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The use of innovative methods for the design of heating, cooling, and heat storage devices has been mainly oriented in the last decade toward the use of nanofluids, metal foams coupled with working fluids, or phase change materials (PCMs). A network of nine Italian universities achieved significant results and innovative ideas on these topics by developing a collaborative project in the last four years, where different approaches and investigation techniques were synergically employed. They evaluated the quantitative extent of the enhancement in the heat transfer and thermal performance of a heat exchanger or thermal energy storage system with the combined use of nanofluids, metal foams, and PCMs. The different facets of this broad research program are surveyed in this article. Special focus is given to the comparison between the mesoscopic to macroscopic modeling of heat transfer in metal foams and nanofluids, as well as to the experimental data collected and processed in the development of the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than half of the world population live in urban settlements which are responsible for a large share of energy consumption and, consequently, carbon emissions. The transition towards a more sustainable urban environment requires a change in paradigm in terms of how we design and manage our cities. Urban areas require innovative technologies and strategies to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, and to be included in comprehensive plans encompassing all technical, social and economic dimensions which characterise cities. This involves the transformation of urban contexts, with a focus on local and urban-level mitigation measures, such as the construction of positive energy buildings, deployment of renewable energy, promotion of a sustainable mobility, creation of resilient urban infrastructure, implementation of circular economy and recycling practices, etc. The present article provides a perspective on the sustainable energy transition in cities, focusing on the building and transportation sectors. Furthermore, insights on supporting mechanisms and innovative management strategies are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings play a significant role in terms of energy consumption and polluting emissions production across Europe and this huge contribution to consumption and environmental impact becomes even more alarming when attention is switched from single buildings to entire urban systems. Although great efforts have been made to support energy efficiency investments, distrust and suspicion are shared attitudes among private investors (and stakeholders in general) towards large-scale implementation of these kinds of projects. Within this framework, on-bill schemes were implemented in the United States more than 30 years ago. In particular, on-bill energy efficiency is a method of financing energy efficiency improvements that uses the utility bill as the repayment vehicle. A detailed analysis of on-bill schemes is currently addressed by the H2020 RenOnBill project, which focuses on these schemes to enhance and support large-scale investments for energy efficiency and deep residential stock renovation. In this study, firstly, the authors focus on assessment methodologies for non-energy benefits of retrofitting projects; then, a case study of the Liguria region (Italy) is examined in depth for its interesting legal framework regarding energy efficiency-led urban regeneration projects. The results deriving from the initial analysis of projects and the case study lead the authors to reiterate that, even today, projects based on energy efficiency usually focus exclusively on energy impacts and that energy performances and urban quality are addressed in separate ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: The present paper aims at estimating the quality of the forecasts obtained by using one equation models. In particular, the focus is on the effect that the explanatory variables have on the forecasted quantity. The analysis is performed on the long term natural gas consumption in the Italian residential sector, but the same methodology can be applied to other contexts; (2) Methods: Different ex ante knowledge scenarios are built by associating different levels of confidence to the same set of explanatory variables. Forecasting results, coming from a standard regression algorithm and confirmed by a Kalman filter, are analyzed by means of covariance matrix propagation to assess the quality of the provided estimates; (3) Results: The outcomes show that one-equation models are very sensitive to the quality of the explanatory variables, therefore their erroneous estimation may have a relevant detrimental effect on the predictive accuracy of the model; (4) Conclusions: The overall ex ante forecasting accuracy of an example of one equation model is assessed. It has emerged that long-term forecasts need particular attention when the covered time horizon spans over decades. The information contained in the present paper is of interest for energy planners, supply network managers and policy makers in order to support their decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work aims to present an analysis of electricity and natural gas supply security in the four European Union countries with the highest level of consumption, namely Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. The goal of the study is to use and adapt a set of 22 indicators for estimating the level of energy security. The evaluation of an index called "Energy Security Level", measuring the overall energy security, is performed for the period 2006–2018 in order to compare its evolution in each of the analyzed countries. The application of the proposed indicator system demonstrates which measures weakened or strengthened energy security in the past. The analysis of the energy security level demonstrates that Germany and France perform better than Italy and Spain in terms of energy security assurance. The main factors for these differences are the rich energy mix for Germany and the massive presence