Search results for "Environmental economic"
showing 10 items of 391 documents
Energy Policies and Sustainable Management of Energy Sources
2017
Sustainability of current energy policies and known mid-term policies are analised in their multiple facets. First an overview is given about the trend of global energy demand and energy production, analysing the share of energy sources and the geographic distribution of demand, on the basis of statistics and projections published by major agencies. The issue of sustainability of the energy cycle is finally addressed, with specific reference to systems with high share of renewable energy and storage capability, highlighting some promising energy sources and storage approaches.
Dynamic goal programming synthetic indicator: an application for water companies sustainability assessment
2018
ABSTRACTThis study proposes to evaluate the sustainability of water companies through time by using a new approach, one that involves a dynamic synthetic indicator derived from goal programming techniques. This dynamic indicator approach incorporates catch-up and innovation indices, which enables one to identify the main factors that drive changes in sustainability through time. We used a case study approach to clarify this dynamic approach by evaluating indicator values from a sample of 129 Portuguese water companies over the 2012 to 2015 time period. For most of the water companies we evaluated, sustainability values changed over time, which illustrates the importance of evaluating dynami…
Impact Analysis Using Life Cycle Assessment of Asphalt Production from Primary Data
2020
Road construction and maintenance have a great impact on the environment, owing to the huge volumes of resources involved. Consequently, current production procedures and technologies must be properly investigated, for identifying and quantifying the life cycle environmental impacts produced. In this paper, primary data, i.e., site-specific data directly collected or measured on a reference plant, are analyzed for calculating the impact of the production of a hot mix asphalt. The analysis is performed in a from &ldquo
Modeling the natural gas supply chain for sustainable growth policy
2020
Abstract Natural gas has been used globally as a transitional fuel for supporting a green-energy-supply strategy, which has been questioned for the intermittence and lack of reliability of renewables. This paper proposes a System Dynamics model for assessing alternative security of supply policy along the natural gas value chain. The model incorporates demand, transport, production and reserves of natural gas variables according to a systemic perspective. It also includes a module for evaluating the effect of natural gas price on the demand and supply levels, respectively. Alternative supply policies are evaluated under different scenarios. The chosen case-study focuses on the Colombian nat…
Five-years-long effects of the Italian policies for photovoltaics on the energy demand coverage of grid-connected PV systems installed in urban conte…
2016
Abstract The paper examines the responsiveness of the electricity demand coverage in urban contexts to the changes in the Italian policies for PV systems. The morphological configuration of building roofs according to the number of covered flats, annual data of PV generation and electricity consumptions were considered in the transition from the feed-in tariff (FIT) mechanism to the tax credits scheme currently in force. With the aim of assessing the changes over time in three representative cities, the fluctuations both in the premiums for the produced electricity and the tax credits applied to the PV system costs were observed from July 2010 to February 2016. Furthermore, the main time-va…
Technical Rules for Connecting PV Systems to the Distribution Grid: A Critical Comparison of the Italian and Vietnamese Frameworks
2018
In the last two decades, starting from the Kyoto protocol, decarbonization has promoted worldwide the rise of distributed generation from renewable energy sources. Currently, Vietnam is still showing a strong dependence on fossil fuels but with a great interest in investing in renewable, especially in photovoltaic (PV) systems. In this paper, the current Vietnamese technical and administrative framework for the connection of PV systems to the power grid is presented and critically compared to the Italian one, in order to define the bases for future cooperation in distributed generation and renewable sectors.
Smart Urban Energy Districts and Energy Policies
2018
The deployment of smart cities appears a strategic factor for reducing environmental impact and increasing competitivity of economic systems across the world. Although terminology is similar worldwide, the different political assets and social enviroments largely affect the development models. Drivers indeed are quite different, such as the speed at which transformations take place. As a result, implementation of measures is carried out differently and realizations of smart city projects can be strongly different. Europe, China and U.S.A. approaches are compared in this paper to provide the reader with a broader view about different smart city implementations, with a focus on the electricit…
Economic feasibility of stationary electrochemical storages for electric bill management applications: The Italian scenario
2016
Battery energy storage systems (BESSs) are expected to become a fundamental element of the electricity infrastructure, thanks to their ability to decouple generation and demand over time. BESSs can also be used to store electricity during low-price hours, when the demand is low, and to meet the demand during peak hours, thus leading to savings for the consumer. This work focuses on the economic viability of BESS from the point of view of the electricity customer. The analysis refers to a lithium-ion (Li-ion), an advanced lead-acid, a zinc-based, a sodium-sulphur (NaS) and a flow battery. The total investment and replacement costs are estimated in order to calculate the cumulated cash flow, …
On the impact of recycling strategies on energy demand and CO2 emissions when manufacturing Al-based components
2016
Abstract The industrial world is facing the challenge of reducing emissions by means of energy- and resource-efficient manufacturing strategies. In some cases, the exerted emissions and the energy demands related to conventional manufacturing processes are not as intensive as those required to extract and produce the raw materials of which the workpieces are made. Therefore, the consciousness of the impact of material usage and the eco-informed choice of the end-of-life scenarios are both needed in view of sustainable development. Aim of this paper is to offer a contribution to a better understanding of the environmental impact of forming and machining processes, for the production of Al-ba…
Modeling Energy Demand Aggregators for Residential Consumers
2013
International audience; Energy demand aggregators are new actors in the energy scenario: they gather a group of energy consumers and implement a demand- response paradigm. When the energy provider needs to reduce the current energy demand on the grid, it can pay the energy demand aggregator to reduce the load by turning off some of its consumers loads or postponing their activation. Currently this operation involves only greedy energy consumers like industrial plants. In this paper we want to study the potential of aggregating a large number of small energy consumers like home users as it may happen in smart grids. In particular we want to address the feasibility of such approach by conside…