ABSTRACTWith the growing need for cleaner energy sources, research into the energy harvesting industry has increased over the last years. Roadways and transport infrastructure are promising contexts for energy harvesting due to their global coverage, being continuously exposed to everyday traffic-induced pressures. This study presents a model for Technical and Economic Analysis, as well as a Cost-Benefit Analysis model for Road Pavement Energy Harvesting systems. These models are then applied in a grid injection scenario, testing their applicability on a system developed by a startup company. Results show that the tested technology is economically viable for scenarios under subsidized regimes, but not yet for grid injection applications, suggesting the need for financial incentives in the field. However, it is argued that these systems hold major social and environmental value, enabling different types of business models that might increase stakeholders’ motivation to invest.

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates how institutional quality conditions energy consumption to influence private capital inflows in Africa using data from 1990 to 2019. The paper employed a modified dynamic system GMM. Our results show that energy consumption has a direct influence on private capital inflows, particularly FDI to Africa. Institutional qualities do not directly influence the effect of energy consumption on FDI but do influence the effect on portfolio investment. However, independently, institutional quality positively motivates FDI inflows into Africa. On the contrary, the reverse analysis showed that private capital inflows do not influence energy consumption in Africa.

ABSTRACT One of the most important issues related to natural gas is unaccounted for gas. Residential customers constitute a significant percentage of unaccounted for gas. To estimate the amount of unaccounted for gas, it is necessary to compare the amount of consumption estimated by the model with the one recorded by the meter. Thus, the value estimated by the consumption model are of great importance. Initially, a consumption model is developed for each customer using consumption data for the first 12 months and the average monthly ambient outdoor temperature related to the same time period. The models are developed using artificial neural networks and particle swarm optimization algorithm. The estimates made by the models are then compared with the values recorded by the meters. This method is then implemented on some real data (as the study area). The results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

ABSTRACTThe past decade has seen an increase in renewable energy sources in the energy mix due to global environmental and supply security concerns. This paper aimed to investigate renewable energy effects on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP). The investigation is from 1988 to 2018, using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), Nonlinear ARDL (NARDL), and fully modified OLS (FMOL) techniques. Based on empirical analyses of ARDL and FMOLS, it was found that both renewable and nonrenewable energies have a positive impact on economic growth in the Southern African power pool. However, the NARDL estimation indicates that neither renewable nor nonrenewable energy has a significant effect on economic growth in Southern African power pool. Therefore, based on the findings from both ARDL and FMOLS, the growth hypothesis is supported regarding the connection between renewable energy and economic growth in the Southern Africa power pool. Centered on the results, some policy implications were drawn for SAPP for sustainable economic growth, which includes measures to increase renewable energy in the energy mix, and also to encourage the optimization of cross-border connections where energy production from countries within SAPP that are not restricted by natural resources can be relied on to export sustainable energy. Additionally, building a more sustainable integrated power system in the region will assist SAPP with sustainable energy access and reduce the dependence on nonrenewable energy within the interconnected countries soon.

ABSTRACTOver the past years, the economies of the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) countries, which hold a large of the world in oil and gas exports, have suffered from dramatic declines in oil prices. This has put pressure on their policymakers to seek relief from their heavy dependence on natural resources and diversify their exports. At the same time, the GCC countries have high electricity consumption due to their severe climatic conditions. This has prompted their policymakers to consider the inevitable shift to environmentally friendly resources for electricity generation. Foreign direct investment, facilitated by the financial systems of these countries, may play an important role in achieving the above objectives. Therefore, the objectives of our paper are to investigate the relationship between foreign direct investment, electricity consumption, and financial development in GCC countries using a novel GMM-Panel VAR approach. Data are observed from 1990 to 2019. We find bidirectional causality between foreign direct investment and financial development and two unidirectional paths: one from electricity consumption to foreign direct investment and from financial development to electricity consumption. In addition, we observe negative and significant responses of financial development to shocks in electricity consumption. Our results can have a double interpretation. First, they provide an overview of the interactions between the variables studied, whose evolution may be prognosticated with the analysis of shocks resulting from the methodology adopted in our paper. This is serviceable given the recurrent turbulence in the international financial markets and the incessant perturbations in the prices of energy commodities, visually examined especially in recent years. Second, our empirical findings are useful for policymakers willing to have earlier diagnoses for policies strengthening renewable energy use in these countries. Our results can be seen on the side of this objective. The quite developed financial system in these countries may play, indeed, an important role in encouraging the FDI installation in the field of renewable energy.

