Affordable energy in sufficient quantities is essential for the melioration of the world and especially developing countries. Nuclear energy has the potential to provide long-term solution for growing energy consumption in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner. Problematic factors include the financial magnitude of the initial investment, the extensive requirements for technological and institutional establishment, issues related to safety and security, and the disposal of radioactive material. This thesis analyzes the position of nuclear power in the world. Based on an analysis of advantages and disadvantages of nuclear energy, it then identifies the potential for utilizing nuclear energy in emerging countries. Five developing countries, with very different starting positions, have been selected to investigate how they can secure and develop their energy requirements. The selected countries include China, Chile, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh.

This dissertation studies the political economy of natural resources and how these resources may pose an opportunity or a threat to a country and comprises three essays. The first essay explores how economic development can impact the consumption behavior of natural resources, with focus on fossil fuels. It suggests the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between fossil fuel share in the energy mix and economic development. Particularly, the essay illustrates an evidence that fossil fuel's share in the energy mix increases as a country develops, however, after reaching a real income per capita of around US$16,000, the country reduces the share of fossil fuel in its energy mix. Perhaps this policy shift is due to concerns about air quality from its population. The second essay analyzes the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on the risk of violence both theoretically and empirically. The theoretical model suggests that FDI inflows into skilled-labor intensive resources sector reduce the risk of violence, while such inflows increase the likelihood of violence when these are channeled through the unskilled-labor intensive resources sector. The empirical analysis focusing Sub-Saharan African countries indeed supports the outcome of the theoretical model. To understand the donor behavior in aid allocation, the third essay presents a theoretical model of aid allocation and political alignment. The equilibrium of this model suggests that geopolitical alignment with the donors increases the aid receipts. The model also suggests that donors allocate more aid to recipient countries with higher human capital levels. These propositions are empirically tested using a unique dataset of aid allocation by the resource-rich Arab donors. The results of empirical analysis support the predictions of the theoretical model.

Electricity consumption in Guatemala has been steadily increasing during the recent years, challenging the generation sector to keep up with the pace of electricity demand in the long term. To tackle this problem, the government of Guatemala has delineated the Electricity Generation Expansion Plan for the period 2014-2028, proposing several hypothetical future scenarios of the energy mix for electricity production. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate how the fulfillment of this plan would influence energy security and sustainable development prospects in the country.  Following an assessment framework that allows a systematic evaluation of the system, indicators that reflect potential vulnerabilities and sustainability concerns are applied to the scenarios. The results show that energy security in the electricity sector could increase as a consequence of the capacity expansion and transformation of the energy mix to rely more on indigenous sources, taking into consideration scenarios with a more diversified portfolio that include the expansion of biomass and geothermal capacity to compensate for the vulnerability of hydroelectricity to weather events. The prospects for sustainable development in the country can be supported by the provision of secure electricity supply that takes into account efficiency and mitigation measures in the exploitation of natural resources, as well as social impact assessments to ensure that the plan will not affect the livelihood of vulnerable groups and has the possibility to contribute to increase equity in electricity access.

This Diploma thesis deals with utilization of electric driven cars in Czech Republic. There are two cardinal aspects of this research. Firstly I would like to give an answer if expansion of electric driven cars could help Czech Republic with greenhouse gas emission reduction. This goal will be achieved by quantitative analysis when four different scenarios of electric driven cars expansion will be calculated. Result of this analysis will be affected by several significant aspects. The most important aspect is structure of Czech energy mix which influences environmental friendliness of using electric driven car. Outcome of this analysis will tell us if we should support electric driven cars expansion in Czech Republic. Finally Diploma thesis proves that it is possible to use electric driven vehicles as a tool for greenhouse gas emission reduction in Czech conditions. Second important aspect related with electromobility is the financial competitiveness to combustion engine driven car. In this case the goal of analysis will be set as comparative analysis of lifecycle costs. Social external costs (as greenhouse gas emissions) will be included to the analysis as well. Result of this analysis tells us what type of power drive in passenger car is financially preferable.

