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Although market-based environmental policy instruments feature prominently in economic theory and are widely employed, they often face public resistance. We argue that such resistance may be driven by moral responsibility, where citizens prefer to tackle the environmental problems that they have caused by themselves, rather than delegating the task to others by means of a market mechanism. Using a laboratory experiment that isolates moral responsibility from alternative explanations, we show that moral responsibility induces participants to take inefficient actions that reduce the earnings of the whole group of participants. We discuss the implications of this finding for the design and implementation of environmental policies.

This reference data set representing the status quo of the German electricity, heat, and natural gas sectors was compiled within the research project ‘LKD-EU’ (Long-term planning and short-term optimization of the German electricity system within the European framework: Further development of methods and models to analyze the electricity system including the heat and gas sector). While the focus is on the electricity sector, the heat and natural gas sectors are covered as well. With this reference data set, we aim to increase the transparency of energy infrastructure data in Germany. Where not otherwise stated, the data included in this report is given with reference to the year 2015 for Germany. The data set is documented in DIW Data Documentation 92 (see references). The project is a joined effort by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), the Workgroup for Infrastructure Policy (WIP) at Technische Universität Berlin (TUB), the Chair of Energy Economics (EE2) at Technische Universität Dresden (TUD), and the House of Energy Markets & Finance at University of Duisburg-Essen. The project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy through the grant ‘LKD-EU’, FKZ 03ET4028A-D. {"references": ["Kunz, Friedrich et. al. (2017). Electricity, Heat and Gas Sector Data for Modeling the German System. DIW Data Documentation 92."]}

Exergy-based analyses are useful means for the evaluation and improvement of energy conversion systems. A life cycle assessment (LCA) is coupled with an exergetic analysis in an exergo-environmental analysis. An advanced exergo-environmental analysis quantifies the environmental impacts estimated in the LCA into avoidable/unavoidable parts and into endogenous/exogenous parts, depending on their source. This analysis reveals the potential for improvement of plant components/processes and the component interactions within a system. In this paper, the environmental performance of an advanced zero emission plant (AZEP) with CO2 capture is evaluated based on an advanced exergoenvironmental analysis. The plant uses oxy-fuel technology and incorporates an oxygen-separating mixed conducting membrane (MCM). To evaluate the operation of the system, a similar plant (reference plant) without CO2 capture is used. It has been found that the improvement potential of the AZEP concept is restricted by the relatively low avoidable environmental impact of exergy destruction of several plant components. Moreover, the endogenous environmental impacts are for the majority of the components significant, while the exogenous values are, generally, kept at low levels. Nevertheless, a closer inspection reveals that there are strong interactions among the components of the MCM reactor and the components constituting the CO2 compression unit. Such results are valuable, when the improvement of the environmental performance of the plant is targeted and they can only be obtained through advanced exergy-based methods.

Abstract Bioenergy systems are expected to expand over the coming decades due to their potential to address energy security and environmental pollution challenges. Nevertheless, any renewable energy project can only survive if approved environmentally superior to its conventional counterparts. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an internationally standardized and validated methodology to evaluate and quantify the environmental impacts of bioenergy systems. However, due to its methodological scope, the LCA method measures only the environmental consequences of the target products of energy systems. The LCA approach can neither allocate the environmental impacts at the component level nor measure the environmental impacts of intermediate products. These challenges can be substantially resolved by systematically integrating the LCA approach with the thermodynamically-rooted exergy, offering a powerful environmental sustainability assessment tool known as “exergoenvironmental analysis“. Due to the unique methodological and conceptual characteristics of exergoenvironmental analysis in revealing the possibilities and trends for improvement, it has recently received increasing attention to mitigate the environmental impacts of bioenergy systems. Therefore, this review is aimed to thoroughly summarize and critically discuss the evaluation of sustainability aspects of bioenergy systems based on exergoenvironmental analysis. The pros and cons of using exergoenvironmental analysis in bioenergy research are also outlined to identify possible future directions for the field. Overall, exergoenvironmental analysis can offer more detailed information on the environmental consequences of each flow and component of bioenergy production plants, thereby diagnosing the breakthrough points for additional environmental improvements.

