A consulting company “Enova” from Sarajevo, in cooperation with the organization Habitat for Humanity from Bratislava, with the financial help from the USAID, has launched a website on energy efficiency in households, with a focus on collective housing. This was announced yesterday.
Source: fena.ba
Both Royal Dutch Shell and France’s Total plan to add charging stations, with Shell having already selected some potential locations.
Certain Shell fuel stations in the U.K. and The Netherlands will offer electric-car charging later this year, Shell’s John Abbott said in a recent interview with the Financial Times.
Total told the Financial Times that it is “studying the viability” of installing charging stations at locations in its home market. Interest in electric-car charging represents one way oil companies are acknowledging the growth of electric-car sales, which will ultimately reduce demand for oil.
Shell’s Abbott said battery-electric power won’t overtake internal-combustion vehicles as the dominant form of propulsion for “decades,” and that Shell sees charging stations as a potential new business opportunity. While drivers are waiting for their cars to charge, they may “want to have a coffee or something to eat,” he noted.
Indeed, most of the revenue made by operators of individual fuel stations comes from concessions, not from the fuel itself. Many public charging stations are already located at restaurants, shopping malls, supermarkets, and other places where users are expected to linger.
Electric-car charging at gas stations has been considered before by other parties. Besides investigating electric-car charging, Shell and Total are also part of the newly-formed Hydrogen Council. The organization is made up of 13 companies—including several automakers—and plans to promote the use of fuel cells for both transportation and energy.
At the council’s first meeting last month, members pledged a combined $10.7 billion investment in vehicle and infrastructure development over the next five years.
Source: greencarreports.com
European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Commissioner Johannes Hahn signed an agreement in the amount of 50 million euros with international financial institutions (EBRD, EIB and KfW) at the Western Balkan 6 energy ministerial in Skopje yesterday. The grant will assist Western Balkan 6 governments in preparing or upgrading their energy efficiency laws, support energy efficiency measures, help municipalities to attract private investment in the public sector and, finally, provide incentives to soften the investment burden on consumers.
The funds will be channeled through the Regional Energy Efficiency Programme (REEP) for the Western Balkans, which is run in cooperation with the Energy Community Secretariat. REEP support is customized to the countries’ needs in terms of technical support, investment incentives and a dedicated lending facility set up by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the “Green Economy Financing Facility”.
Janez Kopač, Director of the Energy Community Secretariat, said: “By combining its unique technical and legal expertise with its advocacy power, the Energy Community Secretariat is able to play a bridging role between the countries, the European Commission and the financial institutions. We are proud to be the trusted partner of both the countries and the EBRD in the REEP programme.”
Source: energy-community.org
IKEA has further expanded its portfolio of green products with the launch this week of a new range of sustainable kitchen fronts made using recycled plastics and wood.
The KUNGSBACKA range has been manufactured from recycled PET bottles and reclaimed wood.
Around 25 half litre PET bottles are used to make the plastic foil that coats the range’s wooden kitchen fronts.
IKEA said the range had been developed in order to create a “sustainable kitchen without compromising on quality, design or price”.
The new products will be available from this month in matte-look anthracite with new colours planned for the coming months.
Anna Granath, product developer at IKEA, said the move was part of a wider push to use more recycled materials in the company’s products.
“What we do at IKEA has a big impact on the environment due to the large quantities we produce so by using recycled materials, we can create products which are more environmentally-friendly and sustainable,” she said in a statement. “Our ambition at IKEA is to increase the share of recycled materials in our products so we are looking into new ways to re-use materials, such as paper, fibre, foam and plastic, so that we can give them a new life in a new product.”
David Vine, IKEA UK and Ireland kitchens business leader, hailed the move to turn “everyday waste into beautiful furniture”.
