• Energy Research
• 11. Sustainability close
• 2. Zero hunger close
• English close

* Technical Challenges - Technology is relatively simple and has high conversion efficiency. * Cost Challenges - Despite efficiency, levelised costs are high, due to mainly 2 factors (1) the input cost of raw material is high, and (2) operating costs are high due to feedstock (methanol) and distillation operations. Selling oilcake has a significant effect on final product cost, with a 50% oilcake internal subsidy reducing the costs by R 6,500/ t (0.65 R/kWh). This would bring production cost into line with current range of diesel prices. * Environmental Challenges - Greenhouse gas savings are significant provided land use changes are carbon neutral. Limiting cultivation to subsistence cropland should assist with this goal. * Social and Institutional Challenges - Conversion of subsistence farmers in former homeland areas, with high reliance on cattle and maize, to a cash crop with side products for own consumption and cattle feed will require significant community involvement. Cooperative farming and marketing channels need to be investigated.

This climate change impact data (future scenarios on temperature-induced GDP losses) and climate change mitigation cost data (REMIND model scenarios) is published under doi: 10.5281/zenodo.3541809 and used in this paper: Ueckerdt F, Frieler K, Lange S, Wenz L, Luderer G, Levermann A (2018) The economically optimal warming limit of the planet. Earth System Dynamics. https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-10-741-2019 Below the individual file contents are explained. For further questions feel free to write to Falko Ueckerdt (ueckerdt@pik-potsdam.de). Climate change impact data File 1: Data_rel-GDPpercapita-changes_withCC_per-country_all-RCP_all-SSP_4GCM.csv Content: Data of relative change in absolute GDP/CAP levels (compared to the baseline path of the respective SSP in the SSP database) for each country, RCP (and a zero-emissions scenario), SSP and 4 GCMs (spanning a broad range of climate sensitivity). Negative (positive) values indicate losses (gains) due to climate change. For figure 1a of the paper, this data was aggregated for all countries. File 2: Data_rel-GDPpercapita-changes_withCC_per-country_all-SSP_4GCM_interpolated-for-REMIND-scenarios.csv Content: Data of relative change in absolute GDP/CAP levels (compared to the baseline path of the respective SSP in the SSP database) for each country, SSP and 4 GCMs (spanning a broad range of climate sensitivity). The RCP (and a zero-emissions scenario) are interpolated to the temperature pathways of the ten REMIND model scenarios used for climate change mitigation costs. Hereby the set of scenarios for climate impacts and climate change mitigation are consistent and can be combined to total costs of climate change (for a broad range of mitigation action). File 3: Data_rel-GDPpercapita-changes_withCC_per-country_SSP2_12GCM_interpolated-for-REMIND-scenarios.csv Content: Same as file 2, but only for the SSP2 (chosen default scenario for the study) and for all 12 GCMs. Data of relative change in absolute GDP/CAP levels (compared to the baseline path of the respective SSP in the SSP database) for each country, SSP-2 and 12 GCMs (spanning a broad range of climate sensitivity). The RCP (and a zero-emissions scenario) are interpolated to the temperature pathways of the ten REMIND model scenarios used for climate change mitigation costs. Hereby the set of scenarios for climate impacts and climate change mitigation are consistent and can be combined to total costs of climate change (for a broad range of mitigation action). In addition, reference GDP and population data (without climate change) for each country until 2100 was downloaded from the SSP database, release Version 1.0 (March 2013, https://tntcat.iiasa.ac.at/SspDb/, last accessed 15Nov 2019). Climate change mitigation cost data The scenario design and runs used in this paper have first been conducted in [1] and later also used in [2]. File 4: REMIND_scenario_results_economic_data.csv File 5: REMIND_scenarios_climate_data.csv Content: A broad range of climate change mitigation scenarios of the REMIND model. File 4 contains the economic data of e.g. GDP and macro-economic consumption for each of the countries and world regions, as well as GHG emissions from various economic sectors. File 5 contains the global climate-related data, e.g. forcing, concentration, temperature. In the scenario description “FFrunxxx” (column 2), the code “xxx” specifies the scenario as follows. See [1] for a detailed discussion of the scenarios. The first dimension specifies the climate policy regime (delayed action, baseline scenarios): 1xx: climate action from 2010 5xx: climate action from 2015 2xx climate action from 2020 (used in this study) 3xx climate action from 2030 4x1 weak policy baseline (before Paris agreement) The second dimension specifies the technology portfolio and assumptions: x1x Full technology portfolio (used in this study) x2x noCCS: unavailability of CCS x3x lowEI: lower energy intensity, with final energy demand per economic output decreasing faster than historically observed x4x NucPO: phase out of investments into nuclear energy x5x Limited SW: penetration of solar and wind power limited x6x Limited Bio: reduced bioenergy potential p.a. (100 EJ compared to 300 EJ in all other cases) x6x noBECCS: unavailability of CCS in combination with bioenergy The third dimension specifies the climate change mitigation ambition level, i.e. the height of a global CO2 tax in 2020 (which increases with 5% p.a.). xx1 0$/tCO2 (baseline) xx2 10$/tCO2 xx3 30$/tCO2 xx4 50$/tCO2 xx5 100$/tCO2 xx6 200$/tCO2 xx7 500$/tCO2 xx8 40$/tCO2 xx9 20$/tCO2 xx0 5$/tCO2 For figure 1b of the paper, this data was aggregated for all countries and regions. Relative changes of GDP are calculated relative to the baseline (4x1 with zero carbon price). [1] Luderer, G., Pietzcker, R. C., Bertram, C., Kriegler, E., Meinshausen, M. and Edenhofer, O.: Economic mitigation challenges: how further delay closes the door for achieving climate targets, Environmental Research Letters, 8(3), 034033, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034033, 2013a. [2] Rogelj, J., Luderer, G., Pietzcker, R. C., Kriegler, E., Schaeffer, M., Krey, V. and Riahi, K.: Energy system transformations for limiting end-of-century warming to below 1.5 °C, Nature Climate Change, 5(6), 519–527, doi:10.1038/nclimate2572, 2015.

