• Energy Research
• Energies close
• University of Szczecin close

The development of energy from renewable sources is one of the most important aspects of today’s energy industry. The level of this development (production of green energy) is determined by the use of a variety of methods, e.g., the methods of multicriteria and multivariate analysis. The effectiveness of these methods is affected by many factors, and one of them is the appearance of non-typical objects (outliers). This paper investigates the effectiveness of selected methods (TOPSIS, VIKOR, VMCM) in terms of computational robustness to outlier objects. The most effective method in this respect (VMCM) is then applied to study the level of development of renewable energy sources in European countries. The presented research provides the opportunity to carry out a dynamic analysis (for selected base years) of the level of energy generation from diverse renewable sources in reference to the adopted patterns and anti-patterns (European countries). The obtained results are discussed, thus confirming the effectiveness of the proposed methodological approach.

The purpose of this study was to provide an overview of the public perception of the increase in forest biomass production, particularly in Poland, in the context of global and European Union (EU) climate and energy policy directions. Trends regarding the justification of biomass production in the EU and the world were also analyzed. The study compared the results of public sentiment surveys concerning the use of biomass in Poland as a member state of the European Union. The results are presented in tabular and graphical form. Data were obtained from analyses of social websites, study reports, and information social media in Poland. This study shows an increase in the negative perception of biomass use nationally and globally. It can be concluded that the increasing trend of forest biomass extraction resulted from the growing demand for green energy sources. Changes in European Union policy affected the popularization of biomass production worldwide as a result of growing energy demand. The use of renewable energy sources is necessary to reduce environmental degradation and secure society’s growing energy needs. It is necessary to increase the flow of information about the importance of forest biomass for the environmental aspects of society in order to gain acceptance of the EU’s promoted direction of stable renewable energy.

Currently, emerging technologies support many problems arising in the energy industry. The “cognitive enterprise” concept, introduced by the IBM company, assumes that emerging technologies are used together with cognitive workflows to increase enterprise intelligence. The pursuit of enterprises from the energy sector to obtain the status of a cognitive enterprise requires the use of many emerging technologies, including cognitive technologies. Thus, the aim of the paper was to present the current state of research and identify the core components of the cognitive enterprise. To analyze the trends and challenges in scientific research development, the bibliometric approach was used. The analysis was made by means of the Web of Science and Scopus platforms; 70,177 records were retrieved. The results comprise the geographic distribution of research and the time analysis as well as the author and affiliation analysis. Additionally, descriptive statistics are provided. Consequently, the research milestones regarding the transformation of the traditional energy enterprise into the cognitive enterprise were defined. The findings of this research have supported the construction of the conceptual framework of the core transformation components for the cognitive energy enterprise. The study have several theoretical and practical implications. The proposed framework could be used to assess the level of readiness for transformation from the traditional to the cognitive energy enterprise. The discovered scientific gaps can constitute future research directions on cognitive enterprise concept.

Green technologies are undergoing strong development. These are created by global formal and legal regulations enforcing the reduction of the share of non-renewable energy sources in the energy systems of economies and the minimisation of harmful emissions through the development of technologies based on renewable energy sources. In addition, the development of green technologies is driven by the need to reduce the rising cost of electricity, particularly affecting households in countries heavily reliant on coal-fired power generation, where green technologies are only just gaining popularity (e.g., Poland). With this in mind, it was considered important to present the formal and legal background of the development of the Polish energy system towards sustainability and to discuss the green technology market in Poland, including innovative solutions in this field, which are or could be, applied to small individual consumers (households). The main objective of the study was to analyse the interest of households in innovative green technology solutions, determined by the surface area and cubic capacity of buildings, in order to strengthen the source material that can be used by decision-makers when designing a strategy for the development of the green energy market in Poland, with a special focus on individual consumers. The study was carried out based on a critical analysis of the available literature, regulations, and industry reports, as well as survey material enabling practical evaluation of solutions by users of innovative technologies. The practical research dimension was reinforced by statistical instrumentation, using the statistical instrument PQstat version 1.8.4.164. The main findings of this study show a significant level of openness of households in Poland to innovative green technologies and a clear relationship between the area and volume of a building and the range of choices made. The most popular solutions in this respect include photovoltaics, followed by heat pumps. Furthermore, it was noted that the area and cubic volume of a building determines the potential and scale of future strengthening of the RES dimension by small individual consumers.

The study aimed to evaluate whether the regional funds allocated for energy efficiency and renewable energy are related to the quantity of air pollutants discharged and the stage of regional development, and whether the evidence of convergence of regional levels of renewable energy electricity generation can be provided. A comparative analysis of financial instrument implementation within regional programmes was conducted, with a particular focus on instruments dedicated to enhancing energy efficiency and utilising renewable energy. To verify the research hypotheses, statistical coefficients of correlation and concentration, along with trend and econometric models were applied. The findings have confirmed the rise in regional funds for energy efficiency and renewable energy, along with the growing importance of financial instruments in transforming the energy sector. The hypotheses that air pollutant emissions per unit of GDP generated are decreasing, there exists a regional convergence of renewable energy production per capita, and the spatial accumulation of renewable energy production is declining, have been confirmed. No correlation was found between the regional economic development and the level of funds allocated to energy efficiency and renewable energy. The lack of such relationships provides a convincing argument for appropriate state regulation.

