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AbstractThe European Commission proposal on the liberalization of energy markets has been widely debated in policy, stakeholder and academic circles both for its content and the potential consequences for the structure of the EU gas and electricity markets. However, little has been said about the empirical evidence produced by the European Commission to support this legislative package. Since the Impact Assessment (IA) system has been in place, there have been concerns regarding quality and adequateness, especially when quantifying costs, benefits and risks, selecting policy options and considering stakeholder opinions. This article examines how these crucial issues were factored into the IA on the liberalization of EU energy markets. It is concluded that the selected policy option reflects the position of some stakeholders at the expense of the available evidence on its impacts on markets, society and the environment.

Supercritical water gasification (SCWG) is a combined thermal decomposition and hydrolysis process for converting wet biomass feedstock with high water content potentially (80 wt%) to syngas. The process bypasses the need for an energy intensive pre-drying step and also needs relatively shorter residence times (of the order of seconds to minutes) when compared to conventional gasification. The main target of SCWG is to obtain syngas rich in hydrogen whilst minimising char formation. In recent years, SCWG studies have advanced from using model compounds (e.g. glucose and cellulose) towards the use of real biomass and its waste (e.g. sugarcane trash). The use of biomass as a feedstock creates real opportunities for the technology since it is available in some form, regardless of location. This review discusses the findings from SCWG studies that have used real biomass as a feedstock. The effects of reaction temperature, pressure, residence time and feedstock concentration to the hydrogen yields are presented. The relationship between the main components in biomass (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) and hydrogen yields are also discussed. Homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts have been used to enhance SCWG with real biomass feedstock and the benefits of these approaches are also considered. The economic benefits of running the catalytic SCWG at 400 °C compared to non-catalytic operation at 600 °C is evaluated. Reactor configuration and process conditions vary across the literature, and various authors describe the associated challenges (char formation and plugging, corrosion) as well as promising solutions to tackle these key challenges.

Abstract. This study analyzes future climate for the Mediterranean region projected with the high-resolution coupled CM2.5 model, which incorporates a new and improved land model (LM3). The simulated climate changes suggest pronounced warming and drying over most of the region. However, the changes are distinctly smaller than those of the CMIP5 multi-model ensemble. In addition, the changes over much of southeast and central Europe indicate very modest warming compared to the CMIP5 projections and also a tendency toward wetter conditions. These differences indicate a possible role of factors such as land surface–atmospheric interactions in these regions. Our analysis also highlights the importance of correctly projecting the magnitude of changes in the summer North Atlantic Oscillation, which has the capacity to partly offset anthropogenic warming and drying over the western and central Mediterranean. Nevertheless, the projections suggest a decreasing influence of local atmospheric dynamics and teleconnections in maintaining the regional temperature and precipitation balance, in particular over arid regions like the eastern and southern Mediterranean, which show a local maximum of warming and drying. The intensification of the heat low in these regions rather suggests an increasing influence of warming land surface on the local surface atmospheric circulation and progressing desertification.

AbstractBecause of its low level of energy consumption and the small scale of its industrial development, the Tibet Autonomous Region has historically been excluded from China's reported energy statistics, including those regarding CO2 emissions. In this paper, we estimate Tibet's energy consumption using limited online documents, and we calculate the 2014 energy‐related and process‐related CO2 emissions of Tibet and its seven prefecture‐level administrative divisions for the first time. Our results show that 5.52 million tons of CO2 were emitted in Tibet in 2014; 33% of these emissions are associated with cement production. Tibet's emissions per capita amounted to 1.74 tons in 2014, which is substantially lower than the national average, although Tibet's emission intensity is relatively high at 0.60 tons per thousand yuan in 2014. Among Tibet's seven prefecture‐level administrative divisions, Lhasa City and Shannan Region are the two largest CO2 contributors and have the highest per capita emissions and emission intensities. The Nagqu and Nyingchi regions emit little CO2 due to their farming/pasturing‐dominated economies. This quantitative measure of Tibet's regional CO2 emissions provides solid data support for Tibet's actions on climate change and emission reductions.

This work presents a pathway for Saudi Arabia to transition from the 2015 power structure to a 100% renewable energy-based system by 2050 and investigates the benefits of integrating the power sector with the growing desalination sector. Saudi Arabia can achieve 100% renewable energy power system by 2040 while meeting increasing water demand through seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) and multiple effect distillation (MED) desalination plants. The dominating renewable energy sources are PV single-axis tracking and wind power plants with 243 GW and 83 GW, respectively. The levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) of the 2040 system is 49 €/MWh and decreases to 41 €/MWh by 2050. Corresponding levelised cost of water (LCOW) is found to be 0.8 €/m3 and 0.6 €/m3. PV single-axis tracking dominates the power sector. By 2050 solar PV accounts for 79% of total electricity generation. Battery storage accounts for 41% of total electricity demand. In the integrated scenario, due to flexibility provided by SWRO plants, there is a reduced demand for battery storage and power-to-gas (PtG) plants as well as a reduction in curtailment. Thus, the annual levelised costs of the integrated scenario is found to be 1–3% less than the non-integrated scenario.

This article shows an evaluation of a ToU network tariff test on Australian domestic electricity customers. The test was with 444 domestic electricity customers in Tasmania, Australia. This Australian case has international implications for energy policy and regulation. Australia has the world’s highest domestic PV (photovoltaic system) adoption and combining this with high air-conditioning and water heating load leads to high diurnal variation and an emerging issue globally. Related issues include over-voltage. Thermal overload, frequency instability and voltage instability. The method was a statistical analysis of the energy use patterns using k-means clustering, and then stepwise regression to find drivers of energy reduction behaviour. There were also tests on the effect of weather and seasonal effect. The conclusions are that there was strong response from 4% of customers, and moderate response from 15%. There was a stronger response in households that were drawing more electricity and were wealthier than the average households.

Presents a brief overview of trends and developments of public opinion about nuclear energy since the late 1970's. One possible reason for increased concern is the public's perception of risks. Research has shown a considerable divergence in public and expert assessment of the risks associated with nuclear energy. It is argued that qualitative aspects of these risks play a crucial role in the public's perception of nuclear energy and that reactions such as fear and anxiety are the major determinants of attitudes toward the building of new nuclear power stations in neighborhoods. It is also clear, however, that differences in the perception of these risks do not embrace all the relevant aspects of public acceptance of nuclear energy. Public reaction is also related to more general values and beliefs, and the issue of nuclear energy is firmly embedded in a much wider moral and political domain. A summary of findings in a survey of 300 long-time residents of possible nuclear! power station sites in the UK by the present author (in press) suggests that the major experiences between attitude groups concerned the less-tangible, more long-term nature of potential negative outcomes.