Project: Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) datasets - These data have been generated as part of the internationally-coordinated Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6; see also GMD Special Issue: http://www.geosci-model-dev.net/special_issue590.html). The simulation data provides a basis for climate research designed to answer fundamental science questions and serves as resource for authors of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-AR6). CMIP6 is a project coordinated by the Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM) as part of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). Phase 6 builds on previous phases executed under the leadership of the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI) and relies on the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) and the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) along with numerous related activities for implementation. The original data is hosted and partially replicated on a federated collection of data nodes, and most of the data relied on by the IPCC is being archived for long-term preservation at the IPCC Data Distribution Centre (IPCC DDC) hosted by the German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ). The project includes simulations from about 120 global climate models and around 45 institutions and organizations worldwide. Summary: These data include the subset used by IPCC AR6 WGI authors of the datasets originally published in ESGF for 'CMIP6.ScenarioMIP.MIROC.MIROC6.ssp119' with the full Data Reference Syntax following the template 'mip_era.activity_id.institution_id.source_id.experiment_id.member_id.table_id.variable_id.grid_label.version'. The MIROC6 climate model, released in 2017, includes the following components: aerosol: SPRINTARS6.0, atmos: CCSR AGCM (T85; 256 x 128 longitude/latitude; 81 levels; top level 0.004 hPa), land: MATSIRO6.0, ocean: COCO4.9 (tripolar primarily 1deg; 360 x 256 longitude/latitude; 63 levels; top grid cell 0-2 m), seaIce: COCO4.9. The model was run by the JAMSTEC (Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Kanagawa 236-0001, Japan), AORI (Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Chiba 277-8564, Japan), NIES (National Institute for Environmental Studies, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan), and R-CCS (RIKEN Center for Computational Science, Hyogo 650-0047, Japan) (MIROC) in native nominal resolutions: aerosol: 250 km, atmos: 250 km, land: 250 km, ocean: 100 km, seaIce: 100 km.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) PV Rooftop Database for Puerto Rico (PVRDB-PR) is a lidar-derived, geospatially-resolved dataset of suitable roof surfaces and their PV technical potential for virtually all buildings in Puerto Rico. The dataset can be downloaded at the AWS S3 explorer page. The GitHub documentation page provides a description of the dataset with methods and assumptions. The Puerto Rico Solar-For-All dataset provides Census Tract level estimates of residential low-to-moderate income (LMI) PV rooftop technical potential as well as solar electric bill savings potential for LMI communities at the municipality level.

A subset of the Field Crop Boundaries data set, showing all subsistence farmland used for crop cultivation. Prepared by SAEON from data provided by DAFF.

Data on cropland was obtained from the global data set produced by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Data set was obtained as a raster image, and clipped to the boundaries of South Africa, before being converted to a vector layer. The BioEnergy Atlas bases its analyses on mesozones (Planning zones of approximately 50 km2, with relatively homogeneous attributes). This data set aggregates FAO Cropland to mesozones for planning purposes. The FGGD land cover occurrence maps are global raster data layers with a resolution of 5 arc-minutes. Each pixel in each map contains a value representing the percentage of the area belonging to the land