“At IKEA we are very conscious of the impact of waste, knowing that plastic bottles take up to 1,000 years to decompose and that 70 per cent of all PET bottles end up in either landfill or worse in our seas and oceans, is of concern,” he said. “Today, 90 per cent of waste created in the kitchen is recycled but few think about the kitchen itself, we hope that the launch of this range will help people to think about the materials that are in their home furnishings and create a more sustainable home setting.”
The launch is part of a long running push from IKEA to deliver more sustainable products and curb its environmental impact. The multinational retailer has previously switched its entire lighting range to energy efficiency LEDs and has announced a multi-billion Euro investment plan to source clean energy for its operations.
Source: businessgreen.com
AFEP, the French Association of Private Companies, presented its report to Minister Ségolène Royal and Secretary of State Christophe Sirugue, entitled “Circular economy trajectories: 33 companies boost their contribution through 100 commitments”, at the Circular Economy Conference held on February 1st at the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and the Sea.
AFEP member companies are playing an active role for several years now in the challenge of the circular economy. The report details concrete actions taken by these companies across more than 18 different business sectors based on all the drivers of the circular economy (recycling, sustainable procurement, eco-design, responsible consumption, industrial and territorial ecology, economics of functionality, extension of useful life).
Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management and automation, confirmed four commitments for the period 2015-2017:
Eco-design of all its offers by incorporating key dimensions of circularity for each new product development (e.g. lifespan, repairability, upgradability, ability to be retrofitted or dismantled, recyclability of components, etc.);
Promotion of its ecoFITTM services, which consists of retrofitting Schneider Electric products and those of other brands. These services help to return equipment to its optimum performance thus extending its lifespan;
Enhance and promote transparency regarding product “circularity” information, aiming to make 75% of its revenues from products with a full life cycle analysis and specific instructions covering product end-of-life management, both accessible to its customers and partners digitally around the clock;
Reduce waste generation, maximise its reuse or second life (over 90% recovery and recycling rate) under satisfactory safety conditions and to achieve “zero landfill” for waste. Target of 100 industrial sites by the end of 2017, with efforts continuing.
To find out more: www.afep.com
Renewable energy sources made up nearly nine-tenths of new power added to Europe’s electricity grids last year, in a sign of the continent’s rapid shift away from fossil fuels.
But industry leaders said they were worried about the lack of political support beyond 2020, when binding EU renewable energy targets end.
Of the 24.5GW of new capacity built across the EU in 2016, 21.1GW – or 86% – was from wind, solar, biomass and hydro, eclipsing the previous high-water mark of 79% in 2014.
For the first time windfarms accounted for more than half of the capacity installed, the data from trade body WindEurope showed. Wind power overtook coal to become the EU’s second largest form of power capacity after gas, though due to the technology’s intermittent nature, coal still meets more of the bloc’s electricity demand.
Germany installed the most new wind capacity in 2016, while France, the Netherlands, Finland, Ireland and Lithuania all set new records for windfarm installations.
The total capacity added was 3% down on 2015 but a surge in offshore windfarms – which are twice as expensive as those built on land – being connected in Britain saw total, Europe-wide investment hit a record €27.5bn (£23bn).
The biggest project was the Gemini windfarm off the Netherlands’ coast, which was connected to the grid last February and will be the world’s second largest offshore windfarm when finished this year. Gemini was followed in size by two other offshore windfarms, Germany’s 582MW Gode Wind 1 and 2, and the Netherlands’ 144MW Westermeerwind project.
“The installation numbers for now look OK, and the investment number is very good,” said Giles Dickson, chief executive of WindEurope. “But on the longer term outlook, only seven out of the EU’s 28 countries have clear policies and volumes [for wind power] in place for the period beyond 2020.
“We today see less political and policy ambition for renewables than we did five or even three years ago, across the member states.”
Despite Europe’s installed wind power capacity now standing at 153.7GW, it is still a relatively small fraction of the region’s 918.8GW of total power capacity. The industry is hoping much of its growth will come from filling the gap as governments force old coal power plants to close to meet climate change goals, as the UK has committed to doing by 2025.
