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Aqueous lithium-ion batteries (ALiBs) present a promising avenue for safer and more sustainable energy storage solutions compared to traditional non-aqueous lithium-ion batteries. LiNiO2 (LNO) has emerged as a potential cathode material for ALiBs due to its high capacity potential and ability to facilitate Li⁺ intercalation over H⁺ intercalation in aqueous media. However, challenges remain regarding its stability and performance in aqueous electrolytes. In this study, we employ periodic density functional theory simulations to investigate the interactions between LNO surfaces and aqueous electrolytes, evaluating its viability as a cathode material for ALiBs. We have systematically and exhaustively studied the surface energetics, shedding light on the formation of NiOOHx species, one of the common issues associated with this material. We have evaluated the oxygen evolution reaction on LNO surfaces, revealing that they decompose water molecules into hydroxide and other intermediate species, thereby degrading the electrolyte. Our findings suggest that, despite their promising abilities for Li+ ion intercalation, the tendency to boost the generation of NiOOHx and its facility to decompose water at potentials lower than 1.23 V are important limitations for the battery performance S.P.-P. appreciates the economic support of Marie Curie fellowship (H2020-MSCA-IF- 2020–101020330). A.P. is a Serra Húnter Fellow and received the ICREA Academia Prize 2019. M.S. and A.P. thank the Spanish MINECO for projects PID2020-13711GB-I00, PID2023-147424NB-I00, and PID2021-127423NB-I00, and the Generalitat de Catalunya for project 2021SGR623. Computational time at the MARENOSTRUM supercomputer has been provided by the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre through a grant from Red Española de Supercomputación, project (QHS-2022-3-0002)

From the British debate on the depletion of coal in 1865 to the First World Power Conference held in London in 1924, scientists, engineers, industrialists, and politicians produced new interpretations of the past, present, and future in terms of the mobilisation of energy resources. This thesis identifies an emerging ‘energy developmentalism’, which called for maximising energy use to maintain or improve a nation’s place in international competition. Energy developmentalism was not a marginal worldview confined to ‘energeticists’, but a coherent set of claims, measurements, and arguments that informed energy governance on an international scale. Rather than focusing on a single resource, energy developmentalism applied a unified schema to all energy sources, including those like solar and tidal energy that were still mostly theoretical. Drawing on sources from across Europe, while staying grounded in political changes in Britain and France, makes it possible to understand how a general formula for transforming raw materials with maximum efficiency was applied differently depending on specific political contexts. This period saw the articulation of problems like the depletion of resources, the difference between renewable and nonrenewable energy, the intermittency of renewables, the overreliance on a single source of energy, and the centrality of energy to modern economies – problems that are often associated with later periods. Scientific measurements of efficiency, horsepower, and kilowatts became operators in political debates centred on questions of national standing and progress. Even as oil became increasingly important in the world economy, the delegates at the First World Power Conference transformed a vision of a renewable energy future into one of a general expansion of energy consumption as the basis of progress. In so doing, they downplayed the continued importance of fossil fuels and equated ‘conservation’ with the fullest possible use of all energy sources, renewable or not.

Power-to-methane (PtM) is a prospective solution to the mismatching between the supply and consumption of renewable energy resources (RES) by converting renewable power into methane. However, the continuous fluctuation of RES causes the PtM system to deviate from the design condition in the vast majority of cases, and thus it is significantly vital to study the operating characteristics of the PtM system under off-design conditions. This paper proposes a comprehensive investigation framework from design to off-design steps for the performance improvement of a PtM system combining solid oxide electrolysis cell with methanation reactor, and solar energy is selected as renewable energy input. Firstly, the system with the total exergy efficiency (ηEX,tot) of 11.83% and levelized cost of exergy (LCOE) of 150.76 $/MWh is selected as the optimal design condition based on the homogeneous assessment from both thermodynamic and economic aspects, by means of Non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II. Then, based on the optimal design point, the off-design performances are quantitatively investigated under varying solar radiation and key operating parameters, in terms of synthetic natural gas (SNG) yield and ηEX,tot. The results indicate that with the increment in solar radiation, the SNG yield rises, while the ηEX,tot increases first and then decreases. Finally, the multi-objective optimization based on the Artificial Neural Network models is implemented for the system under off-design conditions to acquire the best trade-off between hourly SNG yield and ηEX,tot. The off-design optimization solutions reveal that the hourly optimal SNG yield is located in the range of 275.06–946.53 kW, achieving a total annual SNG yield of 1697 MWh/y, and the hourly optimal ηEX,tot mainly varies in the range of 10.40–11.40%.