The Great East Japan earthquake and the resulting tsunami struck Japan east coast on March 11th 2011. All nuclear power plants on the east coast were automatically shut down, and several thermal plants were damaged: Japan was left with only 19% of its nuclear capacity available (i.e. 9 GW). The Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant underwent major incidents, with a fusion of the nuclear core and radioactivity leakage, the most important nuclear accident since Chernobyl. During the summer 2011, the Japanese government undertook emergency measures to offset the expected 20% capacity shortage in Tokyo and Tohoku areas. On the supply side, capacity was recovered by restarting and restoring fossil-fuelled power generation, and importing power from neighboring areas. On the demand side, stringent demand restriction measures led to a summer peak demand 10 GW lower in the Tokyo area and 3.1 GW lower in the Tohoku area, compared to 2010. In early 2012, only 2 reactors were still in operation, after further nuclear shutdowns. Market-driven electricity conservation reforms and subsidy-driven supply capacity additions aim to avoid emergency measures in the summer 2012 similar to those of summer 2011, and offset the expected 9% power deficit in the country. For the longer term, Japan government has launched various initiatives to review the 2010 Basic Energy Plan, which envisaged a nuclear expansion. In this study, a model was developed to assess the economic and environmental impacts of three contrasted scenarios, reflecting different options for Japan’s electricity mix by 2050. The results show that a nuclear phase-out would induce additional costs of the order of €850bn to the power system over the period 2010-50, compared to the Basic Energy Plan, while also preventing Japan to reach its CO2 emissions’ reduction targets by 2050. A sensitivity analysis shows that a reduced renewables development would lower the cost of the power system, but put aside climate change mitigation and energy security of supply. On the other hand, a reduced electricity demand through energy efficiency measures would have a positive impact on both CO2 emissions and the security of supply. / <p>-</p> / -

Globally and in most emerging economies such as South Africa, there is an urgent need to attain sustainable development goals as well as honor climate change mitigation commitments. In order to achieve this and to participate in a global transition to clean, low-carbon energy systems, it is imperative for South Africa to focus on its energy transition strategy. In South Africa, the current energy system is mainly reliant on fossil fuel, nuclear and gas energy sources. The high reliance on fossil fuels combined with an old fleet of power plants have intensified the challenges of unsustainability, poor security of supply, as well as unreliability demonstrated in frequent disruptions in the electricity supply. The South African energy supply system is in great need for transformation through the strengthening of cleaner and sustainable energy technologies. This thesis used the international energy supply mix comparison, energy supply mix drivers causality analysis, as well as the energy supply mix system modelling to investigate and propose an optimal energy supply mix which is aligned to the current South African national policy frameworks as well as the strategic targets and plans which enable a sustainable and secure energy transition. The overarching aim of this study was to investigate the role of renewable energy in the South African energy supply mix and economy. To do so, the specific research questions of the study were: 1) How is South Africa’s planned energy supply mix relative to the rest of the world and how has it changed in recent years? ; 2) What is the relationship between renewable energy and economic growth in South Africa?; 3) What is the optimal energy supply mix that is used in South Africa in order to assist with the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies? These questions were addressed through three research papers around which the thesis is structured. The study’s findings advance the EnergyPlan system modelling tool and methodology and its introduction in the South African context. In terms of its energy supply mix (specifically electricity supply mix), South Africa is still heavily dependent on fossil fuels and there is a need for diversification towards a cleaner and sustainable energy supply mix. As a result, it is evident that nonrenewable energy has the most impact on economic growth. There is also a need to increase R&D expenditure and energy technology development. The key contribution of this thesis is the introduction to the South African context an energy supply mix methodology and tool that can be used to accurately determine the maximum contribution of renewable energy into the South African energy supply mix at the least cost and minimum emissions enabling the transition from a fossil fuel dominated mix to one that has more renewable energy. Also providing an evaluation of the role of renewable energies in the future optimal energy supply mix of the country and empirically evaluating and discussing the current Intergrated Resource Plan (IRP) as part of the process. In this regard, identifying the gaps in the current energy mix against likely scenarios based on the current economic climate. As well as better informing the policy makers and key stakeholders in the electricity industry on the role and effect of preferring a renewable -based energy supply mix. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Eskom; University of Pretoria / Economics / PhD / Unrestricted

