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Given the fundamental role of renewable energy assets in achieving global temperature control targets, new energy management methods are required to efficiently match intermittent renewable generation and demand. Based on analysing various designed cases, this paper explores a number of heuristics for a smart battery scheduling algorithm that efficiently matches available power supply and demand. The core of improvement of the proposed smart battery scheduling algorithm is exploiting future knowledge, which can be realized by current state-of-the-art forecasting techniques, to effectively store and trade energy. The performance of the developed heuristic battery scheduling algorithm using forecast data of demands, generation, and energy prices is compared to a heuristic baseline algorithm, where decisions are made solely on the current state of the battery, demand, and generation. The battery scheduling algorithms are tested using real data from two large-scale smart energy trials in the UK, in addition to various types and levels of simulated uncertainty in forecasts. The results show that when using a battery to store generated energy, on average, the newly proposed algorithm outperforms the baseline algorithm, obtaining up to 20–60% more profit for the prosumer from their energy assets, in cases where the battery is optimally sized and high-quality forecasts are available. Crucially, the proposed algorithm generates greater profit than the baseline method even with large uncertainty on the forecast, showing the robustness of the proposed solution. On average, only 2–12% of profit is lost on generation and demand uncertainty compared to perfect forecasts. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed algorithm increases as the uncertainty decreases, showing great promise for the algorithm as the quality of forecasting keeps improving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a high-accuracy assessment of domestic demand-side management (DSM) approach in the context of distributed renewable energy sources (RES). To determine the potential of domestic DSM for households, a microgrid model of a typical UK residential estate was developed to simulate the impact of RES. The microgrid model comprises 15 UK households with appropriate allocation of washing machines, tumble dryers and dishwashers in accordance with the statistical data. In order to obtain a high-accuracy result, the power consumption of the microgrid model utilises real historical high-resolution data of household energy consumption and RES generation. Thereafter, 40% of distributed wind and solar energy is implemented in the model to produce two individual scenarios. The operation of the white appliances in the model is controlled using a domestic DSM based on a load shifting algorithm. The primary criterion of the DSM considered in this paper is the reduction in energy feedback to the grid in order to decrease the utilisation of the grid and to reduce the transmission losses. The results obtained from the model simulation are compared to the baseline model and discussed with respect to the possible benefits of implementation of domestic DSM under the impact of RES. It has been shown that the self-consumption ratio of the microgrid operating under the DSM is increased by 3% for both scenarios. The model analysis provides highly realistic results which can be used for efficiency assessment of various load shifting methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-scale, decentralized and community-owned renewable energy is widely acknowledged to be a desirable feature of low carbon futures, but faces a range of challenges in the context of conventional, centralized energy systems. This paper draws on transition frameworks to investigate why the UK has been an inhospitable context for community-owned renewables and assesses whether anything fundamental is changing in this regard. We give particular attention to whether political devolution, the creation of elected governments for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, has affected the trajectory of community renewables. Our analysis notes that devolution has increased political attention to community renewables, including new policy targets and support schemes. However, these initiatives are arguably less important than the persistence of key features of socio-technical regimes: market support systems for renewable energy and land-use planning arrangements that systemically favour major projects and large corporations, and keep community renewables to the margins. There is scope for rolling out hybrid pathways to community renewables, via joint ownership or through community benefit funds, but this still positions community energy as an adjunct to energy pathways dominated by large, corporate generation facilities. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a model for the industry dynamics in the electricity market, based on mean-field games of optimal stopping. In our model, there are two types of agents: the renewable producers and the conventional producers. The renewable producers choose the optimal moment to build new renewable plants, and the conventional producers choose the optimal moment to exit the market. The agents interact through the market price, determined by matching the aggregate supply of the two types of producers with an exogenous demand function. Using a relaxed formulation of optimal stopping mean-field games, we prove the existence of a Nash equilibrium and the uniqueness of the equilibrium price process. An empirical example, inspired by the UK electricity market is presented. The example shows that while renewable subsidies clearly lead to higher renewable penetration, this may entail a cost to the consumer in terms of higher peakload prices. In order to avoid rising prices, the renewable subsidies must be