For a long time hydrogen has been considered a clean energy carrier to be applied universally and contribute to a sustainable energy system. However, in the real energy world hydrogen has not yet ...delivered. The major reason is that it has still to become economically feasible. With increasing electricity generation from variable renewables and its temporarily cheap surplus production, new prospects for hydrogen are on the horizon especially due to the rising need for a solution to the problem of the long-term storage of excess electricity.
The core objective of this paper is to analyze the economic prospects of hydrogen use in the energy system keeping in mind two challenges: (i) integration of variable renewables in power systems, and (ii) substitution of fossil fuels in the transport sector. The future economics of hydrogen in passenger car transport is investigated regarding hydrogen production costs and possible learning effects of the fuel cell vehicles.
The major conclusion is that the future perspective of hydrogen use depends on the policy framework, the full exploitation of economies-of-scale and technological learning for electrolysis as well as possible full-load hours per year. However, cost reduction of fuel cells for mobility through technological learning is essential for the economic competitiveness of hydrogen use in transport.
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•The role of electrolytic hydrogen in energy transition.•A long-term economic analysis of hydrogen in transport.•Technological learning of electrolysis systems and fuel cell vehicles.•The relevance of economics-of-scale of electrolysers.
Given the growing shares of renewable energy sources in the grids, the interest in energy storage systems has increased. The role of pumped hydro energy storage systems as flexible solutions for ...managing peak and off-peak prices from nuclear and fossil power plants in previous systems is now revitalized in the liberalized systems, with a volatile generation of wind and solar energy. Thus, understanding of the patterns behind the economics of energy storage is crucial for the further integration of energy storage in the grids. In this paper, the factors that impact the economic viability of energy storage in electricity markets are analyzed. The method of approach used in this study considers the electricity market price distribution, full load hours, the total costs of energy storage, and linear regression analysis. Using revenues from arbitraging a 10-megawatt (MW) pumped hydro storage system in the Western Balkans, resulting from the electricity market price distribution and the analysis of the total costs of storage, an econometric model is created. This model shows the impacting factors of energy storage development in the context of the rising renewables sector. Research shows that the previous hypothesis about the integration of energy storage systems in proportion to the increase in shares of renewables in the grids is incorrect. There is a significant correlation between energy storage revenues, the dependent variable, and the independent variables of hydro, wind, and solar generation. The conducted analysis indicates the future arbitraging opportunities of pumped hydro energy storage systems and provides useful insights for energy storage investors and policymakers. During the transitional period, until the deployment of renewables changes the effects of fossil power plants, energy storage price arbitrage is profitable and desirable for 500, 1000, and 2000 full load hours in the Western Balkan region. Despite the need for flexibility, with more renewables in the grids, large-scale energy storage systems will not be economically viable in the long run because of “revenue cannibalization”.
The core objective of this paper is to elaborate on historically implemented promotion strategies of renewable energy sources and the associated deployment within the European electricity market. ...Hence, at a first glance, the historic development of renewable energy sources in the electricity (RES-E) sector is addressed on Member State and on sectoral level as well as consequently discussed according to available RES-E potentials and costs.
The specific focus of this paper, are promotion strategies for RES-E options as they are the key driver of an efficient and effective RES-E deployment. Therefore, the paper depicts the main types of different promotion schemes and their properties. Additionally, several cases studies of different European Member States show an in-depth analysis of the different RES-E promotion schemes. In this context, special emphasises are put on the question of effective and efficient promotion scheme designs of different RES-E technologies. Generally, conducted research led to the conclusion, that technology specific financial support measures of RES-E performed much more effective and efficient than others did. Hence, it is not all about the common question of feed-in tariffs vs. quota systems based on tradable green certificates, but more about the design criteria of implemented RES-E support schemes.
On the Environmental Benignity of Electric Vehicles Ajanovic, Amela; Haas, Reinhard
Journal of Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems,
09/2019, Letnik:
7, Številka:
3
Journal Article, Paper
Odprti dostop
Electric vehicles are considered as an important means to cope with increasing environmental problems in the transport sector. Many governments worldwide have set targets to increase the number of ...electric vehicles, although their environmental benignity is not ensured in the scope of the policies implemented. The core objective of
this paper is to investigate the overall environmental impact of electric vehicles in different regions. The analysis is based on a life cycle assessment of electric vehicles including emissions from electricity generation, vehicle production and disposal, and vehicle use. The major conclusion is that the environmental benignity of electric vehicles
is very sensitive on: electricity mix (a); number of km driven per year (b) and embedded emissions in car production (c), as well as battery recycling. Yet, as shown in this paper the highest sensitivity is with respect to the electricity mix. Hence, to make electric vehicles more environmentally friendly it is most important to increase the share of
renewable energy sources in electricity generation.
