scholarly journals Applying Endogenous Learning Models in Energy System Optimization

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 4819
Author(s):  
Jabir Ali Ouassou ◽  
Julian Straus ◽  
Marte Fodstad ◽  
Gunhild Reigstad ◽  
Ove Wolfgang

Conventional energy production based on fossil fuels causes emissions that contribute to global warming. Accurate energy system models are required for a cost-optimal transition to a zero-emission energy system, which is an endeavor that requires a methodical modeling of cost reductions due to technological learning effects. In this review, we summarize common methodologies for modeling technological learning and associated cost reductions via learning curves. This is followed by a literature survey to uncover learning rates for relevant low-carbon technologies required to model future energy systems. The focus is on (i) learning effects in hydrogen production technologies and (ii) the application of endogenous learning in energy system models. Finally, we discuss methodological shortcomings of typical learning curves and possible remedies. One of our main results is an up-to-date overview of learning rates that can be applied in energy system models.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Lee ◽  
Daniel P. Schrag ◽  
Matthew Bunn ◽  
Michael Davidson ◽  
Wei Peng ◽  
...  

Climate change is a key problem of the 21st century. China, as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has committed to stabilize its current emissions and dramatically increase the share of electricity production from non-fossil fuels by 2030. However, this is only a first step: in the longer term, China needs to aggressively strive to reach a goal of zero-emissions. Through detailed discussions of electricity pricing, electric vehicle policies, nuclear energy policies, and renewable energy policies, this book reviews how near-term climate and energy policies can affect long-term decarbonization pathways beyond 2030, building the foundations for decarbonization in advance of its realization. Focusing primarily on the electricity sector in China - the main battleground for decarbonization over the next century – it provides a valuable resource for researchers and policymakers, as well as energy and climate experts.


Author(s):  
Doudou Nanitamo Luta ◽  
Atanda K. Raji

Hydrogen is likely to play a significant role in the concept of low-carbon power generation in support to renewable energy systems. It is abundant, eco-friendly, highly efficient and have the potential to be more cost-effective than fossil fuels provided that the engineering challenges associated with its safe infrastructure development, economical extraction and storage are solved. Presently, about 50 million metric tons of hydrogen is generated on a yearly basis, most of that is used for oil refining and ammoniac production. Other applications include electric vehicles, power to gas and power generation, etc. This study focuses on the use of hydrogen for power generation. The main goal is to investigate technical and economic performances of a renewable hydrogen-based energy system as an alternative to diesel generators for powering a remote telecoms base station. The proposed energy system consists of a photovoltaic generator, an electrolyser, a fuel cell, a hydrogen tank, a battery storage system and a power-conditioning unit. The system is simulated using Homer Pro software.


Molecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julián Puszkiel ◽  
Aurelien Gasnier ◽  
Guillermina Amica ◽  
Fabiana Gennari

Hydrogen technology has become essential to fulfill our mobile and stationary energy needs in a global low–carbon energy system. The non-renewability of fossil fuels and the increasing environmental problems caused by our fossil fuel–running economy have led to our efforts towards the application of hydrogen as an energy vector. However, the development of volumetric and gravimetric efficient hydrogen storage media is still to be addressed. LiBH4 is one of the most interesting media to store hydrogen as a compound due to its large gravimetric (18.5 wt.%) and volumetric (121 kgH2/m3) hydrogen densities. In this review, we focus on some of the main explored approaches to tune the thermodynamics and kinetics of LiBH4: (I) LiBH4 + MgH2 destabilized system, (II) metal and metal hydride added LiBH4, (III) destabilization of LiBH4 by rare-earth metal hydrides, and (IV) the nanoconfinement of LiBH4 and destabilized LiBH4 hydride systems. Thorough discussions about the reaction pathways, destabilizing and catalytic effects of metals and metal hydrides, novel synthesis processes of rare earth destabilizing agents, and all the essential aspects of nanoconfinement are led.


2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Andrés Gallego

The deployment of renewable energy technologies will play a crucial role in the global transition to a low-carbon economy and ultimately in the fight against global warming. However, this transition could face important problems because most of those technologies rely on the steady supply of critical minerals. Colombia, thanks to its hydrological resources, has relied on the hydro­power for electricity generation. However, the government has implemented measures to back-up the energy system in draught periods and, consequently, fossil fuels-based plants have increased the market share and with these, CO2 emissions. This study assesses the mineral demand in Colombia in the period 2020-2050 for the rare earth elements embedded in the deployment of wind power technologies in four different climate policy scenarios in order to establish whether they could face geological bott­lenecks that could ultimately hamper the transition to a low-carbon economy. The Gigawatts (GW) of future capacity additions in the energy system are converted into tons of metal using published metal intensities of use and assumptions of Colombia’s technological pathway. Then, the cumulated mineral demand is compared against current mining production rates and geological reserves to establish geological bottlenecks. The results show that the reserves will not pose any threat to its transition. However, when compared to current mining rates, the mineral demand in 2050 could pose a problem for the supply of minerals. Finally, this study gives some policy recommendations that could be used to mitigate these issues, such as substitution, improved circular economy and sound technological choices.


