Polityka Energetyczna - Energy Policy Journal

As recent studies showed, the post-communist countries have relatively the highest level of energy poverty in Europe. The poorest of them still are not explored. So, the authors decided to study this problem for Ukraine as one of the largest and poorest post-communist countries in Europe. This Eastern European country experienced a number of challenges before the pandemic, including a war with Russia in the east of the country, high external debt, high energy intensity and low added value of the economy. The purpose of this study is to measure how deep the energy poverty problem in Ukraine is and how it changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Applying selected quantitative and financial indicators, the authors showed the problem of energy poverty in Ukraine remained acute at the beginning of 2020, especially in terms of heating. Moreover, its level in Ukraine was three times higher than the average level for the all the EU countries. Furthermore, in 2020, during the pandemic, there were drastic increasing arrears of households on utility bills that meant a new leap of energy poverty in Ukraine. This study did not search for the causes of the identified leap in energy poverty, which apparently connected with the global and local economic and social consequences of the pandemic. However, it revealed the depth of this problem and the lower impact of the nature factor (air temperature) on energy poverty during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Further research is required to identify the underlying drivers and develop possible solutions to this problem in Ukraine and other European countries suffering from high energy poverty.

On 14 January 2021, the Polish Ministry of Climate and the Environment submitted for public consultation the draft Polish Hydrogen Strategy until 2030 with a perspective until 2040. The project defines goals and activities related to developing national competencies and technologies for building a low-emission hydrogen economy. The draft announces the preparation of the “Hydrogen Law”, which is to be a package of changes to currently existing acts, particularly the Polish Energy Law. However, the proposals presented in the strategy do not seem to be fully consistent with the vision of the development of the future regulation of the hydrogen market presented by the European Commission. The article presents the Polish Hydrogen Strategy’s most important assumptions regarding the proposed legislative changes and discusses them in the context of the European strategy. The main focus is on two aspects related to the planned legislative changes that seem to be the most important at this stage in order to stimulate the development of the hydrogen market: the definition of hydrogen and the decision upon which production methods will be supported, and the future regulation of the hydrogen market.

There are many IT tools available on the market that carry out various types of forecasts in the gas industry. Programming evolves with the availability and capability of computers. IT tools support the user in engineering calculations, but also present the obtained results in an interesting visualization, e.g. in the form of interactive charts. The software can support making business decisions, which, in turn, can be used as business intelligence. In the era of digitization, huge metadata of measurements are created, so conducting data analyzes in the energy sector is very common. Moreover, rapidly evolving artificial intelligence creates new opportunities. The article presents a sample analysis of calculations using RStudio, an integrated development environment for the R language, a programming language for statistical calculations and graphics. The aim of the article is to present the possibility of using R language software to make a forecast and to determine the quality of forecasts. The article aims to present the possibility of making forecasts based on mathematical models available in R packages and the possibilities offered by the forecasting platform to readers. The article presents the U.S. market and has a particular focus on Natural Gas Residential Consumption in Pennsylvania (publicly available data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration). This dataset represents the monthly consumption of natural gas between 2015 and 2020. Forecasts were presented over a span of 12 months.

The article presents aspects of the legal characterization and regulation of the natural resource’s treatment that are under the joint tenancy of two or more states. The scientific novelty of the study is determined by that fact that shows the aspects of international interaction and the formation of the practice of legislative regulation of the use of natural resources, not only in the field of state and legal regulation but also within the context of private-public partnership. The relevance is determined by the fact that the main problem of the development of energy resources is an opportunity to determine and accordingly implement certain provisions for international business enterprises. The purpose of this article is to study the question of how representatives of international business can implement projects for the extraction of natural resources across boundary areas and under various conditions within the framework of cross-border cooperation. In the work, the methods of mathematical statistics, historical and legal methods were used. A three-level model was presented. This model determines the possibility of ensuring cooperation, then it forms its legal and regulatory framework and then determines instruments of an economic and legal nature that can be implemented in this field. The final point of the model is the finding of opportunities for investing in the development of natural energy resources on a parity basis, as well as the formation of an integrated environment that determines the possibility of integrating the subjects of international business into the economic environment of the state.

Given Morocco’s geographical position and climatic conditions, solar energy will supply a large portion of the country’s energy demand. In this paper, the suitability of Moroccan lands for hosting Solar Power Plants was studied using the combination of the Geographic Information System (GIS) and the Analytical Hierarchy Method (AHP). The multi-criteria decision framework integrates technical, socio-economic and environmental constraints. For this purpose, a GIS database was created using layers from various sources. In addition, since the potential of Global Horizontal Irradiation (GHI) is the most relevant criterion for the selection of solar farms, a high-quality solar satellite map with a spatial resolution of 0.27 km was used, covering a period from 1994 to 2018. Obtained results show a great potential for solar energy development in Morocco, represented by the availability of 90% of areas. In fact, the resulting map was classified into 6 different classes, namely: Very high suitability, High suitability, Moderate suitability, Low suitability, Very low suitability and Exclusion areas, which 53.88%, 24.08%, 0.15%, 0%, 0% and 21.89% are respectively the percentages of their area occupation. According to the performed investigations, the most significant criteria that should be considered include: The Global Horizontal Irradiation, Slope, Temperature and Slope orientation. The obtained map was then compared to the existing solar farms, and show that all the existing projects are located within areas classified as highly suitable.

