Strategies of European Energy Producers. Directions of Evolution

The article presents an innovative method of analyzing energy companies’ strategies, which aims to identify the strategic orientation of the entities subject to the research and, thus, to initially define the directions of strategic changes in the analyzed sector. The aim of the research, the results of which were used in this publication, was to identify the features of energy sector companies’ strategies in the European Union in the period of sector transformation caused by the new climate policy. The analysis area is the energy sector, i.e., the sector whose fundamental strategic goal is energy production. The research used a critical analysis of the subject literature and desk research method with the use of the researchers’ own analytical equipment, developed for the needs of this analysis. It was assumed in the conducted research that the primary source of information in the empirical study, the information subject to subsequent analysis, was the analysis of official documents (strategies, financial reports, etc.) posted on the websites of the surveyed corporations. The research results indicate the dominance of the resource-based approach in implementing strategic postulates of the surveyed companies. Nevertheless, the operational activity focuses on the implementation of innovative solutions towards decarbonization and climate neutrality.

The Analysis of Public Funds Utilization Efficiency for Climate Neutrality in the European Union Countries

The aim of this article was to assess the efficiency of the utilization of public funds for climate neutrality. It was concluded that the data gathered in public statistics are not adapted to current challenges and hinder the direct measurement of climate policy objective implementation progress. Due to that, an innovative approach to public intervention efficiency analysis was proposed for the sake of decreasing CO2 emission in 27 European Union (EU) countries, based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and soft modeling. Statistical data are derived from the Eurostat database and pertain to the years 2005–2019. It was demonstrated that activity efficiency of the particular EU countries on climate neutrality varied and that together with the increase in public funds spent on environmental protection, the growth of effects in the field of reaching climate neutrality objectives was not observed. The greatest positive impact on achieving climate neutrality objectives was revealed for activities connected with building renewable sources of energy (RES) and there was no correlation detected for expenditures connected with transport infrastructure, which means that public funds used for their construction did not influence climate neutrality. It was established that, in the analyzed period, the decisions on allocating public funds were not taken on the basis of the expected amount of reduction in relation to the volume of outlays. In order to track the reasons for detected inefficiency, 52 projects were analyzed within the case study, which covered 3738 investments in the replacement of heating sources in one region of Poland. It was revealed that the efficiency of those investments varies; however, due to the full availability of data of the acquired results and outlays devoted to them, a synthetic index of efficiency measurement was established that presents the amount of CO2 reduction for EUR 1. When comparing the analyses carried out on macro and micro scales, it was observed that on the scale of the EU, there is a lack of uniform measurements or benchmarks of projects in the field of CO2 emissions reduction. Meanwhile, from the whole EU’s perspective, it should be reasonable to undertake projects with the highest economic efficiency, irrespective of political and geographical aspects. The results obtained should be utilized by decision-makers to elaborate reference methodologies and good practices in order to successfully implement climate objectives and especially the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). What should be established are universal, on the EU scale, measurements and rules for gathering and counting data as well as benchmarks for the particular project types.

Photoluminescence Imaging for the In-Line Quality Control of Thin-Film Solar Cells

Renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV) technologies are considered to be key drivers towards climate neutrality. Thin-film PVs, and particularly copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) technologies, will play a crucial role in the turnaround in energy policy due to their high efficiencies, high product flexibility, light weight, easy installation, lower labour-intensiveness, and lower carbon footprint when compared to silicon solar cells. Nonetheless, challenges regarding the CIGS fabrication process such as moderate reproducibility and process tolerance are still hindering a broad market penetration. Therefore, cost-efficient and easily implementable in-line process control methods are demanded that allow for identification and elimination of non-conformal cells at an early production step. As part of this work, a practical approach towards industrial in-line photoluminescence (PL) imaging as a contact-free quality inspection tool is presented. Performance parameters of 10 CIGS samples with 32 individually contacted cells each were correlated with results from PL imaging using green and red excitation light sources. The data analysis was fully automated using Python-based image processing, object detection, and non-linear regression modelling. Using the red excitation light source, the presented PL imaging and data processing approach allows for a quantitative assessment of the cell performance.