2019 ◽  
Vol 102 (4) ◽  
pp. 304-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J Rhodes

Amid present concerns over a potential scarcity of critical elements and raw materials that are essential for modern technology, including those for low-carbon energy production, a survey of the present situation, and how it may unfold both in the immediate and the longer term, appears warranted. For elements such as indium, current recycling rates are woefully low, and although a far more effective recycling programme is necessary for most materials, it is likely that a full-scale inauguration of a global renewable energy system will require substitution of many scarcer elements by more Earth-abundant material alternatives. Currently, however, it is fossil fuels that are needed to process them, and many putative Earth-abundant material technologies are insufficiently close to the level of commercial viability required to begin to supplant their fossil fuel equivalents “necessarily rapidly and at scale”. As part of a significant expansion of renewable energy production, it will be necessary to recycle elements from wind turbines and solar panels (especially thin-film cells). The interconnected nature of particular materials, for example, cadmium, gallium, germanium, indium and tellurium, all mainly being recovered from the production of zinc, aluminium and copper, and helium from natural gas, means that the availability of such ‘hitchhiker’ elements is a function of the reserve size and production rate of the primary (or ‘attractor’) material. Even for those elements that are relatively abundant on Earth, limitations in their production rates/supply may well be experienced on a timescale of decades, and so a more efficient (reduced) use of them, coupled with effective collection and recycling strategies, should be embarked upon urgently.


Author(s):  
Kathleen Araújo

This chapter outlines the design of the current study. It discusses my underlying logic for scoping energy system change with theory-building in the form of (1) a framework on intervention that operationalizes insights from the previous chapter and (2) conceptual models of structural readiness. A brief review then follows of related, global developments to provide broader context for the cases. The chapter concludes with a preview of the transitions that will be discussed in depth in subsequent chapters. This book draws on my research of four national energy system transitions covering the period since 1970. I selected a timeframe that reflected a common context of international events which preceded as well as followed the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979. Such framing allowed me to trace policy and technology learning over multiple decades for different cases. I completed field work for this project primarily between 2010 and 2012, with updates continuing through to the time this book went to press. I selected cases from more than 100 countries in the International Energy Agency (IEA) databases. The ones that I chose represented countries which demonstrated an increase of 100% or more in domestic production of a specific, low carbon energy and the displacement of at least 15 percentage points in the energy mix by this same, low carbon energy relative to traditional fuels for the country and sector of relevance. I utilized adoption and displacement metrics to consider both absolute and relative changes. Final cases reflect a diversity of energy types and, to some extent, differences in the socio-economic and geographic attributes of the countries. The technologies represent some of the more economically-competitive substitutes for fossil fuels. It’s important to emphasize that the number of cases was neither exhaustive nor fully representative. Instead, the cases reflect an illustrative group of newer, low carbon energy technologies for in depth evaluation. Each of the cases shares certain, basic similarities. These include a national energy system comprised of actors, inputs, and outputs with systemic architecture connecting the constituent parts in a complex network of energy-centered flows over time—including extraction, production, sale, delivery, regulation, and consumption.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecka Engström ◽  
Georgia Destouni ◽  
Mark Howells ◽  
Vivek Ramaswamy ◽  
Holger Rogner ◽  
...  

This paper analyses how local energy and climate actions can affect the use of water and land resources locally, nationally and globally. Each of these resource systems is linked to different Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); we also explore related SDG interactions. A municipality in Sweden with the ambition of phasing out fossil fuels by year 2030 is used as illustrative case example. The local energy system is modelled in detail and indirect water and land requirements are quantified for three stylised decarbonisation scenarios of pathways to meeting climate and energy requirements (related to SDG13 and SDG7, respectively). Total local, national and global implications are addressed for the use of water and land resources, which relate to SDG6 for water, and SDG2 and SDG15 for land use. We find that the magnitude and location of water and land impacts are largely pathway-dependent. Some scenarios of low carbon energy may impede progress on SDG15, while others may compromise SDG6. Data for the studied resource uses are incoherently reported and have important gaps. As a consequence, the study results are indicative and subject to uncertainty. Still, they highlight the need to recognise that resource use changes targeting one SDG in one locality have local and non-local impacts that may compromise progress other SDGs locally and/or elsewhere in the world.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pritesh N. Parmar ◽  
James L. Patton

During motor learning, people often practice reaching in variety of movement directions in a randomized sequence. Such training has been shown to enhance retention and transfer capability of the acquired skill compared to the blocked repetition of the same movement direction. The learning system must accommodate such randomized order either by having a memory for each movement direction, or by being able to generalize what was learned in one movement direction to the controls of nearby directions. While our preliminary study used a comprehensive dataset from visuomotor learning experiments and evaluated the first-order model candidates that considered the memory of error and generalization across movement directions, here we expanded our list of candidate models that considered the higher-order effects and error-dependent learning rates. We also employed cross-validation to select the leading models. We found that the first-order model with a constant learning rate was the best at predicting learning curves. This model revealed an interaction between the learning and forgetting processes using the direction-specific memory of error. As expected, learning effects were observed at the practiced movement direction on a given trial. Forgetting effects (error increasing) were observed at the unpracticed movement directions with learning effects from generalization from the practiced movement direction. Our study provides insights that guide optimal training using the machine-learning algorithms in areas such as sports coaching, neurorehabilitation, and human-machine interactions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 218 ◽  
pp. 02029
Author(s):  
Rong Chen ◽  
Zejun Jia ◽  
Yongli Wang ◽  
Feifei Huang ◽  
Yuze Ma ◽  
...  

In response to the global energy crisis, the integrated energy system has become an important part of the energy revolution. Aiming at the economic operation of the Integrated Energy System (IES), this paper proposes a system optimization planning model that takes the economic and environmental optimization as the goal and establishes a coupled capacity planning system, and jointly optimizes the capacity configuration and configuration of a single energy supply module. Power output to pursue maximum benefit. In order to illustrate the advantages of this method, on the basis of simulation, a dynamic programming method is used to solve the model. Finally, the simulation results show the effectiveness of the planning optimization model proposed in this paper, and provide a new path for solving the optimization problem of integrated energy system planning.


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