“The EU is not putting much pressure on countries to close down old coal power plants,” said Dickson.
WindEurope’s new report, 2016 European Statistics, paints a picture of a Europe increasingly divided on wind power.
Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, which together drove much of the growth in new windfarms in the noughties, now amount to a tiny fraction of new installations. Poland last year passed a law limiting how close wind turbines can be to buildings, effectively stalling the industry there.
The result is an increasingly small number of countries connecting serious amounts of new wind power. Germany, which already has three times as much wind power as any other EU country, installed 44% of Europe’s new wind capacity last year.
Dickson said the wind power industry will be lobbying Europe’s capitals for more support in their national energy and climate plans, which member states, including the UK, have to submit to the European commission in draft form by the year’s end.
Source: theguardian.com
New figures released today suggest consumers across the country are becoming more willing to embrace greener methods of transport.
According to new government figures released today in a report from Low CVP, bus use is increasing in key urban areas across the country, with traveller numbers bucking a declining trend to rise nearly 20 per cent over the past 5 years in key cities such as Reading and Milton Keynes.
The paper, which was commissioned by sustainable travel campaign Greener Journeys, shows Bristol has benefited from the biggest uptick in passenger numbers, rising 19 per cent between 2009/10 and 2015/16, while Reading jumped 17 per cent, Milton Keynes increased 15 per cent and Oxfordshire 12 per cent.
Analysts put the increase down to cleaner vehicle technology, greater availability of real-time travel information, integrated ticketing, free WiFi and device charging and priority travel lanes for bus vehicles.
“Over the last 10 years, bus use has grown in the South West and South East of England, suggesting that the balance between private and shared travel for those living in the wealthiest, most congested, parts of the country may be gradually shifting in favour of the bus,” today’s report noted. “‘Peak car’ may not yet be widespread, but there could be signs of its emergence here.”
In related news, Hydrogen Mobility Europe (H2ME), a collaborative project from the auto industry to advance hydrogen cars, yesterday announced that its first 100 fuel cell electric vehicles are on the road in Germany, France and the UK.
The €170m project, whose partners include Renault, Daimler, Nissan and BMW alongside EU member states and leading tech companies, aims to accelerate the mass rollout of hydrogen vehicles by testing refuelling infrastructure and test hydrogen cars in a range of real world applications.
The first 100 cars are being used in delivery fleets and in real world tests of the current hydrogen network.
Source: businessgreen.com
Spurred by ambitious national commitments, international agreements and rapid technological progress, governments are increasingly choosing renewable energy to expand their countries’ power infrastructures. In 2014, renewables provided 23% of power generation worldwide, and with the adoption of more ambitious plans and policies, this could reach 45% by 2030.
Amid this accelerating transition, the variability of solar and wind energy — two key sources for renewable power generation — presents new challenges. It also raises questions, like ‘How do you power a country when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining?’ and ‘How does variable power fit with the delivery of reliable electricity?’
IRENA’s new report, Planning for the renewable future: Long-term modelling and tools to expand variable renewable power in emerging economies, released during the 2017 World Future Energy Summit, offers guidance to energy decision makers and planners on large-scale integration of variable renewables into the power grid. It also advises energy modellers on practical VRE modelling methodologies for long-term scenario planning.
Modelling reality
“Various modelling tools are available to support long-term scenarios, defined as periods covering 20 to 40 years into the future, and we discuss these tools in depth in the report,” says Asami Miketa, a programme officer for Energy Planning at IRENA’s Innovation and Technology Centre. “Energy policy-making has always benefited from quantitative scenarios created with modelling tools, as they help define long-term policy goals and determine optimal economic investment pathways.”
