Techno-Economic Feasibility of a Grid-Connected Hybrid Renewable Energy System for a School in North-West Indonesia

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link. open access journalBackground: Schools typically have high diurnal fluctuation in electricity demand, with peak loads during daylight hours, which could be adequately met through harnessing solar renewable resources. This study demonstrates the strength of techno-economic assessment in selection and optimization of a grid-connected hybrid renewable energy system (HRES), utilizing local renewable resources to fulfil the daytime electricity demand for a school in northwest Indonesia. Methods: Three different scenarios are developed for optimizing the HRES configurations, comprising of PV panels, Wind turbine, Battery and Inverter. The following optimization parameters are used—one, technological performance of the HRES, in terms of their energy output to fulfil the energy deficit; two, economic performance of the HRES, in terms of their net present cost (NPC) and payback periods. Results: A clear trade-off is noted between the level of complexity of the three HRES, their renewable electricity generation potentials, NPC and payback periods. Scenario II, comprising of Solar PV and Inverter only, is found to be the most feasible and cost-effective HRES, with the optimized configuration of 245 kW PV capacity and 184 kW inverter having the lowest initial capital cost of US$51,686 and a payback time of 4 years to meet the school’s annual electricity load of 114,654 kWh. Its NPC is US$ −138,017 at the 20th year of installation. The negative value in year 20 is achieved through the sale of 40% of the renewable energy back to the grid. Conclusions: Techno-economic assessment can provide useful decision support in designing HRES relying on solar energy to serve predominantly daytime school electricity requirements in tropical countries

Challenges in the harmonisation of global integrated assessment models: a comprehensive methodology to reduce model response heterogeneity

Harmonisation sets the ground to a solid inter-comparison of integrated assessment models. A clear and transparent harmonisation process promotes a consistent interpretation of the modelling outcomes divergences and, reducing the model variance, is instrumental to the use of integrated assessment models to support policy decision-making. Despite its crucial role for climate economic policies, the definition of a comprehensive harmonisation methodology for integrated assessment modelling remains an open challenge for the scientific community. This paper proposes a framework for a harmonisation methodology with the definition of indispensable steps and recommendations to overcome stumbling blocks in order to reduce the variance of the outcomes which depends on controllable modelling assumptions. The harmonisation approach of the PARIS REINFORCE project is presented here to layout such a framework. A decomposition analysis of the harmonisation process is shown through 6 integrated assessment models (GCAM, ICES-XPS, MUSE, E3ME, GEMINI-E3, and TIAM). Results prove the potentials of the proposed framework to reduce the model variance and present a powerful diagnostic tool to feedback on the quality of the harmonisation itself

Sustainability Assessment Techniques and Potential Sustainability Accreditation Tools for Energy-Product Systems Modelling

The modelling of complex technological systems serves as the foundation for enhancing process performance, including sustainability features (triple-bottom line). The European Green Deal, proposed in 2019, aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and foster a resource-independent economy. Such a change must be carefully planned. Comprehensive sustainability protocols and guidelines are necessary to describe the standardized methodological procedure, the environmental certification procedures that allow market comparability and identification of the best solutions, the databases, the calculation tools and software, and the benchmark and target with which to make comparison. Policies and regulatory or incentive instruments promote the broad adoption of these approaches and ensure that policies reduce environmental, economic, and social impacts. This paper consists in an overview of sustainability assessment tools’ role in energy policy and short- and long-term modeling of more eco-friendly energy-product systems. Additionally, the paper explores these methods’ pros and cons in planning, analyzing, and optimizing energy/product systems, also according to the circular economy paradigm. All of these strategies aim to help the decision-maker make more consistent judgments by taking into consideration essential objective, such as end user or stakeholder demands, and minimizing subjective elements. An extensive listing of Sustainability accreditation and communication tools is provided. Sustainability assessment is an evaluation and optimization method that promotes sustainable development in all political planning and decision-making. It examines the social, economic, and environmental effects, finds conflicting goals, and recommends early optimization. Potentially, sustainability assessment should be integrated into the political planning process and depend on domain-specific research and assessments that currently exist or are planned, such as in combination with decision-making. Sustainability assessment is not designed to be an extra analytical tool. A sector-specific environmental or economic study from a strategic environmental analysis or regulatory effect analysis may be crucial to a sustainability assessment

Production and employment impacts of new technologies: analysis for biotechnology

