energy behaviors

Brosch Tobias, Sander David, Patel Martin K. (2016). Editorial: Behavioral Insights for a Sustainable Energy Transition. Frontiers in Energy Research, vol 4 (5):       

"Aspects related to information processing, such as available information, processing biases, and heuristics, affective-motivational factors, such as attitudes, values, and emotions, and social influences, such as social norms and status considerations, all are critical determinants of sustainable behavior. Moreover, these factors interact with the choice context, e.g., specific aspects of the behavior/technology in question, available options, potential incentives, and barriers. Thus, any understanding of energy-relevant behavior needs to be based on a consideration of the interaction of personal and situational factors."

Jobs in renewable's sector

IRENA (2016) Annual Review: Renewable Energy and Jobs

"Solar PV was the largest renewable energy employer with 2.8 million jobs worldwide, an 11% increase over 2014. Solar PV employment grew in Japan and the United States, stabilised in China, and continued decreasing in the European Union. Wind power witnessed a record growth year. Strong installation rates in China, the United States and Germany resulted in a 5% increase in global employment, to reach 1.1 million jobs" (IRENA, 2016)

Forest biomass in Portugal

Evolução das áreas totais por espécie (ICNF, 2013, 13)

"A superfície florestal cuja espécie dominante é o eucalipto representa a maior área do país (812 mil ha; 26%), o sobreiro a segunda (737 mil ha; 23%), seguido do pinheiro‐bravo (714 mil ha; 23%). A área ocupada por espécies resinosas corresponde a 31% da floresta portuguesa, sendo a restante (69%) ocupada por espécies folhosas." (ICNF, 2013, 11)

Distribuição geográfica de instalações de energias endógenas + detalhe apenas para as centrais a biomassa (e2p, consultado a 31 de Maio de 2016)

Métodos digitais para inventariar a Biomassa. Image in Viana, Lopes e Aranha (2011)

Referencias:

Helder Viana, Domingos Lopes and José Aranha (2011). Assessment of Forest Aboveground Biomass Stocks and Dynamics with Inventory Data, Remotely Sensed Imagery and Geostatistics, Progress in Biomass and Bioenergy Production, Dr. Shahid Shaukat (Ed.), InTech, DOI: 10.5772/20025. 

ICNF (2013). IFN6 – Áreas dos usos do solo e das espécies florestais de Portugal continental em 1995, 2005 e 2010. Resultados preliminares. [pdf], 34 pp, Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas. Lisboa.

Legislação:

Decreto-Lei n.º 166/2015 - Diário da República n.º 163/2015, Série I de 2015-08-21

Segunda alteração ao Decreto-Lei n.º 5/2011, de 10 de janeiro, que estabelece as medidas destinadas a promover a produção e o aproveitamento de Biomassa Florestal

Decreto-Lei n.º 179/2012. D.R. n.º 150, Série I de 2012-08-03

Primeira alteração ao Decreto-Lei n.º 5/2011, de 10 de janeiro, que estabelece as medidas destinadas a promover a produção e o aproveitamento de biomassa de modo a assegurar o abastecimento das centrais dedicadas de Biomassa Florestal.

Decreto-Lei n.º 5/2011. D.R. n.º 6, Série I de 2011-01-10

Estabelece as medidas destinadas a promover a produção e o aproveitamento de Biomassa Florestal.

Bateria redox

Bateria feita no Porto pode mudar tudo numa década:

"Trata-se de um semicondutor (...) que faz a conversão direta da luz solar em energia eletroquímica, armazenada numa bateria redox de caudal (nas quais os compostos químicos estão dissolvidas em soluções líquidas)."

Consumo de energias PT

in Diário de Notícias:

O consumo de eletricidade em Portugal foi totalmente assegurado durante quatro dias e meio seguidos, por fontes renováveis, atingindo um "recorde nacional" neste século, anunciou a associação ambientalista Zero.

Portugal 2016 Review by IEA

Energy Policies of IEA Countries - Portugal 2016 Review (pdf): 

"This review analyses the energy policy challenges facing Portugal and provides recommendations for further policy improvements. It is intended to help guide the country towards a more secure and sustainable energy future."

used coffee pellets

daily coffee habits turned from waste to pellets by Bio-Bean:

"(...) Bio-Bean has launched a UK-wide collection service and opened a waste coffee recycling factory. This factory turns the material into biomass pellets, used primarily for fueling large industrial boilers at places such as supermarkets, offices, homes, airports and factories at the moment. The company is now able to handle up to 10% of the country's grounds each year, or about 50,000 tonnes, which is said to be the equivalent amount of energy for fueling some 15,000 homes."

