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The emissions from transport and residential sectors have significant shares in total emissions of Europe. In this study, we identified key priorities in support to the EU Macro-regional Strategies implementation based on an ex-ante assessment focusing on two EU macro-regions: Adriatic-Ionian (AIR) and Alpine (ALP). Firstly, we analysed how different sectors contribute to air pollution in the ALP and AIR regions and to predict future pollution levels under different emission scenarios such as Current Legislation (CLE), Maximum Technically Feasible Reduction (MTFR), and Climate Mitigation (CLIM) by using the TM5-FASST air quality and impact model. It was found that the residential sector is the main contributor to anthropogenic PM2.5 emissions and it will remain so also beyond 2050 under the CLE scenario while the transport sector remains the major contributor to NOx emissions until 2030, with a significant and growing contribution from shipping in the AIR region. Primary PM2.5 has almost reached its technical reduction limit but secondary PM2.5 still has a large reduction potential. MTFR measures on road transport and shipping emissions can generate an annual health benefit from PM2.5 and ozone of 750 (ALP) + 2950 (AIR) avoided premature mortalities in 2050 of which 64% from shipping emission reductions. The potential health benefits from all sectors under MTFR (ALP + AIR) amounts to 16, 800 avoided premature deaths annually in 2030 (3250 + 13550). The potential health benefits from Climate mitigation (ALP + AIR) amounts to 2200 avoided premature deaths annually in 2050 (620 + 1580), however CLIM policies due to fuel switch to biomass also cause air quality trade-off in the domestic sector leading to an estimated number of 360 extra premature deaths annually in 2050 in AIR. Secondly, the experts in the transport sector from these regions have pointed several areas of improvement. Increased intermodality, combining road, rail and maritime ship transport can have important benefits in both regions. In the ALP, moving from trucks to rail could considerably reduce the environmental impacts of transport by reducing emissions of CO2 and air pollutants and could help to solve traffic congestion problems. In the AIR, many countries use outdated technologies for on-road freight transport, causing large environmental impacts. A modal shift e.g. to electric rail or maritime shipping can thus give particularly large positive environmental benefits for this region. The potential drawbacks of a modal strengthening the role of railway and ship transport are primarily related to the increased complexity, the costs of the necessary infrastructures and the risk of increased air pollution in some port cities due to ship emissions. For traffic on roads, infrastructure development is a key element to move towards more sustainable transport. Electrification of road transport generates emissions reductions when the electricity generation is also clean and attention should be given to the charging infrastructure development. Fleet renewal of trucks and ships and use of cleaner fuels will contribute to clean growth in transport. However, fleet renewal is a costly measure and difficult to implement in poor countries ; consequently, the measures that proved to be effective in other countries may not be beneficial or even applicable in these countries. One important obstacle in implementing the provisions of EU macro-regional strategies is the disparity between countries within the macro-regions. Further, some countries in ALP and AIR are not part of EU and may present limitations in international trade and security agreements. Finally, the experts in the field highlighted the fact that bioenergy is an important opportunity for ALP and AIR regions. Because of potential environmental threats, its clean deployment is an issue to be carefully addressed through appropriate policies and regulatory acts. An example is the impact on regional air pollution of small and medium scale traditional appliances and domestic boilers. Improved efficiency and best available technologies need to be strongly supported with both market strategies and effective controls. On the other side of the supply chain, sustainable collection of feedstock has to be assured through the appropriate management of the forest stocks and accounting for the actual climate mitigation benefits, without forgetting the increasing demand of biomass from other industrial sectors in a bio-economy framework.

The combined production of electricity, heat and cold in biomass trigeneration power plants integrated with seasonal pit thermal energy storage ensures maximum utilization of biomass resources and at the same time reduction of variable operation costs of the system. Beside optimal size of trigeneration system, location allocation problem is additional factor which need to be taken into account. In this study, optimization of the location of biomass trigeneration power plant was considered. The system combined biomass cogeneration power plant, absorbers and the seasonal pit thermal energy storage. In order to optimise location two steps optimisation has been used. In the first step, hybrid optimisation model with Genetic Algorithm and fmicon were used while in the second step model searches for minimum cost of transportation subtracted by increased costs of distribution network investment. Moreover, four case studies were done for the city of Petrinja for which economic assessment of choosing optimal and non-optimal location was performed. Case studies have shown that significant amount of yearly spending on fuel can be avoided, if the optimal location has been chosen for the power plant location. Results of analysis shows that total yearly savings for biomass with optimal location can reach up to 4.2% compared to location with highest biomass costs.

South East Europe consists of several smaller countries in terms of energy systems and thus, integrating energy systems of the whole region has significant benefits for all the countries included. However, as there are large differences between energy mixes of the countries included, careful energy planning needs to be carried out in order to satisfy energy needs of all the countries of the region. Due to the significant differences in geography and the climate of different parts of the region, many different technologies need to be introduced in order to have optimal, low-carbon energy mix. In this paper, steps toward the 100% renewable energy system (RES) for the year 2050 have been presented. Novelty in this paper, compared to the similar research already being carried out, is the sustainable use of biomass in 100% RES, as this is the only way in which biomass 1192-1 can be considered as carbon-neutral. Smart energy systems’ approach has been used in planning of 100% RES, which considers significant integration of the electrical, heating and gas sectors. Many technologies have been employed in the year 2050, but the major share is put on photovoltaics and wind energy, followed by geothermal, solar thermal, CHPs driven on biomass, hydro power and synthetic fuel technologies. Finally, it was shown that the 100% RES in the year 2050 is cheaper than the reference system, developed for the year 2012.

In this paper, an optimization model for incorporating seasonal heat energy storage and biomass trigeneration power plant is presented. Currently in Croatia, overall efficiency of biomass CHP or CCHP has to be above 50% on an annual basis in order to be eligible for a feed-in tariff. Consequently, biomass power plants use the excess heat production for drying biomass which is currently allowed. However, it is expected that it will not be allowed in the future due to inefficient use of heat. Thus, this paper provides a solution for managing excess heat in biomass CHP and CCHP power plants, as well as a way to shave peak energy demand. The objective of the optimization model is to maximize net present value (NPV) using hybrid optimization method. It is a demand driven model, covering real heating and cooling energy need by end-use customers. Optimization model is easy to adopt in different regions and can be used for evaluating economic feasibility of the investment in trigeneration system that covers all heating and cooling energy demand. Two case-studies were done in order to show the impact of minimum allowed overall power plant efficiency on overall economic indicators. Moreover, the financial data for the possible shift from feed-in-tariffs to fixed and variable feed-in-premiums was presented.