Trends In Energy Use Research Articles

Rural residential energy behaviour: a trans-generational and cross-country research

Abstract Energy efficiency and consumption, sustainability and renewable energy sources are increasingly relevant topics in today’s world. Considering the increasing trend of energy use among household consumers in the context of the global energy deficit, the purpose of this study is to examine generational attitudinal variables of rural household consumers in Romania and the Republic of Serbia regarding the reduction of electricity consumption. It also studies the importance that household consumers assign to the use of ‘green’ energy in the energy mix, as a key factor for reducing the carbon footprint and sustainable development. The findings demonstrated some differences in the attitudes of respondents from the two analysed countries, corroborated with differences in sustainable behaviour between generations. The main results covering the whole analyzed sample show that the concern and interest in electricity consumption increases with the age of the respondents. Respondents from Generation X are the best informed about the knowledge of measures to reduce electricity consumption. The study reveals a higher degree of information and knowledge among respondents in the Republic of Serbia than in Romania regarding measures to reduce household electricity consumption and, at the same time, an increased interest in both countries for the use of renewable energy sources in the future. These findings highlight the complex dynamics of behavioural factors and their collective impact on attitudes related to sustainable electricity consumption. The study provides insights into how attitudinal variables influence different aspects of electricity consumption reduction behaviour, offering potential directions for interventions aimed at, on the one hand, promoting measures by which energy consumption can be reduced and on the other hand , encouraging the use of renewable energy in the energy system.

Role of Energy Management System in Schoolsand Primary Schools in Riga

Educational buildings, such as schools and primary schools, are significant energy consumers, and improving their energy efficiency is crucial for reducing operational costs and negative impact on the environment. This study addresses the need to evaluate the effectiveness of Energy Management Systems (EMS) in optimizing heat energy consumption, focusing on the specific heat energy use (kWh/m²) and the role of energy managers in sustaining long-term efficiency. The objective of this study is to assess how the implementation of an EMS impacts heating energy consumption and to identify additional measures needed to sustain improvements. The methodology is based on the analysis of actual heating energy consumption data obtained from utility bills collected from educational institutions. Key approaches include climate normalization of data, the process of normalizing energy consumption data to account for changes in weather conditions, allowing for accurate comparisons across time periods, metric estimation, and statistical analysis to assess trends in energy use. Interviews with employees responsible for building usage provide a better understanding of the actual operational activities that impact energy efficiency. Results show that EMS implementation significantly reduces specific heat energy consumption during the first two years, achieving savings of up to 13%. These reductions are attributed to the establishment of systematic monitoring, realtime energy tracking, and improved operational efficiency driven by energy managers. However, starting from the third year, the effectiveness of EMS alone begins to decline, indicating that monitoring and reporting efforts, while essential, are not sufficient to sustain energy efficiency improvements in the long term. The results highlight that the benefits of EMS decrease over time, showing the need for combined strategies to maintain energy efficiency in schools and primary schools. Future work should prioritize improving monitoring tools, education of responsible employees, and applying affordable upgrades to buildings.

High-Performance Computing for Predicting the Environmental Impact of Renewable Energy Sources

In the context of great global attention to energy security, the development and utilization of renewable energy have become a key measure to achieve the goal of high-quality development and "two-carbon." Our work is to study the ecological impact of HPC analysis. Three different machine learning models—Support Vector Regression (SVR), Random Forest, and Gradient Boosting—are employed in this study to predict utilization rates based on factors like energy mix and workload characteristics. An ARIMA (Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average) model forecasts future energy consumption trends based on historical data from different data center types (Traditional, Cloud, and Hyperscale). These analyses show a worrying increase trend in energy use and carbon emissions. In addition, a SARIMA (Seasonal ARIMA) model is fitted to forecast future energy consumption over various economic sectors (residential, commercial, and industrial), including historical trends and seasonality. That enables a more complete analysis of the entire energy landscape and how it is weighed toward HPC. The model analyzes several future energy mix scenarios, from a gradually maintained role of fossil fuels to rapidly increasing adoption of renewables. The study estimates the possible contributions of increasing renewable penetration to reducing HPC's carbon footprint.

Gains in China's sustainability by decoupling economic growth from energy use

Gains in China's sustainability by decoupling economic growth from energy use

The Evolution Towards Hydrogen-Rich and Carbon-Free Fuels in Industry

The article examines the gradual transition of industry to the use of fuels containing more hydrogen and containing no carbon. In particular, the concept of a hydrogen economy is discussed, where hydrogen is produced from water using solar or hydropower. The author analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of this concept, as well as possible technical and economic obstacles to its implementation. The article also examines current trends in energy use and the role that hydrogen can play in the future energy system.