The report’s first half, which is devoted to guiding decision makers in the transition to VRE, underlines the need for an internally consistent approach — with clear parameters and policy goals that are aligned across planning priorities over different time horizons. “Feedback among planning processes as well as different stakeholders must be taken into account when assessing high shares of VRE in a power system,” says Miketa. “This is to accommodate for spatial and operational issues that could change the cost-effectiveness of long-term planning scenarios, like the need for greater flexibility in a system or even additional transmission capacity.”
Long-term models used for planning VRE are covered in the report’s second half. Models need to account for a wide range of long-term investment implications of VRE deployment. Practical approaches, tools and data have already been developed in some markets to address issues like generation adequacy, flexibility, location siting, and the stability of a power system. The report advises countries to start simple with VRE planning and to take a strategic approach to advance the scope and quality of their models.
“Though solar and wind power have now become cheap, taking advantage of these technologies requires careful planning and modelling,” says Miketa. “This report, and IRENA’s guidance, should help emerging economies to set themselves on a path towards sustainable development with renewables.”
To learn more about variable renewable energy planning and modelling, read the report on IRENA’s website.
Source: irenanewsroom.org
A total of 12.5GW of new wind capacity was installed in Europe in 2016, according to WindEurope data.
WindEurope said in its annual wind statistics that a record €27.5bn in new investments were made last year, with more than 10.9GW added onshore and almost 1.57GW offshore.
Total wind capacity in Europe now stands at 153.7GW, with the sector covering 10.4% of Europe’s electricity needs last year.
Germany installed the most new wind capacity – 44% of the EU total – while France, the Netherlands, Finland, Ireland and Lithuania had record years for installation.
Offshore wind investments rose 39% year on year to €18.2bn, while onshore investments were down 29% at €9.3bn, Wind Europe said.
WindEurope chief executive Giles Dickson said: “Wind energy is now a mainstream and essential part of Europe’s electricity supply.”
But Dickson added that the future for wind in Europe is far from certain.
“Government policy on energy across Europe is less clear and ambitious than it was a few years ago,” he said.
“We still have dysfunctional electricity markets that are not fit for renewables. And we’re lacking long-term price signals to support investment.”
Source: renews.biz
A hotel in Frankfurt is to go “free of emissions” thanks to the installation of an industrial scale fuel cell that will deliver clean power and heat to the site.
Radisson Blu announced this week it has partnered with energy giant E.ON to install the fuel cell at its flagship 400-room hotel in Frankfurt, Germany. The technology is scheduled to start generating from this summer, providing 3GWh of electricity and 2GWh of heat to the hotel while cutting carbon emissions by 600 tons a year.
The project features technology supplied by FuelCell Energy Solutions and was backed by an €800,000 grant from the German government’s National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Program, which seeks to demonstrate the viability of large scale fuel cell generators.
Inge Huijbrechts, vice president of responsible business at the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, the parent company of Radisson Blu Hotels, hailed the project as “the first of its kind in Europe”.
“The project will help expand our innovative sustainability work and bring us an important step closer to achieving our ambitious Think Planet goal of reducing the CO2 consumption in our hotels by another 10 percent by 2020,” she added.
The project also represents an important milestone for E.ON, which has identified the hotel sector as a potential new market for a wide range of clean tech and energy efficiency solutions.
“E.ON sees enormous potential energy savings in the hotel industry: energy intensive processes such as heating water, lighting and cooling mean that a hotel requires substantial amounts of electricity and heat throughout the entire year,” the company said in a statement. “Compared to office buildings, the hotel industry has relatively high energy costs – on average between five and 10 per cent of total operating revenue.”
Karsten Wildberger, member of the executive board at E.ON SE, said the “continuous growth in the hotel industry makes it an important market for E.ON’s energy solutions business”.
“Innovative energy solutions such as fuel cells can supply added value for hotels, as they significantly lower energy costs and dramatically increase environmental friendliness – up to the point of being climate neutral,” he added.