"It's a carbon-neutral fuel that not only happens to have a higher calorific value than wood, according to Kay, making it a great fuel option, but that is also cheaper than most of the alternatives. It also happens to be something that the suppliers, the coffee shops, need to get rid of as a course of doing business, so it's a win/win situation."

REthinking Energy

International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), REthinking Energy (2015), 2nd edition: 

"The share of renewables needs to grow not only in power generation but also in transport, heating and cooling. (...) Five clear actions are needed to support the renewable energy transition: Strengthening the policy commitment to renewable energy; Mobilising investment in renewable energy; Building institutional, technical and human capacity; Harnessing the cross-cutting impact of renewables on sustainable development; Enhancing regional engagement and international cooperation."

Gigajoule (GJ) equivalence

In IRENA RoadMap for Renewable futures (2016), p.25. See complete report in www.irena.org/remap

Global data for wind power (2015)

By Delphi234 (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Forest Biomass Residues to Energy (PT)

Rafael Sandra, Tarelho Luis, Monteiro Alexandra, Monteiro Tânia, Gonçalves Catarina, Freitas Sylvio, and Lopes Myriam (2015). Atmospheric Emissions from Forest Biomass Residues to Energy Supply Chain: A Case Study in Portugal. Environmental Engineering Science, 32(6), 505 -515:

"(...) the use of biomass (FBR) to energy should be integrated within the framework of policies for the forest sector, through the territorial implementation of forest planning tools, namely the Regional Plans of Forestry Planning and Forest Management Plans, allowing the regional implementation of the national guidelines and the monitoring of sustainable forest management, as well as the coordination with other environmental policies that ensures the different services provided by forest ecosystems."

home biogas generation

HomeBiogas: «(...) “Off the Grid” biogas system, produces daily clean cooking gas for 3 meals and 10 liters of clean natural liquid fertilizer.» +info

opinion about energy analysts

"Why do professional energy analysts and agencies have such a tough time getting their arms around wind and solar? Why are they so consistently wrong about renewable energy, in the same direction, over and over again?"

renewable energy investment global

Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment (2016) by Frankfurt School-UNEP Centre/BNEF, p.22:

[biblio] forest biomass to energy

Biomass Conversion Technologies (2008)

Bioenergy conversion technologies, FAO

Viana, H.; Cohen, Warren B.; Lopes, D.; Aranha, J.Assessment of forest biomass for use as energy. GIS-based analysis of geographical availability and locations of wood-fired power plants in Portugal, Applied Energy, 87, 8, 2551-2560, 2010.

Stupak, I., Asikainen, A., Jonsell, M., Karltun, E., Lunnan, A., Mizaraite, D., ... Tamminen, P. (2007). Sustainable utilisation of forest biomass for energy - Possibilities and problems: Policy, legislation, certification, and recommendations and guidelines in the Nordic, Baltic, and other European countries. Biomass & Bioenergy, 31(10), 666-684. 10.1016/j.biombioe.2007.06.012

Schulze, E.-D., Körner, C., Law, B. E., Haberl, H. and Luyssaert, S. (2012), Large-scale bioenergy from additional harvest of forest biomass is neither sustainable nor greenhouse gas neutral. Glob. Change Biol. Bioenergy, 4: 611–616. doi:10.1111/j.1757-1707.2012.01169.x

Guidelines for harvesting forest biomass for energy: A synthesis of environmental considerations (2011)

Waste biomass-to-energy supply chain management: A critical synthesis (2010)

A supply chain analysis framework for assessing state-level forest biomass utilization policies in the United States (2011)

Potential of biomass residues for energy production and utilization in a region of Portugal (2010)

Supply assessment of forest biomass – A bottom-up approach for Sweden (2015)

Climate effects of bioenergy from forest residues in comparison to fossil energy (2015)

Assessment of biomass energy sources and technologies: The case of Central America (2016)

Best scenarios for the forest end energy sector–implications for the biomass market (2015) 

Rafael Sandra, Tarelho Luis, Monteiro Alexandra, Monteiro Tânia, Gonçalves Catarina, Freitas Sylvio, and Lopes Myriam (2015). Atmospheric Emissions from Forest Biomass Residues to Energy Supply Chain: A Case Study in Portugal. Environmental Engineering Science. May 2015, 32(6): 505-515. doi:10.1089/ees.2014.0420.