In less than a decade, the photovoltaic sector has transformed into a global business. The dynamics of its development vary depending on the country. According to estimates, the value of the photovoltaic micro-installations market in Poland at the end of 2019 exceeded PLN 2.8 billion. In the first half of 2020, the PV sector recorded dynamic growth with a total capacity of the micro-installations of 2.5 GWp. Government subsidies were among the factors contributing to the expansion of the PV sector. In Poland, there are many financial ways to intensify the construction of new renewable energy source installations, among others: feed-in tariff, grants, and loans. An example of photovoltaic grant support in Poland is the “Mój Prąd” [My Electricity] program created in 2019 with a budget of PLN 1.1 billion. The interest in the “My Electricity” program in individual provinces may vary, depending on socio-economic factors, technological and environmental resources, and the level of innovation. The research motivation of this article is a comparison of provinces in Poland according to selected energy, environmental, innovation, and socio-economic indicators and to show how these factors affect individual interest in the “My Electricity” photovoltaic development program in provinces. The highest correlation is for the total installation power under the “My Electricity” program and Gross Domestic Product and Human Developed Index. The highest correlation coefficient from RIS indicators and photovoltaic data programs was achieved for “R&D expenditure in the business sector”. The population was closely correlated with the total installation power and the grant value of the “My Electricity” program.

Implementing energy transformation through the goal of the more extensive use of renewable energy sources is one of the key tasks on the road to slowing adverse climate change. The pace of this transformation is dependent on both the political decisions and social support for the implemented changes. The indicator of the aforementioned support is the Willingness to Pay for Renewable Energy Sources (WTP) declared by residents. The increase of the WTP value influences a more rapid and wider substitution of non-renewable energy sources with renewable energy sources. The goal of this paper is to analyze the determinants of the WTP indicator on the example of residents of Kraków and their perception of the actions aimed at reducing the level of environmental pollution. Research is based on a survey performed on a representative sample of 393 residents of Kraków, Poland. In the surveyed group of residents, the average monthly willingness to pay more for renewable energy was PLN 83.7, i.e. approx. USD 21.47. The WTP differs in a statistically significant manner depending on the type of housing in which the respondents reside. On average, the residents of detached houses or terraced housing declared the WTP value twice as high as the WTP value declared by the residents of apartment buildings or tenement houses.

In modern conditions of economic globalization, strengthening market relations and aggravated competition, the economic development of an enterprise directly depends on the introduction of innovations. The transition to an innovative path of development requires the enterprise to determine its readiness and assess the possibility of development and the further implementation of innovations. Modern trends in the production of conventional liquid fuels in Ukraine, in particular, analysis of the production of motor gasoline and primary oil refining in Ukraine, the share of motor gasoline produced in Ukraine in the total volume of gasoline used, the volume of bioethanol production by Ukrainian distillery factories have been analyzed in the article. An assessment of the resource production potential for the production of bioethanol in Ukraine has been carried out. Possibilities of bioethanol production in Ukraine at distilleries have been investigated. An analysis of molasses production in Ukraine and theoretically possible volumes of bioethanol production from molasses in Ukraine have been calculated. The scheme of key strategic priorities for the development of the food ethanol and bioethanol in Ukraine has been proposed. The advantages of using bioethanol in the gasoline-ethanol blends for vehicles have been noted, a SWOT analysis map for organizing the production of bioethanol at sugar beet processing plant and distilleries has been generated. The needs of Ukraine in the production of bioethanol have been calculated and, according to the results obtained, the volumes of bioethanol production have been predicted.

The growing interest in green energy observed in recent years has become the basis for pilot studies on its electricity production role in Poland. The diagnostic survey method allowed us to learn about young people’s opinions on renewable energy sources in the context of four identified research areas (the need for RES, planning its installation, costs, environmental impact). The authors proposed a method based on fuzzy logic (fuzzy relations and optimistic fuzzy aggregation norms) to develop and interpret the survey results to understand the selected community’s knowledge about the importance of RES (or not) in the national energy system. The survey shows that although there is no significant difference between respondents in all research areas, rural women are more interested in using green technologies. They have a high self-awareness of their beneficial effects on the environment. Rural respondents, compared to those from the cities, are willing (despite the high cost of equipment) to invest their capital to purchase green energy carriers, which is dictated by their lower knowledge about the forms of external support. Depending on the residence place, respondents selected various government aid programs for renewable energy. People from the city decided mainly on those that would improve the air’s comfort and quality in their place of residence. On the other hand, the rural areas’ inhabitants focused their attention on the aid possibilities, which would reduce the energy costs of the farms they run in the future. All the respondents agree that investments in clean energy (coming from natural sources) will translate into broadly understood environmental protection, bringing mutual benefits for everyone.

The research considers the aspect of the formation of interior lightning in conditions of extensive expenses on heating. In this regard there is important to study features not only of places and model of lightning, but also generation of heat in order to minimize expenses and find alternative technical solutions for building functioning. The relevance is determined by the fact that the problem of low efficiency of thermal energy used to ensure an appropriate microclimate in buildings is typical for many regions. The purpose of this article is to study features not only of places and model of lighting but also generation of heat to minimize expenses and find alternative technical solutions for building functioning. In the work, the methods of calculation methods and mathematical models such as the exergy model of humans were used. The authors have determined that daylight is only one of the complex solutions of the matter of building energy efficiency. Providing the conditions of heating comfort indoors is not less important in the conditions of increasing requirements to energy conservation. The authors consider the compromise between these two requirements without harming human health the main challenge to the energy conservation specialists. The authors have developed the model, which evaluates not only the achievements of technical parameters, but also orientation toward the model of energy consumption of human. The practical application of the developed methodology allows for forecasting not only building heating based on projected technical indicators but also tailored to individual needs.