• Energy Research
• Closed Access close
• Embargo close
• 8. Economic growth close
• 1. No poverty close
• IT close
• EU close

Abstract Reaching universal access to electricity by 2030 requires a massive deployment of mini-grids in rural areas of developing countries. Among the many challenges hindering this process, there are the high uncertainties in assessing demand patterns in rural communities, the costs of field survey campaigns, and the absence of ample and reliable datasets coming from existing projects. This paper tries to address these issues by presenting and discussing a database of load profiles from sixty-one off-grid mini-grids from developing countries worldwide, gathered from the literature, private developers and fieldworks, and reported with technical, socio-economic and geographical characterization factors. A clustering procedure led to the identification of five archetypal load profile clusters, which are presented and analyzed together with their load duration curves. Subsequently, the distribution among the clusters of the various characterization factors selected is studied. The proposed approach allows to widen the range of load profiles usually considered, and to seek correlations between the load profile shapes, the peak power and average energy consumption per connection, the number of customers, the age of measurement, geographical position, operator model, type of tariff and generation technologies present. This work establishes a first step in the creation of a shared database for load profiles of rural mini-grids, helping to overcome the lack of available data and difficulties of demand assessment, proposing original insights for researchers to understand load patterns, and contributing to reduce risks and uncertainties for mini-grid developers.

Abstract Given the need to reduce the CO2 emissions coming from the manufacturing sector, it is important, for planning purposes, to know which countries and which manufacturing sub-sectors have the greatest potential for reducing energy use. Using data from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the authors estimate trends in global decoupling of energy use and manufacturing value added, compare energy-use intensity in six country groups and estimate the potential for reducing energy use and CO2 emissions under two scenarios and compare selected sub-sector energy intensity and estimate the potential for reducing energy use CO2 emissions. The comparison of energy intensities across country groups and among countries suggests that there still remains significant potential to reduce energy use and associated CO2 emissions. The analysis of four sub-sectors in developing and transition economies also shows similar but varied potential for reducing energy use and associated CO2 emissions.

AbstractEmbedding sustainability in day‐to‐day operations necessitates employees' proactiveness beyond compliance with standardised management practices. Exchanging information on safety and environmental issues is acknowledged as a component of workers' proactive behaviours for sustainability embeddedness, which is hardly promoted by codified procedures. Accordingly, identifying leverages to stimulate information exchange is a primary objective for academics and practitioners. The study investigates drivers of information exchange on safety and environmental near misses by examining five situation‐related antecedents: rewards/reinforcements, organisational boundaries, social proactiveness, stakeholder salience and connectedness. The study relies on a mixed method approach, by combining social network analysis and a questionnaire survey conducted among four large Italian companies. The findings partially support the hypothesis of the study, highlighting rewards/reinforcements and connectedness as relevant antecedents of information exchange, while organisational boundaries only partially relate with information exchange. Surprisingly, stakeholder salience and social proactiveness do not emerge as significant drivers of information exchange. The study contributes to the debate on extra‐role pro‐sustainability behaviours and provides implications for managerial practice.

Abstract In modern developed economies, one of the primary objectives is to manage the transition from polluting to cleaner technologies as efficiently as possible. By now, in the current empirical literature, one can identify technological spillovers from environmental innovations as a major driver of this process. Specific energy policy aspects connected with industry behaviour have yet to be explored. The aim of this paper is to investigate energy efficiency via environmental innovation and the resulting degree of resilience and adaptation of both developed and developing countries. The work applies the non-parametric DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) framework and Tobit analysis. For this scope, it is built a panel dataset made of some 5000 observations based on energy policy and sustainable development variables for 136 OECD and non-OECD countries. The results show that knowledge spillovers from environmental innovations reduce inefficiency and therefore strengthen the resilience of economies that decide and manage to invest adequately in the transition to more sustainable technologies. Besides, OECD countries improve their energy efficiency scores over time, whilst non-OECD countries do not. This implies that sustainable technologies transition is made more efficient by environmental innovation but the process is fostered by disposing of a resilient economic system – hence, vulnerability can affect the transition. These hypotheses lead to important economic, social and environmental implications for energy policy modelling.

Abstract The purpose of this article is to analyse, in the humanitarian context, the key links between energy and food security, energy-related challenges faced by affected populations, current barriers to sustainable energy access, opportunities for addressing energy needs and existing gaps in current research on energy issues. Ensuring access to energy is a major challenge for some 3.1 billion people living in low- and middle-income countries, especially in remote and off-grid areas. Lack of safe, affordable and sustainable energy for cooking, heating, lighting and powering has cross-sectoral implications and is particularly constrained for the roughly 60 million people living in complex emergencies and protracted crisis. Some 80 percent of refugees and displaced people in camps have little access to energy entailing additional exposure to security risks, health hazards and restricted economic and education opportunities. Often people have no choice but to depend on biomass to meet their immediate energy needs. The traditional use of solid biomass and inefficient technologies for cooking, heating and other energy needs, can be harmful to their well-being and food security while being largely unsustainable. The consumption of safe, healthy and nutritious meals often depends on access to energy, allowing for proper preparation and utilisation of food. The inability for people to meet their energy needs for cooking may seriously affect food and nutrition security not only in terms of utilisation, but also has the potential to impair sustainable food systems. The humanitarian system is unable to face the energy challenge and increasing needs if current response measures are not improved. Actions and a substantial change in policy are needed, in order to significantly reduce the total number of people relying on solid fuels by 2030. This article will discuss how underlying barriers are contributing to inadequate access and use of energy and cooking technologies in humanitarian settings and the subsequent adverse impacts on people’s lives and environments. The projected effects of the current energy poverty crisis in humanitarian settings is discussed while some of the solutions to address energy needs, including examples based on innovative technologies and new mechanisms, are examined in general terms. Furthermore, the challenges, opportunities and future areas of interest associated with these technologies and mechanisms are also considered.

