Energy, Sustainability and Society最新文献

Background

Germany’s commitment to climate neutrality by 2045 poses significant challenges for its energy-intensive industries, especially in North Rhine-Westphalia, where green hydrogen is essential for the decarbonisation of basic industries. In this study, we investigate social acceptance of the hydrogen-driven industrial transition, focusing on public perspectives and the perspectives of stakeholders in industry, non-governmental organisations, trade unions, and political administration.

Results

The results indicate broad support for industrial green hydrogen use but also highlight acceptance issues along its value chain. Key challenges emerge in political, economic, social, and environmental dimensions, with notable public risk perception of hydrogen transport. Our analysis shows that increasing concerns tend to be accompanied by a willingness to protest, while knowledge is associated with acceptance of industrial hydrogen use.

Conclusions

Stakeholders must find ways to gather and address local public concerns. Moreover, the results indicate the need to assess green hydrogen along its entire value chain and on an international scale.

Background

Agrivoltaics, the dual use of land for both agriculture and solar energy production, has gained increasing attention in recent years. However, its large-scale implementation is constrained by policy challenges. Despite growing interest, limited research has systematically examined how agrivoltaics are incorporated into policy frameworks worldwide. This study systematically reviews the scientific literature on agrivoltaic policies and the policy frameworks supporting their implementation.

Main text

Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA 2020) framework, peer-reviewed literature from Scopus and Web of Science was analysed, including journal articles, review papers, and conference proceedings in English. Out of 308 publications, 12 focused on policy instruments for agrivoltaics and met the inclusion criteria. The selected studies, published between 2021 and 2024, were examined to identify recurring policy themes, instruments, and implementation approaches. The review identified two main research approaches: one assessing the potential of agrivoltaics within legal frameworks through policy adjustments of existing legislation, and the other addressing policy instruments specific to agrivoltaics. A compilation of policies from several countries was conducted, encompassing different types of instruments, with economic and financial incentives being the most frequently identified. Key literature gaps included limited geographic coverage and inadequately addressed issues. The lack of policy integration across the energy, agriculture, and land use sectors, coupled with unclear guidelines regarding agrivoltaics, was identified as a constraint to its upscaling.

Conclusions

The study highlights the fragmented nature of agrivoltaic policy and the need for more policy-integrated frameworks to support its expansion. The findings underscore the importance of addressing policy effectiveness, stakeholder roles, business models, and strategies in underrepresented regions. Limitations of this review stem from the limited geographic scope of the literature analysed and the non-inclusion of grey literature. Future research should examine how different policy instruments influence the adoption of agrivoltaics and how cross-sector coordination can support its development. These insights contribute to advancing research on agrivoltaics and policymaking, supporting the broader energy transition.

Background

Climate change is exacerbating the lack of fertile land and the scarcity of irrigation water. To guarantee food security in this context, aquaponic systems have been developed. An aquaponic system achieves the simultaneous production of plants and fish by recirculating water through both subsystems. Combining these two production technologies provides an efficient and sustainable method of growing fish and producing plants. These types of systems are often installed in rural areas, where the electrical grid is not completely reliable.

Methods

This work assesses a Hybrid Renewable Energy System to improve the sustainability and efficiency of isolated aquaponic production systems. The simulated systems are based on renewable energy sources using photovoltaic, wind, diesel and battery technologies. The main contribution of this study is the improvement in the decision-making process for selecting the optimal hybrid system for each project. A multi-criteria decision-making procedure based on technical and economic variables of the project is proposed. The criteria used in this study are NPC (20 and 10 years), payback, initial cost, O&M cost and renewable fraction (%) cover by the system. The procedure requires calculating hourly simulations of the energy flow in the installation with different hybrid configurations. In this work, a case of a hybrid system located on the island of Santo Domingo (Cape Verde) is presented using more than 1680 different sizing configurations.