Temporal changes in the individual size distribution modulate the long‐term trends of biomass and energy use of North American breeding bird communities

Abstract AimThe frequency of different body sizes in an ecological community (the individual size distribution, or ISD) is a key link between the number of individual organisms present in a community and community function—total biomass or total energy use. If the ISD changes over time, the dynamics of community function may become decoupled from trends in abundance. Understanding how, and how often, the ISD modulates the relationship between abundance, biomass and energy use is of critical importance to understand biodiversity trends in the Anthropocene. Here, we conduct the first macroecological‐scale analysis of this type for avian communities.LocationNorth America, north of Mexico.Time Period1989–2018.Major Taxa StudiedBreeding birds.MethodsWe used species' traits to generate annual ISDs for bird communities in the North American Breeding Bird Survey. We compared the long‐term trends in total biomass and energy use to the trends generated from a null model of an unchanging ISD.ResultsTrends in biomass have been evenly split between increases and decreases, but the trends predicted by the null model were dominated by decreases. A substantial number of communities have undergone a shift in the ISD favouring larger bodied species, resulting in a less negative trend in biomass than would be expected had the ISD remained static. Trends in energy use more closely paralleled the null model.Main ConclusionsTaking changes in the ISD into account qualitatively changes the continental‐scale picture of how biomass and energy use have changed over the past 30 years. For North American breeding birds, shifts in species composition favouring larger bodied species may have partially offset declines in standing biomass driven by losses of individuals over the past 30 years.

Identifying Energy Literacy Understanding of Physics Teacher Candidate Students Using a Four-Tier Test Instrument Based on Energy Literacy

This research aims to identify the energy literacy abilities of prospective physics teacher students using a test instrument in the form of a four tier test. This type of research is quantitative descriptive research. The population of this study was one class of prospective physics teacher students at the first level, totalling 30 students. The data collection technique was carried out using a test technique using a test instrument in the form of a four-tier test with a total of 40 questions. The four-tier test has the advantage of being able to capture more accurate information with diverse answer patterns, which is one of the reasons for its use. The analysis technique in this research is descriptive statistical analysis. The level of understanding of students' energy literacy is categorized into three categories, namely understanding, not understanding, and misunderstanding. The energy literacy indicators measured in this research consist of six indicators which include: (1) basic energy knowledge; (2) understanding energy sources and their relationships; (3) awareness of the importance of energy use for individuals and social life; (4) knowing trends in energy use in Indonesia and global energy sources-supply and use; (5) understand the influence of the development of energy sources and the implementation of their use in society; and (6) understand the influence of the development of energy sources and their use on the environment. The research results show that the level of understanding of energy literacy among students is in the category of not understanding as much as 5.83% of students. Furthermore, the level of understanding of students' energy literacy in the understanding category was 31.38% of students. Meanwhile, there were 62.79% of students who had a level of understanding of energy literacy in the misunderstanding category.

Drivers of global carbon emission changes: A heterogeneity perspective of decomposition and attribution analysis

Due to the differences in economic development, resource endowment, and historical accumulation, different types of countries have significant technical heterogeneity in carbon emissions. Identifying the driving factors of carbon emission changes, under the premise of distinguishing national heterogeneity, can provide a basis for the formulation of the “Differentiated Responsibilities” emission reduction policies. Therefore, this study introduces the idea of Meta-frontier into the traditional production-theoretical decomposition analysis, and constructs a new influencing factor analysis framework. Based on the newly built method, the empirical study of 60 representative countries draws the following three meaningful conclusion: 1) Different types of countries have obvious heterogeneity in technology, efficiency and change trend of energy use. Specifically, countries with higher energy intensity values generally have a quicker decline rate than those with lower energy intensity values. There exists “catch-up” effects for the backward to the advanced countries. 2) Decomposition results show that potential energy intensity (PEI) is the dominant factor reducing carbon emissions, especially for those large economic output with large energy consumption (Group-L) countries (0.604). Economic activity effect (ECA) is the most significant driving force for countries with small economic output and small energy consumption (Group-S), reaching 1.806. Meanwhile, the attribution results showed different characteristics in different groups of countries. The impact of various factors that reflect the heterogeneity of production process on carbon emissions mainly comes from the contribution of Group-L. 3) We suggest that, in the process of carbon reduction, large energy consumption countries should pay more attention to the gap between the development and speed of the world’s cutting-edge technologies.

