Energy consumption pattern of a decentralized community in northern Haryana

A survey of household energy consumption pattern has been carried out in a village, Bibipur, district Jind, Haryana, India, during 2004. The households surveyed covered heterogeneous population belonging to different income groups, education groups and social groups. Studies were made on the total energy available, total energy required and energy consumption in different sectors domestic, agricultural, transport, rural industries and miscellaneous uses. The total energy available from all the sources (animate, biomass/non-conventional and inanimate sources) in the village is 468,205 MJ and the requirement for all the activities and from all the resources is 592,220 MJ. There is a big gap between energy supply and demand for the village. There is more availability of non-conventional energy resources as compared to conventional energy resources and some resources are unexploited. Therefore, to meet the balance of energy demand and supply, non-conventional resources should be exploited.In domestic sector, maximum energy is used in cooking (52.1%) and 45% of it is supplied from non-conventional energy sources and 10% from conventional energy sources. Calculations were made by considering all the energy resources for average per capita energy consumption and it was 20.02 MJ/day per capita. Electricity is used mainly for lighting and power, while gas is preferred for cooking.In agricultural sector, energy consumption for different activities was calculated and it was found that maximum energy consumption is in irrigation (41.7%) and minimum in transplanting. In agricultural sector, maximum energy comes from conventional energy sources (about 60%) and from non-conventional energy sources it is only about 30%. From the study, it was found that maximum population having good economic conditions like electricity very much as an energy source followed by LPG, biogas, coal, firewood and agricultural residues.     

Innovation in the energy sector: Lessons learnt from R&D expenditures and patents in selected IEA countries

Long time series of the IEA and international patent offices offer a huge potential for scientific investigations of the energy innovation process. Thus, this paper deals with a broad literature review on innovation drivers and barriers, and an analysis of the knowledge induced by public research and development expenditures (R&D) and patents in the energy sector. The cumulative knowledge stock induced by public R&D expenditures in 14 investigated IEA-countries is 102.3 bn EUR in 2013. Nuclear energy has the largest share of 43.9 bn EUR, followed by energy efficiency accounting for 14.9 bn EUR, fossil fuels with 13.5 bn EUR, and renewable energy with 12.1 bn EUR. A regression analysis indicates a linear relation between the GDP and the cumulative knowledge, with each billion EUR of GDP leading to an additional knowledge of 3.1 mil EUR. However, linearity is not given for single energy technologies. Further, the results show that appropriate public R&D funding for research and development associated with a subsequent promotion of the market diffusion of a niche technology may lead to a breakthrough of the respective technology.     

Geothermal energy potentials in the province of Vojvodina from the aspect of the direct energy utilization

The interest in increasing the participation of renewable energy sources (RES) in energy production arises with increasing population and growing demands for energy production and consumption, as well as the fact of the limited fossil fuels reserves. RES in the energy balance of any country has their share of energy, socio-economic and environmental benefits. Investment in energy sector in the RES domain enables Vojvodina Province to reduce energy dependence on the fossil fuel market.From the total RES potential in Vojvodina Province that is 1293 ktoe/year, around 1.7% is located in existing geothermal sources. There are 73 drills with a total capacity of 72.6 MW from which 65 drills are tested positive. Currently, 15 wells are in production, with a total power of 17.7 MW. There are 27 drills that have never been in production and which are perspective, with a total power of 42.8 MW.The aim of this paper is to perform data analysis of direct geothermal energy utilization according to the water temperature and geothermal fluid flow. According to the results of the analysis recommendations for geothermal energy utilization are given within certain sectors: agriculture (aquaculture and greenhouses), heating of the facilities and pools, industrial applications and balneology.     

Heat and power demands in babassu palm oil extraction industry in Brazil

The objective of this paper is to analyze the energy use profile of the babassu (Orbignya ssp—Palmae) oil extraction industry in Brazil in order to establish the basis for a cogeneration study of this important part of the Brazilian Northeast region economy, which is still ignored by energetic biomass studies. The work used information from new equipment suppliers that was analyzed against field information from operating units. The data was used to establish a basis for the thermal and mechanical energy consumption for the two main basic unit profiles for the sector: a simple one with just oil extraction and the other, more vertically integrated with other secondary by-products. For the energetic demand taken from the only oil extraction unit profile study, the minimum pressure for the steam process was estimated at 1.4 MPa, electric demand at 5.79 kW/ton of processed kernel and heat consumption at 2071 MJ/ton of processed kernel (829 kg steam/ton of processed kernel). For the vertically integrated unit profile, the following values were found: minimum pressure for the steam process 1.4 MPa, electric demand 6.22 kW/ton of processed kernel and heat consumption 21,503 MJ/ton of processed kernel (7600 kg steam/ton of processed kernel).     

