scholarly journals Politics and (Self)-Organisation of Electricity System Transitions in a Global North–South Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 162-172
Author(s):  
Eberhard Rothfuß ◽  
Festus Boamah
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Global South ◽  
Electricity System ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
Global North ◽  
Self Organisation ◽  
Energy Justice ◽  
Electricity Systems

Dominant electricity systems are inevitably transitioning into new forms in terms of power generation mix, mode of energy system governance and vested interests, the extent of state and consumer/citizen participation in the energy system, and energy justice expectations in different geographies in the Global North and Global South. In this editorial to the thematic issue entitled <em>Politics and (Self-)Organisation of Electricity System Transitions in a Global North–South Perspective</em>, we discuss politics and (self)-organisation of (just) energy transitions to expose how messy, convoluted, and fluid future electricity system transitions can be in both the Global North and Global South.

scholarly journals Impacts of Electric Road Systems on the German and Swedish Electricity Systems—An Energy System Model Comparison

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Olovsson ◽  
Maria Taljegard ◽  
Michael Von Bonin ◽  
Norman Gerhardt ◽  
Filip Johnsson
Keyword(s):  
Wind Power ◽  
Peak Power ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Solar Power ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Transport Sector ◽  
Electricity System ◽  
Road Systems ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Electricity Systems

This study analyses the impacts of electrification of the transport sector, involving both static charging and electric road systems (ERS), on the Swedish and German electricity systems. The impact on the electricity system of large-scale ERS is investigated by comparing the results from two model packages: 1) a modeling package that consists of an electricity system investment model (ELIN) and electricity system dispatch model (EPOD); and 2) an energy system investment and dispatch model (SCOPE). The same set of scenarios are run for both model packages and the results for ERS are compared. The modeling results show that the additional electricity load arising from large-scale implementation of ERS is mainly, depending on model and scenario, met by investments in wind power in Sweden (40–100%) and in both wind (20–75%) and solar power (40–100%) in Germany. This study also concludes that ERS increase the peak power demand (i.e., the net load) in the electricity system. Therefore, when using ERS, there is a need for additional investments in peak power units and storage technologies to meet this new load. A smart integration of other electricity loads than ERS, such as optimization of static charging at the home location of passenger cars, can facilitate efficient use of renewable electricity also with an electricity system including ERS. A comparison between the results from the different models shows that assumptions and methodological choices dictate which types of investments are made (e.g., wind, solar and thermal power plants) to cover the additional demand for electricity arising from the use of ERS. Nonetheless, both modeling packages yield increases in investments in solar power (Germany) and in wind power (Sweden) in all the scenarios, to cover the new electricity demand for ERS.

scholarly journals Wind Power Integration Peculiarities in the Electricity System of the Baltic States

2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 6-15
Author(s):  
Giedrius Gecevičius ◽  
Mantas Marčiukaitis
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Wind Power ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Utilization Efficiency ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
Wind Power Integration ◽  
Electricity System ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Power Installations

Analysis of wind power utilization efficiency around the world and Europe has revealed the gap between feasible and factual power generation. The paper presents an investigation of wind power generation dynamics, penetration levels into the electricity system, and dependence of capacity factors on the hub height and the rotor diameter of wind turbines in the Baltic States. These factors are the main for the evaluation of wind power utilization efficiency. Wind power penetration levels show that possibilities of the energy system to accept more wind power installations in the Baltic States are far away from its limit. Besides, dependence of high wind turbines capacity factors’ on the hub height and the rotor diameter in the range of 20–120 m was revealed.

scholarly journals Two sides of the same coin?  The Energy Transition Potential in Global North and Global South Countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Schrutir Jain ◽  
Maarten Arentsen ◽  
Albert Molderink
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Energy Resource ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Renewable Resource ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Global South ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Transition Potential ◽  
Global North ◽  
Zero Emission

Abstract Climatic changes have made transition to renewable energy essential. However, energy transition in the globalized world is challenged with diversification in culture, economic prowess, social development, and state structure. The global negotiations are always tough, among others, due to the split between the Global North (GN) and Global South (GS) countries. At the same time, the debates on how to deal with the inequalities in climate mitigation potential veils a thus far hardly acknowledged difference in energy transition potential and impact in the GN and GS countries. This paper, therefore, aims to contribute to bridging this knowledge gap by making a systematic comparative assessment of energy transition potential in the GN and GS with two regions as example cases. We analysed and compared energy scenarios in two regions in the world: Overijssel representing the GN countries and Matura representing the GS south countries. Both regions are similar in economic activities, but differ in demography and economic development. We analysed and compared the current energy system in both regions and two development scenarios towards 2050: the BAU scenario and the zero emission scenario. Despite the differences in starting position, the energy systems in both regions move towards each other in the longer term, but change pattern and costs differ. In both regions bioresources are the dominant renewable resource in an locally determined energy resource portfolio. However, the costs of getting into this longer term position are significantly higher in Matura than in Overijssel, whereas the general economic potential, as it looks in 2020, is worse in Matura. Our analysis therefore indicates that a renewable energy transition in the longer term can result in zero emission systems in both GN and GS countries, but with substantial differences in costs.