of nuclear power in France. These two elements make German and French energy systems more resilient than the Italian and Spanish ones. The results of sensitivity and uncertainty analysis demonstrate that the initial values of indicator weights have low impact on the uncertainty of energy security level estimations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a consequence of increasing air pollution, the European Commission has decided to introduce special directives laying down the measures to achieve climate and energy neutrality. Renewable energy (RE) sources play an important role in the pursuit of these goals, which has been taken into account in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The aim of this article is to describe patterns and trends in the achievements of the energy policy of European Union (EU) countries in the field of renewable energy in sustainable development. The identification of leaders in this field gives the possibility to analyse actions taken by the governments of these countries and the possible implementation of the introduced solutions on the ground of individual Member States at the regional and national levels. At the beginning Main goal of energy policy on the field of renewable energy sources (RES) is to increase production from environmentally friendly sources that is why trends were determined in order to assess the rate of achievement of the national target for changes the share of energy from renewable sources in total gross energy consumption. Groups of similar countries were then identified on the basis of three indicators corresponding to the targets set in the climate and energy package. In the group of analysed countries, 14 have achieved the 2020 targets and 4 have exceeded the 2030 targets. The main renewable energy sources (RES) are biofuels, wind, and hydropower. In the assessment of the achievement of energy policy targets, the best situation was observed in the case of Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. These countries have significantly increased the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption. Compared to other EU countries, they have reduced the economy's energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions the most. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving quality of life still remains the main goal of strategic documents and is promoted by leaders on the global, national, regional, and local levels. Moreover, this ambitious challenge should be consistent with the principles of sustainable development, including the social, economic, and environmental aspects. The ISO 37120 indicators within the World Council on City Data (WCCD) database may be used to monitor the urban performance over time. However, the interpretation of the results is not always easy and sometimes requires a complex analysis. The aim of this paper was to investigate the possibility of illustrating in a transparent way the urban quality of life using the utility method. This study also presents that this method may facilitate making data-driven decisions on urban management, planning and investment. Thus, it may be useful for decision makers and help cities and communities of all sizes to become more sustainable, safe and resilient, prosperous, inclusive, and smart. The analysis has been carried out using the examples of selected European cities: Amsterdam, Gdynia, London, and Zagreb. The hypothesis reads as follows: it is possible to use the total and partial utility method in order to assess the level of urban quality of life with regard to the three dimensions of sustainable development in order to monitor progress and results and prioritize and implement the changes within urban policy. Research results indicate that there are significant differences between the compared cities within the economic, social, and ecological aspects. This analysis may constitute an introduction to the development of more complex models in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents distinct scenario pathways and their storylines resulting from an analysis of interdependencies. We identified the main drivers of a proposed renewable energy transition in rural Mixteca-Puebla, Mexico. By analyzing the main factors involved in alleviating impoverished communities in the rural region, we show the varying degrees to which these drivers influence, support, or hinder a promising energy transition. A Cross-Impact Balance Analysis was conducted to explore the multiple inter-relationships among a set of conditions. This methodology allowed us to evaluate the relationships between social, political, cultural, and environmental variables. The main drivers were identified as clusters of several elements, in which the uncertainties in governance and the legal system trigger the inter-relationship of forces in the area. The focus of this paper is to show how the societal aspects affect the structural energy transformation and its capacity for adaptation in future trends envisioned for the area. This research contributes to the use of technological transformation as a means to alleviate poverty in a rural area. These outcomes give insights regarding the conditions to be considered, in respect to possible–encouraging, but also pessimistic pathways for the region in coming decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Safety monitoring provides the detection of changes in systems or operations that may suggest any case of approaching a point close to exceeding the acceptable safety standards and indicates whether corrective/prevention actions have been taken. Safety information should be maintained within the scope of transport undertakings to ensure safety and be communicated to all responsible staff, depending on each person's function in the processes. Regulatory authorities should continuously monitor the implementation of safety management processes and the processes performed by road transport service providers. Safety management, therefore, requires investment in development and modernisation to meet market needs resulting from the mobility of residents, the growth of transport, and the obligations of