Estimation on oil demand and oil saving potential of China's road transport sector

China is currently in the stage of industrialization and urbanization, which is characterized by rigid energy demand and rapid growth of energy consumption. Therefore, energy conservation will become a major strategy for China in a transition to low-carbon economy. China's transport industry is of high energy consumption. In 2010, oil consumption in transport industry takes up 38.2% of the country's total oil demand, of which 23.6% is taken up by road transport sector. As a result, oil saving in China's road transport sector is vital to the whole nation. The co-integration method is developed to find a long-run relationship between oil consumption and affecting factors such as GDP, road condition, labor productivity and oil price, to estimate oil demand and to predict future oil saving potential in China's transport sector under different oil-saving scenarios. Monte Carlo simulation is further used for risk analysis. Results show that under BAU condition, oil demand of China's road transport sector will reach 278.5 million ton of oil equivalents (MTOE) in 2020. Oil saving potential will be 86 MTOE and 131 MTOE under moderate oil-saving scenario and advanced oil-saving scenario, respectively. This paper provides a reference to establishing oil saving policy for China's road transport sector.     

LCA of poplar bioenergy system compared with Brassica carinata energy crop and natural gas in regional scenario

The poplar bioenergy system has been analysed applying life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare its environmental performance to: Ethiopian mustard bioenergy system and natural gas. The life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) shows that the use of fertilizers is the highest impact in four of the 10 environmental categories, representing between 39% and 67% of the impact in them. The diesel used in transport vehicles and agricultural tractors also has a significant impact in another five of the 10 analysed categories 40–85%. The poplar bioenergy system contributes to global warming with 1.90–1.98 g CO₂ eq MJ^?1 biomass produced. The production and transport as far as the thermoelectric plant of the poplar biomass consumes 0.02 MJ of primary energy per 1 MJ of biomass stored. In comparison with Ethiopian mustard and natural gas, it reduces primary energy consumption by 83% and 89% and the greenhouse gas emission by 84% and 89%, respectively. The results of the analysis support that the poplar bioenergy system is viable from an energy balance and environmental perspective for producing energy in southern Europe, as long as it is cultivated in areas where water is available. This latter point and the better environmental performance of both crops in comparison to natural gas allows us to affirm that the combination of several crops adapted to the local agro-climatic conditions of the territory will be the most suitable strategy in Mediterranean areas that wish to reach the global energy production targets in terms of biomass established by the European Union (EU).     

Performance of a dual-purpose solar continuous adsorption system

A conceptual design and performance of a dual-purpose solar continuous adsorption system for domestic refrigeration and water heating is described. Malaysian activated carbon and methanol are used as the adsorbent–adsorbate pair. The heat rejected by the adsorber beds and condensers during the cooling process of the refrigeration part is recovered and used to heat water for the purpose of domestic consumption. In a continuous 24-h cycle, 16.9 MJ/day of heat can be recovered for heating of water in the storage tanks. In the single-purpose intermittent solar adsorption system, this heat is wasted. The total energy input to the dual-purpose system during a 24-h operation is 61.2 MJ/day and the total energy output is 50 MJ/day. The latter is made up of 44.7 MJ/day for water heating and 5.3 MJ/day for ice making. The amount of ice that can be produced is 12 kg/day. Using typical value for the efficiency of evacuated tube collector of water heating system of 65%, the following coefficient of performances (COP's) are obtained: 44% for adsorption refrigeration cycle, 73% for dual-purpose solar water heater, 9.1% for dual-purpose solar adsorption refrigeration and 82.1% for dual-purpose of both solar water heater and refrigerator.     

Energy and environmental evaluation of municipal facilities: Case study in the province of Barcelona

The service sector is extraordinarily important for the European economy, as it accounts for 75% of the GDP. Yet it is also a huge consumer of energy, especially in urban environments. Municipalities have the authority to develop and manage municipal services, and as a result the European Commission drew up the Covenant of Mayors in which the signatory municipalities pledge to reduce their CO₂ emissions by 20% of their 1990 rates. Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) emerged from this covenant with the goal of analysing the current consumption patterns and compiling the actions that the municipalities should undertake in order to fulfil their pledges.This article focuses on analysing the energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of 978 municipal service facilities in the province of Barcelona in the year 2005. The average consumption per facility by surface area is 118.8 kWh/m². Regarding greenhouse gas emissions, the average annual emissions in the facilities studied in the province of Barcelona were 40.0 kg CO₂ eq/m².     

