• Energy Research

Following the example of national pledges and strategies to tackle climate change, cities are mobilising themselves towards decarbonisation, playing a key role in the achievement of those commitments due to their relevance within national energy systems. However, despite cities ambitions, there is a need for coordinating the efforts from national and local scales in order to ensure the effective fulfilment of energy and climate goals at both levels. In this paper a method for the transposition of national energy planning to the local level is proposed based on the downscaling, adaptation, and allocation of specific targets and energy measures from the national plan to the city scale. The further modelling of downscaled national energy measures allows to quantify the reach of their impacts, thus supporting the establishment of realistic goals aligned with national ones and achieving the effective contribution of urban areas towards higher climate targets. The methodology is demonstrated through the downscaling and comparison of the measures from the Spanish national energy strategy with the ones included in the energy plan of the Spanish city of Valencia. A mismatch between the two is evidenced with some local measures outperforming the national plan, while others proving themselves insufficient. These results show that urban energy planners should consider the real capacities and competences of the city when setting energy measures and goals in accordance with national ones. A correct downscaling and modelling of the former are key in this work. The work supporting this paper was funded by the EU project MAtchUP, that received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programmes under grant agreement No. 774477.

In 2010, Nebraska Legislature passed LB 997 requiring all Nebraska cities and counties to include an energy element within their local comprehensive plan by January 2015. For many communities, this is the first time energy has been addressed within their comprehensive plan. Energy planning literature and the requirements of LB 997 were used to create components of an ideal energy plan. Eighteen energy elements were selected by electronic availability and examined for components of an ideal energy plan. The results of this study show that energy elements of local comprehensive plans in Nebraska are lacking the components of an ideal energy plan, as well as components required in the language of LB 997. The absence of these components suggest Nebraska energy elements may not lead to meaningful action, nor will they lead to the many benefits that come from energy planning. The absence of LB 997 requirements may lead to comprehensive plans being deemed invalid. Barriers to the energy planning process are identified including: community opposition, costs, and unavailability of data. Lastly, this thesis identifies opportunities to improve the energy planning process through: the increased involvement of utility providers and other stakeholders, and educating community leaders, consultants, and the general public regarding energy planning. Advisor: Zhenghong Tang

This thesis introduces a novel framework for the fundamental design of energy systems for neighbourhoods. The framework is based on the sequential integration of three software tools: QGIS, City Energy Analyst (CEA) and Urbio. QGIS is used to build the buildings database (construction standards, occupancy types and schedules). CEA is used to model the neighbourhood energy services (heating, cooling, domestic hot water and electricity for other uses, including EVs). Urbio is used to design in an optimized manner the energy infrastructure that supplies the neighbourhood. This framework was successfully used in the case study of the Vale de Santo António, a neighbourhood to be built by the Municipality of Lisbon within the scope of the Renda Acessível (Affordable Rent) program. The results show that the different software can be easily combined, thus demonstrating a flexible approach for planning neighbourhood energy infrastructures.

The State of Alaska

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cities are the main energy consumers; they can be a critical solution to threats to energy resources, the environment, and climate change. Knowing the effective indicators in urban planning and design in the energy field is one of the priorities of urban planners and designers. In this regard, Current research in the first step has tried to define a conceptual framework of urban system indicators influential to energy planning in cities. And in the second step, since climatic characteristics could be as fundamental factors in urban energy planning, the relationship between climatic indicators and urban energy planning indicators has been identified.METHODS: This study is basic research in terms of purpose and presents a new conceptual framework for the urban energy system. It also aimed to analyses the relationship between the urban energy system indicators and local climate indicators. Its methodology is descriptive-analytical, conducted by library method and survey. Data analysis was done through a combination of quantitative and quantitative methods and descriptive statistical analysis. To do the survey questionnaire and interview experts in the energy field in different countries by using the Delphi method has been done.FINDINGS: The urban energy system conceptual framework was identified, and it has been divided into seven sub-systems (physical, land use, infrastructure, and transportation, movement/accessibility, cultural and technological), 15 components, and 61 indicators. Also, by analyzing the relationship between urban energy and climate indicators, “Air temperature” is the most related climate indicator from the experts’ view with 682 total scores, followed by “Solar radiation and sunny days”, “greenery” and “wind” indicators respectively with the sum points of 624, 596 and 594 scores in the seven defined urban energy system indicators.CONCLUSION: A theoretical framework of urban energy systems has been defined based on previous studies and experts' ideas in a comprehensive framework. And by analyzing the relationship between the defined urban energy system and climate indicators, the important indicators were recognized in each group. That could be academic knowledge and a practical source for future urban plans. For future studies, the institutional and economic dimensions of urban energy systems have to be conducted to complete the theoretical framework.