Source: businessgreen.com
Energy storage allows excess power collected by solar panels to be stored for later use, addressing the intermittent nature of solar power. It’s a concept that has already won over policymakers, electric utilities, and some automakers.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has moved to consolidate the automaker and his SolarCity company in order to better facilitate the deployment of energy-storage-backed solar power. Many individual homeowners also dream of being able to cut their ties to the grid by installing solar panels and battery packs.
But according to one study, the environmental reality of home energy storage may be less appealing than some of these positive predictions indicate. Actually has a somewhat higher environmental impact than connecting solar panels to the grid, according to a new University of Texas Energy Institute study. Researchers examined energy use at the well-known Pecan Street project in Austin, Texas.
Pecan Street is a privately-run green housing development in the Texas capital city that is used to test renewable-energy and so-called smart-grid technologies. Out of 100 houses equipped with solar panels, researchers found that those with energy-storage systems used 8 to 14 percent more electricity than those that switched to the grid at night.
Houses with energy storage consumed more energy than those with standalone solar panels in part because the storage systems consume energy whenever they charge or discharge. That extra energy increases annual energy consumption by about 324 to 591 kilowatt-hours, researchers found.
They also found that home energy storage indirectly increases emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide through the Texas energy grid, which relies primarily on fossil fuels.
This is due to both increased energy consumption from “storage inefficiencies,” and the effect of storage on what time of the day a house draws power from the grid, researchers said.
However, “solar combined with storage is still cleaner than having no solar at all,” Robert Fares, co-author of the study, noted. Researchers found that energy storage reduced peak grid demand by 8 to 32 percent, and reduced the magnitude of solar-power contributions to the grid by 5 to 42 percent.
This indicates utilities could reduce the amount of generation and delivery capacity they require if more buildings had local energy storage, researchers said. So even if energy storage proves to be somewhat less efficient for individual homeowners, it may still be an important factor for the utilities that supply them with their remaining power over the grid.
Source: greencarreports.com
Five of Europe’s leading networks of electric vehicle (EV) fast-chargers have this week officially launched a new initiative to ensure their technologies are “seamlessly” compatible, allowing users to access over 500 charge points across the continent.
The Open Fast Charging Alliance brings together the networks of founding members Fastned in the Netherlands, Sodetrel in France, Smatrics in Austria, Grønn Kontakt in Norway, and GOtthard FASTcharge in Switzerland.
“The alliance members will enable roaming to create a premium network of fast chargers all over Europe,” the group said. “This network will be open to all EVs, and will make long distance travel even easier.”
The group added that with auto manufacturers working on electric cars that can travel at least 400km on a single charge there was a need for a public fast-charging network that could enable long distance travel by allowing cars to recharge quickly.
The alliance will initially focus on delivering bilateral roaming agreements between its founding members based on the Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI) standard, which allows subscribers to an individual network to charge their cars and make payments using charge points operated by alternative networks.
The group said the first implementations of the planned agreements are due this year.
It also said it was keen to grow the alliance and would welcome other networks that adhere to its standards, which include providing 24/7 customer service and ensuring maximum network uptime.
In related news, Portuguese fast charger provider Efacec Electric Mobility announced the launch of a new 350kW, 1,000V fast charge unit, which it said had been specifically designed and built for long range EVs.
The company said it was already working on projects to deploy 44 of the high power charging stations with further announcements due in the “near future”.
“It is undeniable that long range EVs provide a new step in Electric Mobility and Efacec is already working on the leading edge of this Solution” said Pedro Silva, managing director of Efacec Electric Mobility in a statement.
Source: businessgreen.com
Those still hoping President Trump’s focus on job creation could deliver dividends for the green economy were handed fresh ammunition yesterday, as a new report revealed one in every 50 new jobs created in the US last year was in the solar industry.
The seventh annual National Solar Jobs Census from The Solar Foundation NGO revealed the solar industry employed just over 260,000 people last year, an increase of over 51,000 jobs over the course of 2016.
The 25 per cent increase in employment levels represented the largest annual growth rate every recorded by the survey and meant the solar industry’s employment growth was 17 times higher than that recorded in the US economy as a whole.
