Net Zero-Energy Buildings (NZEBs) have received increased attention in recent years as a result of constant concerns about energy supply constraints, decreasing energy resources, increasing energy costs and the rising impact of greenhouse gases on world climate. Promoting whole building strategies that employ passive measures together with energy efficient systems and technologies using renewable energy became a European political strategy following the publication of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive recast in May 2010 by the European Parliament and Council. However designing successful NZEBs represents a challenge because the definitions are somewhat generic while assessment methods and monitoring approaches remain under development and the literature is relatively scarce about the best sets of solutions for different typologies and climates likely to deliver an actual and reliable performance in terms of energy balance (consumed vs generated) on a cost-effective basis. Additionally the lessons learned from existing NZEB examples are relatively scarce. The authors of this paper, who are participants in the IEA SHC Task 40-ECBCS Annex 52, “Towards Net Zero Energy Solar Buildings”, are willing to share insights from on-going research work on some best practice leading NZEB residential buildings. Although there is no standard approach for designing a Net Zero-Energy Building (there are many different possible combinations of passive and efficient active measures...

This paper reviews the changes in the supply of electricity and gas from the perpective of households, utility operators, and the government. The objective is to highlight lessons from the reforms implemented and to apply them to the future reform program planned for the rest of the energy sector. The paper concludes that improved service quality and the increased supply of clean and subsidized natural gas have offset the potentially negative impact of higher electricity prices. Despite very good performance by the privatized electricity distribution company in Tbilisi, the sustainability of the reform program is still in doubt. Consolidated government expenditures on energy have increased, but to a large extent this simply recognizes costs that were incurred, but not paid, prior to reform. Existing subsidies to households for electricity provide compensation beyond levels that produce large welfare gains. Changing the subsidy system to base targeting on actual levels of electricity consumption while providing enough compensation to ensure the household received a basic level of electricity...

Energy-intensive infrastructure may tie up fossil energy use and carbon emissions for a long time after investments, making the structure of such investments crucial for society. Much or most of the resulting carbon emissions can often be eliminated later, through a costly retrofit. This paper studies the simultaneous decision to invest in such infrastructure, and retrofit it later, in a model where future climate damages are uncertain and follow a geometric Brownian motion process with positive drift. It shows that greater uncertainty about climate cost (for given unconditional expected costs) then delays the retrofit decision by increasing the option value of waiting to invest. Higher energy intensity is also chosen for the initial infrastructure when uncertainty is greater. These decisions are efficient given that energy and carbon prices facing the decision maker are (globally) correct, but inefficient when they are lower, which is more typical. Greater uncertainty about future climate costs will then further increase lifetime carbon emissions from the infrastructure...

Analysts expect China to continue improving the efficiency of energy production and use, thereby decoupling the traditional relationship between gross domestic product (GDP) and energy consumption. Environmentally acceptable economic growth is closely linked with further improvements in the overall efficiency of energy use. Both of these goals will require a continued increase in the use of coal to produce electricity, along with a more deliberate and rapid transition from direct coal combustion to the use of electricity and other cleaner coal-based fuel sources, especially for cooking, space heating, and industrial furnaces. The opportunity for environmental improvement in conjunction with economic growth lies in the wise adoption of clean coal technologies (CCT) for both the electric power and non-power sectors. This report presents CCT options for the power sector that can help China achieve these twin goals. The CCT options are: 1) air pollution controls for particulates, sulphur dioxide, and nitrous oxide; and 2) advanced electricity generation technologies--supercritical pulverized-coal boilers...

This report presents findings on the ESMAP-funded Central America Gender and Sustainable Energy project. The project has provided support to the Mesoamerican Gender in Sustainable Energy (GENES) Network, which seeks to enable the equitable access of women and men to sustainable energy services. Between April and July, 2002, a series of two bi-national and one tri-national workshop on gender and sustainable energy was conducted for members of GENES. Specific objectives were : become familiar with various types of renewable energy technologies, their applications and trends in their use; understand the principle concepts of gender equity; reflect on the relationship between gender equity, sustainable development, and renewable energy, and identify how key concepts of gender equity can be applied in the workplace and in the field; familiarize with recent advances in the gender and energy nexus; become familiar with gender methodologies, their uses and limitations. To ground the concepts presented, each workshop incorporated a technology demonstration and / or a field visit to a project site where participants could see one or more applications of sustainable energy technologies. These trips included exchanges on solar coffee drying and solar cooking; solar lighting and water pumping and brief field visits to projects involving photovoltaic pumping and electrification; solar fruit and wood drying; and the use of improved cook stoves.