AbstractOne variation of exergy analysis, specific fuel consumption (SFC) analysis, was modified according the advanced exergy analysis, where exergy destructions within each component were split into endogenous/exogenous and avoidable/unavoidable parts, and by combining the energy-savings effects of each component. The modified analysis approach can help locate not only the weak points at the component level but also certain bottlenecks from the topology viewpoint, which may indicate adding or deleting some components, or enhancing the thermodynamic interactions between different process or subsystems. The modified approach was then applied to a conventional coal-fired power plant. The detailed spatial distribution of SFC within the current system at different partial-load conditions were deeply discussed at both component and process levels. Further splitting of SFC and the energy-saving effects of each process are also obtained and discussed. The results show that combustion and heat-and-mass transfer processes have the largest SFC. Heat-and-mass transfer process and the vent process have the greatest avoidable SFCs. The closer the component to the final product, the larger its influence on the overall performance, and, thus, a small improvement to these components may lead to a large reduction in the overall fuel consumption. More effective energy-saving measures of coal-fired power plants should focus on the match of heat transfer at intermediate-and-low temperature level and the breakage of the isolation of heat transfer subsystems, especially enhancing the interaction between the air preheating process and feedwater preheating process.

Availability of abiotic resources has been a topic of concern in recent years, resulting in several approaches being published to determine their availability on country and product level. However, the availability of biotic materials has not been analyzed to this extent yet. Therefore, an approach to determine possible limitations to availability of terrestrial biotic materials over the entire supply chain is introduced. The approach considers 24 categories overall as well as associated category indicators for the five dimensions: physical, socio-economic, abiotic, social and environmental constraints. This ensures a comprehensive availability assessment of bio-based product systems. The approach is applied to a case study comparing biodiesel produced from rapeseed and soy beans. The study shows that the determination of indicator values is feasible for most categories and their interpretation leads to meaningful conclusions. Thus, the approach leads to a more comprehensive assessment of availability aspects and supports better informed decision making in industry and policy.

Electromobility is a new approach to the reduction of CO2 emissions and the deceleration of global warming. Its environmental impacts are often compared to traditional mobility solutions based on gasoline or diesel engines. The comparison pertains mostly to the single life cycle of a battery. The impact of multiple life cycles remains an important, and yet unanswered, question. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate advances of 2nd life applications for lithium ion batteries from electric vehicles based on their energy demand. Therefore, it highlights the limitations of a conventional life cycle analysis (LCA) and presents a supplementary method of analysis by providing the design and results of a meta study on the environmental impact of lithium ion batteries. The study focuses on energy demand, and investigates its total impact for different cases considering 2nd life applications such as (C1) material recycling, (C2) repurposing and (C3) reuse. Required reprocessing methods such as remanufacturing of batteries lie at the basis of these 2nd life applications. Batteries are used in their 2nd lives for stationary energy storage (C2, repurpose) and electric vehicles (C3, reuse). The study results confirm that both of these 2nd life applications require less energy than the recycling of batteries at the end of their first life and the production of new batteries. The paper concludes by identifying future research areas in order to generate precise forecasts for 2nd life applications and their industrial dissemination.

