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There is little empirical evidence to underpin strategies of poverty reduction through income generation in small scale rural enterprises through supplying energy. This paper reports on research findings from a three country study in Bolivia, Tanzania and Vietnam which aimed to provide insights into the scope and depth of impacts of modern energy services. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered using structure and semi-structured interviews. The nature of the data collected was shaped by the Livelihoods framework. An analytical framework of four questions was used to synthesise the findings. What energy transitions are taking place in small rural enterprises, who benefits? Does the presence of modern energy carriers/technology stimulate production? Does an increase in productivity lead to a decrease in poverty in terms of financial capital? What is the impact of the changes in energy carrier/technology on the other four types of capital in the livelihood framework? For all of the above, the dominant contextual factors influencing the process were noted. Electricity was the modern energy carrier surveyed in the three countries. In answer to the questions regarding scope of impacts, at least for electricity, the impacts appear to depend on the location of the enterprise with regard to diversity of demand for enterprise services. The section of the population with the largest direct benefits in terms of increased financial assets and job opportunities consists of the existing better-off members of the community and their extended family. However, the benefits of improved working conditions for many entrepreneurs and workers and of both time and access to new and better quality products and services to customers of enterprises reach a much larger group of people, and these impacts can provide a substantial impact on poverty, if not on the financial dimension of poverty.

Biogas plays an important role in supporting and ensuring the dairy farming sector remains sustainable. Biogas technology is not only as a method to dispose dairy farming waste but also benefiting economically, socially and environmentally. Biogas technology has been introduced since 1970s and many biogas programmes have been implemented in Indonesia. However compare to other countries like China and India, the dissemination of biogas technology in Indonesia runs quite slowly. There are several factors such as financial, policies and people’s perception hindering biogas use regarding the increase of biogas plants installed in Indonesia. In addition, many installed biogas plants are non-functional due to inadequate maintenance causing users stop to operate biogas plants and influencing potential users to reject adopting the technology. This paper provides an overview of biogas production sustainability which consists of five sustainability dimensions: technical, economic, social, environmental and organizational/institutional sustainability. Understanding the biogas sustainability helps stakeholders to realize that in order to promote biogas technology many sectors must be developed and many institutions must be involved and cooperated. The sustainability of biogas will determine the success of biogas dissemination particularly in dairy farming in the future. 

Background: The global palm oil market experienced a remarkable boom since the year 2000. Since palm oil can be used for biodiesel production, the global expansion of oil palm cultivation has been associated with the global biofuel boom. Biofuel policies—especially those adopted in the European Union (EU)—have been blamed for the socio-environmental impacts of oil palm expansion. We explore how the global biofuel boom interacts with national geographies and social-economic and political processes to produce country-specific trajectories of biofuel crops expansion. We analyse the expansion of oil palm cultivation in Colombia between 2000 and 2010 from a political ecology perspective. Methods: The analysis is based on a framework that positions expansion of commodity frontiers within the ‘space-of-flows’ and the ‘space-of-place’. Through this approach, we identify the markets and geographies that define the country-specific trajectories of expansion of oil palm in Colombia, and their connections with general patterns of land control. The empirical analysis is based on primary data collected during fieldwork, and on an extensive review of secondary data about the palm oil sector and the socio-environmental effects of oil palm expansion in the country. Results: The contemporary oil palm expansion in Colombia was not specifically influenced by the international biofuel market. Expansion was characterized by an increasing production of palm oil for biodiesel, to supply a policy-driven national biofuel market controlled by national palm oil producers. The evidence shows that this oil palm expansion proceeded through a variety of land control practices that constitute forms of ‘accumulation by dispossession’ and ‘assimilation’. These are embedded in contextual factors that include the agrarian history of Colombia, the armed conflict, and government policies. Conclusions: Our study shows that the ways in which expansion of biofuel crops unfold in each producing country depend not only on the global biofuel market. They are also shaped by the country-specific geographies and political economies. Therefore, research and policies on the global expansion of energy crops should account for the complex and interrelated factors that mediate the specific ways in which the global demand for biofuels creates biofuel crop booms at country level.

