• Energy Research
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The main objective of the paper was to determine the significance of particular methods of supporting women's entrepreneurship in Greater Poland. Five groups of such support have been identified: socio-cultural, promotional and informational, financial, institutional, consulting and training. This led to identifying gaps in existing support and to finding the most significant support for entrepreneurial women. The study revealed a discrepancy between the assessment carried out by experts, students and women entrepreneurs. Owners of enterprises’ opinions show that the available forms of support are not as useful as it might seem from the perspective of researchers and potential owners. There are also forms of support that are not used by the female owners.

Abstract The present paper examines the phenomenon of energy poverty in Greece. Specifically, energy poverty concerns a growing number of households that have limited access to energy or are unable to pay for this energy, mainly due to insufficient thermal insulation, low income and high energy costs. The continuing economic crisis in Greece has increased the rate of energy poverty as incomes have fallen, the price of oil and PPC tariffs have risen, more households are asked to pay more than 20% of their energy bill income. Excessive energy poverty in turn has an impact on the environment (illegal logging, smog, etc.), but also to the physical and mental health of people exposed to it. The paper includes a case study which provides information and data collected from a sample of 384 households using the questionnaire method in four areas of northern Greece, which is the Edessa area in Central Macedonia, the area of Drama in Eastern Macedonia, the area of Xanthi and the Municipality of Myki (Pomakohoria) in Thrace. Initially, personal data, housing characteristics and household health status are presented. The types of heating system of the examined households and the extent to which they meet the required levels of thermal comfort are presented below. In addition, the aforementioned data is associated with the energy accounts. The findings, show that energy poverty has affected a significant proportion of households in Greece. This is due to the fact that there are households that do not meet the energy needs of their home.

In order to achieve paramount economy, hybrid renewable energy sources are gaining importance, as renewable sources are costless. Over the past few years wind energy incorporation drew more consideration in the electricity market, as wind power took an affirmative role in energy saving as well as sinking emission pollutants. Recently developed Grey wolf optimizer (GWO) algorithm has conspicuous behavior for verdicting global optima, without getting ensnared in premature convergence. In the proposed research the exploitation phase of the grey wolf optimizer has been further improved using random exploratory search algorithm, which uses perturbed solutions vectors along with previously generated solution vectors. The paper presents a hybrid version of Grey Wolf Optimizer algorithm combined with random exploratory search algorithm (hGWO-RES) for the solution of combinatorial scheduling and dispatch problem of electric power systems. To validate the feasibility of the algorithm, the proposed algorithm has been tested on 23 benchmark problems. To verify the feasibility and efficacy of operation of proposed algorithm on generation scheduling and dispatch of electric power systems, small and medium scale power systems consisting of 7-, 10-, 19-, 20- and 40-generating units systems taken into consideration. Commitment and scheduling pattern has been evaluated with and without wind integration and it has been experimentally founded that proposed hybrid algorithm provides superior solution as compared to other recently reported meta-heuristics search algorithms.

This paper evaluated the environmental effects of socially responsible investments (SRIs) in European countries and analyzed the differentiation between them in terms of SRIs and selected features in the environmental dimension. The first section of the paper discusses contemporary trends in Europe and in certain European countries, whilst the second compares SR environmental investments and environmental factors in selected European countries from a multidimensional perspective. The aim of the study was to identify and evaluate these trends as well as to find similarities and differences between European countries, and subsequently to indicate groups of countries with similar approaches to pro-ecological investments. In order to solve the problem, descriptive and multidimensional statistical methods were used, namely correspondence analysis (CA). Although the research results clearly revealed upward tendencies in the volume of SR environmental investments in the analyzed period, they nonetheless represent a relatively low share in the total number of socially responsible investments. The overall growth in SRIs in Europe may have resulted from the more intense activities of policymakers in some countries as a consequence of concluding agreements reached during the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in 2015. The results of the study also revealed no significant correlations between SR environmental investments and environmental variables among the European countries analyzed; hence, there is no substantial evidence that investors’ assets contribute to the improvement of the environment.

Abstract Energy storage systems (ESS) are widely used in active distribution networks (ADN) to smoothen the drastic fluctuation of renewable energy sources (RES). In order to enhance the scalability and flexibility of ESS, a virtual energy storage system (VESS), which is composed of battery energy storage system (BESS), RES as well as flexible loads (FL), is developed in this paper to realize the functionalities of ESS in more cost-effective way in ADN. Aiming at achieving voltage regulation, dynamic pricing strategies based on system voltage condition are designed for VESS. A distributed real-time power management model containing dynamic pricing strategies is proposed to accomplish the voltage regulation and economic power sharing in VESS. Moreover, a set of distributed algorithms, over time-varying unbalanced directed networks, are designed for dynamic pricing strategies and optimal power management model. Furthermore, the convergence property, optimality and system voltage stability are explained by detailed mathematical analysis. Three various case studies which were ran on a real time digital simulator (OPAL-RT OP5600) were designed to validate the effectiveness of the strategy. Finally, simulation results show that the economic power dispatch and voltage regulation are achieved among VESS simultaneously, even in the presence of time-varying directed and unbalanced communication networks.

In electric power generation and distribution systems, three structures are capable of impacting energy quality: generation, distribution and loads. Currently, the diversity of the latter ranges from purely resistive loads such as heating systems to extremely nonlinear loads such as switched electronic power supplies. This has dramatically affected the quality of electric energy. The operation of these loads contributes to the reduction of the power factor of the installation, the injection of harmonic currents in the electrical network and the imbalance of currents and voltages between the phases in the case of three-phase systems. The implementation of a method capable of recognizing electrical loads and identifying them through algorithms can be used to manage the electric energy consumption, contributing a lot to the improvement of the quality of electric energy. In order to deal with uncertainty in the identification of these loads, probability distributions will be applied, which are able to handle uncertainty through a probabilistic modeling using Bayesian Networks.

Abstract This study investigates the macroeconomic effects of adverse oil price shocks on a small oil-exporting economy — the Azerbaijan economy. We estimate a recursive (near) VAR model by using monthly macroeconomic data from 2006 to 2018. The results indicate the Azerbaijan economy is adversely influenced by an oil price decline. Specifically, we find that a negative oil price shock deteriorates trade balance, causes a currency depreciation, increases inflation and falls economic activity. Furthermore, our findings imply that the oil price-led devaluation shapes the inflationary and recessionary consequences of this shock.

Abstract To achieve the EU climate and energy objectives, a transition towards a future sustainable energy system is needed. The integration of the huge potential for industrial waste heat recovery into smart energy system represents a main opportunity to accomplish these goals. To successfully implement this strategy, all the several stakeholders' conflicting objectives should be considered. In this paper an evolutionary multi-objective optimization model is developed to perform a sustainability evaluation of an energy system involving an industrial facility as the waste heat source and the neighbourhood as district heating network end users. An Italian case study of heat recovery from a steel casting facility shows how the model allows to properly select the district heating network set of users to fully exploit the available waste energy. Design directions such as the thermal energy storage capacity can be also provided. Moreover, the model enables the analysis of the trade-off between the stakeholders’ different perspectives, allowing to identify possible win-win solutions for both the industrial sector and the citizenship.

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.