AbstractSustainable biorefineries have a critical role to play in our common future. The need to provide more goods using renewable resources, combined with advances in science and technology, has provided a receptive environment for biorefinery systems development. Biorefineries offer the promise of using fewer non‐renewable resources, reducing CO2 emissions, creating new employment, and spurring innovation using clean and efficient technologies. Lessons are being learned from the establishment of first‐generation biofuel operations. The factors that are key to answering the question of biorefinery sustainability include: the type of feedstock, the conversion technologies and their respective conversion and energy efficiencies, the types of products (including coproducts) that are manufactured, and what products are substituted by the bioproducts. The BIOPOL review of eight existing biorefineries indicates that new efficient biorefineries can revitalize existing industries and promote regional development, especially in the R&D area. Establishment can be facilitated if existing facilities are used, if there is at least one product which is immediately marketable, and if supportive policies are in place. Economic, environmental, and social dimensions need to be evaluated in an integrated sustainability assessment. Sustainability principles, criteria, and indicators are emerging for bioenergy, biofuels, and bioproducts. Practical assessment methodologies, including data systems, are critical for both sustainable design and to assure consumers, investors, and governments that they are doing the ‘right thing’ by purchasing a certain bioproduct. If designed using lifecycle thinking, biorefineries can be profitable, socially responsible, and produce goods with less environmental impact than conventional products … and potentially even be restorative!. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

This paper proposes a technique for the probabilistic wind power forecasting (WPF) of a newly built wind farm (NWF) using a limited amount of historical data. First, the state-of-the-art Transformer network is employed to capture the power generation pattern of different wind farms (WFs) based on abundant historical training samples. Then, the Bayesian averaging regression method is applied to transfer the learned power generation pattern to the NWF by assigning proper weights to the WPF results of different WFs. This enables the proposed method to yield accurate NWF power predictions utilizing a limited amount of historical data. The Bayesian characteristics further enable the quantification of multiple uncertainties in forecasting results that may be essential for the NWF operator when the input is uncertain. Comprehensive tests were also performed by employing other deterministic and probabilistic WPF methods using field data. By comparing the results, the proposed method is demonstrated to produce accurate forecasting results with sparse historical data. Moreover, the uncertainties of outcomes are quantified, and acceptable performance is achieved.

Abstract Level(s) is a common European Union framework of core sustainability indicators for measuring the performance of buildings along their life cycle, enabling emissions reductions and circular resource flows. A fundamental tool for the development of European policies to boost the market for sustainable, resilient and climate change adapted buildings. The objective of this study is to contribute to the existing body of knowledge in the field of sustainable building research, through the definition of strategies to adopt Level(s) for bringing buildings into the Circular Economy. For this reason, a triple SWOT-Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)-TOWS analysis was applied. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of the Level(s) have been identified in relation to the availability of resources, product quality, internal and market structure, consumer perception, among others. The results obtained are conclusive in terms of the experts’ positive assessment of the tool; highlighting factors such as its response to the need to adapt buildings to climate change, its a standard reference language, and its use in multiple situations. However, several barriers have also been identified, which may affect its development, including its complexity of use, its lack of self-sufficiency, and its dependence the criteria used in each evaluation. Finally, the key strategies to be carried out for the implementation of the Levels have been established.