ABSTRACTThe dual-credit policy for auto manufacturers and the subsidy policy for charging infrastructure operators have become important policies to guide and promote the development of the automotive industry. However, few studies consider the impact of mixed policies on the market strategies of auto manufacturers and charging infrastructure operators considering consumer green preferences. To fill the gap, this article establishes optimization models to analyze and compare the effects of mixed policies on the decision-making of auto manufacturers and charging infrastructure operators under the cooperative and noncooperative modes considering consumer preference. The results reveal four main insights: (1) Two types of policies all have direct positive effects on the market diffusion of electric vehicles. Under the noncooperative mode, the dual-credit policy has no spillover effect. Under cooperative mode, two types of policies all have spillover effects. The dual-credit policy and charging infrastructure subsidy policy have positive superposition effects on the optimal number of charging piles, and the optimal demands for electric vehicles. (2) When the credit price is less than a certain threshold, there is a substitutive effect between the charging infrastructure subsidy policy and the dual-credit policy on promoting the market diffusion of electric vehicles. (3) There is a substitutive effect between high-level consumers’ green preference and policies on promoting the market diffusion of electric vehicles. (4) Under the cooperative mode, the direct and spillover effects of policies are more than that are under the noncooperative mode. These insights demonstrate the effectiveness and limitations of policies and the importance of providing complementary policies for consumers. The government should encourage market cooperation between auto manufacturers and charging infrastructure operators, maintain a stable price level for credits, and introduce incentive policies for green consumption.

ABSTRACTThe main objectives of this paper are to present the developed model and to explore and discuss the decarbonization possibilities of the Lithuanian chemical industry. The sector has high energy consumption and struggles to achieve emission reductions. The developed model is based on a bottom-up modeling approach representing the industry’s current and emerging technology mix. We conclude that the deep decarbonization of Lithuania’s chemical industry is technically feasible under certain conditions. The deployment of carbon capture technology is necessary to decrease carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by at least 40% in 2030. To achieve deep decarbonization of the sector, green hydrogen as feedstock for ammonia production should be utilized before 2050. Decarbonization scenarios cause an increase of undiscounted costs by more than 618–3132 million Euros depending on CO2 reduction targets when cumulated over the 2018–2050 period. The ammonia production facility should cover a substantial share of these costs until 2030, which could negatively affect its competitiveness.

ABSTRACTAt present, the development of some oil and gas fields has gradually shifted from vertical to highly deviated wells. To improve the intensity of reservoir reconstruction, highly deviated wells mostly adopt staged fracturing for reservoir reconstruction. The fracture interference law of multiple fractures in highly deviated wells is not clear, and the fracture steering and stress interference problems in the fracturing process are obviously different from those in horizontal wells, resulting in a lack of a theoretical basis for fracture spacing design. Therefore, it is necessary to study the stresses induced by multiple fractures in highly deviated wells. To reproduce the spatial distribution of multiple fractures in highly deviated wells and analyze the changes in induced stress more accurately, a three-dimensional numerical model of the fracture-induced stress field in highly deviated wells was established based on the finite element method and elasticity theory, which can simulate a fracture-induced stress field under different angles of inclination. The results indicate that the key to mutual exclusion or proximity of the two fractures is whether the fractures overlap in the plane parallel to the fracture height direction. Based on the analysis of the control variables, the first fracturing fracture height is the key factor affecting the induced stress, and the fracturing fracture height has slight effect on the induced stress. As the angle of inclination increases, the probability of the two fractures overlapping in space increases and the critical distance from the induced tensile stress to the induced tensile stress decreases. The influence of the fracture half-length, net pressure, and stress difference on the induced stress is related to whether the spatial projection of the two fractures overlaps. The research results provide a theoretical basis for the optimal design of staged fracturing in highly deviated wells.