The objectives of the Landfill Gas-to-Energy (LFGTE) Initiative in Latin America and the Caribbean are to. 1) contribute to the maximization of methane emissions reductions and the development of carbon trading opportunities; 2) promote LFGTE investment in Latin America and the Caribbean to improve solid waste management practices in the region; 3) create awareness of LFGTE opportunities; 4) document and disseminate LFGTE experience; and 5) establish knowledge sharing mechanisms to increase cooperation. The aim of this report is to document the dissemination activities and outputs of the LFGTE Initiative, including case studies of LFGTE projects in Brazil, Canada, Chile, Latvia, Mexico, Uruguay, South Africa, and Poland, a "Handbook for the Preparation of LFGTE Projects," a workshop in Monterrey, Mexico in October 2003 in which these documents were presented, a knowledge network on LFG, and a Web site for the LFGTE Initiative. In addition to these efforts, the LFGTE Initiative identified landfill sites for pre-investment feasibility studies. Of the 26 sites that submitted letters of interest...

The present report was prepared on the basis of the findings of an international workshop held from September 12-14, 2005, in Salvador da Bahia, and was attended by delegations of three to five practitioners from 12 cities in Latin America, Africa and Asia. It had two main objectives: (a) to share experiences on innovative solutions to provide electricity services in poor peri-urban and urban areas; and (b) to develop a body of knowledge to be disseminated and used by a wide array of practitioners involved in the provision of energy services in those areas. One of the most important conclusions of the Bahia workshop was that excluding part of the population from access to energy on account of their poverty, marginalization and the informality of the settlements has enormous long-term social, economic and financial costs. The root cause of the contemporary difficulty in providing electricity and other infrastructure services through public or private utilities is decades of such social exclusion, poverty and marginalization which have led to total distrust between formal structures and consumers...

This report analyzes the results of the Second Integrated Household Survey in Malawi. Its purpose is to examine equity issues in access, pricing and use of fuels and electricity and to estimate the benefits electrification. The analysis was undertaken in order to inform policies associated with two critical aspects of electricity sector reform - tariff rebalancing and increasing household access. The report begins with a summary of the main findings and recommendations. It continues with an introduction, including the background to the report. The first detailed analysis of findings concerns energy access and expenditures. The next section discusses energy access. Tariff reform and the benefits of electrification follow. The last section discusses the identification and assessment of innovations in electricity service provision.

Hands-on Energy Adaptation Toolkit (HEAT) is an online resource that is designed to lead you through an assessment of climate vulnerabilities and adaptation options in your country's energy sector and raise awareness among key stakeholders. HEAT provides an interactive, step-by-step guide, as well as an analytical framework and support tools, to help policymakers consult with stakeholder groups to scope out climate risks and vulnerabilities. It then provides guidance on developing and selecting among options to manage, monitor, and evaluate these risks. HEAT provides guidance on how to complete the assessment process and explains the skills and expertise required in the team leading the assessment-the assignment management team. To ensure credibility when engaging stakeholders at various stages, the assignment management team should include experts with knowledge of the country's energy sector, energy asset performance, the effects of climatic and hydrological conditions on energy services, expertise in cost-benefit analysis...

This study's objective was to evaluate Energy Efficiency in Urban Water Utilities to test the common assumption that there existed an enormous energy reduction potential in the water utilities in the Former Soviet Union and more specifically in Central Asia. The study focused on the historic cities of Samarkand and Bukhara in Uzbekistan and includes a detailed description of the water supply and distribution facilities, the conditions of the works identifying low energy efficiency, a detailed analysis of the efficiency tests performed to pumps of the Water Utilities in these cities, an energy usage assessment including the performance indicators, and investment recommendations and a dissemination program incorporating final recommendations to reduce energy consumption by the cities water systems.

According on climate change and tourism the industry 'must rapidly respond to climate change, within the evolving United Nation (UN) framework and progressively reduce its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) contribution if it is to grow in a sustainable manner.' In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), fossil fuel accounts for about 75 percent of energy needs, creating a key challenge for sustainable tourism. To explore further the issues of energy use and tourism, the World Bank's LAC region hosted a special session as part of a two day event on sustainable tourism in April 2008. When energy consumption and carbon emissions grow due to the expansion of the tourism industry, so too do the economic benefits in terms of jobs and incomes for the countries of Latin America. To maintain a vibrant and growing tourist industry while reducing the carbon footprint, the session emphasized the need for the region to address two key issues: 'the mitigation of GHG emissions, derived from transport and accommodations activities...