[ES] El emprendimiento sostenible (ES) se ha convertido en un tema central de interés en diversos sectores, como academia, sector privado, sector público y la sociedad civil. Este enfoque emerge de la necesidad de crear entornos donde las personas, el planeta, puedan prosperar de manera sostenible, integrando aspectos económicos, sociales, ambientales, políticos y culturales. La definición de ES varía según autor e intereses de investigación (Belz, 2013). Autores como Cohen & Winn (2007) sostienen que el ES conduce a una economía más sostenible a largo plazo a través de oportunidades de negocio, Mientras que Moya et al. (2019) enfatizan la importancia de modelo de negocio que generen ingresos y, al mismo tiempo, preserven el medio ambiente y promueven el bienestar de la sociedad. En el 2015, la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas aprobó la Agenda 2030 para el Desarrollo Sostenible, que incluye 17 Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) (UN, 2015). Estos ODS, se agrupan en cinco ejes principales: personas, planeta, prosperidad, paz y alianzas, que busca promover el bienestar de las actuales y futuras generaciones de manera inclusiva, equitativa y sostenible, al mismo tiempo que se garantiza la preservación del medio ambiente. La presente tesis doctoral propone aplicar un modelo de emprendimiento sostenible fundamentado en los ODS, como una estrategia para garantizar la perdurabilidad de los emprendimientos sostenibles en el tiempo. Para ello se identificaron seis criterios característicos clave: innovación, oportunidad, responsabilidad, calidad, creatividad y capacidad, que se asocian a diferentes variables para construir la estrategia sostenible. La investigación se divide en tres etapas. En la primera etapa, se realiza una revisión bibliográfica exhaustiva de los constructos ES y ODS. En la segunda etapa, se lleva a cabo un análisis de los avances y desafíos de los ODS, partimos analizando 23 países de América Latina y el Caribe, así como 38 a países miembros de la OCDE, con el objetivo de identificar grupos homogéneos de países en función de cada uno de los cinco ejes de los ODS. En la tercera etapa, se desarrolla la base de datos, integrando variables relacionadas con los indicadores de innovación, los ODS, la actividad y actitud empresarial y las condiciones del marco empresarial. Estas variables se utilizan para examinar la relación entre la estrategia sostenible y la perdurabilidad de los emprendimientos sostenibles a través del indicador propiedad empresarial establecida, utilizando un modelo de datos panel desbalanceado de efectos fijos para 48 países durante el periodo 2015 al 2021. Los resultados de la investigación confirman la importancia de la aplicación de las variables de la estrategia sostenible para la implementación del modelo de ES fundamentado en los ODS. Se observa una relación significativa entre las variables relacionadas con la actividad empresarial y las condiciones del marco empresarial con la perdurabilidad de la propiedad empresarial establecida (EBO). Además, se identifica una relación positiva entre los ODS y la perdurabilidad de la EBO. Sin embargo, en el modelo las variables relacionadas con los indicadores de innovación no muestran una relación significativa con la perdurabilidad de la EBO. Esto sugiere que el impacto de la innovación en la perdurabilidad de la EBO podría ser más complejo y dependa de otros factores contextuales, como nivel de desarrollo económico del país o del sector de actividad económica. En conclusión, la investigación proporciona importantes contribuciones a la literatura y la práctica: Proporcionando herramientas y enfoques para orientar y evaluar el impacto de políticas y programas relacionados con emprendimiento, ES, ODS, el espíritu empresarial, entre otros, que facilitan la toma de decisiones más informadas. Esta investigación permitirá abordar los desafíos de la sostenibilidad de manera efectiva y contribuir al desarrollo sostenible en beneficio de todos. [CA] L'emprenedoria sostenible (ÉS) s'ha convertit en un tema central d'interés en diversos sectors, com a acadèmia, sector privat, sector públic i la societat civil. Este enfocament emergix de la necessitat de crear entorns on les persones, el planeta, puguen prosperar de manera sostenible, integrant aspectes econòmics, socials, ambientals, polítics i culturals. La definició de ÉS varia segons autor i interessos d'investigació (Belz, 2013). Autors com Cohen & Winn (2007) sostenen que l'ÉS conduïx a una economia més sostenible a llarg termini a través d'oportunitats de negoci, Mentres que Moya et al. (2019) emfatitzen la importància de model de negoci que generen ingressos i, al mateix temps, preserven el medi ambient i promouen el benestar de la societat. En el 2015, l'Assemblea General de les Nacions Unides va aprovar l'Agenda 2030 per al Desenvolupament Sostenible, que inclou 17 Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible (ODS) (UN, 2015). Estos ODS, s'agrupen en cinc eixos principals: persones, planeta, prosperitat, pau i aliances, que busca promoure el benestar de les actuals i futures generacions de manera inclusiva, equitativa i sostenible, al mateix temps que es garantix la preservació del medi ambient. La present tesi doctoral proposa aplicar un model d'emprenedoria sostenible fonamentada en els ODS, com una estratègia per a garantir la perdurabilitat de les emprenedories sostenibles en el temps. Per a això es van identificar sis criteris característics clau: innovació, oportunitat, responsabilitat, qualitat, creativitat i capacitat, que s'associen a diferents variables per a construir l'estratègia sostenible. La investigació es dividix en tres etapes. En la primera etapa, es realitza una revisió bibliogràfica exhaustiva dels constructes ÉS i ODS. En la segona etapa, es duu a terme una anàlisi dels avanços i desafiaments dels ODS, partim analitzant 23 països d'Amèrica Llatina i el Carib, així com 38 a països membres de l'OCDE, amb l'objectiu d'identificar grups homogenis de països en funció de cadascun dels cinc eixos dels ODS. En la tercera etapa, es desenvolupa la base de dades, integrant variables relacionades amb els indicadors d'innovació, els ODS, l'activitat i actitud empresarial i les condicions del marc empresarial. Estes variables s'utilitzen