Assessing the sustainability of the UK society using thermodynamic concepts: Part 2

By building on the first part of our analysis, this second part attempts to provide a further understanding of the UK society's metabolism, its impact and offer policy suggestions that could promote a shift towards sustainability. The methodologies employed in this second part include Exergy Analysis (EA) and Extended Exergy Analysis (EEA). Exergy inputs and outputs amounted to 17423.9 and 11888.7 PJ, respectively, with energy carries, mainly fossil fuels, being both the predominant inputs (15597.1 PJ) and outputs (5147.1 PJ). Exergy consumption and efficiency for various economic sectors and subsectors have been calculated with the residential and service sector showing the lowest exergy conversion efficiencies (11.2% and 12.3%, respectively) while certain industrial subsectors, such as the aluminium and iron/steel industries showed the highest exergy conversion factors (67.0 and 62.1%). Extended exergy efficiencies were somewhat different owing to the different calculation procedure. Extended exergy efficiencies were 91.4% for the extraction sector, 38.9% for the conversion sector, 49.1% for the agriculture sector, 31.5% for the transportation sector, 38.6% for the industrial sector and 80.0% for the tertiary sector.     

Analysis of the energy intensity of Kazakhstan: from data compilation to decomposition analysis

There are large gaps in energy consumption data and consequently in the estimates of CO₂ emissions from fuel combustion in Kazakhstan. This study provides the first comprehensive review of energy consumption trends in Kazakhstan, discusses several important discrepancies in energy statistics and presents an improved versions of Energy Balances, developed using additional data. The results indicate that Kazakhstan’s energy intensity of gross domestic product (GDP) declined by 30% from 1.14 to 0.8 toe/thousand 2005USD between 2000 and 2014. To understand factors influencing this decline, the change in energy intensity of GDP was decomposed using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index I method. The upstream sector (mainly oil and gas) played the most important role in the observed GDP energy intensity change. Although the share of this sector in total GDP increased, causing an increase in energy intensity due to inter-sectoral structural effects, the consequences were counteracted by a twofold decline in the sector’s energy intensity, resulting in a net decrease. On the contrary, the power and heat, transport and household sectors saw an increase in energy intensity between 2000 and 2014. The results clearly demonstrate that there is an urgent need for policies and measures to be put in place in the power and heat, household and transport sectors, to support renewable energy development, increase buildings’ energy efficiencies, replace inefficient stoves and improve heating systems and encourage changes in public transportation systems. Furthermore, improving energy statistics and setting appropriate sectoral energy intensity reduction targets are crucial for achieving real efficiency improvements in the economy.     

End use technology choice in the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS): An analysis of the residential and commercial building sectors

The National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) is arguably the most influential energy model in the United States. The U.S. Energy Information Administration uses NEMS to generate the federal government's annual long-term forecast of national energy consumption and to evaluate prospective federal energy policies. NEMS is considered such a standard tool that other models are calibrated to its forecasts, in both government and academic practice. As a result, NEMS has a significant influence over expert opinions of plausible energy futures. NEMS is a massively detailed model whose inner workings, despite its prominence, receive relatively scant critical attention.This paper analyzes how NEMS projects energy demand in the residential and commercial sectors. In particular, we focus on the role of consumers' preferences and financial constraints, investigating how consumers choose appliances and other end-use technologies. We identify conceptual issues in the approach the model takes to the same question across both sectors. Running the model with a range of consumer preferences, we estimate the extent to which this issue impacts projected consumption relative to the baseline model forecast for final energy demand in the year 2035. In the residential sector, the impact ranges from a decrease of 0.73 quads (− 6.0%) to an increase of 0.24 quads (+ 2.0%). In the commercial sector, the impact ranges from a decrease of 1.0 quads (− 9.0%) to an increase of 0.99 quads (+ 9.0%).     

Exploitation of geothermal energy as a priority of sustainable energetic development in Serbia