Due to increasing concerns for global climate change, onshore and offshore wind energy technologies have stimulated a tremendous interest worldwide, and are considered as a viable solution to mitigate the environmental impacts related to electricity generation. Although wind energy technologies have been considered as one of the cleanest energy sources, they have a wide range of direct and indirect environmental impacts when the whole supply chain is considered. This study aims to quantify the direct and indirect environmental impacts of onshore and offshore wind power technologies by tracing all of the economy-wide supply chain requirements. To accomplish this goal, we developed a comprehensive hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) model in which process-based LCA model is combined with the economic input-output (EIO) analysis. The analysis results show that on average, concrete and steel and their supply chains are responsible for 37% and 24% of carbon footprint, consequently. On average, offshore wind turbines produce 48% less greenhouse gas emissions per kWh produced electricity than onshore wind turbines. For the onshore wind turbines, concrete, aggregates, and crushed stone approximately consume 95% of total water in this construction phase. On the other hand, concrete, lead, copper, and aggregate are responsible for around 90% of total water for the offshore wind turbines. It is also found that the more capacity the wind turbine has, the less environmental impact the wind turbine generates per kWh electricity. Moreover, based on the economic and environmental impacts of studied wind turbines and also three more nonrenewable energy sources, this study develops a decision making framework to understand the best energy source mix for a building in the state of Florida. This framework accounts for the uncertainty in the input material by deploying a Monte Carlo iii simulation approach. The results of decision making framework show that natural gas is a better option among nonrenewable sources. On the other hand, V90-3.0 MW offshore wind turbine is the best source of energy among renewable energy sources for a building. The findings of this research are critical for policy makers to understand the direct and indirect environmental impacts of different onshore and offshore wind energy systems. Also this study furnishes the decision maker with a range of possible energy mixes based on different economic and environmental weights.

A manufacturer would love to see progress in the optimization of a production system to maximize profit while maintaining the environmental regulations enacted by a government or society. Thus, a key performance indicator is needed to indicate how the system production is performing in monetary as well as environmental aspects. However, the manufacturer and the regulating body may not be aware of the environmental impacts associated with the production system as a key performance indicator like Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) only implies the monetary aspects of the process. Therefore, there is a need to quantify the carbon emissions of the process and use it as a parameter that indicates profitability and environmental sustainability at the same time. From the public and policy-making body's point of view, they need a proper scale that can be used to track the compliance of the manufacturers with the environmental regulations. In this study, this carbon-based indicator (COEE) aims to discover a way of monitoring the progress of a process with environmental considerations. This study raises key questions that are constructive to each other to build a comparison of the ordinary OEE and environmental COEE. To do so a case study about the plastic process using an injection molding machine is conducted. The data used in this study was provided by the company named Good Solutions. Based on the data provided, the ordinary OEE of the machine for each shift is used to contrast with the result of the new modeled COEE. The RMSE for the given OEE of the machine was 13.424 while for COEE is 12.695. The RMSE of both OEEs indicates that the COEE can be used as an indicator for economic as well as environmental assessments.

Yes / This paper introduces a novel measure of the energy transition, i.e., the green quality of energy mix (GREENQ) across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Then, the paper examines the impact of the GREENQ on CO2 emissions in the panel dataset of 36 OECD countries from 1970 to 2021. The explanatory variables include per capita income, institutional quality and technology. Long-run panel data estimations indicate that per capita income, institutional quality and technology increase CO2 emissions. The novel evidence is that the GREENQ is negatively related to the level of CO2 emissions. These findings are robust to employ different panel data estimation techniques. Potential policy implications are also discussed. / The project was funded by the “Foreign Cultural and Educational Experts Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China” (Project Number: DL2022180001L).

Energy mix modellers often use a constant emissions factor model, which more or less implies a constant heat rate, when trying to show the emissions reduction benefits of integrating renewable power generation system on the grid. This approach does not consider the fact that there is a deterioration in the heat rate with load for the Coal Fired Power Plants that need to accommodate the additional renewable supply. If varying heat rate were to be included in a study, it is often limited to plant specific cases. This PhD presents a novel Variable Turbine Cycle Heat Rate (V-TCHR) model for predicting the part load Turbine cycle heat rate (TCHR) response of various Coal Fired Power Plant (CFPP) architectures, without detail knowledge of the entire steam cycle parameters. A total of 192 process models of representative CFPP architectures were developed using a Virtual Plant software. The models had different combinations of the degree of reheat; the throttle temperature; throttle pressure; and condenser cooling technology. The part load response of all the models were simulated using the software.