ABSTRACTThe current EU regulatory framework is forcing the need for a substantial and significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in all the main economic sectors since climate change effects have been more tangible in recent years. The adoption of actions and measures to reduce CO2 emissions are thus essential for preventing global warming. For this reason, a simplified bottom-up approach is presented here to estimate the potential environmental benefit achievable, in terms of CO2 emissions saving, when a set of proposed energy efficiency measures were adopted in relevant economic sectors of the UNESCO area of Vineyard Landscape in Piedmont Region in Italy. Specifically, representative case studies were assumed for each economic sector being studied to identify the energy efficiency measures to be adopted. Then, progressive scenarios with different territorial diffusion of the proposed measures were performed. The analysis shows that a CO2 emission reduction from 7.1% to 32.4% can be potentially obtained by considering different diffusion pathways of the identified energy efficiency measures in the residential, accommodation, private transport, and food industry sectors, so that the UNESCO area can effectively contribute to contrast global warming. The proposed simplified approach can be replicated in other similar context to obtain rough estimation of emission savings due to territorial diffusion of energy efficiency measures considering available regional and local databases.

ABSTRACTEnergy consumption plays a crucial role in achieving the three pillars of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Moreover, the increasing impact of energy use in the development of North Africa motivates the authors to examine its direct impact on environmental degradation. Thus, the key objective of this investigation is to analyze the imperative impact of energy consumption on environmental degradation within the framework of urbanization and economic globalization. A fundamental hypothesis of the study includes that energy consumption and urbanization positively affect environmental degradation. The investigation employed the Cross-Sectional – Autoregressive Distributed Lag model and found that energy consumption significantly increases environmental degradation. However, economic globalization decreases environmental degradation. Moreover, urbanization showed inconsequential findings, but the study found that African countries hold the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. The Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality model verifies the causality effect between energy consumption, economic globalization, urbanization, economic growth, and ecological footprints.

ABSTRACTThe real estate industry is associated with coal production and CO2 emissions. The nonlinear ARDL (AutoRegressive Distributed Lag) co-integration method was used to analyze the effects of long-term and short-term real estate development and CO2 emissions on coal production. The results showed that: (1) The positive and negative impacts of CO2 emissions on coal production were similar in the long. Moreover, CO2 emissions negatively affected coal production; (2) In the long run, the positive impact of real estate development on coal production is greater than the negative impact, though it is not significant. In the short term, the negative shock of real estate effectively reduced coal production; (3) The impact of coal production on CO2 emissions is symmetric in both the long and short term. Therefore, in the future, real estate should develop moderately. In addition, lessening coal production demand is crucial to ensure coal production reduction and carbon neutrality.

ABSTRACTFor Qatar – a country that aims to diversify its economy, which is highly dependent on hydrocarbon revenues, and to reduce its carbon emission levels – deploying an ammonia economy would enable the country to meet these goals. This study suggests a roadmap to an ammonia economy for Qatar. A methodological approach is used to identify critical characteristics to the ammonia economy in Qatar and to insinuate strategies that can promote its development. The results show that producing gray ammonia is estimated to increase greenhouse gas emissions from 6.15 to 7.5 million tons from 2020 to 2030. However, when blue ammonia is produced instead of gray ammonia, emissions are estimated to reduce to 4.22 million tons in 2030. Moreover, The SWOT analysis is used to provide insight into the current state of the NH3 economy in Qatar and help stakeholders and decision-makers understand the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