Current and potential use of forest biomass forenergy in Tasmania (2015)

Supply chain optimization of residual forestry biomass for bioenergy production: The case study of Portugal (2015)

Review of micro- and small-scale technologies to produce electricity and heat from Mediterranean forests׳ wood chips (2015)

Ecodesign Directive

"Six reasons why building automation should be included in the 2015-2017 working plan"

Heating and Cooling 8 Key Recommendations

"(...) 8 key recommendations were formulated to help guide the European Commission in the implementation of the Heating and Cooling strategy and the upcoming revisions of relevant EU legislation:

1. Promote the electrification of industry thermal processes to enable demand side response and integrate renewables
2. Foster residual heat recovery using heat pumps
3. Improve recognition of building automation as an enabler of energy efficiency in its own right
4. Promote investment based on the synergies between energy efficiency and demand response
5. Incentivize package financing to foster investment for building renovation
6. Devise system level solution(s) through cross-cutting energy legislation
7. Promote mandatory building efficiency requirements in the Energy Efficiency directive
8. New Market Design should ensure proper energy pricing" +info 

Turning Sunlight into Hydrogen

"A team of Korean researchers, affiliated with UNIST has recently pioneered in developing a new type of multilayered (Au NPs/TiO2/Au) photoelectrode that boosts the ability of solar water-splitting to produce hydrogen.." +info

more efficient materials for solar fuel cells

"(...) new high-performing materials for cells that harness sunlight to split carbon dioxide and water into usable fuels like methanol and hydrogen gas. These "green fuels" can be used to power cars, home appliances or even to store energy in batteries." +info 

Plus Energy Homes

"Plus-energy homes are popping up around the world, generating more energy than they use, and can even be set up to sell excess energy back to the grid." +info 

B10 Aktivhaus by Werner Sobek

Advanced Energy Materials

Lithium-Sulfur Batteries article number 1501873: 

"Mansoo Choi and co-workers demonstrate highly efficient transparent conductive oxide (TCO)-free inverted perovskite (CH3NH3PbI3) solar cells by using a graphene transparent electrode. Careful engineering of the interface between the graphene electrode and the hole transport layer enables the highest energy conversion efficiency of 17.1% among TCO-free solar cells to be obtained."

backyard-sized biogas machine

"(...) backyard-sized biogas machine that turns organic kitchen waste, garden waste, and pet droppings into pressurized renewable gas, which can be hooked up to a gas barbeque or burned indoors for heat. (...) Instead of having waste shipped to a central location, the idea is to extract and use energy from organics at the source. (...) capable of generating enough gas to cook three meals daily, assuming ideal conditions where all household organics and pet waste are put into the system." +info

Global wind power capacity tops nuclear energy

"The capacity of wind power generation worldwide reached 432.42 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2015, up 17 percent from a year earlier and surpassing nuclear energy for the first time, according to data released by global industry bodies. (...) Both wind power and nuclear energy are being touted as alternatives to fossil fuel power as they produce fewer greenhouse gases." +info

Book

Towards Nearly Zero Energy, 1st Edition (2016):

"Looks at energy production from renewable sources amidst the exceptionally challenging global economic crisis that the Mediterranean areas and other societies are currently experiencing, providing tools and measures that can be developed at the public, legislative, and market levels to counterbalance the lengthy payback times of energy efficiency measures"

heterogeneous catalysts

Hideki Abe, Jia Liu, Katsuhiko Ariga (2016). Catalytic nanoarchitectonics for environmentally compatible energy generation. Materials Today, Volume 19(1), Pages 12-18:

