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HVDC innovations and the integration of power markets and renewables drive the development of a European Northern Seas offshore grid. This power transmission system performs two functions: interconnecting Northern European onshore power systems, and connecting offshore wind farms. Despite its benefits, the development of an integrated offshore grid combining the two functions is slow. The main reasons are the lack of cooperation and governance frameworks to overcome regional differences and distribute costs and benefits. These barriers were studied so far only qualitatively or through perfect foresight optimization models. We complement this by studying transmission expansion pathways of the grid, which are non-optimal and path dependent, using a novel and open-source simulation model for offshore transmission investments. Different expansion typologies are considered, which we find perform the grid functions with different levels of integration and transmission capacities. Besides these typology factors, modelling and simulation factors also affect the expansion selection. Typology, modelling and simulation factors interact to result in radically different offshore grid pathways, which exhibit strong path dependence. Thus, to avoid locking-out beneficial expansions for the Northern Seas offshore grid, planning should be regional and consider HVDC innovations. Then individual projects can be implemented based on their own merits.

This paper proposes an approach to capturing and reviewing scientific literature addressing latent topics across multiple scientific fields. As latent topics like moral values are affected by word polysemy and synonymy, a traditional keyword-based approach is often ineffective and therefore inappropriate. As a result, scientific literature addressing latent topics tends to be fragmented thereby constraining efforts to address similar and complementary research challenges. A novel approach to reviewing the literature by utilizing both semantic fields and probabilistic topic models has therefore been developed. We illustrate this approach by reviewing the literature addressing the value justice in the energy sector and compare this with a regular keyword-based approach. The new approach results in a more complete overview of the relevance of energy justice as compared to the traditional keyword-based approach. This novel approach can be applied to other latent topics including other values or phenomena such as societal resistance to technologies, thereby leading to an increased understanding of existing relevant literature and the identification of new areas of research.

In community energy systems, the energy demand of a group of households is met by collectively generated electricity and heat from renewable energy sources. What makes these systems unique is their collective and collaborative form of organization and their distributed energy generation. While these features are crucial to the resilience of these systems and are beneficial for the sustainable energy transition in general, they may at the same time undermine the security of energy within these systems. This paper takes a comprehensive view of the energy security of community energy systems by considering dimensions such as energy price, environment and availability, which are all impacted by decentralized and collective means of energy generation and distribution. The study analyses community energy systems' technical and institutional characteristics that influence their energy security. An agent-based modelling approach is used for the first time to study energy security, focusing on thermal energy communities given the considerable share of thermal energy applications such as heating, cooling, and hot tap water. The simulation results articulate that energy communities are capable of contributing to the energy security of individual households. Results demonstrated the substantial potential of energy communities in CO2 emissions reduction (60% on average) while being affordable in the long run. In addition, the results show the importance of project leadership (particularly regarding the municipality) concerning energy security performances. Finally, the results reveal that the amount of available subsidy and natural gas prices are relatively more effective for ensuring high energy security levels than CO2 taxes. ; Energie and Industrie ; Organisation & Governance ; Economics of Technology and Innovation ; Applied Sciences

In order to decarbonize the energy sector, there is a widespread consensus that the role of end-users in the energy system should change from passive consumption to active prosumption and engagement. This is of particular importance as an increasing number of technologies and business models are focusing on the end-users. These developments provide new opportunities for further technical and social innovation to smarter, flexible and integrated systems such as community energy systems (CESs). Through system integration and community engagement CESs assist in transition to a low-carbon energy system. Despite the high importance, there is limited knowledge on willingness of local citizens to participate in the local energy systems such as CESs as well as associated factors determining such willingness. Through a survey among 599 citizens in the Netherlands, this research analyses the impact of demographic, socio-economic, socio-institutional as well as environmental factors on willingness to participate in CESs. Factor and multi-variate regression analysis reveals that the environmental concern, renewables acceptance, energy independence, community trust, community resistance, education, energy related education and awareness about local energy initiatives are the most important factors in determining the citizens’ willingness to participate in CESs. Citizens should be empowered to take active role in steering the local energy initiatives.

The integration of large amounts of variable renewable energy poses fundamental challenges to the operation and governance of the energy system. In this article we address the main institutional challenges that are caused by the integration of variable renewable energy sources like solar and wind energy in the European power system. We first address how the variable and unpredictable nature of wind and solar energy increases the demand for flexible resources and we discuss potential sources of flexibility. Next, we elaborate on how the need for more flexibility challenges the prevailing market design of todays liberalized power systems. Furthermore, we discuss the key areas where there is a need for a more integrated approach to research and policy making. The need for a more integrated approach is motivated by exposing a number of critical interdependencies between technical and institutional sub-systems.

Artículos en revistas Energy systems across the globe are going through a radical transformation as a result of technological and institutional changes, depletion of fossil fuel resources, and climate change. At the local level, increasing distributed energy resources requires that the centralized energy systems be re-organized. In this paper, the concept of Integrated community energy systems (ICESs) is presented as a modern development to re-organize local energy systems to integrate distributed energy resources and engage local communities. Local energy systems such as ICESs not only ensure self-provision of energy but also provide essential system services to the larger energy system. In this regard, a comparison of different energy system integration option is provided. We review the current energy trends and the associated technological, socio-economic, environmental and institutional issues shaping the development of ICESs. These systems can be applied to both developed and developing countries, however, their objectives, business models as well as composition differs. ICESs can be accepted by different actors such as local governments, communities, energy suppliers and system operators as an effective means to achieve sustainability and thereby will have significant roles in future energy systems. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The dataset contains case studies and verification files for the paper ���Transmission Expansion Simulation for the European Northern Seas Offshore Grid���.

Symbiotic Urban Agriculture Networks (SUANs) are a specific class of symbiotic networks that intend to close material and energy loops from cities and urban agriculture. Private and public stakeholders in SUANs face difficulties in the implementation of technological and organisational design interventions due to the complex nature of the agricultural and urban environment. Current research on the dynamics of symbiotic networks, especially Industrial Symbiosis (IS), is based on historical data from practice, and provides only partly for an understanding of symbiotic networks as a sociotechnical complex adaptive system. By adding theory and methodology from Design Science, participatory methods, and by using agent-based modelling as a tool, prescriptive knowledge is developed in the form of grounded and tested design rules for SUANs. In this paper, we propose a conceptual Design Science method with the aim to develop an empirically validated participatory agent-based modelling strategy that guides sociotechnical design interventions in SUANs. In addition, we present a research agenda for further strategy, design intervention, and model development through case studies regarding SUANs. The research agenda complements the existing analytical work by adding a necessary Design Science approach, which contributes to bridging the gap between IS dynamics theory and practical complex design issues.