Results

The solution obtained improves the results offered by other hybrid system optimisation software. The investment in the multi-criteria solution is 20 k€ less expensive than that obtained using other software and provides a payback period of four years, half a year less without affecting the rest of the decision criteria. Compared to the diesel base case, the solution saves more than 200 k€ in 20 years and will save more than 28 tonnes of CO(_2) per year. Moreover, this approach ensures the selection of a technically feasible configuration that aligns with the constraints of each project.

Conclusions

This study will have an impact on the circular economy of experimental aquaponic farming production systems, making them more accessible in agricultural areas with energy problems.

Background

Understanding the influence of economic inequality on energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and the uptake of renewable energy is becoming increasingly important as the European Union (EU) intensifies its efforts towards climate neutrality and sustainable development. Despite recent shifts in the income distribution, persistent disparities among social groups remain a critical factor with respect to energy behaviour and environmental outcomes. This research article explores how income inequality affects per capita energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions from energy use, and the share of renewable energy in the EU. Additionally, it examines how these variables relate to economic performance by using gross domestic product (GDP) as a benchmark.

Results

This study applies ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to panel data covering 27 EU member states for the period 1990–2023. The results reveal a U-shaped relationship between income inequality and energy consumption per capita. At moderate levels, inequality is associated with reduced energy use; however, beyond a certain threshold, greater inequality leads to increased energy consumption, which is driven primarily by the high demand from wealthy population segments. Furthermore, per capita energy consumption is a strong predictor of emissions, although the marginal impact weakens at higher consumption levels, thus suggesting diminishing returns. Renewable energy significantly helps decrease per capita emissions, but its effectiveness also marginally decreases as its share increases, thus indicating saturation effects. Diagnostic tests for autocorrelation, heteroskedasticity, and cross-sectional dependence confirm the statistical robustness and reliability of the model.

Conclusions

This study highlights the necessity of integrating social equity into climate and energy policy frameworks. Reducing income inequality can promote energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions, thereby contributing to the EU’s dual objectives of environmental sustainability and inclusive economic growth. These findings suggest that energy transition policies are more effective when they are complemented by measures that address economic disparities. Future research should explore inequality thresholds that alter environmental impacts and identify policy synergies that maximize both climate and social outcomes.

Background

Replacing diesel and gasoline in combustion engines with fuels from renewable resources can reduce emissions in the transport sector. This study investigated public perceptions of alternative fuels to reveal potential adoption drivers and barriers for a successful introduction in road transport.

Results

The findings point towards a high acceptance of alternative fuels in road transport. Benefits for the environment and drivers were acknowledged, whereas barrier perceptions were comparably low. The acceptance of alternative fuels was affected by perceived environmental benefits and environment-related attitudes. Higher environmental awareness and perceived responsibility for environmental problems were related to higher acceptance, higher benefit perceptions, and lower barrier ratings.

Conclusions

Considering the key finding that environment-related attitudes and the perception of environmental benefits were factors positively impacting the acceptance of alternative fuels, communication concepts should be designed to inform transparently and comprehensibly about the environmental effects of alternative fuels. Where applicable and possible, fuel design should reduce user-perceived barriers—such as high costs and infrastructure incompatibility. Policy making should furthermore support planning security via long-term framework design in order to enable heightened fuel adoption and positive climatic impacts of alternative fuels.

Background

Across Africa, employment and corporate social responsibility (CSR) promises are used by land investors to mobilize community support for large-scale renewable energy projects. Often times, when such promises are backpedaled or do not materialize as anticipated, local contestations become imminent. Using the case of Alten Solar energy in Kenya, this article aims to show how the energy investor appears to be struggling to deliver on its promises – and how this has provoked local contestations. While local contests linked to energy projects constructed on communally-owned land are not uncommon in the country and have been widely documented, contestations regarding projects constructed on privately-owned land are yet to receive sufficient scholarly attention despite similar equity stakes. This paper aims to bridge this gap and is guided by basic ideas drawn from theories of peasant resistance to offer insights into the micro politics around solar energy development in the specific context of private land ownership. Data was elicited using semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions conducted on two occasions: from February – March 2023 and November – December 2023, with a follow-up visit in February 2025.

