•Wind turbine blade waste material availability forecasted for Europe until 2050.•Onshore wind blade material will be 76% of the total in 2050.•Germany leads the onshore blade material availability ...and the UK the offshore.•Local hotspots of material availability identified in Europe at NUTS 2 level.•Fluctuations of the material availability are expected at the country level.
Wind power is a key renewable electricity source for Europe that is estimated to further develop significantly by 2050. However, the first generation of wind turbines is reaching their End of Life and the disposal of their blades is becoming a crucial waste management problem. Wind turbine blades consist primarily of reinforced composites and currently there is a lack of a sustainable solution to recycle them.
The aim of this study is to estimate the wind turbine blade waste material for Europe until 2050 and is the first study adopting a high geographical granularity level in Europe, while distinguishing between offshore and onshore. In addition, the wind turbines’ lifespan is not considered as a fixed value, but rather as a stochastic distribution based on historic decommissioning data. This study can support researchers, practitioners and policy makers to understand the future evolution of the blade waste material availability, identify local hotspots and opportunities and assess potential circular economy pathways.
The results indicate that wind power capacity in Europe will reach 450 GW in 2050 with the respective total yearly blade waste material reaching 325,000 t. Findings for selected countries reveal that in 2050 Germany will have the majority of blade waste material from onshore wind and the United Kingdom from offshore. There is also a significant fluctuation in the yearly amount of waste expected at the country level, for several countries. Finally, local hotspots of blade waste material are identified.
Biomass is a renewable energy source with increasing importance. The larger fraction of cost in biomass energy generation originates from the logistics operations. A major issue concerning biomass ...logistics is its storage, especially when it is characterized by seasonal availability. The biomass energy exploitation literature has rarely investigated the issue of biomass storage. Rather, researchers usually choose arbitrarily the lowest cost storage method available, ignoring the effects this choice may have on the total system efficiency. In this work, the three most frequently used biomass storage methods are analyzed and are applied to a case study to come up with tangible comparative results. Furthermore, the issue of combining multiple biomass supply chains, aiming at reducing the storage space requirements, is introduced. An application of this innovative concept is also performed for the case study examined. The most important results of the case study are that the lowest cost storage method indeed constitutes the system-wide most efficient solution, and that the multi-biomass approach is more advantageous when combined with relatively expensive storage methods. However, low cost biomass storage methods bear increased health, safety and technological risks that should always be taken into account.
Ambitious renewable energy targets in European countries drive an increasing biomass demand to a point where domestic resources are insufficient, leading to emergence of international bioenergy ...supply chains. This work aims to examine the feasibility of biomass torrefaction downstream in long-distance international bioenergy supply chains for co-firing and to investigate the effect of various biomass co-firing ratios on the whole supply and energy conversion system performance from a technical, environmental and economic aspect. A techno-economic analysis together with a CO2 emissions assessment is performed, adopting a whole systems approach. In particular, Palm Kernel Shell biomass from Malaysia is considered for co-firing in UK. Findings indicate that downstream torrefaction is profitable under the current conditions for 100% biomass and marginally unprofitable for 50% biomass co-firing. The financial yield exhibits high sensitivity on the price of coal, biomass, Renewable Obligation Certificates, the torrefaction facility investment and biomass sea transportation costs. From an environmental perspective, higher co-firing ratios lead to higher emissions per unit of renewable energy generated. The findings can support policy makers and investors in adopting lower biomass co-firing ratios with torrefaction instead of 100% biomass conversion, leading to improved environmental benefits from a whole system's perspective.
•PKS biomass torrefaction downstream in the supply chain for co-firing is examined.•100% biomass firing is profitable, 50% biomass co-firing is marginally unprofitable.•Higher co-firing ratio leads to higher biomass logistics CO2/MWhe emissions.•Whole supply and conversion system efficiency is higher for low co-firing ratios.•Power plant de-rating has more profound effect on system for high co-firing ratios.