Environmental problems such as air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions are caused by almost all transport modes. A potential solution to these problems could be electric mobility. Currently, ...efforts to increase the use of various types of electric vehicles are under way virtually worldwide. While in recent years a major focus was put on the electrification of passenger cars, electricity has already, for more than hundred years, been successfully used in some public transport modes such as tramways and metros. The core objective of this paper is to analyze the historical developments and the prospects of electric mobility in different transport modes and their potential contribution to the solution of the current environmental problems. With respect to the latter, we analyze the effect of the electricity generation mix on the environmental performance of electric vehicles. In addition, we document major policies implemented to promote various types of e-mobility. Our major conclusions are: (i) The policies implemented will have a major impact on the future development of electric mobility; (ii) The environmental benignity of electric vehicles depends to a large extent on the electricity generation mix.
Renewable energies (RE) represent a cornerstone to steer our energy system in the direction of sustainability and supply security. Generating electricity, heat or biofuels from renewable energy ...sources has become a high priority in the energy policy strategies at national level as well as at a global scale. Challenging goals for these “new” supply options to meet our energy demands have been set, e.g. at European level by the commitment of meeting 20% of the overall energy demand from renewable energy sources by 2020.
A broad set of different RE technologies and resources exist today. Obviously, for a comprehensive investigation of the future RE development it is of crucial importance to provide a detailed investigation of the country-or region-specific situation—e.g. with respect to the potential of the certain RE's in general as well as the part that can be realised in the near future.
It is the core objective of this paper to fulfil above-mentioned constraints, aiming to present an overview on the RE potentials and prospects globally—but based on region- and/or country-specific assessments of the resource conditions, the overall energy system boundaries and the related energy policy framework. Thus, a topical focus is put on both the near to mid future up to 2020 and the long-term perspective, indicating besides theoretical and technical potentials also the realisable mid- and long-term potentials referring to the time-horizon between 2030 and 2050 and prospects for the various renewable energy options. Future prospects are discussed by means of analysing energy policy scenarios as conducted for the International Energy Agency (IEA)'s “World Energy Outlook”-series. In this context, emphasis is given on the illustration of the possible contribution of renewable energies to power supply.
This open access book examines the transition to sustainable energy systems in emerging cities. Experts from around the world present case studies from different countries and discuss efforts were ...needed for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The authors look into the issue of environment vs. economics and discuss the question of whether the energy transition goal can conflict with other development goals such as decent work and economic growth. Furthermore, innovation in energy transition is introduced, both in technology and citizens’ engagement. The book presents the latest developments on energy access and transition to sustainability throughout the overall value chain: from basic research in universities to documentation of lessons learned in the field. The empirical evidence presented makes this book appealing to scholars in the field of energy sustainability as well as to policy-makers and energy service companies.
Environmental problems such as air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions are especially challenging in urban areas. Electric mobility in different forms may be a solution. While in recent years a ...major focus was put on private electric vehicles, e-mobility in public transport is already a very well-established and mature technology with a long history. The core objective of this paper is to analyze the economics of e-mobility in the Austrian capital of Vienna and the corresponding impact on the environment. In this paper, the historical developments, policy framework and scenarios for the future development of mobility in Vienna up to 2030 are presented. A major result shows that in an ambitious scenario for the deployment of battery electric vehicles, the total energy demand in road transport can be reduced by about 60% in 2030 compared to 2018. The major conclusion is that the policies, especially subsidies and emission-free zones will have the largest impact on the future development of private and public e-mobility in Vienna. Regarding the environmental performance, the most important is to ensure that a very high share of electricity used for electric mobility is generated from renewable energy sources.
Battery-powered electric mobility is currently the most promising technology for the decarbonisation of the transport sector, alongside hydrogen-powered vehicles, provided that the electricity used ...comes 100% from renewable energy sources. To estimate its electricity demand both nationwide and in individual smaller communities, a calculation based assessment on driving profiles that are as realistic as possible is required. The developed model based analysis presented in this paper for the creation of driving and thus electricity load profiles makes it possible to build different compositions of driving profiles. The focus of this paper lies in the analysis of motorised private transport, which makes it possible to assess future charging and load control potentials in a subsequent analysis. We outline the differences in demand and driving profiles for weekdays as well as for Saturdays, Sundays and holidays in general. Furthermore, the modelling considers the length distribution of the individual trips per trip purpose and different start times. The developed method allows to create individual driving and electric vehicle (EV) demand profiles as well as averaged driving profiles, which can then be scaled up and analysed for an entire country.
Road transportation is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions. The EU set the target to reduce overall transport emissions by 60% by 2050 compared to 1990. Electric mobility is ...considered a proper means to achieve this goal. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are a mature technology. The high investment costs, limited driving range and a charging infrastructure that is not extensive yet are currently the main challenges. This work analyses how policies affect the dissemination of BEVs in selected countries with remarkable market shares of BEVs. The core objective is to investigate how policies affect BEV economics compared to conventional car economics. Financial policies and their effects on BEVs for the major markets of China, the USA and Europe were analysed. To do so, the total cost of ownership (TCO) was calculated for each country. The major conclusions were: (i) The investment cost of a car had the most significant impact on the TCO; (ii) Low TCO as an incentive was not enough to ensure successful BEV dissemination; (iii) Non-monetary incentives such as access to certain zones and the usage of bus lanes for BEVs combined with registration taxes, low electricity prices and high fuel prices were very favourable conditions.
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