"In this review, we shed light on one of the most versatile energy-conversion technologies: heterogeneous catalysts. We establish the integrity of structural tailoring in heterogeneous catalysts at different scales in the context of an emerging paradigm in materials science: catalytic nanoarchitectonics. Fundamental backgrounds of energy-conversion catalysis are first provided together with a perspective through state-of-the-art energy-conversion catalysis including catalytic exhaust remediation, fuel-cell electrocatalysis and photosynthesis of solar fuels. Finally, the future evolution of catalytic nanoarchitectonics is overviewed: possible combinations of heterogeneous catalysts, organic molecules and even enzymes to realize reaction-selective, highly efficient and long-life energy conversion technologies which will meet the challenge we face."

roads for energy production

"Colas officially launched Wattway, (...) [w]ith this breakthrough technology, Colas gives roads a new function, that of producing energy, in addition to its traditional role of supporting mobility." +info

Renewable Energy Associations

· EFOA: the European Fuel Oxygenates Association
· ESTELA: European Solar Thermal Electricity Association
· EWEA: European Wind Energy Association
· European Association for Battery, Hybrid and Fuell Cell Electric Vehicles
· European Biomass Association
· European Biomass Industry Association
· European Biodiesel Board
· European Photovoltaic Industry Association
· European Solar Thermal Industry Federation
· European Small Hydropower Association
· European Renewable Energy Research Centres Agency
· European Association for Renewable Energies
· EnR : European Energy Network
· EUFORES : European Forum for Renewable energy Sources
· Comité de Liaison Énergies Renouvelables(CLER)
· Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy
· Fuel Cell Europe
· European Wave Energy Thematic Network
· International Geothermal Association
· IRENA - International Renewable Energy Agency
· IEA - International Energy Agency‌
· European Bioenergy Networks
· IEA Bioenergy
· European Biodiesel Board
· ITEBE - Bois-énergie
· IEA Research and Development of Wind Turbine Systems
· Concerted Action on Offshore Windenergy in Europe
· European Heat Pump Association
· Biogas

[via RC]

The Future of Solar Energy

The Future of Solar Energy (2015), an interdisciplinary MIT study led by the MIT Energy Initiative.

Fuel poverty

Fuel poverty: "Under the Low Income High Costs definition, a household is considered to be fuel poor if: they have required fuel costs that are above average (the national median level); [and] were they to spend that amount, they would be left with a residual income below the official poverty line." (in Annual fuel poverty statistics report: 2015, p.9)

in Annual fuel poverty statistics report: 2015, p. 9

Ver o conceito mais englobante «energy poverty» em Energy poverty and vulnerable consumers in the energy sector across the EU: analysis of policies and measures (2015)

The frontiers of energy (2016)

Armstrong, R. C., Wolfram, C., de Jong, K. P., Gross, R., Lewis, N. S., Boardman, B., Ragauskas, A. J., Ehrhardt-Martinez, K., and Crabtree, G. (2016). The frontiers of energy. Nature Energy, vol 1, art 201520:

"Great strides have been made over the past century in our ability to harness energy sources, leading to profound transformations — both good and bad — in society. Looking at the energy system of today, it is clear that meeting the energy needs of the world now and in the years to come requires the concerted efforts of many different actors across a range of technologies and approaches. In this Feature, ten leading experts in energy research share their vision of what challenges their respective fields need to address in the coming decades. The issues being faced are diverse and multifaceted, from the search for better materials for fuels, to the design of energy policy and markets for the developing world. However, a common theme emerges: changes to adapt and improve our energy system are greatly needed. By improving our mutual understanding of the issues faced by each area of energy research, these changes can happen more smoothly, efficiently and rapidly."

relação entre o tempo que faz e a energia renovável produzida

EnergizAIR: projecto europeu financiado pelo Programa Intelligent Energy Europe da Comissão Europeia. Coordenado pela Associação de Energias Renováveis Belga Apere, será implementado em 4 países europeus além de Portugal; França, Bélgica, Itália e Eslovénia.

Distribuição territorial com percentagem de energias renováveis produzidas (energia solar térmica, solar fotovoltaica e eólica), na última semana.

Steel industry in Netherlands

"The steel maker has announced that they intend to mount 80 000 solar panels on the factory roofs at its IJmuiden steelworks – an area equivalent to 40 football pitches. The solar project will have a 22 megawatt capacity and will generate the same amount of energy needed to power about 7000 homes." + info

(US) materials science in 2015

"materials science has been and will continue to be at the forefront of clean energy innovations. In 2015, we reported on three major clean energy trends thanks to advanced materials and engineering." + info