A research into the operation of a system of electric energy accumulation as part of a cyber-physical real time simulation facility

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 209-218
Author(s):  
A. G. Volkov ◽  
D. A. Sagaiko
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Digital Simulation ◽  
Electric Energy ◽  
Data Communication ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Energy Accumulation ◽  
Electricity System ◽  
Real Time Digital Simulator ◽  
Virtual Synchronous Machine ◽  
Electricity Systems

Introduction: the frequency and capacity control, as well as the maintenance of electric energy systems rely on the choice of the items of equipment that comprise a particular electric energy system. Generators are the core items of equipment comprising traditional electricity systems, while in off-grid electricity systems this function is assumed by the power-driven converter equipment coupled with energy accumulation systems. The main problem of these systems consists in a fast response generated by the power-driven converter equipment to the changing environment. Excessively fast responses, given by the controllers, make the whole off-grid electricity system unstable.Methods: the resolution of the problem of an unstable off-grid electricity system requires the use of algorithms for the control over inverters and frequency converters, designed according to the principle of a virtual synchronous machine that applies voltage and frequency droops. The model of an electricity system has been produced. It has six key elements: a basic balancing inverter, two generators, lithium-oil battery simulation, an interface converter and a real time digital simulator (RTDS). The model was used to perform an experiment to implement two-way data transmission from RTDS to converting facilities and to verify the performance capability of the algorithm and the electricity system as a whole.Results and discussion: as a result of this experiment, the contact was made between RTDS, Generator 1, Generator 2 and the basic balancing inverter through interface converters. This electricity system is resilient and failure-free.Conclusion: data communication was organized between the real time module of digital simulation and Generator 2. Control commands were delivered from the digital simulation module through interface converters, and their execution monitoring was used as a feedback. The operation of grid-forming and grid-filling converters of a self-contained electricity system was stand tested at the MIPT Centre for Engineering, and optimization algorithm performance results were obtained in respect of a battery used in the course of the application of virtual synchronous machines.

Oceans and Landless Farms: Linking Southern and Northern Shadow Places of Industrial Livestock (1954–1975)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Floor Haalboom
Keyword(s):  
Animal Feed ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Global South ◽  
Humboldt Current ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Boom And Bust ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global North

This article argues for more extensive attention by environmental historians to the role of agriculture and animals in twentieth-century industrialisation and globalisation. To contribute to this aim, this article focuses on the animal feed that enabled the rise of ‘factory farming’ and its ‘shadow places’, by analysing the history of fishmeal. The article links the story of feeding fish to pigs and chickens in one country in the global north (the Netherlands), to that of fishmeal producing countries in the global south (Peru, Chile and Angola in particular) from 1954 to 1975. Analysis of new source material about fishmeal consumption from this period shows that it saw a shift to fishmeal production in the global south rather than the global north, and a boom and bust in the global supply of fishmeal in general and its use in Dutch pigs and poultry farms in particular. Moreover, in different ways, the ocean, and production and consumption places of fishmeal functioned as shadow places of this commodity. The public health, ecological and social impacts of fishmeal – which were a consequence of its cheapness as a feed ingredient – were largely invisible on the other side of the world, until changes in the marine ecosystem of the Pacific Humboldt Current and the large fishmeal crisis of 1972–1973 suddenly changed this.

scholarly journals A Review of Energy Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa as a Transition Pathway to Energy Democracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2128
Author(s):  
Amollo Ambole ◽  
Kweku Koranteng ◽  
Peris Njoroge ◽  
Douglas Logedi Luhangala
Keyword(s):  
Stakeholder Engagement ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Energy Access ◽  
Energy Projects ◽  
Global North ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Energy Justice ◽  
Design Proposal ◽  
Ssa Countries

Energy communities have received considerable attention in the Global North, especially in Europe, due to their potential for achieving sustainable energy transitions. In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), energy communities have received less attention partly due to the nascent energy systems in many emerging SSA states. In this paper, we argue that these nascent energy systems offer an opportunity to co-create energy communities that can tackle the energy access challenges faced by most SSA countries. To understand how such energy communities are realised in the sub-region, we undertake a systematic review of research on energy communities in 46 SSA countries. Our findings show that only a few energy projects exhibit the conventional characteristics of energy communities; In most of these projects, local communities are inadequately resourced to institute and manage their own projects. We thus look to stakeholder engagement approaches to propose co-design as a strategy for strengthening energy communities in SSA. We further embed our co-design proposal in energy democracy thinking to argue that energy communities can be a pathway towards equity and energy justice in SSA. We conclude that energy communities can indeed contribute to improving energy access in Africa, but they need an enabling policy environment to foster their growth and sustainability.

