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Lignite-fired power plants in Northern Greece produce about 50% of the electricity and account for nearly 60% of the allocated CO2 emissions. The implementation of biomass co-firing is considered a cost effective and efficient method for minimizing GHG emissions. However, despite a favorable legislative framework, co-firing in Greece has not progressed since low lignite costs and distance of power plants from harbor facilities limit access to internationally traded solid biomass. The improvement and optimization of local biomass supply chains is thus a strategic priority in the national context. The purpose of the present work is to present preliminary investigations of a wheat straw supply chain for a Greek lignite-fired power plant to be converted into biomass co-firing operation. On¬field demonstration data are analyzed in order to estimate costs for supply chains involving either pelletized straw or straw bales. Information of energy consumption is also presented for different cases and GHG emissions calculated according to the methodology of (COM 2010)11. Results indicate that the cost of straw delivered at the power plant varies depending on whether pelletization is included as a supply chain step. Overall, over short distances, transfer of baled biomass is more economic and results in lower GHG emissions, however the increase in the cost of the supply chain suggest that a pelletization step should be considered for longer distances. The transport cost of the supply chain also depends on whether the vehicles are assumed to return empty at their starting point or loaded. Also, compared to imported or domestic wood pellets, straw pellets have lower prices and could be more attractive to plant operators. Long-term fuel contracts are essential in order to ensure the financial viability of co-firing, especially if a reduction in the feed-in tariff is expected. Proceedings of the 20th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 18-22 June 2012, Milan, Italy, pp. 136-142

Poplar is largely utilized in Short Rotation Forestry (SRF) plantations for energy purposes. Its cultivation can produce environmental benefits but requires the availability of water and nutrients. Because of environmental and energetic implications of production and use of water and fertilizers, it’s important to test the efficiency of yield also without these costly cultivation practices. Within SUSCACE Project (funded by MiPAAF) in 2009 a trial was established near Casale Monferrato, Italy, with Populus ×canadensis ‘Imola’, to compare SRC models and treatments: 2-year rotation, very high density (8333 trees·ha-1) - vSRC, and 5-year rotation, high density (1111 trees·ha-1) - SRC. Fertilization(F) and irrigation(I) effects were applied with two levels, fertilized – not fertilized, irrigated-not irrigated. Data of five years of growth are available. SRC is the model most productive during this period. Within treatments the difference in yield is due to irrigation, that increases the productions about of 120%; fertilization had no effect. The water availability remains the key factor for a good production. However, to reduce the costs of cultivation ensuring the availability of water, other studies are ongoing to improve the application of wastewater that combines the purification of water and the production of biomass. Proceedings of the 23rd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 1-4 June 2015, Vienna, Austria, pp. 214-218

Green ammonia is gaining momentum as a globally significant technology for deep decarbonisation. In this thesis, several models are developed across chemical, techno-economic, and energy system modelling disciplines to explore the future role of green ammonia. First, standalone models of production (i.e., power-to-ammonia) and re-electrification (i.e., ammonia-to-power) are developed and compared to competing technologies. Second, these models are integrated into a planning and dispatch energy system model (ESM) of India to 2050. The ESM has several novel additions including the sector coupling of hydrogen and ammonia, multiple years of granular weather data, and learning-curve-based technology cost forecasts. India is chosen as an ideal case study given its globally unmatched demand growth in all three relevant sectors: electricity, green hydrogen, and green ammonia. The projected electricity demands for green hydrogen and ammonia production account for 25% of the total Indian electricity demand in 2050, underscoring the transformational potential that green hydrogen and ammonia sector coupling can have on the Indian energy system. The results of the state-of-the-art ESM highlight synergistic effects of hydrogen and ammonia sector coupling with the power system. The least-cost system employs seasonal green ammonia production paired with up to 40 million tonnes (i.e., 200 TWh) of ammonia storage, as well as some re-electrification via gas turbines. Sector coupling reduces system curtailment, addresses challenges of long-duration storage, and improves system resilience to interannual weather variations. While India is a crucial case study from a global decarbonisation perspective, the methodology and findings are generally applicable, and it is the aim of this work to motivate and accelerate the wider research community into considering the potential impacts of green ammonia sector coupling on electricity grid design. Finally, this work highlights strategic technology development direction for ammonia producers and gas turbine manufacturers, as well as implications for policymakers.