countries resulting from the transport and environmental policy pursued by the European Union. Along with changes in the transport system, a need to assess their significance for the transport system's safety arises. Depending on the transport mode (rail, air, water, road), the scope of standardised requirements is quite different each time. The paper analyses the legal requirements and acceptable practices for assessing the significance of the change in all transport modes and develops a standard method for assessing the significance of the change that meets all the requirements of electromobility safety management systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research on the multimodal transport development within the cross-border area is a result of identified gaps in the system solutions and cooperation between stakeholders of three countries: Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Freight transport is an especially complex problem. It is an area that is not comprehensively recognized in the context of cross-border cooperation. The results of the research presented in this paper are the continuation of analyses performed within the scope of the international project framework TRANS TRITIA. At the moment, transport policy assumes the struggle for the utilization of multimodality within freight transport. This is justified by the need to reduce external transport costs. At the same time, this necessitates actions of a technical, organizational, and legislation nature as well as cooperation between stakeholders. The multimodal transport ecosystem is a vision of the transport within cross-border areas that assumes the increase in the flow dynamics within the multimodal transport. The main goal of this paper was the stakeholders' analysis and identification of their roles in the ecosystem of multimodal freight transport within the Polish–Czech–Slovak cross-border area. The conceptualization of the multimodal freight transport ecosystem was essential to achieving the objective. To achieve the objective, a stakeholder analysis has been performed based on expert research. As a result of the research, organizational projects have been proposed to strengthen the idea of the coevolution of the multimodal transport ecosystem. The key conclusion from the performed research is the declaration that a holistic view of the multimodal transport ecosystem necessitates the appointment of a coordinator who will synchronize knowledge, business, and innovation ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy sustainability constitutes an important goal for development, as declared at the global and the European levels. Some conditions decisive for energy performance, as suggested by the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, may be specified by the sectoral structure of production, as industries vary in the intensity of energy consumption. Nevertheless, sustainability is not automatically induced along with economic development and it is important to identify its determinants. The aim of the study is to empirically verify whether the sectoral structure of an economy differentiates energy sustainability within 28 European Union member states (the EU-28). To fulfil the task, a static approach was adopted and such taxonomic methods as the Ward agglomeration method and linear ordering based on the Hellwig synthetic measure were used. The hypothesis concerning the essential role of structural features in energy achievements was verified by a one-way analysis of variance. Our results do not confirm the decisive role of economic structure in energy performance for the EU-28 states; however, they suggest some complex relationships. The interference between energy performance and sectoral structure mostly concerned primary and final energy consumptions and energy poverty, as well as the shares of agriculture, industry, traditional services and finance in total production. The findings reveal a need for further research into the potential interlinkages between different dimensions of sustainable development (SD). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we have assessed the impact of the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) on the level of the carbon premium. The aim of the study is to determine whether there is a stable carbon premium in energy-intensive sectors. Unlike other studies, our research sample included not only companies in the energy sector, but also entities classified as energy-intensive. In the research, we used our own criterion for allocating companies to a clean and dirty portfolio, which made it possible to make the estimation of the carbon premium more resistant to changes in the rules for allocation of emission allowances. We detected a positive, statistically significant carbon premium in the years 2003–2012 and a negative one in the years 2013–2015, but we did not detect a statistically significant carbon premium in the period 2016–2019. This means that there are no grounds for concluding that there is a stable, positive carbon premium for energy-intensive companies subject to the EU ETS over time. We have also noticed that a significant problem in studying the impact of the EU ETS on the carbon premium is the use of static portfolios of clean and dirty companies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency programmes (EEPs) are schemes operated by utilities or other bodies in order to incentivize energy efficiency improvement, in particular by adoption of energy-efficient products and typically by means of an economic reward. Ample experience has been gained, especially in the U.S., where EEPs have been in use for decades, with the rationale of avoiding additional energy supply by improving energy efficiency. More recently, EEPs have been implemented in Europe and in Switzerland. This review paper presents insights from the U.S., the EU and especially from Switzerland, with a focus on levelised programme cost of saved energy (LPC) as a key performance indicator. These LPC values, which take the perspective of the programme operator, are typically low to very low compared to the cost of electricity supply, thereby