The data consists of annual measurements of standing aboveground plant biomass, annual aboveground net primary productivity and annual soil respiration between 1998 and 2012. Data were collected from seven European shrublands that were subject to the climate manipulations drought and warming. Sites were located in the United Kingdom (UK), the Netherlands (NL), Denmark ( two sites, DK-B and DK-M), Hungary (HU), Spain (SP) and Italy (IT). All field sites consisted of untreated control plots, plots where the plant canopy air is artificially warmed during night time hours, and plots where rainfall is excluded from the plots at least during the plants growing season. Standing aboveground plant biomass (grams biomass per square metre) was measured in two undisturbed areas within the plots using the pin-point method (UK, DK-M, DK-B), or along a transect (IT, SP, HU, NL). Aboveground net primary productivity was calculated from measurements of standing aboveground plant biomass estimates and litterfall measurements. Soil respiration was measured in pre-installed opaque soil collars bi-weekly, monthly, or in measurement campaigns (SP only). The datasets provided are the basis for the data analysis presented in Reinsch et al. (2017) Shrubland primary production and soil respiration diverge along European climate gradient. Scientific Reports 7:43952 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep43952 Standing biomass was measured using the non-destructive pin-point method to assess aboveground biomass. Measurements were conducted at the state of peak biomass specific for each site. Litterfall was measured annually using litterfall traps. Litter collected in the traps was dried and the weight was measured. Aboveground biomass productivity was estimated as the difference between the measured standing biomass in year x minus the standing biomass measured the previous year. Soil respiration was measured bi-weekly or monthly, or in campaigns (Spain only). It was measured on permanently installed soil collars in treatment plots. The Gaussen Index of Aridity (an index that combines information on rainfall and temperature) was calculated using mean annual precipitation, mean annual temperature. The reduction in precipitation and increase in temperature for each site was used to calculate the Gaussen Index for the climate treatments for each site. Data of standing biomass and soil respiration was provided by the site responsible. Data from all sites were collated into one data file for data analysis. A summary data set was combined with information on the Gaussen Index of Aridity Data were then exported from these Excel spreadsheet to .csv files for ingestion into the EIDC.

Refrigerated road transport (RRT) vehicles are large users of energy, and reportedly have relatively high leakage of hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant gases, both of which contribute to global warming. The experience obtained from widespread research in leak reduction in stationary refrigeration systems can be instructive in combatting leakage in RRT systems, which has received less focus to date. This paper will take an integrated approach to develop and describe a preliminary model for sustainable RRT systems. It will first review lessons learned about refrigerant leakage in stationary systems in an effort to identify problematic/leak prone components common to transport refrigeration systems. This will then be followed by a survey of recent studies conducted in modelling transport refrigeration systems to advance energy efficiency. Initial results from the model illustrate the need to improve the efficiency of the refrigeration system, together with preventative maintenance of the box structure and refrigeration system as a whole.

The HEU MODERATE Building Stock Data provides information regarding the building stock for all EU27 member states at the national level (i.e., NUTS 0) considering 2020 as the reference year. Regarding the Service Sector, the data distinguishes the following subsectors: single-family houses, multifamily houses, and apartment blocks. Regarding the Service Sector, the data distinguishes the following subsectors: offices, trade, education, health, hotels and restaurants, and other non-residential buildings. Moreover, for each subsector, the data distinguishes the following construction periods: before 1945, 1945-1969, 1970-1979, 1980-1989, 1990-1999, 2000-2010, and 2011-2020. For each building stock subsector and construction period, the data provide information regarding total values at the national level for: - Number of buildings - Number of dwellings - Number of dwellings according to ownership (i.e., owner occupied, rented, social housing) - Number of dwellings according to occupation (i.e., occupied, vacant, secondary houses) - Total constructed area - Total heated area - Total cooled area - Total final energy consumption for space heating and domestic hot water - Total final energy consumption for space cooling Moreover, the following average values for single building characteristics are provided: - Number of floors - Volume-to-surface ratio - Vertical area - Ground area - Window surface - U-values for the different building elements (roof, walls, windows, and floors) - Useful energy demand (ued) differentiating between space heating, domestic hot water, and space cooling - Final energy consumption (fed) differentiating between space heating, domestic hot water, and space cooling Finally, the data provide information about the prevalence of: - Building materials and methodology for the different building elements (roof, walls, windows, and floors) - Different systems used for space heating, domestic hot water, and space cooling The data is provided as a `csv` file (long format with all details and data source) and as an excel file (wide format with separate sheets for each country). Data and a complete description of the available fields can be found at https://github.com/MODERATE-Project/building-stock-analysis/tree/main/T3.2-static-analysis The dataset was obtained by combining information from European and national resources and the review of scientific literature. Data gaps were subsequently filled via statistical modeling.

