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Low Carbon Energy Transitions: Today and in the Future

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "B: Energy and Environment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2021) | Viewed by 21729

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Frauke Urban

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Guest Editor

Department of Industrial Economics and Management INDEK, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 10044 Stockholm, Sweden
Interests: energy transitions; renewable energy; energy policy; climate policy; decarbonization; innovation; industrial dynamics; green transformations
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to invite you to submit a paper for a Special Issue on “Low Carbon Energy Transitions: Today and in the Future” in Energies (impact factor 2.702): https://www.mdpi.com/journal/energies.

Climate change urgently needs to be mitigated. Limiting global atmospheric temperature increases to below 2 degrees by the end of the century, as per the Paris Agreement aims, can only be achieved through low carbon energy transitions. The aim of this Special Issue is therefore to outline state-of-the-art low carbon energy transitions, for today and for the future. Papers should analyze both present and future low carbon energy transitions to achieve the Paris Agreement targets.

Huge technical and economic improvements have been made in recent years with regard to transitions to low carbon energy, especially in solar, wind, hydropower, and biomass. In some countries, low carbon energy already plays a large role in the power sector, while the bottlenecks are the transportation sector and the industrial sector.

This Special Issue aims to analyze low carbon energy transitions in all sectors, the power sector, transport (by air, land, and water), industries, agriculture, services, and households (especially urban areas). The emphasis is on transitions to renewable energy (biofuels/biomass, geothermal energy, hydropower, marine energy, solar energy, wind energy), as well as nuclear energy, carbon capture and storage and negative emission technologies such as BECCS.

The Special Issue aims to address sociotechnical transition pathways, taking into account the diffusion of innovation, how niche innovation can break through at the regime level, the relevance of business models, and the wider role of socioeconomic and political factors to achieve low carbon energy transitions. The Special Issue welcomes both qualitative and quantitative studies, as well as empirical and theoretical contributions, from a range of different disciplines and approaches.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Frauke Urban
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

energy transitions
renewable energy
biofuels/biomass
geothermal energy
hydropower
marine energy
solar energy
wind energy
negative emission technologies
energy policy
climate policy
decarbonization
innovation
sociotechnical systems
green transformations
scenario analysis
power sector
transportation industries
agriculture
services
households
urban areas
Paris Agreement
climate change mitigation

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 2210 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Carbon Neutral China by 2060: The Role of Clean Heating Systems

by Chang Su and Frauke Urban

Energies 2021, 14(22), 7461; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14227461 - 9 Nov 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3077

Abstract

Smog pollution is a severe social and environmental concern for the space-heating regions in China due to fossil-intensive space heating. To reduce polluting emissions and improve social and environmental performance, local government agencies should choose adequate cleaner space-heating technologies based on diverse local conditions. This implies that all cleaner heating solutions should be considered, including low-emissions fossil fuel district heating and low-emissions fossil fuel decentralized heating as transitional technologies, as well as biomass and electricity-driven heat pumps as long-term solutions. However, stakeholders such as policy makers, equipment manufacturers, and house owners, often lack necessary information to assess the feasibility for installing adequate heating solutions at the local level. It is therefore necessary to establish a systematic method to evaluate each heating solution in various geolocations of China. This paper reviews the current heating situation in China and proposes a spatial system analysis method as a tool for heating-solution feasibility evaluation. By applying the spatial system analysis method, a qualitative investigation on the choice of heating solution in different regions of China is provided. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Low Carbon Energy Transitions: Today and in the Future)

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16 pages, 291 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Exploring the Political Discursive Lock-Ins on Sustainable Aviation in Sweden

by Aneta Kulanovic and Johan Nordensvärd

Energies 2021, 14(21), 7401; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14217401 - 5 Nov 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2276

Abstract

This article analyses the political discourse about governing the future of the aviation industry in Sweden and how a polarized and entrenched discursive path dependency around aviation makes it difficult to invest into aviation’s possible futures as a sustainable transport. We find three different politically merged frames in the political discussion about governing the road to sustainable aviation: (1) Neoliberal sustainable aviation, (2) Green Keynesian sustainable aviation and (3) National environmentalists’ aviation. We can see a discrepancy between two merged frames that believe sustainable aviation will be possible with more or less government support and steering (Neoliberal sustainable aviation and Green Keynesian sustainable aviation) whereas the third merged frame (National environmentalists’ aviation) argues that aviation is bound to be environmentally inferior to trains and, therefore, all focus should go to the later. We can see that there is not just a path dependency in the merged frame of National environmentalists’ aviation that discounts the possibility that both the role of aviation or its sustainability can change as the technology changes. There is here a static perceived view of technology as being forever clean or dirty. Another path dependency is the linkage of aviation transport with particular political parties where the green party, for instance, oppose aviation while the conservative party wants to support aviation and innovation in aviation. This polarization is actually the largest and most important aspect of the discursive lock-in as this undermines any compromises or large-scale future investments in sustainable aviation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Low Carbon Energy Transitions: Today and in the Future)