In the last years, the circular economy (CE) paradigm is being widely explored by researchers and institutions as a possible path to increase the sustainability of our economic system. Reuse, repair and recycling are becoming crucial activities in many sectors. At the same time, companies are showing an increasing interest for this new economic model. However, the state of the art shows that a deep research on CE assessment and indicators is still lacking, in particular on the micro level. This work tries to fill this gap, first analyzing the current literature on CE assessment, then proposing a reference framework for the monitoring phase of a CE strategy. Finally, the main existing environmental assessment methodologies based on indexes are analyzed according to their suitability to evaluate the circularity of a system. A systematic approach for the choice of the adequate methodology is also provided, highlighting the main critical steps in the assessment of a CE strategy. Further research could be focused either on the extension of this approach to include other assessment methods, and on the validation of this proposal in a case study.

Abstract The use of wastewater sludge as a source for energy and resource recovery is a good alternative for its management considering the legislation requirements and the circular economy principles. Recognizing sludge as a resource, not as a waste, has made researchers consider the recovery of valuable components from sludge, such as carbon and nutrients. The energy that can be obtained from wastewater sludge may be a sustainable solution to fulfill present and future energy requirements. This review discusses about the types of sludge produced by wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), the technologies that can be implemented in the water and sludge line to reduce the sludge amount, as well as the conventional treatment and disposal methods. Moreover, the technologies that can be used to recover resources and energy in the context of circular economy are also presented, with a focus on Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and a critical overview of positive and negative aspects in implementation. A detailed description of some urban biorefineries aimed at the recovery of cellulose and nutrients and the production of bioplastics is further reported. The study ends with a discussion on the need for an appropriate methodological approach when proposing “end-of-waste” criteria for wastewater sludge derived products.

Lack of consensus on an international agreement for reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) emissions eventually leads to asymmetric climate policies which not only increase the cost of reducing emissions but also decrease the effectiveness of the climate policy, through carbon leakage. We calculate the carbon leakage rate when EU undertakes a unilateral climate policy and we assess the importance of the competitiveness channel on carbon leakage. Our analysis is global and mirrors energy and climate policies and commitments that are currently announced at country level. The effectiveness of possible measures to mitigate carbon leakage is also evaluated and the results emphasize on the importance of the size of the group of countries participating in the GHG mitigation effort. The analysis is based on the results obtained using the GEM-E3 model, a global multi-sector and multi-country computable general equilibrium model. It is found that total carbon leakage is around 28%, over the 2015–2050 period, when the EU acts alone with moderate Armington trade substitution elasticity values; leakage rates are found to increase when assuming higher trade elasticities. The size and composition, in terms of GHG and energy intensities, of the group of regions undertaking emission reductions matter for carbon leakage. The paper finds that the leakage is significantly reduced when China joins the mitigation effort. If the USA joins the EU effort, the leakage rate drops only to 25% and if alternatively China joins the EU the leakage rate drops to 3% over the 2015–2050 period. This is attributed to both the market size of China and to the energy intensity features of its production. Chemicals and metals are industries prone to higher leakage rates.

Tested by the manufacturer, the electrical characteristics of PV modules are rated at the Standard Test Conditions (STC; 1000 W/m2 and 25 °C). But under real working conditions where the temperature and the irradiance are different from those of STC, the electrical specifications are definitely affected. Which in turn, affect the conversion efficiency and the Fill factor (FF). Here, the conversion efficiency and the FF of three different PV modules technologies: Poly-Crystalline Silicon (Poly C-Si), Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) and Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) under STC and real working conditions of solar irradiance and temperature are evaluated based on real data, then analyzed. To this, a test facility is employed to carry out the required tests for the aforementioned PV technologies. The investigation presented in this paper aims to seek which PV technology is preferable in a specific level of irradiance and temperature.

Abstract In a recent paper, Jones (1995) [A dynamic analysis of the interfuel substitution in US industrial energy demand. J. Bus. Econ. Stat. 13 (4), 459–465] presents a dynamic analysis of interfuel substitution in US industry energy demand. The author concludes that a dynamic linear logit model is `superior' to a comparable dynamic translog model. The latter in fact violates concavity conditions whilst the logit formulation does not. This paper shows first of all that the dynamic formulation of the translog used in Jones (1995) is mis-specified. In fact, a parsimonious error-correction model (ECM) `dominates' alternative dynamic formulations, amongst which the partial adjustment mechanism used by the author. The ECM is able to generate optimal estimates of long-run and short-run elasticities, and it satisfies the concavity conditions of the cost function. Further, the theoretical framework used in this paper is the one recently proposed by Urga (1996) [On the identification problem in testing dynamic specification of factor demand equations. Econ. Lett. 52, 205–210] and Allen and Urga (1998) [Derivation and estimation of interrelated factor demands from dynamic cost function. Forthcoming in Economica]. It allows one to identify all coefficients (long-run and short-run) of the dynamic formulation via the joint estimation of the `effective' (short-run) cost function and the set of factor demand equations. This strategy solves, amongst other things, the parameter identification problem within the set of demand equations themselves, an issue which was originally noted by Anderson and Blundell (1982) [Estimation and hypothesis testing in dynamic singular equation systems. Econometrica, 1559–1571], re-addressed by Friesen (1992) [Testing dynamic specification of factor demand equations for US manufacturing. Rev. Econ. Stat. LXXIV (2), 240–250] and, more recently, by Urga (1996) and Allen and Urga (1998).