Results

The results show that local contests are about the benefits that people anticipate from the solar project, rather than seeking to prevent it. Rural people, despite being critical of the project, struggle with the company through their relations with the county government and local elites, to demand a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) that could offer them more opportunities and address unintended socio-environmental challenges.

Conclusions

The study suggests the need for the energy investor to respect its CSR promises, and to adhere to its time plan, as specified in the new MoU signed with the communities. It also emphasizes the need for the government to implement policies ensuring that communities benefit directly from energy investments. Ensuring a proper benefit-sharing mechanism, fulfilling CSR promises, and addressing socio-environmental impacts linked to the solar project would (re)present more attractive ‘terms of incorporation’, and possibly reduce societal resistance ‘from below’.

Background

The European Union has established a strategic objective to attain carbon neutrality across the continent by the year 2050; however, this complex undertaking is shaped by a variety of influencing factors. It is particularly important to monitor the effects of such a long-term strategy, as it will influence all aspects of the European Union’s sustainable energy development as well as the welfare of its citizens. Since no universally accepted methodology exists for tracking the effects of decarbonization, the use of machine learning as a method of artificial intelligence is proposed—not only to generate concrete results but also to evaluate its applicability for this purpose. The main objective of this research is to assess the trends of 13 selected energy indicators that are vital to the decarbonization initiative. The research was conducted on a sample of 27 countries for the period from 2013 to 2030 using a novel predictive model developed in the Python runtime environment.

Results

The primary findings of the research indicate that the EU is likely to experience significant fluctuations in the values of specific indicators. The anticipated progressive rise in electricity prices is expected across all EU countries, accompanied by an increase in consumption. In addition, the projected growth in energy imports presents a significant challenge that will affect the competitiveness of the European economy and the social standing of its citizens. Particularly disadvantaged in the implementation of the decarbonization strategy will be landlocked countries that are highly dependent on energy imports and therefore vulnerable to fluctuations in prices and security of supply. Also at risk are countries facing difficulties in the deployment and exploitation of renewable energy sources, as well as those with weaker socioeconomic indicators. The results further indicate a rising risk to energy security, even in the wealthiest EU countries. Overall, the projections suggest an increase in CO₂ levels up to 2030, followed by a gradual decline thereafter. A particular challenge for managing the decarbonization strategy lies in the significant fluctuations of the monitored parameters, which hinder planning in every respect.

Conclusions

In light of the geopolitical and supply chain shifts post-2022, it is clear that a comprehensive reassessment of the strategies for managing the decarbonization of the European Union economy is necessary. The research findings demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed machine learning approach, which has potential for enhancement due to its scalability and adaptability. The study provides governance and methodological recommendations.

Background

The European Union considers the decarbonization of Europe by 2050 a strategic objective. This necessitates finding the solutions that will support the intricate process of formulating energy policies and decisions with enduring implications for the economy, environment, and social welfare of European Union citizens and beyond. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the suitability of an artificial intelligence (AI)-based approach in policymaking (control stage) with the aim of achieving a more optimal formulation of the common European energy policy and the policies of individual member states.

Results

Given the scope and volatility of the data, as well as the research objective, data processing was conducted using clustering—a technique within artificial intelligence (AI)—which is suitable for producing more precise, explainable, and provable (PEP) outcomes. In doing so, the study addresses one of the main obstacles to the broader use of AI in policymaking: the current lack of trust in AI-based solutions. The research was conducted in three stages. In the first stage, energy security indicators were determined based on 13 selected indicators using the aggregate approach. In the second stage, clustering was executed as an unsupervised machine learning method, utilizing the K-means algorithm as the designated learning model. In the third stage, a classifier model utilizing an artificial neural network was proposed. The research findings have revealed that countries exhibiting the highest levels of energy security, and consequently the most favorable conditions for sustainable growth, have different energy portfolios, unique economic frameworks, and differing energy prices.