30 pages, 4490 KiB

Open AccessArticle

What Are the Policy Impacts on Renewable Jet Fuel in Sweden?

by Jenny Trinh, Fumi Harahap, Anton Fagerström and Julia Hansson

Energies 2021, 14(21), 7194; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14217194 - 2 Nov 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3496

Abstract

The aviation industry contributes to more than 2% of global human-induced CO₂-emissions, and it is expected to increase to 3% by 2050 as demand for aviation grows. As the industry is still dependent on conventional jet fuel, an essential component for a carbon-neutral growth is low-carbon, sustainable aviation fuels, for example alternative drop-in fuels with biobased components. An optimization model was developed for the case of Sweden to examine the impacts of carbon price, blending mandates and penalty fee (for not reaching the blending mandate) on the production of renewable jet fuel (RJF). The model included biomass gasification-based Fischer–Tropsch (FT) jet fuel, Power-to-Liquid (PTL) jet fuel through the FT route and Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL)-based jet fuel. Thus, this study aims at answering how combining different policies for the aviation sector can support the production of RJF in Sweden while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The results demonstrate the importance of implementing policy instruments to promote the production of RJF in Sweden. The blending mandate is an effective policy to both promote RJF production while reducing emissions. The current level of the penalty fee is not sufficient to support the fuel switch to RJF. A higher blending mandate and carbon price will accelerate the transition towards renewable and sustainable fuels for the aviation industry. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Low Carbon Energy Transitions: Today and in the Future)

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14 pages, 2218 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Solar Photovoltaic Investment Changes across China Regions Using a Spatial Shift-Share Analysis

by Ruxu Sheng, Juntian Du, Songqi Liu, Changan Wang, Zidi Wang and Xiaoqian Liu

Energies 2021, 14(19), 6418; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14196418 - 8 Oct 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1616

Abstract

Solar photovoltaic (PV) has become the fastest-growing new energy in China and one of the main contributors to China’s clean energy transition. From 2013 to 2019, China’s solar PV installed capacity grew from 15,890 MW to 204,180 MW, increasing by 11.85 times. To explore solar PV investment changes across China regions, we use spatial shift-share analysis model to decompose solar PV investment changes from 2013 to 2019 into four components: national energy investment growth effect (NEG), national energy investment structure effect (NES), neighbor–nation solar PV investment competitive effect (NNC), and region–neighbor solar PV investment competitive effect (RNC). Based on the decomposition results, we find that the value of NNC of most western provinces is negative for the entire period, while the NNC of most central and eastern provinces is in the middle and lower range. There is little difference in RNC among these regions. While comparing the influence caused by the four effects, NNC and RNC play dominant roles in solar PV investment changes in eastern and central provinces, which means NEG and NES have relatively small impacts. By contrast, NEG and NES affect the solar PV investment changes at a larger scale in most western provinces. Comparing the NNC and RNC, we find that RNC played a prominent role in the eastern and central regions, while NNC played a dominant role in the west. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Low Carbon Energy Transitions: Today and in the Future)

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Review

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33 pages, 1255 KiB

Open AccessReview

Towards Deep Decarbonisation of Energy-Intensive Industries: A Review of Current Status, Technologies and Policies

by Anissa Nurdiawati and Frauke Urban

Energies 2021, 14(9), 2408; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14092408 - 23 Apr 2021

Cited by 76 | Viewed by 9227

Abstract

Industries account for about 30% of total final energy consumption worldwide and about 20% of global CO₂ emissions. While transitions towards renewable energy have occurred in many parts of the world in the energy sectors, the industrial sectors have been lagging behind. Decarbonising the energy-intensive industrial sectors is however important for mitigating emissions leading to climate change. This paper analyses various technological trajectories and key policies for decarbonising energy-intensive industries: steel, mining and minerals, cement, pulp and paper and refinery. Electrification, fuel switching to low carbon fuels together with technological breakthroughs such as fossil-free steel production and CCS are required to bring emissions from energy-intensive industry down to net-zero. A long-term credible carbon price, support for technological development in various parts of the innovation chain, policies for creating markets for low-carbon materials and the right condition for electrification and increased use of biofuels will be essential for a successful transition towards carbon neutrality. The study focuses on Sweden as a reference case, as it is one of the most advanced countries in the decarbonisation of industries. The paper concludes that it may be technically feasible to deep decarbonise energy-intensive industries by 2045, given financial and political support. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Low Carbon Energy Transitions: Today and in the Future)

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