Operational and economic trade-offs in the design of second-generation biomass (SGB) supply chains guide the decisions about plant scale and location as well as biomass collection routes. This paper compares different SGB supply chain designs with a focus on mobile pyrolysis plants and centralized versus decentralized collection of biomass in terms of economic and environmental sustainability. Pyrolysis scenarios are also compared to fuel-upgrading and electricity production scenarios. The empirical context of this paper is based on a scenario analysis for processing lignocellulosic biomass, particularly landscape wood, reed and roadside grass available in the Overijssel region (Eastern Netherlands). Four scenarios are compared: (1) mobile pyrolysis plant processes the locally available biomass on-site into pyrolysis oil which is sent to a regional biofuel production unit for upgrading to marketable biofuel; (2) local biomass is collected and transported to a regional pyrolysis-based biofuel production unit for upgrading to a marketable biofuel; (3) mobile pyrolysis plant performs the on-site conversion to pyrolysis oil which is transported to an oil refinery outside the region (Rotterdam); and (4) collected biomass is sent to the nearest electricity production unit to generate electricity. The results show that processing SGB is costly and upgraded oil and refined oil are at least 65% more expensive compared to their fossil counterparts. In terms of economic and environmental performance, the mobile plant performs slightly better than a fixed plant. The energy output/input ratio range is between 6.99 and 7.54 and CO2 emissions range is between 96 and 138 kg CO2/t upgraded oil.

Abstract Background In Germany, the energy system is undergoing reorganisation from a centralised system based on fossil fuels and nuclear power to a sustainable system based on decentralised production and consumption of energy, the so-called Energiewende. Recently, there has been more attention to improving energy efficiency in those regions where conventional energy production activities and energy-intensive industries are located, such as the Ruhr area. Although the potential for decentralised combined heat and power (CHP) units is high in this region, local action plans show only modest developments for this technology. In this paper, we address this issue by answering the following research question: Which factors block the uptake and integration of decentralised CHP in the German Ruhr area's energy system? Methods The multilevel perspective (MLP) was used to analyse the state of system innovation in relation to the uptake and integration of decentralised CHP technology. Prior to the MLP analysis, a stakeholders' analysis was conducted to identify stakeholders' views, positions and experienced barriers regarding the uptake and integration of decentralised CHP technology. Data collection included review of text documents and conducting 11 interviews. Results Due to many regime barriers blocking niche development, the uptake of decentralised CHP technology is limited. Identified barriers relate to lack of market services and mismatches with user preferences, (sectoral) policies and industrial interests. Conclusions Observed barriers relate to (i) lack of market services such as financial means for making investments; (ii) user awareness such as unawareness and information deficit regarding the benefits of decentralised CHP to potential users, (iii) the presence of centralised district heating systems, (iv) policy issues such as lack of sufficient policies supporting diffusion of decentralised CHP units, legal stipulations from social housing policies that prevent housing cooperatives from becoming energy producers and district heating systems owned by public and private owners (via concessions contracts); (v) sector issues such as lack of skilled service-providing companies; and (vi) industrial interested such as the vested interests of the coal and gas industry. Moreover, many of the mentioned barriers seem interrelated, especially those concerning policy and finance available for making upfront investments.

It is our great pleasure to introduce the theme of gender and energy in this special issue of Energy for Sustainable Development (ESD). This critical topic, or nexus of topics related to both gender and energy, has gained increased attention in academic literature, national and international discourse, and as an area of focus within international development assistance and national development planning. This discourse is a maturing field which has evolved in sophistication and analytic rigour over the years, and today is recognised as one of the most pressing sets of issues related to rural energy service provision, economic empowerment of women and communities, local health and environment concerns, and gender equality in access to education and health services.

Gender audits are an approach for putting gender on the policy agenda and are an alternative to gender budgets being less dependant on experts in government finance. This paper explores the effectiveness of gender audits as an approach to mainstreaming in the energy sector which has lagged other sectors in mainstreaming gender. The assessment takes the experiences of an international network on gender and sustainable energy that aims to get gender onto the energy policy agenda. Since there is no standard audit methodology, the network developed its own. The paper uses an analysis of qualitative data, reviews of audit reports and key informant interviews to answer two questions. As a result of gender audits, have gender issues or attending to women's particular interests been incorporated in energy policy? Did participation in an audit build the capacity of national actors to contribute to gender mainstreaming in the energy sector? Detailed data comes from network countries conducting audits: Kenya, Senegal and Nepal, with supporting evidence from 8 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The gender audit methodology used is partially effective in integrating gender issues into government energy policy. Pragmatic, conceptual and political barriers to gender mainstreaming continue to operate. Adopting gender-aware policies occurs rapidly in organisations that participated in the audits. Male employees more readily accept gender policies when they see that policies also benefits men. In the audit countries, a group of national gender and energy experts has been established able to contribute to mainstreaming gender in the energy sector.