ABSTRACTCarbon dioxide (CO2) emission mitigation has recently been a critical policy-making concern in the financial area. To address this concern, we examine whether and to what extent financial development reduces CO2 emissions in China from a spatial dependence and heterogeneity perspective. The empirical results of applying a random effects eigenvector spatial filtering (RE-ESF) model and a RE-ESF with non-spatially varying coefficients (RE-ESF-SNVC) model to a provincial panel dataset over the period 1997 − 2017 indicate better goodness-of-fit due to the consideration of spatial effects. The role of financial development in mitigating CO2 emissions is confirmed at both the global level by using the RE-ESF model and the local level by using the RE-ESF-SNVC model. Moreover, the contributions of financial development display clear regional disparities, suggesting the inclusion of spatial heterogeneity when developing financial policies for CO2 emission mitigation. However, such contributions are restricted by financial constraints which increase CO2 emissions globally and locally, requiring a balance between financial development and financial constraints when expanding bank loans. Additionally, the one-way analysis of variance reveals the existence of a geographically dividing line approximately connecting the easternmost tip of Xinjiang and the easternmost tip of Fujian. It is observed that provinces above the line generally have stronger impacts of financial development on carbon emission reduction, while impacts in provinces below the line are generally weaker. These findings encourage the implementation of proactive fiscal and monetary policies to promote financial development. Considering financial constraints, cross-provincial and province-specific financial policies should be balanced when allocating more financial resources to provinces with greater contributions of financial development to CO2 emission mitigation.

ABSTRACTCarbon neutrality is one of the key issues in mitigating global climate change. The carbon neutrality process accelerates the global energy transformation from fossil energy to renewable energy. Among the main indicators related to carbon neutrality proposed by the Chinese government, those directly related to energy include carbon emission intensity, the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption, and the total installed capacity of wind and solar power generation. It can be seen that the transformation of energy development is crucial for realizing carbon neutrality. Meanwhile, the correlation between carbon neutrality and economic development is not antagonistic. On the contrary, carbon neutrality can not only enhance the quality and efficiency of traditional industries but also improve the overall development of society. Therefore, the coordinated and sustainable developments of the energy - economy- environment (3E) system is the priority for achieving the target of carbon neutrality. However, the impact of carbon neutrality on regional development requires long-term consideration, which increases the difficulties of comprehensive planning. In this study, a long-term comprehensive programming model of regional energy and economic development under carbon peaking and carbon neutrality targets was established. A carbon neutrality assessment indicator (CNAI) framework was constructed to assess the effect of carbon neutrality actions in different regions. Meanwhile, a LEAP model was developed to simulate energy demand and carbon emissions. The multi-target weights determined by assessment results of CNAI and the parameters range set by LEAP model were the basis of the multi-objective optimization model to support regional development. Furthermore, the proposed method was applied to Shaanxi province in China, which offered quantitative targets and suggestions for energy structure transformation and industrial structure adjustment. The results show that coal and oil will account for 6.25% of the total energy consumption and the proportion of secondary industry will drop to 25.40% by 2060. The method established in this study provides a new scientific approach for resolving multi-objective trade-offs in long-term programming and determining a reasonable optimization range for regional development under climate mitigation policies.

ABSTRACT This study reviews the relationship between the different types of oil extraction such as horizontal drilling or fracking, or directional drilling, which is a hybrid between vertical and horizontal, on the behavior of West Texas Intermediate crude oil prices. In doing so the study adds a new dimension to the literature on the relationship between oil price and extraction techniques. The analysis is based on statistical properties using the VAR model of Fractional Cointegration, reflecting evidence of cointegration between the series, and indicating a long-term equilibrium relationship. In addition, we apply the wavelet transform to analyze the structural changes in the price of West Texas Intermediate brought about by changes in drilling technology. Our results show that all three forms of extraction and West Texas Intermediate prices reach high levels of correlation, particularly around 2014. We conclude that a decrease in production based on any form of crude oil extraction leads to an increase in the price of crude oil.

ABSTRACTIn enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), the efficiency of the energy recovery process is highly dependent on the produced fluid’s temperature. In this work, a new analytical scheme is proposed for predicting the spatiotemporal evolution of temperature profile based on the three-dimensional energy conservation equation solved on the vertical plane passing through the wells. The solution is given in an error-function form which suits well for feasibility studies. An economic study is then conducted on the cost of operation based on the analytically described temperature and pressure distribution. The cumulative gain of operation, including the cost of pumping and reduced gain due to thermal breakthrough, is optimized with respect to the well spacing and the water injection rate. Optimum well spacing – injection rate combinations have been obtained for varied project life times. The maximum cumulative gain calculated by this method can be used for capex analyses and project lifetime predictions.

