Search

The amount of wind energy entering the European electricity transmission system is expected to increase in next decades. Indeed, Europe is on the path towards a deep transformation of its energy system, triggered in part by Directive 2009/28/EC (also known as the Renewable Energy Directive), in which wind energy will play an important role. Europe is large enough to be impacted by multiple weather systems at any one time and as a consequence, absolute values and time patterns of wind power generation are different in each European country because of these non-homogeneous meteorological conditions. A future pan-European power transmission grid aiming to dispatch electricity production throughout the continent will thus have to face the challenge of balancing in real time differently intermittent and strongly inhomogeneous resources. In this study, based on the wind fields provided at daily resolution for the period 1961–2050 by 12 regional climate models involved in the ENSEMBLES climate modelling intercomparison project, we have evaluated absolute national and European wind power production and its expected changes following the evolution of climate in Europe. Moreover, we have suggested a methodology to investigate in a quantitative way the complementarity among wind power patterns in different countries. Results show that the evolution of climate in Europe as projected by the ENSEMBLES participants, is not expected to have major impact on absolute wind energy production. Furthermore, the complementarity of wind energy patterns in different countries can be exploited by better integration of trans-boundary power exchange in Europe. For this reason, results are also discussed in the light of the design and dimensioning of the European electricity transmission system, with a special emphasis on the cross-border interconnections issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union has committed itself to ambitious targets of Renewable Energy and bioenergy is expected to play a major role, increasing its contribution to Gross Final Energy Consumption from 2458 PJ in 2005 to 4605 PJ by 2020. Agricultural crop residues are considered a reliable resource for energy uses but important concerns still exist on the potential depletion of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stocks that may partially offset the environmental suitability and convenience of their large-scale exploitation. This paper provides an estimate of available agricultural residues and related potential energy production obtainable without impacting the EU SOC stock showing how SOC content preservation imposes the application of different collection rates for agricultural residues across the EU, depending on factors such as climate, soil type, current farming practices and pre-existing cultivation history. The results suggest that a potential amount of residues of 146,000 kt/year of dry matter leading to a potential gross energy production of about 2300 PJ/year could be obtained in EU-27 1 1 Excluding Croatia. without impacting the current SOC stocks. Agricultural residues are then theoretically able to provide a substantial contribution to renewable energy targets in several EU-27 countries as well as accommodating competitive uses and SOC preservation. Nevertheless, the spatial pattern of results also clearly indicates regions and countries where residues exploitation should be handled with care and current practices on residues collection are risky in term of SOC content. The estimate provided builds on results from previous studies (e.g., Scarlat et al. Waste Manage 2010;30:1889–1897, Monforti et al. Renewable Sustainable Energy Rev 2013;19:666–677) and on the analysis of future scenarios of SOC content obtained from an innovative pan-EU modelling platform (Lugato et al. Global Change Biol 2014;20:313–326. doi:10.1111/gcb.12292. Such an integrated approach, making use of soil, climate and energy transformation modelling, is unique and constitutes a substantial applied value for assessing the sustainability of crop residues use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces a transparent methodology to assess new suitable locations for mini and small hydro power plants in Europe. The expansion of hydro electricity production is a policy focus not only in Europe, but in the US (Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013) and in the developing world as well. The analysis of the technical potential points out the exact geographical locations and their corresponding capacities instead of only a theoretical potential; therefore it can serve as a reference for the policy debate over the sustainable management of water resources. This debate is reflected already in two major European policies: the Water Framework Directive (WFD) (2000/60/EC) and the RES Directive (2009/28/EC) on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources. As both policies have major influence on the priorities of water use, it is important to identify water management practices capable of accommodating sustainable energy purposes while maintaining water quality objectives at the same time. As the WFD poses limitation on the further expansion of large scale hydro options in the European water bodies, the present study focuses on local mini and small hydropower options and their suitability mapping. The presented, geographically explicit method is based on geospatial analysis and the results can contribute to the prioritization of potential hydro power sites in order to improve water quality and its use for energy simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]