The main focus of this research has been on examining the renewable energy sources (RESs) consumption with respect to green consumer values (GCVs). These GCVs have primarily been examined with regard to different products and services. The most significant strategy for strengthening everyone is social education. While GCVs are assumed to be nurtured through education, specific understanding about the long-term benefits of renewable energy for a sustainable life is measured with the belief that the greater the training and development the better shaped the society can be, which boosts morale and increases their energy reliance with RES, assessed by the respondents of Uttar Pradesh (UP), as the outcome of the research. The implications for the stakeholders are the long-term advantages of renewable energy for a sustainable existence, since a society may be better formed and its reliance on RESs for energy rises the more training and development it receives. The advantages are visible, though we may not be able to completely transition soon, but it is crucial that we think for the future. The quantitative research method applies statistical analyses, such as ANOVA, spectral analysis, and multilayer perceptron analysis, justifying the requirement of education. The results justify that the solution to this problem—that green consumer values are being learned—can be nurtured by societal education. Learning about green consumer values can make society understand the renewable energy benefits, which can better shape society and lead to capacity building.

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the delivery of courier and postal items has the potential to provide benefits in breaking down terrain barriers and reducing congestion in urban areas. In addition, the trend to move away from polluting fossil fuels prompts delivery companies to invest in low- and zero-emission means of transport. Electric UAVs reduce environmental contamination in the delivery area and can also be directly powered by renewable energy sources. The aim of this study is to identify the premises and conditions of UAV implementation on the example of companies delivering courier and postal items in Poland. The basic research methods used for the preparation of this study are critical analysis of the literature on the subject, synthesis, and generalisation, which led to the authors’ own research conducted through partially categorised oral interviews. The conducted considerations confirm the existence of premises and the ability of UAVs for the effective delivery of items. In Poland, the most important limitation in the implementation and dissemination of this delivery method is the high level of social scepticism, reaching 43%. If actions are not taken to neutralise this attitude of society, this factor may effectively prevent the use of UAVs for delivery services.

The growing importance of creative knowledge workers as a resource of particular significance for the growth of organizations is becoming one of the greatest challenges of the knowledge-based economy. Thus, the growing role of creative organizations contributes to building the economic potential of cities, regions, countries, but also of various organizations operating in the market. The development of civilization at its current stage has always been a source of this type of activity. Hence, the issue of understanding how creative knowledge workers operate has been and continues to be addressed by researchers around the world in recent years. The topic presented in this article on the knowledge and creativity of employees and their impact on the growth of creative organizations to a certain extent responds to this demand. The aim of the article is to clarify and extend the conceptualization in terms of creative activities performed by knowledge workers and the correlations with their characteristics and with knowledge initiatives. Achieving the set aim would allow to indicate that modern development depends on the proper generation of knowledge and creativity and the resources offered by an organization to facilitate its absorption in terms of growth prospects. The article reviews the research on cognitive, theoretical, methodological, and empirical issues regarding the development of creative knowledge workers employed in creative organizations as well as characteristics of workers and knowledge initiatives introduced in organizations. The analysis of the literature allowed to establish a research framework and indicate which knowledge initiatives are important and which characteristics of selected employees may be related to creative activities. Empirical verification was carried out through the analysis of basic descriptive statistics with Spearman’s ρ rank correlation and the relationship between nominal and ordinal variables using chi-square tests. The results of the study revealed significant relationships between the performance of creative activities and certain characteristics of knowledge workers as well as between the performance of creative activities and the introduction of knowledge initiatives. It turned out that the knowledge of the nature of the connections between the mentioned activities and knowledge initiatives is the basis for determining which knowledge initiatives in the case of a given creative organization will bring the best results in the form of taking effective creative activities by knowledge workers. Moreover, a person who performs creative activities has only some of the characteristics presented in this article. The research results are particularly relevant to the development of creative knowledge workers employed in creative organizations. Setting out guidelines aimed at changing this state of affairs and the research conducted allowed the identification of areas for improvement in order to ensure that they develop more effectively and meet the demands of competitiveness, generating more innovative ideas.

Energy security is of key importance for states and international organizations. An important issue in energy security is the assessment of current and future energy security methods. While the assessment of the current methods is relatively easy, since it is based on recent information, the assessment of the future methods is burdened with uncertainty and is therefore much more difficult. Therefore, the aim of the article is to develop a new approach for assessing current and future energy security issues based on a complex security index, supported by the computationally transparent fuzzy multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method. The use of the fuzzy MCDA methods allows one to capture the uncertainty of assessments and forecasts, and the forecasts themselves were based on the Holt’s method; the international energy security risk index (IESRI) was used as the source of the data to generate the forecasts. The research compared two data sources for forecasts (IESRI categories and metrics) and two methods of forecast fuzzification. As a result, the forecasted assessments and rankings of energy security for the 2020–2030 period were obtained. On the basis of these forecasts, general trends shaping energy security were also indicated.