Impact of Emissions Trading System on Renewable Energy Output

The coal industry contributes significantly to the social economy, but the emission of greenhouse gases puts huge pressure on the environment in the process of mining, transportation, and power generation. In the integrated energy system (IES), the current research about the power-to-gas (P2G) technology mainly focuses on the injection of hydrogen generated from renewable energy electrolyzed water into natural gas pipelines, which may cause hydrogen embrittlement of the pipeline and cannot be repaired. In this paper, sufficient hydrogen energy can be produced through P2G technology and coal-to-hydrogen (C2H) of coal gasification, considering the typical scenario of coal district is rich in coal and renewable energy. In order to transport the mined coal to the destination, hydrogen heavy trucks have a broad space for development, which can absorb hydrogen energy in time and avoid potentially dangerous hydrogen injection into pipelines and relatively expensive hydrogen storage. An optimized scheduling model of electric-gas IES is proposed based on second-order cone programming (SOCP). In the model proposed above, the closed industrial loop (including coal mining, hydrogen production, truck transportation of coal, and integrated energy systems) has been innovatively studied, to consume renewable energy and coordinate multi-energy. Finally, an electric-gas IES study case constructed by IEEE 30-node power system and Belgium 24-node natural gas network was used to analyze. The results show that by introducing the proposed hydrogen production technology, typical daily operating costs are effectively reduced by 7.7%. Under China’s carbon emissions trading system, the operating costs of hydrogen heavy trucks have been reduced by 0.95 and 4.68% respectively, compared with electric vehicles and diesel trucks. Under Europe’s stricter carbon emissions trading system, the percentages of cost reduction are 2.56 and 9.12%, respectively. The above technical results verify the feasibility, economy, low carbon, and effectiveness of the proposed mechanism.

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The EU Emissions Trading System and Renewable Energy Policies: Friends or Foes in the European Policy Mix?

Politics and Governance ◽

10.17645/pag.v7i1.1800 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 105-123 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marie Byskov Lindberg

Keyword(s):

Renewable Energy ◽

Emissions Trading ◽

Energy Transition ◽

Clean Energy ◽

Electricity Sector ◽

Policy Position ◽

Policy Mix ◽

Trading System ◽

Industry Group ◽

Emissions Trading System

The EU’s energy transition has advanced rapidly over the last decade, with important implications for the policy landscape. Scholars have characterized the Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the Renewable Energy Directive as the most important policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the electricity sector. However, since the early 2010s, non-governmental and industrial actors have debated whether renewable energy (RE) support and targets are compatible with the ETS. This article systematically assesses the policy preferences of five groups of non-governmental actors with respect to the role of the ETS versus RE policies in three policy processes. For most groups, preferences remain stable across the policy processes. In the electricity industry group, preferences vary from one policy process to another. During the ETS-reform, this group of actors argues that the ETS should be the main climate policy, whereas, in the Clean Energy Package-process, almost half of the utilities endorse continued RE support. This represents a shift in their line of reasoning and policy position: from asserting that RE policies ‘destroy’ the ETS, towards a position which recognizes the value of having both the ETS and RE policies as complementary instruments in the policy mix. The findings point to increasing support for RE policies, which is important for policy makers and scholars involved in designing and implementing the EU’s decarbonization policies.

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