Die weltweite Nutzung von Energie aus erneuerbaren Quellen wie Wind, Sonne, Biomasse, Wasser oder Erdwärme steigt kontinuierlich. Eine Vielzahl von Ländern hat im Rahmen ihrer Aktivitäten zum Klimaschutz Ziele für den zukünftigen Ausbau von erneuerbarer Energien verabschiedet. Trotz dieser vielfach ambitionierten Vorgaben und ansteigender installierter Kapazität von erneuerbaren Energien, treten Hindernisse bei der Umsetzung der politischen Ziele zu Tage und deren Erreichen wird gefährdet. Vielfältige Gründe für diese Schwierigkeiten konnten bisher identifiziert werden. Um erfolgreich die Diffusion von erneuerbaren Energietechnologien voranzutreiben und die politischen Zielvorgaben zu erfüllen, müssen die bekannten Hindernisse adressiert und Lösungen gefunden werden. Planungs- und Genehmigungsprozesse als Teil der Entscheidung über die Zulassung erneuerbarer Energieprojekte sind ein Faktor für die erfolgreiche Diffusion dieser neuen Technologien. Ein Element von Planung und Genehmigung sind oftmals Umweltprüfungen. Diese erfordern die Ermittlung und Berücksichtigung der Auswirkungen von erneuerbaren Energieprojekten auf die Umwelt. Das Ziel diese Dissertation ist die Ableitung von Hypothesen zur Rolle von Umweltprüfungen bei der Diffusion von erneuerbaren Energien und zur Notwendigkeit von Innovation bzw. Adaption dieses Instruments. Dieses Ziel wird erreicht durch die Analyse von gesetzlichen Vorgaben sowie der Praxis von Umweltprüfungen im Bereich von erneuerbaren Energien. Dazu werden zwei Fallbeispiele, die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika sowie Deutschland, untersucht und verglichen. Grundsätzlich kann die Schlussfolgerung gezogen werden, dass Umweltprüfungen in bestimmten Aspekten verändert werden müssen, um den besonderen Herausforderungen bei der Diffusion von erneuerbaren Energien gerecht zu werden. Einige Bereiche der gesetzlichen Vorgaben sowie der Praxis von Umweltprüfungen stellen derzeit Hindernisse dar. Als ein Feld für zukünftige Forschung wird die Charakterisierung sowie empirischer Validierung der Rolle von Umweltprüfungen bei der Diffusion von erneuerbaren Energietechnologien gesehen. Weiterhin ist es nötig, die Prozesse, durch die eine Veränderung von rechtlichen Grundlagen sowie der Praxis von Umweltprüfung erreicht werden können, besser zu verstehen. Dabei ist es von besonderem Interesse zu analysieren, welche Rolle länderübergreifendes Lernen und der Transfer von Erfahrungen haben. The worldwide generation of energy from renewable resources such as wind, sun, biomass, water or ground heat, is constantly growing. Numerous countries have adopted renewable energy goals, often as part of their policies on fighting climate change. However, despite ambitious policy goals and increasing numbers in installed capacity, difficulties in the diffusion of renewable energy technologies occur and are jeopardizing the achievement of the targets. Several aspects have been identified to account for these difficulties in renewable energy diffusion. In order to successfully realize the diffusion of renewable energy technologies and to reach the goals for their future contribution to energy generation, the existing hindrances need to be addressed and solved. Planning and permitting, as the relevant decision-making processes, are one element of successful siting and deployment of renewable energy. Part of these planning and permitting processes often are environmental assessments (EA) requiring the consideration of the effects and impacts of the proposed renewable energy projects on the environment. The goal of this PhD thesis is the generation of hypotheses on the role of EA in the diffusion of renewable energy technologies, and on the need for innovation/adaptation of EA to fit the innovation system of renewable energy technology diffusion. This goal will be pursuit by the analysis of EA systems and EA practice related to renewable energy diffusion. Two cases will be analyzed and compared, namely the United States of America and Germany. In general, the conclusion can be drawn that EA for renewable energy diffusion needs to be improved in certain aspects in order to be able to meet the special requirements of this energy system. Some elements in EA legislation and practice pose certain problems in renewable energy diffusion. One field for further research would be the characterization of the role of environmental EA in renewable energy technology diffusion and its validation by qualitative means. Furthermore, in order to achieve the necessary changes of EA, it is important to enhance the understanding of the processes of change of this instrument. In particular, how cross-national policy learning and transfer of experiences impact the occurrence of such changes needs to be further studied.