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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.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs, presents an overview of the situation within the EU with regard to the way energy poverty is experienced by women and men and explores through a gender lens existing EU legislation and policy to address energy poverty. Interpretation and implementation of EU legislation at national level are also investigated. Possible opportunities to ensure that policies and interventions to address energy poverty are more gender aware are identified and discussed.

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.

Energy sector reforms with an emphasis on electricity growth have been taking place extensively and rapidly worldwide Particularly, motivated chiefly by classical economics’ standpoint of efficiency and market considerations, reforms have been made in the developed North. Models of reforms in the North have in turn been replicated in developing countries. However, questions arise as to whether the models used are suitable for the mostly rural and socioeconomically disadvantaged economies in the South. It is argued in this paper that a sustainability focused mode of reforms guided by futures studies is needed for such economies. Reforms taking place in Kenya and neighbouring countries are in particular examined from a sustainable future perspective; and appropriate improvements and further research are recommended. International Journal of Sustainable Energy Planning and Management, Vol 5 (2015)

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.

This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the FEMM Committee, examines the evidence on the role of women in the energy transition in the European Union and the extent of gender equality in the process particularly in respect of the renewable energy sector. The study identifies gender inequalities preventing women from the involvement in the energy transition and career advancement in this area and assesses how the transfer to the sustainable energy model will affect gender equality and the role of women as actors of change. It provides best practices in overcoming the barriers to gender equality in the energy transition and concludes with recommendations to the EU and national decision makers.

AbstractUnderstanding the complex interactions among food security, bioenergy sustainability, and resource management requires a focus on specific contextual problems and opportunities. The United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals place a high priority on food and energy security; bioenergy plays an important role in achieving both goals. Effective food security programs begin by clearly defining the problem and asking, ‘What can be done to assist people at high risk?’ Simplistic global analyses, headlines, and cartoons that blame biofuels for food insecurity may reflect good intentions but mislead the public and policymakers because they obscure the main drivers of local food insecurity and ignore opportunities for bioenergy to contribute to solutions. Applying sustainability guidelines to bioenergy will help achieve near‐ and long‐term goals to eradicate hunger. Priorities for achieving successful synergies between bioenergy and food security include the following: (1) clarifying communications with clear and consistent terms, (2) recognizing that food and bioenergy need not compete for land and, instead, should be integrated to improve resource management, (3) investing in technology, rural extension, and innovations to build capacity and infrastructure, (4) promoting stable prices that incentivize local production, (5) adopting flex crops that can provide food along with other products and services to society, and (6) engaging stakeholders to identify and assess specific opportunities for biofuels to improve food security. Systematic monitoring and analysis to support adaptive management and continual improvement are essential elements to build synergies and help society equitably meet growing demands for both food and energy.