Ireland imports 88% of its energy requirements. Oil makes up 59% of total final energy consumption (TFC). Import dependency, low fuel diversity and volatile prices leave Ireland vulnerable in terms of energy security. The Supply/Demand Index, developed by the energy research centre of the Netherlands (ECN), has been used previously as a metric to assess Irish energy security. The method assesses both supply and demand side quantitative factors by sector, assigns expert opinion weights to these factors to allocate risk, and give a relative picture of energy security when compared to EU benchmarks. The thesis further develops this index in order to address a number of limitations and to develop further insights into energy security. Firstly, the update develops a time series dataset taking into account the most recent Irish Energy balance data from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and EUROSTAT, while economic-energy indicators are supplemented from the ODYSSEE database. Secondly, given Irelands reliance on the UK for the primary energy supply for refined oil products and natural gas, an appropriate restructuring of Irish primary energy supply risk is developed to account for the risk in UK chain of primary energy supply. This is deemed necessary given the shift in UK energy balance from net exporter to net importer of energy. Moving from energy index analysis to energy systems analysis, this thesis develops the first energy security scenarios for Ireland to 2050 using long term macroeconomic forecasts to 2050, with oil production and price scenarios from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), soft-linked to the Irish-TIMES energy systems model. The analysis focuses on developing a least cost optimum energy system for Ireland under scenarios of constrained oil supply from 2012 (0.8% annual import growth, and –2% annual import decline) and subsequent sustained long term price shocks to oil and gas imports. The results point to gas becoming the dominant fuel source for Ireland, at 54% total final energy consumption in 2020, supplanting oil from reference projections of 57% to 10.8% TFC. In 2012, the cost of net oil imports stood at €3.6 billion (2.26% GDP). The modelled high oil and gas price scenarios show an additional annual cost in comparison to a reference of between €2.9bn and €7.5bn IX by 2020 (1.9% - 4.9% of GDP) to choose to develop a least cost energy system. Investment and ramifications for Irish energy security are discussed. In a climate constrained future, hybrid energy-economy model coupling gives additional insight into interregional competition, trade, industrial delocalisation and overall macroeconomic consequences of decarbonising the energy system. Decarbonising the energy system is critical in mitigating climate change. This thesis summarises modelling methodologies developed in the International Energy Agency Energy Technology Systems Analysis Programme (IEA-ETSAP) community to assess economic impacts of decarbonising energy systems at global and national levels. The range of economic impacts is regionally dependent upon the stage of economic development, the level of industrialisation, energy intensity of exports, and competition effects due to rates of relative decarbonisation. Decarbonisation targets of developed nations are estimated to result in a manageable GDP loss in the region of 2% by 2050. Energy intensive export driven developing countries, such as China and India, and fossil fuel exporting nations can expect significantly higher GDP loss of up to 5% GDP by 2050. The approaches outlined within have guided the first evidence based decarbonisation legislation and continue to provide additional insights as increased sectoral disaggregation in hybrid modelling approaches is achieved. This thesis develops a general equilibrium feedback in technology rich integrated energy systems modes to equitable burden sharing rules for climate change mitigation at an Irish and Global scale. The IEA-ETSAP hybrid global Integrated Assessment Model TIAM-MACRO is used to investigate the efficient bottom-up energy system required to meet a 2°C limit target with 66% probability while optimising for consumer welfare. Least cost efficient 2°C scenario (2DS) emissions are compared alongside burden sharing rules, including contract and convergence equalisation of emissions per capita, equalisation of regional GDP loss, compensation for energy cost increases in Least Developed Countries (LDCs), full compensation for GDP loss in LDCs and two interpretations of the “Brazil Proposal” of historical cumulative responsibility for temperature forcing. X The results in this thesis for equal future emissions per capita challenge statements that this approach will aid emerging economies, mainly China and India. This thesis shows that China, India and developing Asia suffer increased economic losses using equal per capita burden sharing rules in comparison to the efficient least cost scenario. China fares best when the burden sharing rules focus on equalisation for economic losses, while India, Other Developing Asia, and Africa have greater economic benefits when rules focus on equitable cumulative emissions per capita. Finally this approach can quantify the levels of capital transfer the Green Climate Fund should manage going forward, indicates which regions should pay, which regions should receive, and quantify the amount of capital transfers.

The presented Report forms Deliverable D6.2 resulted from the realization of Workpackage WP.6.3 titled “Overview of market drivers, fiscal measures and subsidies” in frame of the EU-Project “Geothermal communities – demonstrating the cascaded use of geothermal energy for district heating with small scale RES integration and retrofitting measures” (GEOCOM). The following seven countries were covered by WP6.3 works and this Deliverable D6.2: o Macedonia, o Hungary, o Italy, o Poland, o Romania, o Serbia, o Slovakia. The work was done with the contribution of all GEOCOM Project Partner teams and appointed experts, coordinated, interpreted and summarized by the Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute of PAS team, WP6 leader. FP7

