scholarly journals Economic and Carbon Costs of Electricity Balancing Services: The Need for Secure Flexible Low-Carbon Generation

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 5123
Author(s):  
Mauro Lafratta ◽  
Matthew Leach ◽  
Rex B. Thorpe ◽  
Mark Willcocks ◽  
Eve Germain ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Capital Investment ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Carbon Intensity ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Security Of Supply ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Low Carbon Technologies ◽  
Balancing Services

The electricity sector aims to achieve a balanced progress in all three dimensions of the energy trilemma: affordability, decarbonisation and security of supply. Separate strategies for decarbonisation and security of supply have been pursued; each with close attention to minimising costs, thus consistent with the affordability aspect of the trilemma. However, while it is evident that the pathway for decarbonisation increases pressure on security of supply, the pressures that cost-minimising security of supply measures are putting on decarbonisation goes unaddressed. The United Kingdom (UK) is a global leader in the transition towards a decarbonised economy and aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. As a major part of the UK, Great Britain (GB) has achieved greater than 50% of low-carbon electricity generation and the grid’s carbon intensity has dropped by 36% over the period 2015–2019. However, balancing services that provide security of supply uses only 8% of low-carbon generation. Their carbon intensity is double the grid’s average and this gap is widening. This is an effect of a systemic reliance on carbon-intensive fuels. Financial support for capital investment for flexible low-carbon technologies is much needed. The GB context suggests that an integrated strategy covering all three dimensions of the trilemma might achieve an improved balance between them and unlock an affordable, net-zero emissions and secure power system.

scholarly journals Energy transitions and uncertainty: Creating low carbon investment opportunities in the UK electricity sector

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 1387-1403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronan Bolton ◽  
Timothy J Foxon ◽  
Stephen Hall
Keyword(s):  
Electricity Markets ◽  
Electricity Market ◽  
Capital Intensity ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
The Face ◽  
Incumbent Regime ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Low Carbon Technologies

This paper examines how actors in the UK electricity sector are attempting to deliver investment in low carbon generation. Low carbon technologies, because of their relative immaturity, capital intensity and low operational costs, do not readily fit with existing electricity markets and investment templates which were designed for fossil fuel based energy. We analyse key electricity market and infrastructure policies in the UK and highlight how these are aimed at making low carbon technologies ‘investable’ by reducing uncertainty, managing investment risks and repositioning actors within the electricity socio-technical ‘regime’. We argue that our study can inform contemporary debates on the politics and governance of sustainability transitions by empirically investigating the agency of incumbent regime actors in the face of uncertainty and by offering critical insights on the role of markets and finance in shaping socio-technical change.

scholarly journals Thermal system-specific and net-zero carbon least-cost design of new houses in Canadian cold climates

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon Wilbur
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Heat Pump ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Heating System ◽  
Carbon Intensity ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Zero Carbon

Whole-building model optimizations have been performed for a single-detached house in 5 locations with varying climates, electricity emissions factors, and energy costs. The multi-objective optimizations determine the life-cycle cost vs. operational greenhouse gas emissions Pareto front to discover the 30-year life-cycle least-cost building design heated 1) with natural gas, and 2) electrically using a) central air-source heat pump, b) ductless mini-split heat pump c)ground-source heat pump, and d) electric baseboard, accounting for both initial and operational energy-related costs. A net-zero carbon design with grid-tied photovoltaics is also optimized. Results indicate that heating system type influences the optimal enclosure design, and that neither building total energy use, nor space heating demand correspond to GHG emissions across heating system types. In each location, at least one type of all-electric design has a lower life-cycle cost than the optimized gas-heated model, and such designs can mitigate the majority of operational GHG emissions from new housing in locations with a low carbon intensity electricity supply.

scholarly journals Sociotechnical imaginaries of low-carbon waste-energy futures: UK techno-market fixes displacing public accountability