The actual global economic crisis, including all other well-known problems of sustainable development, reflects the direction of development of all countries in the world. Serbia, as a European country in its early stage of development, is trying to synchronize its progress with experience of other countries from the field of sustainable development and in accordance with rules in the field of energetic and energetic efficiency, and, as well as to promote and develop the sector of use of renewable sources of energy. On the other hand, Serbia is a country which largely depends on import of all forms of energy, which to a great extent affects its economic stability. Therefore, in Serbia the strategy for development of energetic was imposed and it considers all the aspects of development of energetic until 2015 and it also defines the priorities which can be mostly seen in the choice of forms of alternative sources of energy. These sources, based on some criteria, can be considered the most convenient for a gradual substitution of energy which is gotten from the conventional sources. Taking into account strategically defined goals and domestic potentials which are at disposal, as well as economic parameters, an alternative source of energy of basic importance for the future exploitation on the territory of Serbia geothermal energy, was chosen. The research points to the fact that Serbia will be capable to respond adequately to Kyoto protocol demands and to the European rules regarding the substitution of a certain amounts of fossil fuels by the fuel origin from the raw biological materials. The research defines the existent and non-existent capacities and the assessment of positive effects of usage of geothermal energy. At the moment, 160 long holes are being exploited whose water temperature is around 60 °C (140 °F) and their heat power reach 160 MJ/s. It was stated that adequate exploitation of existing and new geothermal sources a yearly would save about 500,000 tons of fossil fuels what is proportional to the 10% of the today's heating system. The total amount of heat accumulated at geothermal deposit sites in Serbia, up to 3 km of depth, is two times greater than the total amount of heat that may be generated by burring all available coal reserves in Serbia. Price of electrical energy produced from geothermal springs is estimated to be between 9.2 US cents/kWh and 11.5 US cents/kWh. In order to support exploitation of geothermal energy (as well as all other renewable sources of energy) the decision that all the producers of energy from renewable sources get a status of privileged producers were made.     

Project appraisal for small and medium size wind energy installation: The Italian wind energy policy effects

In the last few years, the distributed energy production from small wind turbines (i.e.<200 kWp) has developed into a relevant business opportunity for different investors in Italy. The market, especially in Italy, has rapidly grown, achieving 9 MWp only in 2011, with an increase from 1.5 MW in 2009 to 13.3 MW at the end of 2011. This paper reports the results of a case study on the installation of several small wind turbines. It aims to provide an analysis of the conditions in Italy that make it possible to install these machines and offer a reliable reference for designing, planning, and controlling small wind turbine projects while focusing on the strategic variables of time, cost, and quality used by typical enterprises in the investment projects. The results are relevant to investors as well as engineering, procurement, and construction companies involved in this new sector, which must understand Italy’s renewable energy policy and its effects in practice. Moreover, certain national energy policy conclusions are reported and discussed in this paper. To properly study the sector, the data on time, cost and quality are analysed using typical project management tools.     

Reconciling energy efficiency and energy intensity metrics: an integrated decomposition analysis

We develop and illustrate a method for reconciling index decomposition analysis of energy intensity with physically based, sector-specific energy efficiency indicators. Decomposition analysis of individual sector intensity contributions to total energy intensity is nested within the higher-order decomposition analysis of E/GDP such that the contribution of energy efficiency gains to changes in total energy intensity can be determined. Energy, economic and physical activity data for Canada for the period 1995–2010 are used to illustrate the method. Intrasector structural factors were found to be both positive and negative and to be significant contributors to energy intensities in both the business and household sectors. In aggregate, intrasectoral structural change offset energy efficiency gains and put upward pressure on (E/GDP) between 1995 and 2010 but was three times smaller than the offsetting decline in E/GDP due to intersectoral structural change. The method can be used for assessing the contribution of energy efficiency to sector energy intensities; for placing energy efficiency policies in the larger context of the other factors that determine an economy’s energy intensity and greenhouse gas emissions; for identifying non-efficiency policy targets for improving energy productivity; and for increasing the sophistication of forecasting and scenario analysis of future levels and patterns of fuel and electricity consumption and related greenhouse gas emissions.     

Situation and outlook of solar energy utilization in Tibet,China

The near-exponential rise in tourist numbers and accelerating economic growth have challenged Tibetan energy supply and threaten its peculiar environment and valuable ecosystem. Exploitation of pollution free solar power may medicate this demand for energy. Here we shall provide a review of solar power development in Tibet. This region has a near inexhaustible source of solar energy due to its average annual radiation intensity of 6000–8000 MJ/m², ranking it first in China and second after the Sahara worldwide. Currently, Tibet has 400 photovoltaic power stations with a total capacity of nearly 9 MW. In addition, 260,000 solar energy stoves, passive solar house heating covering 3 million square meters, and 400,000 m² of passive solar water heaters are currently in use in Tibet. Although Tibet places first in applying solar energy in China, solar energy faces big challenges from hydroelectric power and the absence of local know-how. The new power generation capacity in Tibet's “11th Five-Year (2006–2010)” Plan focuses primarily on hydropower, PV power stations being relegated to a secondary role as supplementary to hydropower. Here it will be argued that this emphasis is incorrect and that solar energy should take first place in Tibet's energy development, as it is crucial in striving for a balance between economic development, booming tourism, and environmental protection.     

