Search results for "Environmental economic"
showing 10 items of 391 documents
Transport policy and climate change: How to decide when experts disagree
2008
Abstract Transport is the sector with the fastest growth of greenhouse gases emissions in many countries. Accumulation of these emissions may cause uncertain and irreversible adverse climate change impacts. In this context, we use the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to face the question on how to select the best transport policy if the experts have different opinions and beliefs on the occurrence of these impacts. Thus, both the treatment of uncertainty and dissent are examined for the ranking of transport policies. The opinions of experts have been investigated by a means of a survey questionnaire. A sensitivity analysis of the experts’ weights and the criteria’ weights confirms the robus…
Stationary battery systems in the main world markets: Part 1: Overview of the state-of-the-art
2017
The role of energy storage systems (ESSs) is becoming more and more important in modern power grids, mainly because of the higher penetration of intermittent renewable energy sources (RESs), such as solar and wind power, spurred by advantageous support policies carried out in several countries. The fluctuation nature of the energy produced by RESs is indeed leading to emerging power quality issues or to renewable curtailments. ESSs can be used to balance generation and demand of electricity over time, allowing a higher penetration of RESs into the power network. The energy storage industry is evolving rapidly, and new electrochemical technologies are entering the market. Besides, most elect…
Technological and legislative status point of stationary energy storages in the EU
2019
Abstract European renewable generation has been supported through several policy instruments in the last decades, and this has caused a significant growth of the renewable energy sector, spurred by the ambitious climate and energy policy targets. Despite this impetuous growth, the electricity infrastructure is not yet ready to accept increasing shares of variable renewable energy sources (RES) generation, and this is causing grid balance challenges, due to the inherently variable nature of the PV and wind energy. In order to overcome this issue, allowing higher shares of renewable generation in the energy sector, energy storage (ES) systems are becoming increasingly competitive in the globa…
Six-years-long effects of the Italian policies for photovoltaics on the grid parity of grid-connected photovoltaic systems installed in urban contexts
2017
Abstract The purpose of this study is investigating the grid parity (GP) time and the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) systems installed in densely urbanized contexts. The analysis, which was elaborated for three Italian cities, considered the effects of the promoting policies enacted by the Italian government from June 2010 to May 2016. An appropriate methodology was applied with the aim of realistically defining the energy produced by PV systems installed on buildings with different roof types and number of floors. The calculus of the disbursements considered the operating, maintenance and insurance costs and the wear of PV panels and inverters. The resu…
Competitive versus efficient extraction of a common property resource: The groundwater case
2001
Abstract In this paper socially optimal and private extraction of a common property aquifer are compared. Open-loop equilibrium and feedback equilibrium in linear strategies have been computed to characterize private extraction. The use of these two equilibrium concepts allows us to distinguish between cost and strategic externalities as long as the open-loop solution captures only the cost externality, and the feedback solution captures both. The results show that strategic behaviour increases the overexploitation of the aquifer compared to the open-loop solution. However, if the groundwater storage capacity is large, the difference between the socially optimal and private extraction, the …
Product-related information for sustainable use of laundry detergents in Finnish households
2007
Abstract The purpose of this paper is to report on research on how product-related information can guide sustainable product use in the context of laundry detergents. More precisely, the purpose of the study was designed to analyse how the detergent package information and dosing instructions are read, understood and followed in the Finnish households. Data collection methods included interviews in 340 Finnish households in 2004 and 299 households in 2005 with a standardised questionnaire. Results show that the majority of respondents did not know if the washing water is hard or soft, which indeed has a direct effect on dosing amounts. However, package information per se was found to be eas…
Sustainable Development Goals and Performance Measurement of Positive Energy District: A Methodological Approach
2021
The “Positive Energy Districts and Neighbourhoods for Sustainable Urban Development” program launched by the European Union can be considered a milestone towards the clean energy transition and carbon neutrality of urban areas. The achievement of this ambitious transition requires properly defined methodologies and action plans grounded on the main environmental, economic, and social pillars of sustainability. This paper is focused on the definition of a methodology for the characterization of PEDs sustainability assessment in terms of Sustainable Development Goals. In particular, the main research question to be answered regards the allocation of the surplus energy of PEDs to target the su…
Multicriteria performance analysis of an integrated urban wastewater system for energy management
2017
AbstractThe optimization and management of an integrated urban wastewater system is a complex problem involving many processes and variables. The possible control options are defined by several management strategies that may differently impact the economic, operational or environmental performance of the system. The present paper aims to contribute to the environmental and energy sustainability of urban wastewater systems by means of a multicriteria performance analysis. The paper begins with a complete analysis of the system performance in several fields of interest (energy, environment, quality of service, operation, economy and financial resources), and it highlights the management stren…
Security Standards Applied to Drinking Water
2021
This chapter presents security standards as applied to drinking water, based on the assumption that freshwater sources face huge threats for humankind both qualitatively and quantitatively due to uncertain global changes, namely population growth, rapid urbanization, and climate change. The study investigates whether the International Featured Standards (IFS—Food), which are complementary to HACCP (Hazard analysis and critical control point), can be used as a system of indicators to measure water security. The case study focuses on bottled water, by identifying structural and contingent risk factors for water as essential food and investigates the suitability of the IFS instrument as an ind…
Evaluation of payment for ecosystem services in Mediterraneanforest: An empirical survey
2016
Abstract The relationship between humans and the forest has always been an important element, sometimes characterizing in the history of man himself. During the last years, the socio-economic context is profoundly changed, diversifying economic services provided by the forest. In the past, in fact, the primary function of the forest was the firewood production, while nowadays it grants several socio-economic benefits such as climate change mitigation, soil protection, protection and conservation of biodiversity, landscaping and recreational value. So, in recent decades a new type of socio-economic interest was developed in order to create a market of goods and services for the forests, call…