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 609-641
Author(s):  
Les Levidow ◽  
Sujatha Raman
Keyword(s):  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Public Accountability ◽  
Energy Futures ◽  
Sociotechnical Imaginaries ◽  
Waste Energy ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Low Carbon Technologies

To implement EU climate policy, the UK’s New Labour government (1997–2010) elaborated an ecomodernist policy framework. It promoted technological innovation to provide low-carbon renewable energy, especially by treating waste as a resource. This framework discursively accommodated rival sociotechnical imaginaries, understood as visions of feasible and desirable futures available through technoscientific development. According to the dominant imaginary, techno-market fixes stimulate low-carbon technologies by making current centralized systems more resource-efficient (as promoted by industry incumbents). According to the alternative eco-localization imaginary, a shift to low-carbon systems should instead localize resource flows, output uses and institutional responsibility (as promoted by civil society groups). The UK government policy framework gained political authority by accommodating both imaginaries. As we show by drawing on three case studies, the realization of both imaginaries depended on institutional changes and material-economic resources of distinctive kinds. In practice, financial incentives drove technological design towards trajectories that favour the dominant sociotechnical imaginary, while marginalizing the eco-localization imaginary and its environmental benefits. The ecomodernist policy framework relegates responsibility to anonymous markets, thus displacing public accountability of the state and industry. These dynamics indicate the need for STS research on how alternative sociotechnical imaginaries mobilize support for their realization, rather than be absorbed into the dominant imaginary.

scholarly journals How Does the Law and Policy Encourage Towards a Low Carbon Energy Transition in the Scotland?

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 26-31
Author(s):  
Md. Raisul Islam Sourav
Keyword(s):  
Energy Transition ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Electricity Sector ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Government ◽  
Laws And Policies ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Low Carbon Energy

This article contains a doctrinal analysis of the law and policy encouragement towards a low carbon energy transition in the Scotland. To do this, the present article is primarily focused on electricity sector of the Scotland and its commitment towards a low carbon transition in this sector in coming years. This article analyzes the existing significant laws and policies in Scotland that encourage towards a low carbon transition. However, it also evaluates international obligation upon the Scotland and the UK, as well, towards this transition. Subsequently, it assesses the UK’s legal framework in this regard. However, Scotland is firmly committed to achieve its targets towards a low carbon transition in the power sector although it needs more incentive and tight observation of the government to smoothen the process.

scholarly journals Opportunities to decarbonize heat in the UK using Urban Wastewater Heat Recovery

2021 ◽  
pp. 014362442110347
Author(s):  
Shazia Farman Ali ◽  
Aaron Gillich
Keyword(s):  
Heat Recovery ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Treated Wastewater ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Heat Potential ◽  
The Uk

By 2050, the UK government plans to create ‘Net zero society’. 1 To meet this ambitious target, the deployment of low carbon technologies is an urgent priority. The low carbon heat recovery technologies such as heat recovery from sewage via heat pump can play an important role. It is based on recovering heat from the sewage that is added by the consumer, used and flushed in the sewer. This technology is currently successfully operating in many cities around the world. In the UK, there is also a rising interest to explore this technology after successful sewage heat recovery demonstration project at Borders College, Galashiels, Scotland. 2 However, further experimental research is needed to build the evidence base, replicate, and de-risk the concept elsewhere in the UK. The Home Energy 4 Tomorrow (HE4T) project at London South Bank University was created to address this evidence gap. This is the fourth article in the series of outputs on sewage heat recovery and presents some results using sewage data from the UK’s capital London. These data are scarce and provide useful information on the variation of flows and temperatures encountered in the sewers of the UK’s capital. Lastly, we discuss the recoverable heat potential along with policy implications for the UK heat strategy. Practical application This work focuses and accentuate that in order to meet climate change targets, substantial improvements can come by heat recovery from the raw (influent) and treated wastewater (effluent from wastewater treatment plant) that is still unexploited in the UK. The estimation presented indicates that there is much theoretical potential in the UK with significant opportunity for future energy and revenue retrieval along with GHGs emission reduction in the longer term to fulfil the ‘net zero’ objective. This work aims to raise awareness and seek support to promote pilot scale studies to help demonstrate technical and economic feasibility in the building industry.