Rapid urban growth in the world’s cities, particularly in the Global South has placed unprecedented demand for energy supply that keeps vital urban energy systems functioning in order to support life and economic activities in urban areas. Cities are the net consumers of energy (electricity) and other life-supporting services, as a result they require proper planning and coordination to ensure the resilience and energy security of urban areas. South African Cities, have consistently been experiencing energy shortages through rolling blackouts that date back to 2008.The study aims to develop a holistic framework that informs appropriate innovations that enable the achievement of energy security at City Power in the City of Johannesburg. The work adopted a mixed methods approach that uses both quantitative and qualitative data. Specifically, data was collected through interviews, surveys and observations; reviews of published journals, journals reports and government policy documents. Descriptive statistics, content analysis, narrative analysis, and discourse analysis were used to sieve information from the data. The research findings reveal that residents of the City of Johannesburg are only able to access electricity for an average between 7-12 hours in a day due to energy shortages. The city of Johannesburg is experiencing vulnerability of energy systems in the form of energy blackouts as the result of energy power cuts at the City of Johannesburg. The work posits that, through an energy planning model, the City of Johannesburg, through its power utility City Power could plan for the mitigation of energy black outs through implementation of microgrid planning. Consequently, the study recommends that the City of Johannesburg follows the existing legal frameworks and other planning laws that are available to develop spatial plans for infrastructure development for renewable energy within its area of jurisdiction. The framework for sustainable energy (electricity) security in the City is developed by combining technological innovations with spatial planning. KEEP ON PLANNING FOR THE REAL WORLD. Climate Change calls for Nature-based Solutions and Smart Technologies. Proceedings of REAL CORP 2024, 29th International Conference on Urban Development and Regional Planning in the Information Society, 171-181

Urban energy system planning (UESP) is a topic of growing concern for cities in deregulated energy markets, which plan to decrease energy demand, reduce their dependency on fossil fuels, and increase the share of renewable energy sources. UESP being a highly multisectoral and multi-actor task, multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods are frequently used in the decision processes. These methods may provide support in organizing and identifying solutions to problems with conflicting objectives. However, knowing which method to use is generally not straightforward, as the appropriateness of a method or combination of methods depends on the decision problem’s context. Therefore, this article reviewed scientific papers to characterize and analyze MCDA problems and methods in the context of UESP. The review systematically explores issues such as the scope of the problems, the alternatives and criteria considered, the expected decision outcomes, the decision analysis methods and the rationales for selecting and combining them, and the role of values in driving the decision problems. The final outcome is a synthesis of the data and insights obtained, which may help potential users identify appropriate decision analysis methods based on given problem characteristics.

A number of tools are available today for simulating different aspects of urban activity, but these efforts are fragmented and do not effectively reflect the interrelationships between very diverse groups of urban sectors and resource flows. There is a critical need for robust and reliable urban metabolism analysis tools that integrate socio-economic elements of urbanization and physicality of the built environment into evaluating sustainability in cities. This dissertation outlines the development of an Integrated Urban Metabolism Analysis Tool (IUMAT) that dynamically measures the environmental impacts of land cover, transportation, and consumption of energy, water and materials employing a holistic framework. It includes examination of the existing scholarship on urban metabolism as well as description of the calculative framework for IUMAT. The scope of work is establishment of the Residential Energy Model that would serve as a template for the larger Energy, Water and Materials (EWM) Model. The EWM model takes a bottom-up approach to generate spatial resource demand profiles based on building and neighborhood characteristics. Finally, Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) 2009 data is used to explain how the proposed framework makes use of actual data to find determinants of resources’ demand and unravel correlations between environmental consequences and myriad of urban variables. Quantile regression is explored as a robust method for large-scale energy modeling that is a prototype for resource use projection within other urban sectors.