representing an important argument in favour of their use. The country examples show that EEPs are being effectively and successfully put into practice, for example, in Switzerland both as (i) a national tender-based scheme (called ProKilowatt) and in the form of a (ii) utility-operated obligation-based scheme (in Geneva). EEPs not only call for diligent implementation but also for suitable legal settings, e.g., in the form of mandatory energy efficiency savings targets (as realised for energy efficiency obligations, EEOs) in combination with programme cost recovery. The main criticism of EEPs is the free-rider effect, which needs to be minimised. On the other hand, EEPs are accompanied by significant co-benefits (environmental, health-related and social) and spillover effects. In their currently prevalent form, EEPs allow one to effectively save energy at a (very) low cost ("low-hanging fruit"). They can hence play an important role in fostering the energy transition; however, they should be implemented as part of a policy portfolio, in combination with other policy instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study has compared Japan's major electricity and gas companies in terms of their corporate performance measures from 2002 to 2018 using three types of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approaches. We develop a new type of efficiency measures and indexes for DEA and then compare the performance of major electric power companies and city gas companies by examining a recent data set that include years after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. The data set incorporates the number of patents as an output that represents companies' capability for technology innovation to investigate intertemporal changes of efficiency through index measures. The results provide us with two important findings. First, the electricity industry has experienced long-term difficulty due to the nuclear plant disaster; while the gas industry experienced less difficulty from the accident. Second, both industries have been gradually improving performance measures in recent years. However, the gas industry has outperformed the electricity industry. From the results, this study discusses important policy implications for Japan's energy utility industry and academic research on the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) became a pandemic around the world and has huge impacts on our economic and social systems, particularly on the healthcare system and the transportation and energy sectors. To examine a relationship between healthcare and energy sectors in the COVID-19 era, we propose a holistic application of Data Envelopment Analysis for Environmental Assessment (DEA-EA) to assess the COVID-19 response performance of 33 OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) nations and investigate whether health insurance systems contribute to the performance. We also associate the performance with mobility, which is an energy consumption measure, to test the relationship through statistical analyses. In the DEA-EA, particularly, this study incorporates undesirable outputs (i.e., the number of confirmed cases and that of deaths) as well as desirable outputs (i.e., the number of total recovered people and that of total tested people) during April 2020 as the initial stage of COVID-19. While the former outputs need to be maximized, the latter ones need to be minimized in the assessment of healthcare system performance. This study finds that (a) the COVID-19 response performance of countries is varying and those with higher public health coverage have outperformed others with lower public coverage in terms of combating the COVID-19 outbreak, and (b) the healthcare system performance is significantly associated with mobility. Particularly, the second finding indicates that outperforming nations in the healthcare system are returning to the normal (with less volatility) while underperforming ones are still stagnating in terms of mobility. It implies that outperforming countries need to prepare for continuous commitment to clean/sustainable energy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the paper was to present the energy balance in the EU countries. The specific objectives were to show the concentration and directions of changes in the demand, production, import, and export of energy in the EU countries, to determine the degree of variability (or stability) of these energy balance parameters, and to establish the correlation between the energy balance parameters and economic parameters. All members of the European Union were determinedly selected for research on 31 December 2018 (28 countries). The research period embraced the years 2004–2018. The sources of materials were the literature on the topic and data from Eurostat. Descriptive, tabular, and graphical methods, Gini coefficient, Lorenz curve, coefficient of variation, Pearson's linear correlation coefficient, and constant-based dynamics indicators were used in the analysis and presentation of materials. It was determined that only the demand for energy and its import in EU countries were nearly related to the economic situation. In turn, exports and production were medium and weakly correlated. In these parameters, economic factors had a smaller impact than other factors, such as political development or the level of energy development in the country. It was also found that the EU countries' energy imports were characterized by lower volatility than its exports. As a rule, the most significant stabilization in the given parameters occurred in countries with a stable economy, the so-called developed economies, while the most significant volatility was in developing countries. Energy security is of great importance in all EU countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the European Green Deal, the manufacturing industry faces environmental challenges due to its high demand for electrical energy. Thus, measures for improving the energy efficiency or flexibility are applied to address this problem in the manufacturing industry. In order to quantify energy efficiency or flexibility potentials, it