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Our-Energy.eu digital platform (Phase 1) will be the NEWCOMERS project webpage, offering the project key content and at the same time will also provide an interactive digital educational, awareness-raising and networking web tool for energy communities and interested EU citizens.

Domestic (household) biogas plants constitute a growing sub-sector of the anaerobic digestion industry worldwide but have received low interest for improvements. The Chinese dome digester (CDD 1), a major type of domestic biogas plants, is a naturally mixed, unheated and low technology reactor mainly used in rural and pre-urban areas for cooking using animal manure. In this study, a multiphase Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model was applied to evaluate an optimized CDD design and outcomes were compared with results of pilot scale experiments. The optimized digester (CDD2) under goes self-agitating cycles created by the pressure variation from the produced biogas with the aid of a baffle at the top of the reactor, whereas the blank (CDD 1) does not self-agitate. The optimized digester has two pressure zones to improve mixing viz. the self-agitation cycles. The optimized digester is characterized by more, stable and improved hydraulic characteristics and mixing.

During urban planning, city planners and municipal authorities make various choices that impact districts' energy efficiency and emissions significantly. However, they often lack information about the actual effects of the design options. This paper describes a methodology, embedded to a tool called Kurke, that aims to support the planning of sustainable and energy efficient urban areas by analysing the energy performance of city plans and the impacts of their energy design alternatives on carbon dioxide emissions during planning. The methodology supports holistic energy analysis of urban areas, including energy demand of buildings and transport, and comparing 10 alternatives for local energy supply. The methodology is tested in two Finnish residential and mixed-use areas. The improved transportation plans can reduce CO2 emissions 10-20% compared to the business-as-usual design in case areas. CO2 emissions from buildings' heating can be reduced 18-24%. The total CO2 reduction potential of urban planning choices varies from 2% to 78% in case areas. This shows the significant role of urban planning in reducing CO2 emissions. Therefore, it is important that urban planners understand the impacts of the design decisions. Kurke tool offers such support with fast and practical evaluation of the planning options.

The present study investigates the effect of public–private partnership investment in energy and renewable energy consumption on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, taking into account the critical role of economic growth and trade openness in Pakistan from 1992 to 2019. The linear and nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag models are employed to check the co-integration link between dependent and independent variables, further estimate short-run and long-run associations, and examine the symmetric and asymmetric effects of public–private partnership investment in energy on CO2 emissions in Pakistan. The empirical findings show that public–private partnership investment in energy reduces environmental quality by increasing CO2 emissions. Similarly, economic development and trade openness harms the atmosphere by raising CO2 emissions. On the other hand, renewable energy consumption significantly negatively affects CO2 emissions. In addition, the findings also authenticate the asymmetric link between public–private partnership investment in energy and the environment, as CO2 emissions are caused mainly by positive shocks in public–private partnership investment in energy in the short and long run. This study proposes financing renewable energy projects through public–private partnership is needed for an environmentally friendly future.

The objective of this research was to evaluate economic benefit and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction potential of a family-scale anaerobic cowdung biogas digester. Research was conducted at two villages in Lampung Province, namely Marga Lestari, District of South Lampung and Pesawaran Indah, District of Pesawaran. Economic benefit and GHG emission reduction potential were evaluated from LPG saving due to biogas utilisation for cooking and fertilizer substitution by slurry digestate. Results showed that a family-scale anaerobic cowdung biogas digester demonstrated a good potential to reduce GHG emission, but not in economic. A digester with 4 heads of cow produced biogas at a rate of 1582 L/day. With average methane content of 53.6%, energy value of the biogas was equivalent to 167 kg LPG and able to substitute 52 bottles LPG annually. A family-scale biogas contributed 108.1 USD/year and potentially reduced GHG emission by 5292.5 kg CO2e/year resulted from biomethane potential, LPG, and fertilizer savings.Article History: Received November 15th 2016; Received in revised form January 16th 2017; Accepted February 2nd 2017; Available onlineHow to Cite This Article: Haryanto, A., Cahyani, D., Triyono, S., Murdapa, F., and Haryono, D. (2017) Economic Benefit and Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Potential of A Family-Scale Cowdung Anaerobic Biogas Digester. International Journal of Renewable Energy Development 6(1), 29-36.http://dx.doi.org/10.14710/ijred.6.1.29-36

To address major threats to the sustainability and quality of life in urban settings, many municipalities have started exploring routes toward smarter cities to, for example, lower their energy consumption and carbon footprint. These explorations, in the form of living labs or other pilot projects, often suffer from major problems in scaling up the initial try-outs. In this study, we identify the mechanisms that facilitate the diffusion of smart city solutions, which are developed with public funds but typically lack dedicated resources to spur the diffusion of these solutions within the same municipality as well as toward other municipalities. We introduce the construct of embedded replication potential, defined as the capacity of an original project to be either scaled up locally or replicated elsewhere. Subsequently, empirical findings from a study of smart lighting projects in several municipalities in northwestern Europe serve to develop a checklist-based tool for assessing the embedded replication potential of an initial project. This tool can also be used to assess the replication potential of other smart city projects.

The implementation of sustainability-oriented practices in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been discussed frequently over the years. Recent studies on sustainability have focused mainly on links between ecological and economic sustainability. This exploratory study aims to explore institutional barriers and facilitators regarding the implementation of sustainability-oriented practices in the Indonesian batik industry and to provide policy recommendations. The Indonesian batik industry is well-known for its cultural heritage and for being part of the Indonesian identity. Batik products are mostly hand-crafted by women crafters. The study used in-depth insights from two focus groups conducted with entrepreneurs active in the batik industry, while also building on earlier empirical insights. The lack of customer knowledge and socio-cultural and regulatory factors were found to be barriers to sustainability in batik SMEs. Ecological, technological, socio-cultural, and political factors were found to facilitate achieving sustainability objectives. This study contributes to the sustainable entrepreneurship and women entrepreneurship literature by considering facilitators and barriers as they are experienced by batik entrepreneurs and by furthering the conceptualization of sustainable entrepreneurs as either “committed” or “followers”.

Abstract Decarbonizing world economies implies the deployment of “green technologies”, meaning a renovation of the energy sector towards using renewable sources and zero emission transport technologies. This renovation will require huge amounts of raw materials, some of them with high supply risks. To assess such risks a new methodology is proposed, identifying possible bottlenecks of future demand versus geological availability. This has been applied to the world development of wind power, solar photovoltaic, solar thermal power and passenger electric vehicles for the 2016–2050 time period under a business as usual scenario considering the impact on 31 different raw materials. As a result, 13 elements were identified to have very high or high risk, meaning that these could generate bottlenecks in the future: cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, gallium, indium, lithium, manganese, nickel, silver, tellurium, tin and zinc. Tellurium, which is mostly demanded to manufacture solar photovoltaic cells, presents the highest risk. To overcome these constraints, measures consisting on improving recycling rates from 0.1% to 4.6% per year could avoid material shortages or restrictions in green technologies. For instance, lithium recycling rate should increase from 1% to 4.8% in 2050. This study aims to serve as a guideline for developing eco-design and recycling strategies.