ABSTRACTTo reach climate neutrality by mid-century, the EU needs to decarbonize its transport sector. Transition options include electrification, biofuels, hydrogen, and e-fuels (synthetic fuels). Owing to their uncertain and disruptive role, we assess the potential contribution of e-fuels deployment to the EU transport decarbonization in line with the region’s climate neutrality ambition in 2050. To do so, we enhance the representation of competing fuels in the PRIMES-TREMOVE transport model. We quantify two contrasting transport scenarios: one with notable contribution from e-fuels, and a second scenario without e-fuels but with maximum use of the alternative options. Findings are arrayed in a Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats analysis. Electrification of private transport mobility in urban and sub-urban areas emerges as a key option in both pathways. However, the two scenarios differ in the other technology and fuel choices, with implications on road freight transport, infrastructure, R&D spending, and maturity requirements for alternative vehicles.

ABSTRACTJuxtaposing China’s current situation and policies toward coal and renewables at home and abroad, we argue that China remains in a paradoxical state of carbon lock-in. We analyze the techno-economic, institutional and political factors that contribute to China’s coal-related policies following a novel approach that blends different theories and frameworks to establish an interdisciplinary dialogue between various strands of research that were hitherto unconnected. This is accomplished by applying a political economy framework through the lens of techno-institutional carbon lock-in theory in three case studies encompassing China itself, as well as China’s climate and energy policy abroad in Pakistan and Mozambique. The article draws four major conclusions about China’s energy paradox: 1) An imperative for economic growth lies at the heart of the Chinese governance system’s incentive structure, which has resulted in a coal-based energy and industrial policy. 2) China’s government should use the experimental, decentralized nature of its regionally-decentralized regime and energy sector to their advantage by promoting disruption rather than incumbency. 3) To address the structural and institutional deficiencies that maintain or even strengthen carbon lock-in, energy governance should be shaped around the primary challenge of strengthening renewable energy advocates throughout all levels of government. 4) The discussion of coal financing abroad must now go beyond the discontinuation of new projects; the building of alternative cleaner projects should be considered and the ones in progress should be halted.

ABSTRACTThe interdependence of carbon allowances and different energy sources in extreme market behavior is still unsettled in the literature. Using different types of static and time-varying copulas, this piece of research aims to quantify the dependence structures of Europe-based carbon future returns and selected energy future returns (i.e. coal, electricity, oil, and natural gas), and to investigate whether or not these dependence structures are influenced by economic indicators. Our results show strong evidence that time-varying parameter copulas with extreme tails are the best fit to the dependence structure. We also find that the speculation activity and the uncertainty of the state of the global economy are two important components of this robust dependence structure in the period of oil price crises. These findings are relevant for the implementation of effective policies to make the carbon market operate more efficiently and stably.

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the mediating roles of different modes of technology import on the relationship between environmental regulations (ERs) and total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) by using the data of 30 provinces of China from 2008 to 2019. Based on the Porter hypothesis, this work reveals that different modes of technology import can be driven by different environmental regulation types, including command-control environmental regulation (CCER) and market-incentive environmental regulation (MIER), which have different impacts on TFEE. By distinguishing technology imports into the purchases of foreign technology (POFT) and the imitations of foreign technology (IOFT), the results show that CCER and MIER induce corporate executives to focus on POFT, resulting in sluggishness in self-innovation and accordingly undermining TFEE. The MIER shifts corporate executives’ attention on IOFT, inspiring them to focus on re-innovation, and is beneficial for improving TFEE. Additionally, this research finds that technology absorption capacity (TAC) can blunt the negative relationship between POFT and TFEE, as well as strengthen IOFT’s positive effect on TFEE. This research unearths the roles of different technology import modes and environmental regulation modes on TFEE. It also uncovers the role of TAC as a moderator for improving TFEE within the context of technology import. It offers a new dialogue perspective about the effects of environmental regulation types on green development, and contributes to the porter hypothesis literature by incorporating the missing technology import factors into the theory, and also provides managerial and policy implications.