is often necessary to predict or forecast the energy consumption. This paper presents a systematic review of state-of-the-art of existing approaches to predict or forecast the energy consumption in the manufacturing industry. Seventy-two articles are classified according to the defined categories System Boundary, Modelling Technique, Modelling Focus, Modelling Horizon, Modelling Perspective, Modelling Purpose and Model Output. Based on the reviewed articles future research activities are derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decentralization of the large-scale energy sector, its replacement with pro-ecological, dispersed production sources and building a citizen dimension of the energy sector are the directional objectives of the energy transformation in the European Union. Building energy self-sufficiency at a local level is possible, based on the so-called Energy Communities, which include energy clusters and energy cooperatives. Several dozen pilot projects for energy clusters have been implemented in Poland, while energy cooperatives, despite being legally sanctioned and potentially a simpler formula of operation, have not functioned in practice. This article presents the coopetitive nature of Energy Communities. The authors analysed the principles and benefits of creating Energy Communities from a regulatory and practical side. An important element of the analysis is to indicate the managerial, coopetitive nature of the strategies implemented within the Energy Communities. Their members, while operating in a competitive environment, simultaneously cooperate to achieve common benefits. On the basis of the actual data of recipients and producers, the results of simulations of benefits in the economic dimension will be presented, proving the thesis of the legitimacy of creating coopetitive structures of Energy Communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper scrutinizes existing policy efforts to address energy poverty at the governance scale of the European Union (EU) and its constituent Member States. Our main starting point is the recent expansion of energy poverty policies at the EU level, fuelled by the regulatory provisions of the Clean Energy for all Europeans Package, as well as the establishment of an EU Energy Poverty Observatory. Aided by a systematic and customized methodology, we survey the extensive scientific body of work that has recently been published on the topic, as well as the multiple strategies and measures to address energy poverty that have been formulated across the EU. This includes the principal mitigation approaches adopted by key European and national institutions. We develop a framework to judge the distributional and procedural justice provisions within the recently adopted National Energy and Climate Plans, as an indicator of the power, ability and resolve of relevant institutions to combat the causes and consequences of energy injustice. We also provide a research and policy agenda for future action, highlighting a series of scientific and decision-making challenges in the European and global context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green hydrogen for mobility represents an alternative to conventional fuel to decarbonize the transportation sector. Nevertheless, the thermodynamic properties make the transport and the storage of this energy carrier at standard conditions inefficient. Therefore, this study deploys a georeferenced optimal transport infrastructure for four base case scenarios in France and Germany that differs by production distribution based on wind power potential and demand capacities for the mobility sector at different penetration shares for 2030 and 2050. The restrained transport network to the road infrastructure allows focusing on the optimum combination of trucks operating at different states of aggregations and storage technologies and its impact on the annual cost and hydrogen flow using linear programming. Furthermore, four other scenarios with production cost investigate the impact of upstream supply chain cost, and eight scenarios with daily transport and storage optimization analyse the modeling method sensitivity. The results show that compressed hydrogen gas at a high presser level around 500 bar was, on average, a better option. However, at an early stage of hydrogen fuel penetration, substituting compressed gas at low to medium pressure levels by liquid organic hydrogen carrier minimizes the transport and storage costs. Finally, in France, hydrogen production matches population distribution, in contrast to Germany, which suffers from supply and demand disparity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creation of efficient and compact heat exchangers is one of the priority tasks arising during the design of heat and gas supply to industrial and residential buildings. As a rule, finned surfaces and turbulization of heat carrier flows are used to increase the efficiency of heat exchange in heat exchangers. The present paper proposes to use novel materials, namely porous material, in the design of highly efficient heat exchangers. The investigation was carried out experimentally and theoretically. To study the possibility of creating such heat exchangers, a multi-purpose test bench is created. The aim of the study was to assess the intensity of heat transfer in heat exchangers using porous metal. Laboratory tests are carried out as part of the experimental study. In the theoretical study, the classical equation for the change in the heat flux density when the coolant passes through the porous insert was used. As a result, a mathematical model was obtained in the form of a second-order differential equation. Boundary conditions were set and a particular solution was obtained. The results of theoretical calculations were compared with experimental data. The performed study experimentally confirmed the efficiency of using porous metal inserts in the design of shell-and-tube heat exchangers. The compiled mathematical model allows one to perform engineering calculations of the considered heat exchangers with porous inserts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]