The report also noted that employment in the solar industry grew in 44 of the 50 states last year, highlighting the nationwide nature of the sector.
“With a near tripling of solar jobs since 2010, the solar industry is an American success story that has created hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs,” said Andrea Luecke, President and Executive Director of The Solar Foundation in a statement. “In 2016, we saw a dramatic increase in the solar workforce across the nation, thanks to a rapid decrease in the cost of solar panels and unprecedented consumer demand for solar installations. More than ever, it’s clear that solar energy is a low-cost, reliable, super-abundant American energy source that is driving economic growth, strengthening businesses, and making our cities smarter and more resilient.”
Significantly, employment growth was recorded in every part of the US solar industry, with many of the roles delivering relatively high wages and job security.
The number of people employed in solar manufacturing rose 26 per cent last year to 38,121, while the number of installation jobs increased 14 per cent to 137,133, the number of project development jobs climbed 53 per cent to 34,400, and the number of sales and distribution jobs jumped 32 per cent to 32,147 jobs.
Rob Threlkeld, global manager of renewable energy at General Motors, said the solar market was being driven by a compelling business case. “Renewable energy use translates to bottom-line benefits such as lower and more stable energy costs for GM in the long term,” he said. “With more than 67MW of solar housed at 24 facilities across the globe, we see the power of sunshine as an integral part of becoming a more sustainable company.”
The news follows a similar report last month which detailed how the number of people employed in the US sustainability sector had risen from 3.4 million jobs in 2011 to between four and 4.5 million jobs currently, driven in large part by wind and solar industries that are outstripping the national employment growth rate by 12 to one.
Source: businessgreen.com
As the global energy sector undergoes deep transformations, investment decisions are more important than ever. They play a critical role for energy security and environmental sustainability and will shape the energy landscape for years to come.
IEA analysis last year showed that the energy sector received investments worth $1.8 trillion in 2015, totaling about 2.5% of global GDP. This includes spending on pipelines, energy efficiency and oil and gas resources, which all contribute to greater energy security. It also includes spending on renewables, electric vehicles and electricity storage, which in addition further the clean energy transition.
Helping inform the IEA’s analysis of investment flows in the energy sector, more than 40 senior industry and finance representatives from around the world – including key emerging economies – attended the first IEA World Energy Investment Roundtable, which was held in Paris on 6 February 2017. The discussions focused on three emerging trends in energy sector investment that will be reviewed in depth in the IEA’s World Energy Investment 2017, be released in early July.
First, the landscape of the energy sector has shifted, reshaping competition among fuels. The last few years have seen improvements in technology and declines in costs in solar PV, onshore wind and battery storage, but also for more conventional energy infrastructure, such as upstream oil and gas. Meanwhile, investment in network infrastructure, such as electricity grids, has emerged as a key enabler for these newer technologies. The widespread and inevitable application of digital technologies is also already affecting the investment needs of the energy sector.
Second, despite these encouraging developments uncertainty remains as the energy sector undergoes a historic transition. How will companies and investors react to these emerging and evolving energy technologies, rebalancing energy prices, and changing energy business models? How will this shape future investment, particularly in the electricity sector?
In North America, oil and gas upstream investment has shown some signs of recovery after recent difficulties – positive news for oil supplies – which will continue to be needed over the first decades of a low-carbon transition. Still, because of the overlap in investment cycles, where short-term shale oil competes with longer-term traditional upstream projects, questions remain over how much investment is necessary today to meet demand tomorrow. Given shareholder pressures, climate concerns, and competing technologies, how will industry react?
Third, energy sector financing is adjusting to the changing policy, technology and macroeconomic landscape. The share of energy investments that are channeled through regulatory and policy measures is increasing, most notably for renewable but also for nuclear, natural gas and coal-fired power generation. How the sources and costs of financing respond to policies and market uncertainties will determine where the money flows and which assets will be on the system in coming years.