More than 90 percent of total household energy used in rural Cambodia comes from wood and charcoal, which will continue to be the primary energy source for many more years, especially for poorer people. Faced with this reality, it is clear that simple and affordable solutions to the problems associated with burning wood and charcoal should be addressed. One obvious solution is the production and wide dissemination of more efficient stoves, which can cut fuel consumption in half. The new, improved cook stoves are based on traditional stove models, but both are more efficient due to three main improvements in design: 1) the space between the pot and the pot-rest is reduced, 2) the grate has smaller holes, and 3) the combustion chamber is smaller. The effect is better combustion with less heat loss, a more complete burning of wood, and also less smoke. There are two models of improved cook stoves: the Neang Kongrey stove and the New Lao stove. The Neang Kongrey is a simple ceramic cook stove that sells for about $1.25 and lasts for 1-2 years. The New Lao Stove has metal cladding and insulation that adds at least two years to the stove's lifetime and increases its cost to about $4.

Municipal Solid Waste can be a potential renewable and non-seasonal resource for energy production. Alternative uses of waste, in fact, become increasingly interesting both from a waste management perspective – to reduce the amount of increasing waste deposited at landfill - and from an energy system perspective – to get the targets in terms of share of renewable and greenhouse gas reduction. In Europe, in recent years a lot of attention has raised around the possibility to use the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) for the production of energy through anaerobic digestion. In this process, the bio-waste is metabolized by bacteria under anaerobic conditions producing a gas – i.e. biogas. Digestate, a by-product of the anaerobic digestion process, can be used as a valid substitute to conventional mineral fertilisers. Production and collection of OFMSW usually takes place at district level, hence making it a great potential as non-seasonal energy feedstock. The biogas can then be used as a fuel for Combined Heat and Power (CHP) production, through systems directly installed at dwelling level. This perfectly matches with the Distributed Generation paradigm, where the energy is produced at, or near to its point of use. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the environmental impact of a waste-to-energy system in a distributed generation paradigm. OFMSW was considered as main feedstock to produce biogas...

A gestão e a conservação de energia são temas atuais e de grande importância. Aliar ao ambiente acadêmico o aspecto prático, buscar soluções para a economia de energia através do debate de soluções, proporcionar que os assuntos conservação de energia e eficiência energética sejam discutidos e tratados com relevância serão fundamentais para o desenvolvimento do país nos próximos anos. Novas oportunidades de pesquisa e desenvolvimento tanto no setor energético quanto no setor produtivo surgem e nos trazem a possibilidade que avanços tecnológicos ocorram. O entendimento da legislação e dos problemas relacionados ao consumo inadequado da energia propicia a criação de parâmetros básicos bem como a formação de políticas industriais de conservação e eficiência energética que venham a promover o melhor aproveitamento dos recursos disponíveis a menores custos. O estudo desta dissertação baseia-se em verificar quais os impactos a Lei 10.295 trouxe sobre a Matriz Energética brasileira e se houveram ganhos efetivos após a obrigatoriedade do atendimento da referida Lei. Cita os desafios para se aumentar ainda mais o rendimento dos motores elétricos sem aumentar seus tamanhos nem seus custos de fabricação e reafirma o esforço na busca por melhores materiais e por projetos que venham a melhorar a eficiência dos mesmos. Apresenta a evolução tecnológica dos motores elétricos e as vantagens da utilização dos motores de indução...

Energy-momentum is an important conserved quantity whose definition has been a focus of many investigations in general relativity. Unfortunately, there is still no generally accepted definition of energy and momentum in general relativity. Attempts aimed at finding a quantity for describing distribution of energy-momentum due to matter, non-gravitational and gravitational fields resulted in various energy-momentum complexes whose physical meaning have been questioned. The problems associated with energy-momentum complexes resulted in some researchers even abandoning the concept of energy-momentum localization in favour of the alternative concept of quasi-localization. However, quasi-local masses have their inadequacies, while the remarkable work of Virbhadra and some others, and recent results of Cooperstock and Chang {\it et al.} have revived an interest in various energy-momentum complexes. Hence in this work we use energy-momentum complexes to obtain the energy distributions in various space-times. We elaborate on the problem of energy localization in general relativity and use energy-momentum prescriptions of Einstein, Landau and Lifshitz, Papapetrou, Weinberg, and M{\o}ller to investigate energy distributions in various space-times. It is shown that several of these energy-momentum complexes give the same and acceptable results for a given space-time. This shows the importance of these energy-momentum complexes. Our results agree with Virbhadra's conclusion that the Einstein's energy-momentum complex is still the best tool for obtaining energy distribution in a given space-time. The Cooperstock hypothesis for energy localization in GR is also supported.; Comment: PhD thesis...