Heavy trucks contribute significantly to climate change, and in 2020 were responsible for 7% of total Swedish GHG emissions and 5% of total global CO2 emissions. Here we study the full lifecycle of cargo trucks powered by different energy pathways, comparing their biomass feedstock use, primary energy use, net biogenic and fossil CO2 emission, and cumulative radiative forcing. We analyse battery electric trucks with bioelectricity from standalone or combined heat and power (CHP) plants, and pathways where bioelectricity is integrated with wind and solar electricity. We analyse trucks operated on fossil diesel fuel and on dimethyl ether (DME). All energy pathways are analysed with and without carbon capture and storage (CCS). Bioelectricity and DME are produced from forest harvest residues. Forest biomass is a limited resource, so in a scenario analysis we allocate a fixed amount of biomass to power Swedish truck transport. Battery lifespan and chemistry, the technology level of energy supply, and the biomass source and transport distance are all varied to understand how sensitive the results are to these parameters. The scenario spans 100 years into the future. We find that pathways using electricity to power battery electric trucks have much lower climate impacts and primary energy use, compared to diesel and DME based pathways. The pathways using bioelectricity with CCS result in negative emissions leading to global cooling of the earth. The pathways using diesel and DME have significant and very similar climate impact, even with CCS. The robust results show that truck electrification and increased renewable electricity production is a much better strategy to reduce the climate impact of cargo transport and much more primary energy efficient than the adoption of DME trucks. This climate impact analysis includes all fossil and net biogenic CO2 emissions as well as the timing of these emissions. Considering only fossil emissions is incomplete and could be misleading. This dataset contains data on 4 metrics (primary energy use, biomass feedstock use, cumulative CO2 emissions, and cumulative radiative forcing) resulting from scenario modeling of cargo truck use in Sweden powered by different energy pathways. The energy pathways include battery electric trucks powered by bioelectricity, solar photovoltaic electricity and wind electricity, and internal combustion trucks powered by fossil diesel and dimethyl ether. The scenario spans 100 years into the future. The Excel sheet "tables" contains input data for the scenario modeling, with sources listed where applicable. The remaining sheets contains the modeled results and generated figures that are also a published in the associated article Sathre & Gustavsson (2023). Refer to the method description and reference list in the included documentation files for details. Tunga lastbilar bidrar kraftigt till klimatförändringarna och stod 2020 för 7% av de totala svenska växthusgasutsläppen och 5% av de totala globala CO2-utsläppen. Här studerar vi hela livscykeln för lastbilar som drivs av olika energivägar, jämför deras användning av biomassaråvaror, primär energianvändning, biogena och fossila CO2-utsläpp netto och kumulativ strålningstvingning. Vi analyserar batterielektriska lastbilar med bioel från fristående eller kraftvärmeverk och vägar där bioel integreras med vind- och solkraft. Vi analyserar lastbilar som drivs med fossilt dieselbränsle och med dimetyleter (DME). Alla energivägar analyseras med och utan avskiljning och lagring av koldioxid (CCS). Bioelektricitet och DME produceras av skogsavverkningsrester. Skogsbiomassa är en begränsad resurs, så i en scenarioanalys avsätter vi en fast mängd biomassa för att driva svenska lastbilstransporter. Batteriets livslängd och kemi, tekniknivån för energiförsörjning och biomassakällan och transportavståndet varierar alla för att förstå hur känsliga resultaten är för dessa parametrar. Scenariot sträcker sig 100 år in i framtiden. Vi finner att vägar som använder el för att driva batterielektriska lastbilar har mycket lägre klimatpåverkan och primär energianvändning, jämfört med diesel- och DME-baserade vägar. De vägar som använder bioelektricitet med CCS resulterar i negativa utsläpp som leder till global kylning av jorden. Vägarna med diesel och DME har betydande och mycket liknande klimatpåverkan, även med CCS. De robusta resultaten visar att elektrifiering av lastbilar och ökad förnybar elproduktion är en mycket bättre strategi för att minska godstransporternas klimatpåverkan än införandet av DME-lastbilar, och mycket mer primärenergieffektiv. Denna klimatkonsekvensanalys omfattar alla fossila och biogena CO2-utsläpp samt tidpunkten för dessa utsläpp. Att bara ta hänsyn till fossila utsläpp är ofullständigt och kan vara missvisande. Detta dataset innehåller data om 4 mätvärden (primär energianvändning, biomassaråvara, kumulativa CO2-utsläpp och kumulativ strålkraftspåverkan) som härrör från scenariomodellering av lastbilsanvändning i Sverige som drivs av olika energivägar. Energivägarna inkluderar batterielektriska lastbilar som drivs av bioelektricitet, solcellselektricitet och vindkraft samt förbränningsbilar som drivs av fossil diesel och dimetyleter. Scenariot sträcker sig 100 år in i framtiden. På arket "tables" i Excelfilen återfinns den indata som använts i modelleringen med angivna källor där detta är tillämpligt. Övriga ark innehåller resultat samt figurer som också publiceras i den samhörande artikeln Sathre & Gustavsson (2023). Se metodbeskrivning samt referenslista i tillhörande dokumentationsfiler för detaljer.