combined with mechanisms ensuring that sufficient conventional capacity remains in place to meet the energy demand during peak periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy prosumption has become a common phrase as more householders and communities are producing and consuming their own electricity and heat. Prosumption is a combination of two words: production and consumption, and emerged as a concept at a time when consumers were beginning to be more proactive and take over steps traditionally thought of as ‘production’. In many ways, energy prosumption is nothing new (e.g. wood combustion), yet development of our modern energy system has changed the relationships between energy producers and consumers (e.g. smart meters, renewable energy production). Thus, there is a growing body of research interested in the motivation and conditions for the uptake of microgeneration technologies and the implications to energy infrastructures and big energy producers. However, this ‘energy prosumption’ scholarship generally lacks a strong conceptual foundation and misses the opportunity to build on existing prosumption literature and related debates. This paper brings the wealth of literature on prosumption into the energy context and reflects on the insights offered by a prosumption lens. Our study explores a particular manifestation of prosumption – when a household is simultaneously a producer and consumer of their heat and/or electricity via microgeneration – and we present data from semi-structured interviews with 28 households living with microgeneration technologies in Scotland, UK. Thus, we provide a robust framework from which future research on household and community energy prosumption can build. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce the BDA dynamics and explore the associated applications in renewable energy sector with a focus on data-driven innovation. Our study draws on the exponential growth of renewable energy initiatives over the last decades and on the paucity of literature to illustrate the use of BDA in the energy industry. We conduct a qualitative field study in the UK with stakeholder interviews and analyse our results using thematic analysis. Our findings indicate that no matter if the importance of the energy sector for 'people's well-being, industrial competitiveness, and societal advancement, old fashioned approaches to analytics for organisational processes are currently applied widely within the energy sector. These are triggered by resistance to change and insufficient organisational knowledge about BDA, hindering innovation opportunities. Furthermore, for energy organisations to integrate BDA approaches, they need to deal with challenges such as training employees on BDA and the associated costs. Overall, our study provides insights from practitioners about adopting BDA innovations in the renewable energy sector to inform decision-makers and provide recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Treatment of pollution from abandoned coal mines often requires significant inputs of electrical power, particularly at sites where long-term pumping of mine water is required. Given the large fossil fuel generation element of the UK electricity supply network, this has a direct impact on carbon emissions. The potential for recovery of low enthalpy heat at mine water treatment sites in Great Britain, such that they could become net sources of energy during operation, rather than consumers, was explored using data from April 2014 to March 2015. To do this, an inventory of coal mine water treatment systems across England, Scotland and Wales was first collated, including key variables for each site. The heat energy which could potentially be recovered was then assessed against the energy consumption of each site and reviewed at a national scale. It was found that 47.5 MW of thermal energy was available for recovery from mine waters, compared to 2.3 MW of electrical power already committed for pumping and treatment of these waters. Recovery of thermal energy might be achievable by the use of heat pumps for space heating of nearby properties. Yet, because of the high carbon cost of UK grid electricity required to power heat pumps, this approach would offer only very modest CO 2 savings over domestic gas central heating. Calculations made in this paper suggests that just 0.33 kt CO 2 savings are achievable using this approach, compared to existing emissions of 10.8 kt CO 2 entailed by the pumping and treatment sites themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper explores the photovoltaic (PV) industry in the United Kingdom (UK) as experienced by those who are working with it directly and with consideration of current standards, module efficiencies and future environmental trends. The government''s consultation on the comprehensive review for solar PV tariffs, proposes a reduction of the generation tariff for PV installations in the UK of more than 50%. The introduction of the Feed-In Tariffs scheme (FITs) has rapidly increased deployment of PV technologies at small scale since its introduction in April 2010. The central principle of FIT policies is to offer guaranteed prices for fixed periods to enable greater number of investors. A financial analysis was performed on two real-life installations in Cornwall, UK to determine the impact of proposed cuts to the FIT will make to a typical domestic PV system under 4 kW. The results show that a healthy Return on Investment (ROI) can still be made but that future installations should focus on off-setting electricity required from the national grid as a long term push for true sustainability rather than subsidised schemes. The profitability of future installations will have to be featured within in-service and end-of-service considerations such as the feed-in tariff, module efficiencies and the implications of costs associated with end-of-life disposal. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The reduction of CO2 emissions linked with human activities (mainly energy services and transport), together with the increased use of renewable energies, remain high priorities on various political agendas. However, considering the increased consumption of energy services (especially electricity), and the stochastic nature of some of the most promising renewable energies (wind for instance), the challenge is to find the optimal mix of technologies that will provide the energy services, without increasing the CO2 emissions, but nonetheless ensuring reliability of supply. The focus of this paper is to present the DESDOP tool, based on mixed integer linear optimisation technics, that helps giving insight in the optimal mix of technologies that will simultaneously help decrease the emissions while at the same time guarantee resilience of supply. The results show that while it is not yet possible to avoid electricity from the grid completely (hence nuclear or fossil fuel), CO2 reductions up to 20%, at no extra costs compared to the business-as-usual case, are easily achievable. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Although financial support for renewable electricity sources has existed via the non-fossil fuel obligation since 1990, the UK 'green power' market is still in its infancy. This paper looks at attitudes to tariffs for 'green power' in light of the proposed phase-out of the non-fossil fuel obligation. The hypothesis tested was the consumers' willingness to pay for electricity generated from renewable energy sources and to see if this was related to income and attitude. Data for analysis were taken from replies to a questionnaire sent to an energy-aware sub-population of Leicester which were analysed by a variety of statistical tests. Results of multiple regression analysis indicated that whether someone was willing to pay more was significantly correlated with attitude, experience (whether they had visited an environmental center) and the purchasing power placed on 5. This finding hasimplications for the methods by which support for green tariffs can be increased. Education and raising people's awareness through experience should be able to change attitudes and so increase their willingness to pay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the UK as a case study, this paper describes current energy use and a range of sustainable energy options for the future, including solar power and other renewables. I focus on the area involved in collecting, converting and delivering sustainable energy, looking in particular detail at the potential role of solar power. Britain consumes energy at a rate of about 5000 watts per person, and its population density is about 250 people per square kilometre. If we multiply the per capita energy consumption by the population density, then we obtain the average primary energy consumption per unit area, which for the UK is 1.25 watts per square metre. This areal power density is uncomfortably similar to the average power density that could be supplied by many renewables: the gravitational potential energy of rainfall in the Scottish highlands has a raw power per unit area of roughly 0.24 watts per square metre; energy crops in Europe deliver about 0.5 watts per square metre; wind farms deliver roughly 2.5 watts per square metre; solar photovoltaic farms in Bavaria, Germany, and Vermont, USA, deliver 4 watts per square metre; in sunnier locations, solar photovoltaic farms can deliver 10 watts per square metre; concentrating solar power stations in deserts might deliver 20 watts per square metre. In a decarbonized world that is renewable-powered, the land area required to maintain today's British energy consumption would have to be similar to the area of Britain. Several other high-density, high-consuming countries are in the same boat as Britain, and many other countries are rushing to join us. Decarbonizing such countries will only be possible through some combination of the following options: the embracing of country-sized renewable power-generation facilities; large-scale energy imports from country-sized renewable facilities in other countries; population reduction; radical efficiency improvements and lifestyle changes; and the growth of non-renewable low-carbon sources, namely 'clean' coal, 'clean' gas and nuclear power. If solar is to play a large role in the future energy system, then we need new methods for energy storage; very-large-scale solar either would need to be combined with electricity stores or it would need to serve a large flexible demand for energy that effectively stores useful energy in the form of chemicals, heat, or cold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development and rapid consumer adoption of energy efficiency products and renewable energy systems are key elements of the UK and the EU carbon reduction strategies to meet the challenge of climate change. Many such technologies are available for domestic use, but despite government incentives to meet carbon reduction targets consumer adoption has been slow. This Open University research with 111 in-depth interviews plus an on-line survey with nearly 400 responses, investigates consumer adoption, non-adoption and use of these technologies. Results show that it is important to research consumer use experiences, problems and requirements when designing and developing "green" technologies. With results tailored to each technology, this study shows that user-centred improvements are required to improve functionality, ergonomics, inter-connectedness with other systems and symbolic value, and to reduce cost and payback. User-centred research supports new product/system design and development to promote more rapid adoption and carbon-saving use of energy efficient and renewable technologies in homes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]