In face of increased efforts to mitigate climate change, biofuels may be included in reduction plans forgreenhouse gas emissions. Feedstock for first generation biofuels and food crops both use arable land andmay compete for it. Also, fuel is an input for the production and transport of food. The purpose of thispaper is to quantify with empirical data how these two aspects affect market outcomes and to introduce acounterfactual setting where the latter aspect dominates the former. The setting allows an expansion ofbiofuel production to increase food production by lowering costs of production and transport. Namely,lower costs increase market access, allowing a higher utilization of idle production capacities for foodcrops. For this quantification, I develop an open market, welfare maximizing, partial equilibrium modelfor three interdependent goods fuel, fuel feedstock, and food (these goods are represented by diesel/biodiesel,palm oil, and cassava/maize respectively). The model is calibrated to Zambia, which exhibits the necessaryunderlying conditions of underutilized agricultural capacity, high transport costs, and low exports offood. Compared to a baseline, model results show the counterfactual switch from fossil diesel to biodieselto reduce the diesel price by51%. This increases food supply (cassava and maize combined) by0.4%and decreases related prices by3%. Overall welfare increases by9.9%. If additionally, a higher worldmarket price of maize renders exports just profitable, overall welfare continues to gain9.9%, domesticfood supply rises by0.3%, and related prices drop by2%, but food supply including exports grows by32%. Furthermore, the introduction of a palm oil based biodiesel sector eliminates import dependency onfossil diesel and palm oil.

In this paper the author analyzes the dependence between energy and industrial competitiveness before and after the 2008 economic crisis in the European Union. The Europe 2020 strategy aims energy major industrial competitiveness and increasing energy efficiency. But the economic crisis of 2008 led to reduced energy consumption and prices have increased considerably, so prices in the European Union in the energy industry are estimated to be twice higher than in the United States and Russia and 20% higher than those in China. According to the 2020 European Strategy for Sustainable Growth proposed increasing share of renewables to 20% increasing 20% energy efficiency and 20% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions greenhouse (or even 30 %, in favorable conditions) compared to 1990. The economic analysis in this paper are based on statistical quantitative method. Indicators used in this analysis are available on major platforms Eurostat data.

In a way to reduce the external energy dependence, increasing also the investments in renewable energy sources and aiming for the concretization of the European renewable objectives, the Portuguese government defined a goal of 5100 MW of installed wind power, up to 2012. If the drawn objectives are accomplished, by 2010 the wind power share may reach values comparable to leading countries like Denmark, Germany or Spain. The Portuguese forecasts also indicate a reinforcement of the natural gas fired generation in particular through the use of the combined cycle technology, following the European tendency. This analysis sets out to evaluate the total generating cost of wind power and CCGT in Portugal. A life cycle cost analysis was conducted, including investment costs, O&M costs, fuel costs and external costs of emissions, for each type of technology. For the evaluation of the externalities ExternE values were used. The results show that presently the wind power production cost is higher than the CCGT one, at least from the strictly financial point of view. CCGT costs increase significantly when charges for externalities are included. However, they only reach levels higher than the equivalents for wind power for high externality costs estimations. This partially results from the low load factor of the wind farms in Portugal and also from the lowemission levels of the gas fired technology used in the comparison. A sensitive analysis of the technical and economical parameters was also conducted. Particular attention was given to the natural gas prices due to the possible increase over time. The fuel escalation rate is the parameter that has larger effects on the final costs. It was verified that the total cost of wind plant is more influenced by the load factor than the total cost of CCGT.

Within the scope of sustainable development goals and climate change mitigation, this study focuses on investigating the effects of energy consumption, agriculture, and economic growth on CO 2 emissions in the top ten agricultural countries for the period 1997-2016. By investigating the validity of the agricultural induced environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), the study mainly aims to explore how agricultural activities affect environmental quality. In doing so, this study utilizes the augmented mean group (AMG) estimator that allows for heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. The results of the AMG estimator suggest that the agricultural induced EKC hypothesis is valid for six out of the ten countries. The empirical results also indicate that agriculture reduces CO2 emissions, while energy consumption accelerates environmental degradation. All these results suggest that agricultural production and economic development can play an essential role in reducing environmental pollution.

This work is a case study of an agro-industrial company from Arad County, Romania. This company applies an integrated farming and processing approached by (near) closed loop cycle of bio-resources: (1) agricultural farming, (2) animal breeding (cattle and pigs), (3) food production (meat and milk products), (4) marketing finished agro (bio) products. The single link missing to close this cycle is conversion of organic wastes into energy and fertilizer. We propose application of anaerobic digestion of organic wastes generated in agricultural and industrial processes of this company to produce energy and organic fertilizer which will be applied on the agricultural fields to produce new feedstock for the agro-industrial complex. The methodology applied highlights the influence of the added co-substrates on the digestion process, and the possibilities of the energy recovery in suitable units, to mitigate the highest value of energy efficiency. In comparison to alternative technologies for energy production, the proposed CHP energy recovery is consuming less primary energy for the same amount of energy as underline the PES indicators of 20.30 % for scenario 1, and 11.05 % for scenario 2. Proceedings of the 25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 12-15 June 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 938-942