Biotechnology is often regarded as a key technology with high potential for far-reaching social, environmental and economic impacts. Among others, the development and diffusion of biotechnology may have considerable economic effects on production and employment. This paper analyzes the economic impacts of different diffusion paths of biotechnology in some major application fields. Bottom-up technology information from literature, expert judgements and explicit scenario assumptions for various impact factors are combined and integrated in an input-output framework to calculate direct and indirect production and employment effects. The impact on net production and employment differs greatly between the different application sectors and depends on the respective importance of the various impact mechanisms. The indirect economic effects are rather high and exceed direct economic effects. These findings show the importance of a bottom-up approach as well as the consideration of indirect economic effects for appropriate analyses of the impact of biotechnology. --Economic impacts of technologies,employment effects,input-output model,biotechnology

An integrated model platform for the economic assessment of agricultural policies in the European Union

A number of economic models have been applied to analyse the Common Agricultural Policy. The partial equilibrium models CAPRI, ESIM, AGLINK, AGMEMOD and CAPSIM and the general equilibrium models GLOBE and GTAP are currently integrated in a modelling platform for Agro-Economic Policy Analysis in the premises of the Joint Research Centre in Seville in close collaboration with Directorate- General for Agriculture and Rural Development. Each of the models included has a specific focus, enlarging the capacity for complex policy analysis within this platform. This can be done by comparing the results of different models or by linking them, where several methodological options are available. This paper gives some insights on current applications in the field of model integration for agricultural policy analysis.European Commission, Common Agricultural Policy, economic models, quantitative analysis, Agricultural and Food Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Digital service analysis and design : the role of process modelling

Digital libraries are evolving from content-centric systems to person-centric systems. Emergent services are interactive and multidimensional, associated systems multi-tiered and distributed. A holistic perspective is essential to their effective analysis and design, for beyond technical considerations, there are complex social, economic, organisational, and ergonomic requirements and relationships to consider. Such a perspective cannot be gained without direct user involvement, yet evidence suggests that development teams may be failing to effectively engage with users, relying on requirements derived from anecdotal evidence or prior experience. In such instances, there is a risk that services might be well designed, but functionally useless. This paper highlights the role of process modelling in gaining such perspective. Process modelling challenges, approaches, and success factors are considered, discussed with reference to a recent evaluation of usability and usefulness of a UK National Health Service (NHS) digital library. Reflecting on lessons learnt, recommendations are made regarding appropriate process modelling approach and application

A community-scale hybrid energy system integrating biomass for localised solid waste and renewable energy solution: Evaluations in UK and Bulgaria

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Growing pace of urban living is expected to simultaneously aggravate both the waste and the energy crises. This study presents feasibility assessment of a community scale hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) utilising biomass to serve the local energy needs while reducing the household solid waste volume. A modelling framework is presented and evaluated for a biomass HRES, comprising of a Wind turbine-PV Array-Biogas generator-Battery system, applied to two European cities - Gateshead (UK) and Sofia (Bulgaria) - accounting for their distinct domestic biowaste profiles, renewable resources and energy practices. Biogas generator is found to make the most substantial share of electricity generation (up to 60–65% of total), hence offering a stable community-scale basal electricity generation potential, alongside reduction in disposal costs of local solid waste. Net present cost for the biomass-integrated HRESs is found within 5% of each other, despite significant differences in the availability of solar and wind resources at the two sites. Based on a survey questionnaire targeting construction companies and energy solution developers, project costs and planning regulatory red tapes were identified as the two common implementation challenges in both the countries, with lack of awareness of HRES as a further limitation in Bulgaria, impeding wider uptake of this initiative

A systematic review of empirical methods for modelling sectoral carbon emissions in China

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd A number of empirical methods have been developed to study China's sectoral carbon emissions (CSCE). Measuring these emissions is important for climate change mitigation. While several articles have reviewed specific methods, few attempts conduct a systematic analysis of all the major research methods. In total 807 papers were published on CSCE research between 1997 and 2017. The primary source of literature for this analysis was taken from the Web of Science database. Based on a bibliometric analysis using knowledge mapping with the software CiteSpace, the review identified five common families of methods: 1) environmentally-extended input-output analysis (EE-IOA), 2) index decomposition analysis (IDA), 3) econometrics, 4) carbon emission control efficiency evaluation and 5) simulation. The research revealed the main trends in each family of methods and has visualized this research into ten research clusters. In addition, the paper provides a direct comparison of all methods. The research results can help scholars quickly identify and compare different methods for addressing specific research questions