• Energy Research

An increasing number of countries develop and promote renewables which influence their economy. This paper analyses and evaluates the energy potential of biomass in Ukraine as a whole and in the agricultural sector in particular. The benefits for energy (biogas from manure), environment and economy are analysed. The economic effect of implementing a biogas installation plant in Ukraine is addressed. Biogas development should occur according to the main principles of sustainable development. The main practical steps of establishing a Ukrainian biogas market are described.

The paper deals with analysis of the preconditions of alternative energy market development in Ukraine. In this case study, the authors analyzed the EU experience. The results of analysis showed that the leader of the EU countries in renewable energy has already achieved the target (20%), which had been indicated. In addition, the findings showed that the share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption has been increasing from year to year. The authors allocate that, according to the Ukrainian potential, biogas is the most perspective one among alternative resources. Moreover, results of analysis showed that Ukraine has the huge potential of agricultural sector. In this direction, the authors allocated the main types of the agricultural activities, which have the highest potential of biogas production: sugar factories, corn silage and poultry farms. The authors underlined that biogas spreading is restrained by the stereotypes that green investments are not attractive for investors. In order to analyze the economic efficiency of investments to the biogas installation, the authors calculated the profit from the biogas installation for poultry farm. The authors made two scenarios for calculation. The first – the whole volume of energy, which was generated from the biogas unit, will be sold with feed-in tariff. The second – the farm covers its own needs in electricity, the rest will be sold with feed-in tariff. The findings showed that the first scenario is more attractive. Moreover, the farm could receive higher profit if it installed the biogas in 2016, not in 2017. In addition, based on the EU experience and features of farm functioning, the authors approved that the biogas installation has not only the economic effect (profit and additional profit) for company, but also ecological and social effects for rural area, where this farm was located.

The omnichannel approach to forming marketing strategies for the development of the green competitiveness of enterprises is seen as a process for the inseparable interaction of marketing-mix elements that are aimed at promoting green competitiveness. This approach integrates traditional and digital marketing communication channels and provides consideration for stakeholder interests. The effectiveness of applying the omnichannel approach to the formation of marketing strategies to develop the green competitiveness of enterprises depends on a set of marketing communication channels, which, in various combinations, can increase or decrease the level of companies’ green competitiveness. For that purpose, this paper proposes a scientific approach to identifying the quality parameters of marketing communication channels, which involves testing the hypothesis that statistically significant relationships exist between their quality parameters and the levels of green competitiveness. The objects analyzed in the paper comprise large Ukrainian production companies that are part of the agro-industrial, mechanical engineering, and food industries, and that work in both the local and international markets. According to the results of the calculations, four relevant parameters were identified for determining the quality of the marketing communication channels: the speed of loading pages, the failure rate, image, and remarketing activities.

The article presents the research results on some aspects of achieving carbon neutrality in Ukraine. Carbon neutrality is a challenge for the whole world. In 2020, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a historical maximum. The work aims to study the features of achieving carbon neutrality in Ukraine. The tasks of the work are the analysis of the components of the transition to low-carbon development, analysis of the consumption of fossil fuels, and activities related to the preservation of forests, natural steppe, and meadow ecosystems. Interest in carbon neutrality issues grows yearly, with a particularly in 2021–2022. Most articles on carbon neutrality were published by scientists from China, the USA, Great Britain, Turkey, and Pakistan. They are mainly devoted to carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, renewable energy, energy consumption, financial development, co-integration, dioxin emissions, etc. Positive trends regarding the achievement of carbon neutrality have been identified: the supply of natural gas, coal, and peat has decreased, while the supply of renewable energy sources has increased; the share of coal and peat decreased by 26.4%, and the percentage of energy produced from renewable sources increased to 6.6%; the use of coal and peat decreased by 8.5%, natural gas by 5%, and biofuels increased by 16%; the share of biofuel use increased to 5.8%. Expenditures for environmental protection increased by 88.5%, for preserving biodiversity and habitat – by 3.6 times, and costs for air protection and climate change problems – by 2.5 times. The share of expenditures on the protection of biodiversity and habitat increased to 3.2%, and costs on atmospheric air protection and climate change problems to 19.3%. Negative trends that restrain the development of a carbon-neutral economy were also revealed: a low share of renewable sources in the structure of supply and use. Thus, the percentage of biofuel in aggregate use remains low – only 5.8% in 2020. The area of forest loss is increasing, and the area of forest regeneration has decreased by 36%. The area of reforestation remained at the same level, but the area of afforestation decreased ten times during 2010–2020. The scientific novelty consists in the development of theoretical foundations for the identification of regularities in the formation of the energy transformation theory, which differs from the existing ones using bibliometric (VOSviewer v. 1.6.13) analysis.