per a examinar la relació entre l'estratègia sostenible i la perdurabilitat de les emprenedories sostenibles a través de l'indicador propietat empresarial establida, utilitzant un model de dades panell desbalanceado d'efectes fixos per a 48 països durant el període 2015 al 2021. Els resultats de la investigació confirmen la importància de l'aplicació de les variables de l'estratègia sostenible per a la implementació del model de fon ÉS amentat en els ODS. S'observa una relació significativa entre les variables relacionades amb l'activitat empresarial i les condicions del marc empresarial amb la perdurabilitat de la propietat empresarial establida (EBO). A més, s'identifica una relació positiva entre els ODS i la perdurabilitat de l'EBO. No obstant això, en el model les variables relacionades amb els indicadors d'innovació no mostren una relació significativa amb la perdurabilitat de l'EBO. Això suggerix que l'impacte de la innovació en la perdurabilitat de l'EBO podria ser més complex i depenga d'altres factors contextuals, com a nivell de desenvolupament econòmic del país o del sector d'activitat econòmica. En conclusió, la investigació proporciona importants contribucions a la literatura i la pràctica: Proporcionant ferramentes i enfocaments per a orientar i avaluar l'impacte de polítiques i programes relacionats amb emprenedoria, ÉS, ODS, l'esperit empresarial, entre altres, que faciliten la presa de decisions més informades. Esta investigació permetrà abordar els desafiaments de la sostenibilitat de manera efectiva i contribuir al desenvolupament sostenible en benefici de tots. [EN] Sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) has become a central topic of interest in various sectors, such as academia, the private sector, the public sector and civil society. This approach emerges from the need to create environments where people, the planet, can thrive in a sustainable way, integrating economic, social, environmental, political and cultural aspects. The definition of SE varies according to author and research interests (Belz, 2013). Authors such as Cohen & Winn (2007) argue that SE leads to a more sustainable economy in the long term through business opportunities, while Moya et al. (2019) emphasise the importance of business models that generate income and, at the same time, preserve the environment and promote the well-being of society. In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (UN, 2015). These SDGs are grouped into five main axes: people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnerships, which seek to promote the well-being of current and future generations in an inclusive, equitable and sustainable manner, while ensuring the preservation of the environment. This doctoral thesis proposes the application of a sustainable entrepreneurship model based on the SDGs as a strategy to ensure the permanence of sustainable enterprises over time. To this end, six key characteristic criteria were identified: innovation, opportunity, responsibility, quality, creativity and capacity, which are associated with different variables to build the sustainable strategy. The research is divided into three stages. In the first stage, a comprehensive literature review of the SE and SDG constructs is conducted. In the second stage, an analysis of the progress and challenges of the SDGs is carried out, starting with an analysis of 23 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as 38 OECD member countries, with the aim of identifying homogeneous groups of countries according to each of the five axes of the SDGs. In the third stage, the database is developed, integrating variables related to innovation indicators, the SDGs, entrepreneurial activity and attitude, and business framework conditions. These variables are used to examine the relationship between sustainable strategy and the permanence of sustainable ventures through the established business ownership indicator, using an unbalanced fixed effects panel data model for 48 countries over the period 2015 to 2021. The research results confirm the importance of the application of sustainable strategy variables for the implementation of the SDG-based SE model. A significant relationship is observed between variables related to entrepreneurial activity and business framework conditions with the permanence of established business ownership (EBO). Furthermore, a positive relationship is identified between the SDGs and the permanence of EBO. However, in the model the variables related to innovation indicators do not show a significant relationship with EBO permanence. This suggests that the impact of innovation on EBO permanence might be more complex and depend on other contextual factors, such as the level of economic development of the country or the sector of economic activity. In conclusion, the research provides important contributions to literature and practice: Providing tools and approaches to guide and assess the impact of policies and programmes related to entrepreneurship, SE, SDGs, entrepreneurship, among others, facilitating more informed decision-making. This research will enable to address sustainability challenges effectively and contribute to sustainable development for the benefit of all.

This study evaluates quality function deployment-based innovation pathways for renewable energy projects. For this purpose, a 2-stage novel model is suggested. Firstly, the weights of the factors are calculated by considering Pythagorean fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory methodology based on 2-tuple linguistic values. With the help of the impact-relation map, the activities, and immediate predecessors are identified. Within this context, five different paths are determined for this situation. Secondly, the duration pathways and innovation costs are calculated for renewable energy projects. The findings indicate that the activities A (customer expectations) and E (production requirement) play the most critical role because they take place in all different paths. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that renewable energy investment companies should take necessary actions to satisfy customer expectations, such as offering affordable products and providing necessary information for the use of these projects.