Performance comparison of two fuel cell hybrid buses with different powertrain and energy management strategies

In order to assess the influences of different powertrain structures and energy management strategies on the performance of hybrid fuel cell buses (FCB), two buses (FCB A and FCB B) were constructed with a “energy hybrid structure” and “power hybrid structure”, respectively. Different energy management strategies were investigated based on analysis of the two systems. And the two buses were compared with each other in a bus cycle and constant speed testing. The Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) in FCB A showed an advantage in fuel economy for it worked usually in the high efficient range of the PEMFC engine. The hydrogen consumption rate in the cycle testing was 7.9 kg/100 km and 9.8 kg/100 km for FCB A and FCB B, and in the 40 kmph constant speed testing it was 3.3 kg/100 km and 4.0 kg/100 km, respectively. The fuel economy could be improved when the hydrogen and air supply subsystems are optimized and controlled with an advanced algorithm. It could also benefit from a braking energy regeneration system. Compared with FCB A, the PEMFC in FCB B worked under unfavorable operation conditions because its working range was comparatively wide, and the power changing rate was relatively large from a statistical point of view, which resulted in performance recession of the PEMFC in FCB B. After a mileage of 7000 km, the output power of the PEMFC in FCB B was reduced by 10%, compared with 2.4% in FCB A. An advanced energy management strategy is necessary to split the power between the PEMFC and a battery suitable for long durability of a PEMFC.     

Does product lifetime extension increase our income at the expense of energy consumption?

The present paper contributes to modeling a simple social accounting method with cumulative product lifetime distributions and argues how product lifetime extension affects income flow throughout the entire economic system. Empirical analysis focusing on automobile use (ordinary passenger vehicle, small passenger vehicle, and light passenger vehicle) in Japan revealed that if all of the additional income gain from product lifetime extension flows into the investment sector, a one-year lifetime extension during the ten years of the study period (1990–2000) would have led to an increase in income in 2000 amounting to + 7 billion yen, as well as contributing to savings in energy amounting to ? 4 × 10⁶ GJ. That is, longer-term passenger vehicle use increases income and decreases energy consumption under special cases. We also found that in the general case when less than 93% of additional income resulting from vehicle lifetime extension is directed to the investment sector, a + 1 year automobile lifetime extension increases income at the expense of energy consumption.     

Palm-based biofuel refinery (PBR) to substitute petroleum refinery: An energy and emergy assessment

As the most active palm industry cluster in the world, Malaysia produces enormous amount of biomass from the industry. This work studies the possibility of creating a renewable and sustainable source of energy by fully utilizing an area of land to provide liquid biofuel for the country. Palm-based biofuel refinery (PBR) proposed in this study has the ultimate goal to displace petroleum fuels and fulfill domestic energy demand. It fully utilizes indigenous palm biomass to fulfill 35.5% of energy demand in the country by using land area of only 8% of current palm cultivation. The operation concept of PBR is similar to petroleum refinery in which a single source feedstock (crude petroleum) can be processed to multiple products. In PBR, products from an oil palm plantation will be converted to various biofuel end products. Renewable biofuel such as biodiesel and bioethanol can be produced from crude palm oil and lignocellulosic residues. Energy and emergy assessment were made in this work to evaluate the sustainability and efficiency of PBR. Biofuel produced from PBR has a high energy equivalent of 31.56 MJ/kg as 1 ha of land can produce 182,142 MJ annually. Although there are still obstacles to be overcome, it is important for Malaysia to develop its own energy supply from indigenous resources as an initiative not only for security but also lower carbon emission.     

A model of residential energy end-use in Canada: Using conditional demand analysis to suggest policy options for community energy planners

We applied conditional demand analysis (CDA) to estimate the average annual energy use of various electrical and natural gas appliances, and derived energy reductions associated with certain appliance upgrades and behaviours. The raw data came from 9773 Canadian households, and comprised annual electricity and natural gas use, and responses to >600 questions on dwelling and occupant characteristics, appliances, heating and cooling equipment, and associated behaviours. Replacing an old (>10 years) refrigerator with a new one was estimated to save 100 kW h/year; replacing an incandescent lamp with a CFL/LED lamp was estimated to save 20 kW h/year; and upgrading an old central heating system with a new one was estimated to save 2000 kW h/year. This latter effect was similar to that of reducing the number of walls exposed to the outside. Reducing the winter thermostat setpoint during occupied, waking hours was estimated to lower annual energy use by 200 kW h/°C-reduction, and lowering the thermostat setting overnight in winter relative to the setting during waking hours (night-time setback) was estimated to have a similar effect. This information may be used by policy-makers to optimize incentive programs, information campaigns, or other energy use change instruments.