Co-firing of solid biomass in existing large scale coal power plants has been supported in many countries as a short-term means to decrease CO2 emissions and rapidly increase renewable energy shares. ...However, many countries face challenges guaranteeing sufficient amounts of biomass through reliable domestic biomass supply chains and resort to international supply chains. Within this frame, novel pre-treatment technologies, particularly pelletization and torrefaction, emerged in recent years to facilitate logistics by improving the durability and the energy density of solid biomass. This paper aims to evaluate these pre-treatment technologies from a techno-economic and environmental point of view for two reference coal power plants located in Great Britain and in Italy. Logistics costs and carbon emissions are modelled for both international and domestic biomass supply chains. The impact of pre-treatment technologies on carbon emission avoidance costs is evaluated. It is demonstrated that, for both cases, pre-treatment technologies are hardly viable for domestic supply. However, pre-treatment technologies are found to render most international bioenergy supply chains competitive with domestic ones, especially if sourcing areas are located in low labour cost countries. In many cases, pre-treatment technologies are found to guarantee similar CO2 equivalent emissions performance for international compared to domestic supply chains.
•This study evaluates torrefaction and pelletization within international biomass supply chains.•A model for calculation of costs and carbon emissions of relevant logistics is presented.•Torrefaction renders long distance supply chains more competitive to short distance supply.•Electricity emission factors of export countries affect carbon emission balance of supply chains.•Energy density of torriefied pellets is essential for environmental and economic sustainability.
The scope of this work is to investigate the effect that various scenarios for emission allowance price evolution may have on the future electricity generation mix of Greece. The renewable energy ...generation targets are taken into consideration as a constraint of the system, and the learning rates of the various technologies are included in the calculations.
The national electricity generation system is modelled for long-term analysis and an optimisation method is applied, to determine the optimal generating mix that minimises electricity generation cost, while satisfying the system constraints and incorporating the uncertainty of emission allowance prices. In addition, an investigation is made to identify if a point should be expected when renewable energy will be more cost-effective than conventional fuel electricity generation.
The work is interesting for investment planning in the electricity market, as it may provide directions on which technologies are most probable to dominate the market in the future, and therefore are of interest to be included in the future power portfolios of related investors.
•Combined energy conversion of MSW and agricultural residue biomass is examined.•The model optimizes the financial yield of the investment.•Several system specifications are optimally defined by the ...optimization model.•The application to a case study in Greece shows positive financial yield.•The investment is mostly sensitive on the interest rate, the investment cost and the heating oil price.
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal has been a controversial issue in many countries over the past years, due to disagreement among the various stakeholders on the waste management policies and technologies to be adopted. One of the ways of treating/disposing MSW is energy recovery, as waste is considered to contain a considerable amount of bio-waste and therefore can lead to renewable energy production. The overall efficiency can be very high in the cases of co-generation or tri-generation. In this paper a model is presented, aiming to support decision makers in issues relating to Municipal Solid Waste energy recovery. The idea of using more fuel sources, including MSW and agricultural residue biomass that may exist in a rural area, is explored. The model aims at optimizing the system specifications, such as the capacity of the base-load Waste-to-Energy facility, the capacity of the peak-load biomass boiler and the location of the facility. Furthermore, it defines the quantity of each potential fuel source that should be used annually, in order to maximize the financial yield of the investment. The results of an energy tri-generation case study application at a rural area of Greece, using mixed MSW and biomass, indicate positive financial yield of investment. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is performed on the effect of the most important parameters of the model on the optimum solution, pinpointing the parameters of interest rate, investment cost and heating oil price, as those requiring the attention of the decision makers. Finally, the sensitivity analysis is enhanced by a stochastic analysis to determine the effect of the volatility of parameters on the robustness of the model and the solution obtained.