scholarly journals CO2 Emissions and The Transport Sector in Malaysia

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Solaymani
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Transport Sector ◽  
Carbon Intensity ◽  
Kuznets Curve ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Distributed Lag ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Transport Worker ◽  
Low Carbon Technologies

Transport is an essential infrastructure for development. With its high share of gross domestic product (GDP), it makes a significant contribution to total CO2 emissions in Malaysia. It is therefore important to pay greater attention to reducing CO2 emissions and sustainable development in this sector. Therefore, this study aims at estimating the relationship between transport CO2 emissions and its key drivers using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique. The time period covered by the study extends from 1978 to 2018. It further investigates the response of CO2 emissions to shocks in the value of other variables by employing the generalized impulse response approach. The results suggest that urbanization is the major contributor to the increase in CO2 emissions followed by the carbon intensity of energy in the long-run. Carbon intensity of energy, GDP per transport worker and urbanization contribute significantly to increases in transport CO2 emissions in the short- and long-run. Testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis recommends that Malaysia continue to be on track to reach the highest level of income and welfare to give pay more attention to the environment. Therefore, the country maintains its CO2 emissions level in the future because of economic development. Therefore, these findings show that energy and environmental policymakers need to pay more attention to improving energy efficiency and the use of low-carbon technologies and electrification in the transport sector and the use of high-quality public transport, particularly in urban areas, for sustainable urban development.

Assessing the Carbon Intensity of Low-Enthalpy Deep Geothermal Heat

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair McCay ◽  
Jen Roberts ◽  
Michael Feliks
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Conventional Heating ◽  
Carbon Intensity ◽  
Emissions Reduction ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Geothermal Heat ◽  
Electricity Grid ◽  
Geothermal Heating ◽  
Heat System ◽  
The Uk

<p>Decarbonising heating presents a significant societal challenge. Deep geothermal energy is widely recognised as a source of low carbon heat. However, to date there has been no assessment of the carbon intensity of heat from low-enthalpy deep geothermal as previous studies have focussed on geothermal power or higher enthalpy heat. Further, there is currently no established method for assessing the CO<sub>2</sub> emissions reduction from implementing a deep geothermal heating scheme.</p><p>To address these gaps, we performed a life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions relating to a typical deep geothermal heat system to (i) calculate the carbon intensity of geothermal heat (ii) identify the factors that most affect these values (iii) consider the carbon abated if geothermal heat substitutes conventional heating sources and (iv) set a benchmark methodology that future projects can adapt and apply to assess and enhance the carbon emissions reduction offered by geothermal heat development in the UK and internationally.</p><p>In the absence of an established deep geothermal heat system in the UK, to inform our work we adopted parameters from a feasibility study for a potential geothermal heat system in Banchory, Scotland. The Banchory project aimed to deliver heat to a network sourced from 2-3 km deep in a radiothermal granite where temperatures were predicted to be 70-90 °C. We assumed a 30 year project lifetime and that the heat system operation was powered by the UK electricity grid which was decarbonising over this period.</p><p>Our analysis found that the carbon intensity of deep geothermal heat is 9.7 - 14.0 kg(CO<sub>2</sub>e)/MWh<sub>th</sub>. This is ~5% of the value for natural gas heating. The carbon intensity is sensitive to several factors, and so the carbon intensity of deep geothermal heat could be reduced further by: replacing diesel fuelled drilling apparatus with natural gas or electricity powered hardware; decarbonise the power grid more rapidly than forecast; or substitute mains power with local renewable electricity to power pumps – or decarbonising the electricity grid faster or deeper; source lower carbon steel and cement; design projects to minimise land use change emissions.</p><p>Overall, our study provides quantitative evidence that deep geothermal systems can produce long term very low carbon heat that is compatible with net-zero, even for low enthalpy geothermal resources.</p>

scholarly journals Knowledge Integration in the Politics and Policy of Rapid Transitions to Net Zero Carbon: A Typology and Mapping Method for Climate Actors in the UK