Job Referrals in the Global South

Contexts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-41
Author(s):  
Lindsey Ibañez
Keyword(s):  
Job Search ◽  
Global South ◽  
Labor Market Institutions ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Employment Relation ◽  
Global North ◽  
Social Safety Nets ◽  
Sociological Studies ◽  
And Control ◽  
Lower Income Countries

Most sociological studies of job searching are from higher-income, industrialized countries, often referred to as the Global North. Much less is understood about job search behavior in the lower-income countries of the Global South, where there are fewer labor market institutions, weaker social safety nets, higher underemployment, more informality, and more precarity. In this environment of deprivation and insecurity, low-wage workers in the Global South turn to their personal networks for the resources that markets and states cannot provide. While job referrals allow workers to earn a living, however, they also extend employer surveillance and control beyond the bounds of the employment relation.

scholarly journals Dimensions of Urban Blight in Emerging Southern Cities: A Case Study of Accra-Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8399
Author(s):  
Sally Adofowaa Mireku ◽  
Zaid Abubakari ◽  
Javier Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Global South ◽  
Economic Decline ◽  
City Development ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Population Loss ◽  
Land Transfer ◽  
Urban Blight ◽  
Global North

Urban blight functions inversely to city development and often leads to cities’ deterioration in terms of physical beauty and functionality. While the underlying causes of urban blight in the context of the global north are mainly known in the literature to be population loss, economic decline, deindustrialisation and suburbanisation, there is a research gap regarding the root causes of urban blight in the global south, specifically in prime areas. Given the differences in the property rights regimes and economic growth trajectories between the global north and south, the underlying reasons for urban blight cannot be assumed to be the same. This study, thus, employed a qualitative method and case study approach to ascertain in-depth contextual reasons and effects for urban blight in a prime area, East Legon, Accra-Ghana. Beyond economic reasons, the study found that socio-cultural practices of landholding and land transfer in Ghana play an essential role in how blighted properties emerge. In the quest to preserve cultural heritage/identity, successors of old family houses (the ancestral roots) do their best to stay in them without selling or redeveloping them. The findings highlight the less obvious but relevant functions that blighted properties play in the city core at the micro level of individual families in fostering social cohesion and alleviating the need to pay higher rents. Thus, in the global south, we conclude that there is a need to pay attention to the less obvious roles that so-called blighted properties perform and to move beyond the default negative perception that blighted properties are entirely problematic.

scholarly journals Indicators, security and sovereignty during COVID-19 in the Global South

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-260
Author(s):  
John Harrington
Keyword(s):  
Global Governance ◽  
Third World ◽  
Global South ◽  
Governance Mechanisms ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
The Face ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Government

AbstractThe spread of COVID-19 has seen a contest over health governance and sovereignty in Global South states, with a focus on two radically distinct modes: (1) indicators and metrics and (2) securitisation. Indicators have been a vehicle for the government of states through the external imposition and internal self-application of standards and benchmarks. Securitisation refers to the calling-into-being of emergencies in the face of existential threats to the nation. This paper contextualises both historically with reference to the trajectory of Global South states in the decades after decolonisation, which saw the rise and decline of Third-World solidarity and its replacement by neoliberalism and global governance mechanisms in health, as in other sectors. The interaction between these modes and their relative prominence during COVID-19 is studied through a brief case-study of developments in Kenya during the early months of the pandemic. The paper closes with suggestions for further research and a reflection on parallel trends within Global North states.

scholarly journals Reframing refugee crisis: A “European crisis of migration” or a “crisis of protection”?

2021 ◽  
pp. 239965442198970
Author(s):  
Maissaa Almustafa
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Global South ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Developing Regions ◽  
International Protection ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
The Face ◽  
Global North ◽  
Displaced People ◽  
Resettlement Programs

The end of 2015 witnessed a global record in the number of forcibly displaced people fleeing because of wars and persecution. The unprecedented total of 65.3 million displaced individuals, out of which 21.3 million were refugees, was the highest number that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has recorded since its establishment in 1950. During the same year and in the face of this large-scale crisis, only 107,100 refugees were admitted for resettlement through official resettlement programs, whereas 3.2 million people applied for asylum globally. And in spite of the fact that the majority of the world refugees are hosted in ten developing regions, the dominant narrative in the global media was about the “unauthorized” arrival of more than one million asylum seekers in Europe by sea during 2015. This paper argues that the unexpected nature of refugees’ arrivals has proven that refugees were supposed to be contained in their camps in the Global South, deterred from reaching the territories of the Global North, represented here by Europe. Thus, the paper proposes that these arrivals are rather reflections of a crisis of protection that developed in the Global South where containment and deterrence strategies against refugees from the Global South exacerbate their inhumane displacement conditions in home regions. In the same context, the paper discusses how international protection structures have been reconstructed to serve the same goals of containment and deterrence, with the ultimate aim of putting people ‘back in place’ with minimal access to protection and rights.

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