Trends in Energy Use in Punjab Agriculture

Trends in Energy Use in Punjab Agriculture

Strategy for achieving long-term energy efficiency of European single-family buildings through passive climate adaptation

Strategy for achieving long-term energy efficiency of European single-family buildings through passive climate adaptation

Rethinking the concept of building energy rating system in Australia: a pathway to life-cycle net-zero energy building design

Over the last decades, Australia has taken several measures to tackle the increasing trend of energy use in residential buildings. Recently, the Trajectory for Low Energy Buildings has been endorsed aiming to reduce energy usage in residential buildings. However, the primary focus of this trajectory is on decreasing operational energy without considering the embodied energy of the building and systems. This paper aims to address one primary question; ‘can the continued exclusion of embodied energy from the energy efficiency regulations effectively lead to reducing energy consumption in Australian residential buildings?’. The findings indicate that embodied energy becomes a dominating factor as buildings’ thermal performances increase according to the Australian energy efficiency regulations. In transitioning from a standard 6.0-star building to a highly energy-efficient 8.7-star building, the proportion of embodied energy significantly increases from 20–40% to 50–75%. This study recommends establishing minimum mandatory requirements for buildings’ embodied performance.

Study on the measurement and the changing trend of the energy use of China’s economic sectors: based on cross-region input-output model

The consumption of fossil energy is the major cause of environmental pollution. Effectively reducing the fossil energy use has important significance for achieving China's green development targets. The premise for reducing fossil energy use is accurately measuring the amount of energy use and identifying the key sectors and links of energy use of China's economic sectors. This paper, by establishing a cross-region input-output model, measured the amount of energy use from the perspective of embodied energy, explored the changing trend of energy use between 2002 and 2015, and identified the key sectors and links of energy use. The results show that the embodied energy intensities of China's economic sectors are generally higher than the world average level, but its changing trend is declining. Although the amount of energy use shows a growth trend, the growth rate manifests a decline process. The key sectors of energy use assemble in the resource sector and heavy industry sector. The key link is intermediate use, but about 80% of embodied energy of intermediate use has been used by downstream sectors. Approximately 76% of the embodied energy of final demand has been used by gross fixed capital formation and urban residents' consumption. China has turned from a net exporter of embodied energy to a net importer since 2012. There is a resource mismatch in China's import and export structure of embodied energy.

Variability in Measured Real-World Operational Energy Use and Emission Rates of a Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle

Compared to comparably sized conventional light duty gasoline vehicles (CLDGVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) may offer benefits of improved energy economy, reduced emissions, and the flexibility to use electricity as an energy source. PHEVs operate in either charge depleting (CD) or charge sustaining (CS) mode; the engine has the ability to turn on and off; and the engine can have multiple cold starts. A method is demonstrated for quantifying the real-world activity, energy use, and emissions of PHEVs, taking into account these operational characteristics and differences in electricity generation resource mix. A 2013 Toyota Prius plug-in was measured using a portable emission measurement system. Vehicle specific power (VSP) based modal average energy use and emission rates are inferred to assess trends in energy use and emissions with respect to engine load and for comparisons of engine on versus engine off, and cold start versus hot stabilized running. The results show that, compared to CLDGVs, the PHEV operating in CD mode has improved energy efficiency and lower CO2, CO, HC, NOx, and PM2.5 emission rates for a wide range of power generation fuel mixes. However, PHEV energy use and emission rates are highly variable, with periods of relatively high on-road emission rates related to cold starts.

Environmental Sustainability of Bioenergy Strategies in Western Kenya to Address Household Air Pollution

Over 640 million people in Africa are expected to rely on solid-fuels for cooking by 2040. In Western Kenya, cooking inefficiently persists as a major cause of burden of disease due to household air pollution. Efficient biomass cooking is a local-based renewable energy solution to address this issue. The Life-Cycle Assessment tool Simapro 8.5 is applied for analyzing the environmental impact of four biomass cooking strategies for the Kisumu County, with analysis based on a previous energy modelling study, and literature and background data from the Ecoinvent and Agrifootprint databases applied to the region. A Business-As-Usual scenario (BAU) considers the trends in energy use until 2035. Transition scenarios to Improved Cookstoves (ICS), Pellet-fired Gasifier Stoves (PGS) and Biogas Stoves (BGS) consider the transition to wood-logs, biomass pellets and biogas, respectively. An Integrated (INT) scenario evaluates a mix of the ICS, PGS and BGS. In the BGS, the available biomass waste is sufficient to be upcycled and fulfill cooking demands by 2035. This scenario has the lowest impact on all impact categories analyzed followed by the PGS and INT. Further work should address a detailed socio-economic analysis of the analyzed scenarios.

Institutional conditions, sustainable energy, and the UN sustainable development discourse: A focus on Haiti

Institutional conditions, sustainable energy, and the UN sustainable development discourse: A focus on Haiti

An Investigation of the Behavioral Characteristics of Higher- and Lower-Temperature Group Families in a Condominium Equipped with a HEMS System

A home energy management system (HEMS) shows the energy used indoors so that the energy waste can be easily identified and reduced. Thermal comfort is related to the trend of energy use in buildings. We conducted a survey in a condominium equipped with a HEMS to determine the indoor thermal environment and various behaviors of the occupants taken for thermal comfort adjustment. The results showed that there is a large variation of indoor air temperatures according to season, floor and flat. We categorized families into two groups, one with higher and the other with lower average indoor temperatures. The indoor air temperature of the higher temperature group in summer was found to be higher than the recommended indoor temperature during the summer season in Japan. The higher temperature group tended to adopt behaviors, such as window opening and using a fan more often, than the lower temperature group. Due to the moderately high insulating levels in the building surveyed, the indoor air temperature of both groups was not low in winter. Heating was used less and irregular. The overall results indicate that the groups of families behaved differently to adjust the indoor thermal environment even though they were equipped with the same HEMS system.