Conclusions

The research findings are significant in the domains of energy and environmental policies, decision theory, and AI (with special emphasis on the EU AI Act). The research highlights the efficacy of an interdisciplinary approach and contributes to the studies about the use of AI in policymaking, with emphasis on the improvements that will lead to its greater power and precision—one of the milestones for efficient policymaking. Policymaking based on PEP AI outcomes can be seen as one of the most efficient methods for strategic planning and control of decarbonization of Europe; therefore, the paper also proposes recommendations in this context.

Background

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are nowadays a central pillar in the expansion of renewable energy in Germany. Nevertheless, further significant growth in renewable energy will be needed in the future to meet the national emission reduction targets set by the German government. Homeowners play a crucial role in the expansion of PV capacity. In a discrete choice experiment, we empirically examine the impact of a large number of dimensions on homeowners’ PV adoption, including attributes that have received less attention in the literature so far, such as the included (smart energy) services, government subsidies, and forms of financing.

Results

Our results show that increasing levels of smart energy services for PV systems increase respondents’ valuation of smart energy services, while increasing the access rights of the contractual partner has a negative impact on the valuation. The latter negative effect is mitigated by an element of co-determination. Furthermore, our results point to the importance of government subsidies as a measure to increase PV adoption. Participants preferred one-time (or continuous) payments over continuous (or one-time) payments when government grants amounted to 40% (or 10%) of the investment cost; they were indifferent between both forms when subsidies amounted to 20% of the investment cost. Homeowners clearly preferred loan financing to self-financing only at an effective interest rate of 1.03%, as opposed to 3.53%. This result indicates a limited effectiveness of this subsidy measure, which is designed to overcome the problem of high investment costs from a conceptual point of view. Our results also show that homeowners are not so heterogeneous when it comes to the importance they attach to certain attributes related to PV adoption. Decisions were made independent of socio-demographic characteristics, but are related in some cases to the homeowners’ value orientations and risk inclination.

Conclusions

Homeowners are more likely to adopt smart energy services when they are involved in the typically automated processes through decision prompts. Financial factors are of pivotal role. There is a need to tailor financing strategies, as preferences for subsidy schemes vary with the level of financing. In addition, low-interest loans are ineffective in reducing the high upfront costs of PV deployment. Smart energy services have great potential, but there are also some caveats.

Background

In the recent years, owing to the increasing carbon emissions from anthropogenic activities, the challenges caused by global climate change, including the greenhouse effect, sea-level rise, and extreme weather events, have become increasingly severe. It is also an urgent task for many countries to develop clean energy, reduce carbon emissions, and establish a green low-carbon development structure. As a renewable and environmentally friendly energy source, tidal power is abundant in numerous coastal regions. Constructing tidal power plants to harness this renewable energy source not only provides substantial energy benefits but also plays a pivotal role in advancing green and sustainable development. Moreover, tidal energy has profound implications for societal transformation, fostering economic growth, and enhancing stability. Therefore, tidal energy is an indispensable component of clean power generation, paving the way for a more sustainable and equitable world.

Main text

By summarising the ongoing research on tidal energy, this paper offers a comprehensive exploration of the current status of tidal energy development and crucial insights derived from tidal energy applications. The mechanism of tidal energy and the structural design of tidal power stations are systematically explained, and the characteristics of tidal energy use to generate electricity in different regions are introduced. Focussing on China in combination with other countries, the latest technological achievements are summarised, and corresponding improvement measures are proposed for tidal energy development and implementation.

Conclusions

Tidal energy, characterised by zero-emission attributes, renewability, and operational reliability, offers a vital pathway towards sustainable energy systems. Despite mature technology with decades of commercial operation, its deployment has progressed slowly because of persistent challenges, including high capital costs and ecological impacts on marine ecosystems. Consequently, resolving these constraints necessitates notable advancements in policy frameworks and technological innovation. This paper could provide reference material for the increased popularization and sustainable development of tidal energy power generation technology.