In order to obtain high-quality predictive results of electricity consumption in the context of different countries and years, theoretical foundations and terminology regarding the use of "Decision Tree" models and their ensemble architecture "Random Forest" were considered. This architecture helped to find the optimal forecast result without such unpleasant effects as: overtraining, model insufficiency. MAE and MSE metrics were considered and implemented to determine the quality, such a set can show business value, for example, MAE will only show the absolute error, which can tell the quality of the model for decision makers, and MSE metric, which can be useful for neural network model engineers for quality improvement using gradient descent. To implement the forecast model, the Python programming language was used using Numpy, Pandas and Sklearn libraries. The result of the theoretical study of the predictive model is a consistent study of details and definitions in relation to the theoretical basis for understanding what problems are solved by decision trees and why they can be used to create a forecast in the energy field. The result of practical implementation is a model with an absolute average error of 6.90%, which means that the model is adequate and workable, it can be used both as a basis for forecasting and as a self-sufficient model. The study provides an algorithm and demonstrates the implementation of a sequence of actions for creating a predictive model regardless of its type and architecture, providing insight not only in the details of implementation with the help of specific tools, but also at a more abstract level of description of actions. Also demonstrated is work with data processing to meet the needs of models, creation of new variables, and data transformation, which is also a mandatory practice for obtaining quality results. The absolute average error gives general information about the quality of the created model, but specific results can also give certain information in terms of a specific country, for example, the result of the forecast for Ukraine for 2021 is -1.90 value of the target variable "Net electricity import as share of demand", in while the true value is -3.40, the difference between the two figures is even smaller than the expected error.

Energy underpins the development and enables investment, innovation, and new industries that drive jobs, inclusive growth, and the shared prosperity of entire economies. The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have led to a sharp rise in energy prices, increasing concerns about energy shortages and energy security, and slowing progress toward universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy by 2030. The purpose of the article is to study key trends and trends in the development of the global energy sector. Ex-post-economic analysis was used during the retrospective analysis. The conducted analysis made it possible to single out three main trends in the development of the global energy sector: decarbonization, digitalization, and decentralization. The results of the evaluation of statistical information on the development of alternative energy allowed us to draw the following conclusions. The global weighted average current cost of electricity for solar photovoltaic and onshore wind decreased by 77% and 35%, respectively, between 2010 and 2018. Global electricity production from renewable energy sources also increased by 7% in 2018. led by China, which accounted for nearly 37% of offshore wind growth and 44% of solar PV growth. However, significant progress in the use of renewable energy sources is still concentrated in the power industry. The share of renewable energy sources in the transport and heating sectors is still limited, although showing moderate growth. The study of forecast indicators confirmed the steady trend of growth in the demand for renewable energy. Between 2018 and 2030, global demand for renewable energy is projected to grow by 64%. The results of the provided research can be used further in the study of the development of various sectors of the energy industry, in particular, alternative electricity, wind energy, etc.

The acceleration of globalisation processes and increasing countries’ energy interdependence are required to ensure national energy security and independence. That demands investigating and developing processes and approaches for sustainable transformation of the global energy sector. The article aims to perform a complex review and investigation of the academic environment to analyse the trends and features of scientific publications devoted to new trends and tendencies in the smart energy industry transformation. To provide a categorical and theoretical background on the key scientific publications’ trends, the paper conducted a bibliometric analysis of scientific publications about smart energy management and sustainable energy sector. The subject of investigation is publications on smart energy management and the sustainable energy sector. The article represented the results of bibliometric analysis using the Scopus tools analytics and VOSViewer tools. The investigation answered the central question of the key academic and research tendencies in the smart energy development and sustainable transformation field. Thus, qualitative, and quantitative trends describe the academic tendencies to spread smart and sustainable technologies in the energy industry. Using the Scopus scientometric database, a system of more than 5000 academic texts in the determined area was created from 2001 to 2022. Such countries as India, China, the USA, the UK, Germany, Italy, Canada, South Korea, France represent the analysed scientific area. Describing the key trends and clusters has allowed understanding and systemised the dominant trends in the development of scientific publications in the field of management of sustainable development processes, spreading the IOT processes, and renewable energy.

The world’s transition to green economic growth, considering the Agenda for Sustainable Development, provokes relevant structural changes in the world market. Consequently, it boosts the business sector’s ability to incorporate green dimensions into their development policies to intensify their green competitiveness in the market. In this case, it is necessary to identify the appropriate indicators that affect a company’s green competitiveness. Thus, stakeholders and management could intensify or decline a company’s green competitiveness depending on the efficiency of communication between them. The paper aims to analyze the role of stakeholders’ engagement in the company’s management in enhancing green competitiveness. The research data were compiled from a questionnaire of 75 respondents, who represent the Ukrainian company’s management. The study applies PLS-SEM to test the hypotheses of the investigation. The empirical results allow us to conclude that stakeholders’ engagement in the company’s management positively affects the company’s green competitiveness. The most statistically significant impact on the company’s green competitiveness is experience in communication with stakeholders and managing stakeholders’ conflicts, with loading factors of 0.802 and 0.806, respectively. The findings show that to improve green competitiveness, the company’s management should develop targeted stakeholder communications and extend knowledge and awareness of stakeholder interests and values. At the same time, management should incorporate stakeholders’ suggestions and recommendations when promoting a company’s green competitiveness.