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 662
Author(s):  
Steven R. Smith ◽  
Ian Christie
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Integration ◽  
Mapping Method ◽  
Growth Strategy ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Geographical Scale ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation Policy ◽  
Rapid Transition ◽  
The Uk

The types of political and policy knowledge required to guide rapid transition to low-carbon economies remain largely disconnected in the fields of political science, psychology, and sociology. The composition and key features of the main actors involved, and their relationships have also not been systematically described. This paper attempts to address these knowledge gaps by proposing a new, integrative typology of actors involved in climate change mitigation policy in the United Kingdom (UK) and a method for mapping these actors and selecting their typological descriptors onto a 2D space. The mapping method enables stakeholders to visualise and evaluate the strength of support for the UK government’s net-zero-by-2050 “green growth” strategy and the tensions, challenges, and strategic opportunities potentially facing more radical alternatives. The methodology could be replicated for climate actors in other countries and, in principle, for any geographical scale or level of governance.

scholarly journals Generic Feasibility Assessment: Helping to Choose the Nuclear Piece of the Net Zero Jigsaw

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1229
Author(s):  
William Bodel ◽  
Kevin Hesketh ◽  
Grace McGlynn ◽  
Juan Matthews ◽  
Gregg Butler
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Climate Change Policy ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Feasibility Assessment ◽  
Change Policy ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
The Uk

The United Kingdom has declared a climate change policy of 100% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. Efforts thus far have been limited solely to electricity generation methods. While progress has been admirable, effort now must be directed at the nation’s non-electrical energy use. Nuclear energy is an essential part of any energy future, since it is low-carbon, firm and supplies synchronous electricity; however the nation’s nuclear strategy to date has been erratic, costly and lacking in strategic oversight. A multitude of reactor designs are on offer for potential uptake, and decision-makers must have clarity of vision on what these systems must deliver before forming a strategy. Choosing between these systems, given the uncharted energy future faced by the UK is a daunting prospect. Generic feasibility assessment offers a tool for decision-makers to assist them in selecting the most suitable nuclear system for chosen future conditions. Generic feasibility assessment offers an alternative to traditional multi-attribute decision analyses, which can be confusing to even committed stakeholders when large numbers of attributes are weighted and compiled. Generic feasibility assessment forms part of a toolkit which will be of utility in achieving net zero by 2050, given the short time that remains.

scholarly journals District Heating and Cooling Systems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iván De la Cruz ◽  
Carlos E. Ugalde-Loo
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
District Heating ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Optimal Operation ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Automatic Control Systems ◽  
Heating And Cooling ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Cold Store ◽  
Low Carbon Technologies

Decarbonisation of the energy sector is a crucial ambition towards meeting net-zero targets and achieving climate change mitigation. Heating and cooling accounts for over a third of UK greenhouse emissions and, thus, decarbonisation of this sector has attracted significant attention from a range of stakeholders, including energy system operators, manufacturers, research institutions and policy makers. Particularly, the role of district heating and cooling (DHC) systems will be critical, as these two energy vectors are central to our lives not only for comfort and daily activities, but also to facilitate productive workplaces and to run a variety of industrial processes. The optimal operation of DHC systems and the design of efficient strategies to produce heat and cold, store thermal energy, and meet heating and cooling demands, together with an increased integration of low carbon technologies and local renewable energy sources, are vital to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions alike. This chapter reviews relevant aspects of DHC systems, their main elements, automatic control systems and optimal management.

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