Developments in the finance sector can also have knock on effects on energy. For example, how do divestment decisions and the rise of new multilateral development banks affect the choices made by energy investors? In some cases innovative financing can lead to sustainable energy technology at an attractive cost, yet in other cases there can be undesirable side effects.
Source: iea.org
The newly awarded project to EPTISA in consortium with BERNARD Ingenieure ZT GmbH, funded by the European Union and managed by the Department for Contracting and Financing of EU Programmes (CFCU) aims at preparation of a Cadastre for Small Hydro Power Plants (SHPPs) as a package of instruments for reforming energy policy of the Republic of Serbia by meeting EU Acquis through increased use of renewable energy.
Over the next 24 months, a team of highly qualified and specialised international and local experts will support the Ministry of Mining and Energy and other key stakeholders in effective implementation of Serbian Energy Development Strategy in the renewable sector by encouraging and facilitating investments in SHPPs potentials.
Project results will be achieved through:
Assistance with the energy reforms in Serbia to comply with obligations from the energy acquis through increased use of renewable energy;
Preparation of the report on the current situation about SHPPs construction conditions including proposal for up to 20 new hydrological measurement points;
Design of Web application for the new Cadastre of SHPPs;
Development of the methodology for analysis of hydrological potentials, and analysis of geological situations for preparation of the new Cadastre;
Development of bilingual Cadastre data base in electronic format with all locations for SHPP from every particular rivers;
Upgraded existing GIS software with new Cadastre of SHPPs;
Capacity building and training activities including study tour in EU country for beneficiary institutions;
Visibility and public awareness activities with the aim to increase the use of renewable energy sources.
Source: eptisasee.com
NEW YORK, (Office of Information and Communications Technology) — The United Nations announced recently that Jonas Hörsch, a doctoral student in physics at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, is the winner of the Unite Ideas #SE4All MathProg challenge. Mr. Hörsch’s solution significantly improved an existing open-source energy modelling tool, the Open Source Energy Modelling System, making it more accessible and useful for energy planners around the world who are working to achieve the goal of universal access to electricity.
The project was the second collaboration among Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs and the United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology, as part of an initiative to develop open source technologies to support sustainable development policies. The previous challenge — the #Electricity4All Python programming challenge — engaged the public in refining another computer model, the Open Source Spatial Electrification Toolkit into Python, an open-source programming language, allowing the tool to reach a larger community of researchers, organizations and Governments involved in energy planning.
The two Unite Ideas challenges “marked a breakthrough in our research activity and in its contribution to sustainable development policies,” said Francisco Gardumi of KTH, one of the co-sponsors of the challenge.
Electricity is essential to poverty alleviation and sustainable development, making it a central priority for the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. However, the goal of providing universal access to electricity carries significant challenges. KTH, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and other partners developed the Open Source Energy Modelling System and the Open Source Spatial Electrification Toolkit to identify the lowest cost options available to achieve universal electrification by incorporating relevant local factors, including geography, distance to the grid and the availability of fuel sources.
The winning #SE4All solution reduced the time required to run the Open Source Energy Modelling System model by “orders of magnitude” — from around 15 hours to 9 minutes. Because it involved limited modification of the existing source code, “the improved model can be shared immediately with the global open-source community, creating huge potential for it to lead to new applications previously prevented by the high computational effort required,” said Mr. Gardumi.
#SE4All is the sixth challenge issued by Unite Ideas, a big data crowdsourcing platform developed by the Office of Information and Communications Technology to facilitate collaboration among academia, civil society and United Nations offices, and to mobilize data scientists and software developers worldwide to help tackle the complex issues faced by the Organization and its Member States though the creation of open-source technology solutions. To date, academia, the general public and private companies have responded to the Unite Ideas challenges with more than 50 open-source solutions, many of which will be used by the United Nations or shared with Member States.
Source: un.org
