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Highlights • Renewable energy can be transported by mixing hydrogen into natural gas pipelines. • Current pipelines limit hydrogen supply from North Africa to 9.5–23.2 TWh/a. • North Africa can supply renewable hydrogen to Europe for min. 54–119 €/MWh in 2020. Abstract Strong efforts are necessary to stem climate change. It requires to switch to renewable fuels. But as energy demand in Central Europe is high, renewable energy resources are of moderate quality, and available potentials are limited, energy imports from areas with beneficial renewable resources – such as North Africa – might be a promising option. Against this background this paper investigates the costs and potentials for hydrogen produced on the basis of electricity from wind and solar energy in North Africa and the subsequent transport as a blend with natural gas in existing pipelines. Linear optimization using hourly wind and solar data yields minimum hydrogen production cost. 2419 locations covering a 2° proximity of the existing natural gas pipeline infrastructure are considered in a lower and higher cost case for a near-term future (ca. 2020). Modell results provide lowest hydrogen production cost of 45 resp. 99 €/MWh. The production potential is in the range of PWh/a and therefore exceeds the hydrogen that can be transported in the existing infrastructure: Operating pipelines are potentially able to carry 10 vol% hydrogen in the natural gas feed with negligible adjustments to the infrastructure so that 9.5–23.2 TWh/a of hydrogen can be transported to Europe at minimum transport costs of 9 resp. 19 €/MWh. As these transport costs are low, supplying hydrogen leads to lower cost than transforming it to methane, Diesel or gasoline and is therefore the cheapest form of supplying a power based fuel. The hydrogen costs sum up to supply costs of 54 resp. 119 €/MWh free Central Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of a framework for climate and energy policies in Europe entails a number of development projects connected to renewable energy resources. As far as many Western countries have realized some of those investments during recent decades and have more experience in that field, most of the countries in Central Europe have to face that challenge right now. However, a rapid increase in renewable energy production in those countries can cause some dysfunctions in the investment process. National control authorities in Poland marked that the decision-making process concerning the location of wind turbines has not been carried out properly. The paper presents a review of the studies regarding the use of spatial analysis in renewable energy policy implementation and a proposition for the use of the multi-criteria spatial decision support system based on Geographical Information Systems. The presented model has a character of an open framework which allows a user to add any location parameter or factor which is possible to be represented as a metric value. The spatial character of the proposed solution exceeds only mathematical models in the way of interpretation of the results. An intuitive model supports communication with stakeholders and helps to explain the correlations between human activity and the location of power plants. The model was tested on the case study of Wrocław agglomeration area (Poland) and includes 13 location factors. The use of a multi-criteria model guaranteed a broader point of view in comparing five different scenarios of wind farms development in the decision-making process, as it combines conflicted interests groups, minimalizes subjective assessment and enables to define priorities while setting weights of factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of thermal and electrical energy is related to the emission of greenhouse gases, which are believed to cause climatic changes. The activities of the international community show an increase of ecological awareness. In the Central European countries the share of renewable energy in overall energy production is relatively small. One sector where some progress can be made is agriculture. This paper presents simulation results of CO 2 reduction potential by replacing conventional heating system for a poultry house with a hybrid solar–wind system. Heat requirement for 2400 birds was calculated. Simple models for solar collector, wind turbine and heat storage tank are presented. The system is modelled in a Matlab/Simulink environment and various system configurations are analysed for climatic conditions typical for Central Europe. The solar collector area was varied between 0 and 80 m 2 , wind turbine diameter was varied in the range of 0–20 m and 1 to 4 heat storage tanks. Apart from percentage of CO 2 emission reduction two other indicators are introduced: renewable energy utilisation ratio and weighted CO 2 emission reduction — renewable energy utilisation coefficient. The results show that larger systems provide higher CO 2 reduction but the energy utilisation ratio decreases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the relatively high potential contribution of renewable energy sources (RES) to the energy mixes of the countries in Central Europe and the officially stated support for RES deployment, progress towards implementing that commitment has been slow. This article examines the content and coherence of support schemes for the promotion of RES adopted by the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. We argue that RES support schemes suffer from some weaknesses that are a function of the means by which renewable energy objectives were imported into the region. The preparations for accession to the EU encouraged a process of "policy transfer" of policies negotiated and designed elsewhere. Consequently, policies sometimes suffer from technical deficiencies, lack of political support, implementation and enforcement obstacles. The challenge now is to review the policies adopted during the transition period, rationalise their legal superstructure, and implement them in the context of well-developed strategic objectives with political and stakeholder understanding and support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]