Public Perceptions on the Procedural Values and Proposed Outcomes of the Finnish Climate Change Act Amendment

This article examines the public perceptions on the drafting process of Finnish Climate Act amendment, which is a legislation on the climate policy that aims to mitigate climate change and secure adaptive capacity. In this paper we present results of a thematic analysis, which reveals citizens' perceptions of the procedural values, with respect to transparency, participation, and acceptance, and the objectives of the amendment, such as the climate neutrality target for 2035. The research data consisted of 2,458 answers to a citizen survey on the Finnish Climate Change Act amendment. Our results reveal that the opinions of citizens ranged from highlighting the urgency of political action to climate denials, with varying perceptions on process and proposed outcomes. While over half of citizens felt positively about the 2035 climate neutrality target created in the Climate Change Amendment Act, only a third believed that there was appropriate opportunity for public participation in the amendment process. Based on these findings, we suggest that participatory and transparent processes in legislative drafting are prerequisites for the sustainability transition and the implementation of international climate mitigation targets.

How can a Climate-Neutral Building Look Like?

The climate crisis is urging us to act fast. Buildings are a key leverage point to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but the embodied emissions related with their construction remain often the hidden challenge of any ambitious policy. Considering that a complete material substitution is not possible, we explore in this paper a material GHG compensation where fast-growing bio-based insulation materials are used to compensate building elements that necessarily release GHG. Looking for analogies with other human activities, different material diets as well as different building typologies are modelled to assess the consequences in term of bio-based insulation requirement to reach climate-neutrality. The material diets are defined according to the gradual use of herbaceous materials, from the insulation up to the structural level: omnivorous, vegetarian and vegan. Our results show the relationship in terms of volume between the climate intensive materials and the climate-negative ones needed to neutralize the overall building GHG emissions. Moreover, they suggest how climate-neutral building can look like and that it is possible to have climate-neutral buildings with wall thickness within the range of current construction practices.

Possibilities of Ammonia as Both Fuel and NOx Reductant in Marine Engines: A Numerical Study

Nowadays, the environmental impact of shipping constitutes an important challenge. In order to achieve climate neutrality as soon as possible, an important priority consists of progressing on the decarbonization of marine fuels. Free-carbon fuels, used as single fuel or in a dual-fuel mode, are gaining special interest for marine engines. A dual fuel ammonia-diesel operation is proposed in which ammonia is introduced with the intake air. According to this, the present work analyzes the possibilities of ammonia in marine diesel engines. Several ammonia-diesel proportions were analyzed, and it was found that when the proportion of ammonia is increased, important reductions of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and unburnt hydrocarbons are obtained, but at the expense of increments of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), which are only low when too small or too large proportions of ammonia are employed. In order to reduce NOx too, a second ammonia injection along the expansion stroke is proposed. This measure leads to important NOx reductions.

A Comprehensive PED-Database for Mapping and Comparing Positive Energy Districts Experiences at European Level

Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) are considered as one of the pioneer strategies to guide cities in their energy planning process towards climate neutrality in an attractive, innovative and human-centered way. The concept of PED is the result of a long co-creation process and integrates several multidimensional features, aiming to promote the sustainable development of urban areas and the transition of cities towards a climate neutral energy system. The paper provides an overview of the first outcomes of WG1 “PED Mapping, Characterization and Learning”, in the research COST Action CA19126 “Positive Energy Districts European Network” (PED-EU-NET). This study describes activities that focus on creating a comprehensive PED-Database by mapping existing concepts, strategies, projects, technological and non-technological solutions related to PEDs in Europe. The main objective of the Database is to support municipalities through the decision-making process by providing strategies for building and running a successful PED that can provide alternatives to consider, and is powered by an interactive web-based map. The design of the Database framework is supported by a step-by-step methodology adopted in the framework of the CA19126 in order to develop the PED-Database as an interactive, updatable and user-friendly tool.

The European Green Deal and the social market economy

The European Green Deal is an attempt to transform the European Union's economy in order to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. This is to counteract undesirable climate change and environmental degradation. In this context, an interesting question is whether the implementation of the European Green Deal is in line with the European Union's model of the Social Market Economy. In order to be able to answer this research question, this study is divided into five parts. The first is an introduction to the analysed issues. The second part presents the basic assumptions of the European Green Deal. The third presents the most important assumptions of the Social Market Economy in the context of climate policy. The fourth part analyses the coherence of the European Green Deal with the model of the Social Market Economy. The study ends with a summary containing the conclusions of the conducted research.