Assessing the trends of energy use of public non-domestic buildings in England and Wales

Accessing sufficient data for understanding how energy is used in non-domestic buildings is deemed to be a challenge in many countries. In the UK, such a challenge has led to limited understanding of long-term changes in energy use of buildings. This study aims to develop a deeper understanding of the trends in energy use across the public sector non-domestic buildings in England. Display energy certificate (DEC) data which relate to 59,740 public sector non-domestic buildings in England and Wales were analysed. Statistical analyses were carried out to understand both the latest patterns of energy use and how they have changed between 2010 and 2016. The patterns of energy use of various public-sector buildings were found to have gradually changed over the seven-year period. An imminent release of a revised dataset was deemed necessary for understanding the performance of buildings to support the aspirations set out in the clean growth strategy. The study pointed to a need for regularly gathering and sharing data for understanding the changes in the patterns of energy use of the stock. Developing a framework that can facilitate this would enable various stakeholders make informed decisions for improving energy efficiency of the UK’s non-domestic buildings. Practical application: Statistics on electrical and fossil-thermal energy use intensity provide up-to-date reference points for assessing operational energy efficiency of public sector buildings. Principles for developing a framework are provided to support various stakeholders make informed decisions on for example setting design targets or making capital investments.

Documenting Trends in Energy Use and Environmental Practices on US Golf Courses

Core Ideas Energy use on US golf courses has declined since 2008. The greatest decreases were in electricity consumption. Increased use of alternative energy sources, hybrid vehicles, and acreage reductions will result in further energy decreases in the future. Since an initial 2008 survey that documented energy use and environmental practices on US golf courses, there has been an 8.3% decrease in annual energy use on 18‐hole facilities, from 2623 million Btu (MMBtu) per facility in 2008 to 2405 MMBtu in 2015. This decrease was primarily the result of reduced consumption of electricity since 2008, including adoption of behavioral and physical or design features for the purpose of energy conservation, increased use of onsite solar panels, adoption of written energy plans, and use of energy audits. From 2008 to 2015, there was a small increase (2.2%) in diesel fuel use, but little change in the use of all other energy sources including gasoline, natural gas, propane, and heating oil on 18‐hole facilities. There was a 7.8% decrease in overall energy use in the golf course industry as a whole, which came about as a result of behavioral changes in energy consumption (accounting for 39% of the decrease) and the reduced number of golf facilities in the United States since 2008 (accounting for 61% of the decrease). Future energy conservation efforts should be focused on electricity and fuel use, especially in golf maintenance activities, increased use of alternative energy sources, hybrid vehicles, reduced maintained acreage, and regular energy audits on which energy conservation plans can be based.

Spatial Patterns and Trends in Energy Use and Consumption in Africa

Energy lies at the core of every human activity and can be described as having a pervasive influence on all aspects of development making it one of the most important resources that belies the development of any given country. Developing countries on the other hand are constantly faced with the daunting task of providing its industries and citizens with energy in its various forms. The resulting effect is limiting economic development and by extension limited social development. In meeting this need, the Ghanaian populace have and continue to rely on traditional biomass amid associated risks and health complications. This article analyzes the factors accounting for the heavy reliance on traditional biomass in Sub Saharan Africa (ssa) with particular reference to Ghana and to determine if these factors promote a spatial pattern formation in energy use.

The impacts of household retrofit and domestic energy efficiency schemes: A large scale, ex post evaluation

There is widespread interest in the ability of retrofit schemes to shape domestic energy use in order to tackle fuel poverty and reduce carbon emissions. Although much has been written on the topic, there have been few large-scale ex post evaluations of the actual impacts of such schemes. We address this by assessing domestic energy use before and after the Kirklees Warm Zone (KWZ) scheme, which by fitting insulation in 51,000 homes in the 2007–2010 period is one of the largest retrofit schemes completed in the UK to date. To do this, we develop and apply a new methodology that isolates the impacts of retrofit activity from broader background trends in energy use. The results suggest that the actual impacts of the KWZ scheme have been higher than predicted, and that the scale of any performance gaps or rebound effects have been lower than has often been assumed. They also suggest that impacts on energy use in lower income areas are consistent with predictions, but that impacts in middle and higher income areas are higher than predicted. These findings support the case for the wider and/or accelerated adoption of domestic retrofit schemes in other contexts.