We have considered a cosmological model of holographic dark energy interacting with dark matter and another unknown component of dark energy of the universe. We have assumed two interaction terms $Q$ and $Q'$ in order to include the scenario in which the mutual interaction between the two principal components (i.e., holographic dark energy and dark matter) of the universe leads to some loss in other forms of cosmic constituents. Our model is valid for any sign of $Q$ and $Q'$. If $QQ'$, then dark matter energy receives from dark energy and from the unknown component of dark energy. Observation suggests that dark energy decays into dark matter. Here we have presented a general prescription of a cosmological model of dark energy which imposes mutual interaction between holographic dark energy, dark matter and another fluid. We have obtained the equation of state for the holographic dark energy density which is interacting with dark matter and other unknown component of dark energy. Using first law of thermodynamics, we have obtained the entropies for holographic dark energy, dark matter and other component of dark energy...

It is now widely accepted that the residential sector offers significant potential for carbon mitigation. This is true for both the overall magnitude of emissions reductions and the cost per tonne of CO2(eq) mitigated. However, both the scope and scale of potential carbon mitigation pathways remain controversial. The pace of decarbonisation is also openly debated. Examples of some of these contentions include: centralised versus decentralised energy supply; energy efficiency versus low carbon generation; demolition versus renovation of the existing building stock and behaviour change versus technological solutions. Incontrovertibly, any one of these seemingly apparent tensions is not mutually exclusive, and the ultimate decarbonisation pathway will likely consist of most if not all of these proposed solutions being implemented to some varying degree. Despite the significant potential for carbon mitigation in the built environment, deep cuts have not yet materialised. It is argued that this lack of progress stems from a poor understanding of the highly complex socio-economic, socio-dynamic and technical physical systems that underpin energy use in dwellings.Modelling this requires requires novel methods capable of capturing the complexities that arise from government policies...

The world energy industry is in the throes of significant technological and policy change, providing Bermuda with an unprecedented opportunity to move toward a sustainable energy model. Presently, electricity on the island is supplied almost entirely by a diesel fuel oil utility, Belco, which is expecting to retire almost 50% of their generators in the next six years. At the same time, Bermuda’s Department of Energy is developing a new Energy Policy and establishing an independent Regulatory Authority. This study asks what Bermuda can learn from other island states which have committed to a sustainable energy portfolio. Bermuda has the opportunity to invest in alternative energy infrastructure at a lower price than was possible a few years ago, allowing for the displacement of a meaningful portion of Belco’s diesel oil capacity with renewable energy. The first section of the report describes the current energy model in Bermuda and two published plans for the future. The second section of the report develops case studies for the islands of Kaua’i and Aruba, which expect to supply more than 50% and 100%, respectively, of their electricity using renewable energy sources by 2020. Kaua’i and Aruba demonstrate similar policy and regulatory approaches...

This document proposes a strategy for Environmental Defense Fund to increase energy efficiency investment in public housing. Improving the energy efficiency of public housing buildings represents a tremendous opportunity to decrease energy consumption nationwide. In 2010, PHA-paid energy expenditures totaled more than $1 billion, a similar magnitude to the $3.6 billion the U.S. Department of Defense spends on energy consumption in its facilities. Reduced energy use results in cost savings for public housing authorities (PHAs) and the federal government, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides utility subsidies to PHAs and oversees their work. Working with HUD, many housing authorities have used energy performance contracts to perform energy efficiency retrofits. These contracts will continue to be an important tool to enable housing authorities to invest in energy efficiency. As a leading environmental nonprofit, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has a significant role to play in helping PHAs across the country to invest in energy efficiency.Some housing authorities have already performed energy efficiency retrofits; many others have not yet become involved in programs to reduce energy use. EDF can work with housing authorities of varying levels of experience to help increase investment in energy efficiency nationwide. If EDF is successful in its strategy...

Residential energy consumption is becoming an ever-growing sector, in 2012 accounting for 21.2% of total consumed energy in the United States. People have been focused on exploring potential strategies to lower the associated energy consumption, including energy efficiency improvement and policy adjustment. However, in the absence of detailed breakdown of energy consumption, it is hard to effectively apply energy efficiency upgrades, meaning a necessity of getting a deep understanding of the energy consumption estimates. To achieve the breakdown of energy consumption, this project primarily focuses on the individual home energy consumption, through estimating the energy consumed in space heating, space cooling, water heating, and appliances. In particular, multiple-regression method is employed to construct the prediction model, and Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) is used as the source data, which includes more than 12000 samples and has satisfactory data reliability. As a result, many select factors are proven to be closely associated with certain energy end use. For instance, space heating/cooling energy consumption is greatly driven by the housing unit square feet, and a bigger house would result in more energy consumed in the heating and cooling sector...