► The impact of electricity and CO
2 allowance pricing in power sector is researched. ► A stochastic programming approach without recourse is used for the optimisation. ► Higher electricity prices ...may be proportionally beneficial for the power system. ► The CO
2 allowance prices may be inversely proportionate with the expected yields. ► High CO
2 allowance prices are inhibitors for conventional technology projects.
The present work concerns a systematic investigation of power sector portfolios through discrete scenarios of electricity and CO
2 allowance prices. The analysis is performed for different prices, from regulated to completely deregulated markets, thus representing different electricity market policies. The modelling approach is based on a stochastic programming algorithm without recourse, used for the optimisation of power sector economics under multiple uncertainties. A sequential quadratic programming routine is applied for the entire investigation period whilst the time-dependent objective function is subject to various social and production constraints, usually confronted in power sectors. The analysis indicated the optimal capacity additions that should be annually ordered from each competitive technology in order to substantially improve both the economy and the sustainability of the system. It is confirmed that higher electricity prices lead to higher financial yields of power production, irrespective of the CO
2 allowance price level. Moreover, by following the proposed licensing planning, a medium-term reduction of CO
2 emissions per MW
h by 30% might be possible. Interestingly, the combination of electricity prices subsidisation with high CO
2 allowance prices may provide favourable conditions for investors willing to engage on renewable energy markets.
In this paper, the optimum location of a bioenergy generation facility for district energy applications is sought. A bioenergy facility usually belongs to a wider system, therefore a holistic ...approach is adopted to define the location that optimizes the system-wide operational and investment costs. A hybrid optimization method is employed to overcome the limitations posed by the complexity of the optimization problem. The efficiency of the hybrid method is compared to a stochastic (genetic algorithms) and an exact optimization method (Sequential Quadratic Programming). The results confirm that the hybrid optimization method proposed is the most efficient for the specific problem.
Power production was traditionally dominated by monopolies. After a long period of research and organisational advances in international level, electricity markets have been deregulated allowing ...customers to choose their provider and new producers to compete the former Public Power Companies. Vast changes have been made in the European legal framework but still, the experience gathered is not sufficient to derive safe conclusions regarding the efficiency and reliability of deregulation. Furthermore, emissions' trading progressively becomes a reality in many respects, compliance with Kyoto protocol's targets is a necessity, and stability of the national grid's operation is a constraint of vital importance. Consequently, the production of electricity should not rely solely in conventional energy sources neither in renewable ones but on a mixed structure. Finding this optimal mix is the primary objective of the study. A computational tool has been created, that simulates and optimises the future electricity generation structure based on existing as well as on emerging technologies. The results focus on the Greek Power Sector and indicate a gradual decreasing of anticipated CO2 emissions while the socio-economic constraints and reliability requirements of the system are met. Policy interventions are pointed out based on the numerical results of the model.
This work investigates and compares energy-related, private business strategies, potentially interesting for investors willing to exploit either local biomass sources or strategic conventional fuels. ...Two distinct fuels and related power-production technologies are compared as a case study, in terms of economic efficiency: the biomass of cotton stalks and the natural gas. The carbon capture and storage option are also investigated for power plants based on both fuel types. The model used in this study investigates important economic aspects using a “real options” method instead of traditional Discounted Cash Flow techniques, as it might handle in a more effective way the problems arising from the stochastic nature of significant cash flow contributors’ evolution like electricity, fuel and CO
2 allowance prices. The capital costs have also a functional relationship with time, thus providing an additional reason for implementing “real options” as well as the learning-curves technique. The methodology as well as the results presented in this work, may lead to interesting conclusions and affect potential private investment strategies and future decision making. This study indicates that both technologies lead to positive investment yields, with the natural gas being more profitable for the case study examined, while the carbon capture and storage does not seem to be cost efficient with the current CO
2 allowance prices. Furthermore, low interest rates might encourage potential investors to wait before actualising their business plans while higher interest rates favor immediate investment decisions.
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