diagrams for 1929 and 1939 show the gradual change in energy systems that occurred over the Depression.

Climate change impacts of conventional sewage sludge treatment and disposal

Sewage sludge (SS) management remains a challenge across the world. We quantified the potential climate change impacts of eight conventional technology configurations (TCs) for SS treatment and disposal by considering four different energy exchanges and using a life cycle assessment (LCA) model that employed uncertainty distributions for 104 model parameters. All TCs showed large climate change loads and savings (net values ranging from 123 to 1148 kg CO2-eq/t TS) when the energy exchange was with a fossil-based energy system, whereas loads and savings were approximately three times lower when the energy exchange was with a renewable energy system. Uncertainty associated with the climate change results was more than 100% with fossil-energy exchange and low TS content of SS but was lower for renewable energy. Landfilling had the greatest climate change impact, while thermal drying with incineration had the highest probability of providing better climate change performance than other TCs. The global sensitivity analysis identified nine critical technological parameters. Many of them can be easily measured for relevant SS and technology levels to improve specific estimates of climate change impact. When all scenarios were optimized to the 20% best cases, thermal drying with incineration outperformed the other TCs. This paper contributes to better quantifying the climate change impacts of different technologies used for sludge treatment given changing energy systems and identifies crucial parameters for further technological development.

The best-laid plans: Tracing public engagement change in emergent Smart Local Energy Systems

To be fair, acceptable and ultimately successful, decentralised energy projects involving technological innovations require engagement with users, local communities and wider publics. Yet relatively few studies have adopted a dynamic, temporal approach to understand how publics are engaged with as projects develop over time. We address this gap by researching three case studies of ‘Smart Local Energy System’ (SLES) demonstrator projects involving combinations of power, heat and transport technologies funded under a UK government programme. Guided by literature on public engagement methods and rationales, as well as how users and communities are framed by stakeholders, we track engagement approaches over time from stages of project initiation to technology deployment. Engagement defined as communication and consultation predominates over participation and community empowerment, with instrumental rationales used to frame publics as consumers enabling technology deployment. Disruptions to engagement attributed to external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and BREXIT were interpreted both positively and negatively, including the implications of disruptions for social inclusion and fairness. The potential for SLES to catalyse broader social transformations in a context of environment and climate emergency is discussed.