Polityka Energetyczna - Energy Policy Journal

The world economy is constantly faced with crises that cause a significant negative impact. Each crisis poses new challenges to the economy and, on the one hand, inhibits economic growth, and on the other hand, can become a powerful stimulus for the development and rethinking of fundamental approaches to its construction. Conducting an analysis and establishing relationships between the economic situation and the state of the energy sector make it possible not only to predict the future but also to develop specific steps to prevent crises or reduce their negative impact. At the same time, establishing and evaluating the relationship between key economic and energy indicators, the main one of which is definitely the energy intensity of GDP, will provide an opportunity to understand how improving energy security will affect the economic situation in the country. The generalization of Ukraine’s experience in rebuilding and recovering the economy after the biggest crisis creates a basis for further research in the field of energy management, crisis management, economics, and the construction of investment policy. The reconstruction of Ukraine after the war has the potential to become the most significant stimulus for development and economic growth. During the crisis, it is very important to pay attention to the country’s energy security. In particular, it is necessary to ensure the diversification of energy resources, taking into account their rising cost. Energy markets are currently experiencing extreme volatility caused by geopolitical tensions, which requires additional attention in the development and implementation of strategic guidelines for sustainable economic recovery in Ukraine.

The world economy is constantly faced with crises that cause a significant negative impact. Each crisis poses new challenges to the economy and, on the one hand, inhibits economic growth, and on the other hand, can become a powerful stimulus for the development and rethinking of fundamental approaches to its construction. Conducting an analysis and establishing relationships between the economic situation and the state of the energy sector make it possible not only to predict the future but also to develop specific steps to prevent crises or reduce their negative impact. At the same time, establishing and evaluating the relationship between key economic and energy indicators, the main one of which is definitely the energy intensity of GDP, will provide an opportunity to understand how improving energy security will affect the economic situation in the country. The generalization of Ukraine’s experience in rebuilding and recovering the economy after the biggest crisis creates a basis for further research in the field of energy management, crisis management, economics, and the construction of investment policy. The reconstruction of Ukraine after the war has the potential to become the most significant stimulus for development and economic growth. During the crisis, it is very important to pay attention to the country’s energy security. In particular, it is necessary to ensure the diversification of energy resources, taking into account their rising cost. Energy markets are currently experiencing extreme volatility caused by geopolitical tensions, which requires additional attention in the development and implementation of strategic guidelines for sustainable economic recovery in Ukraine.

The latest global trends have led to significant changes in the nature of the world’s economic development. This impact has been particularly strong within the energy sector, forcing many countries to change their approaches to energy management. It is consequently relevant to consider this industry’s current state worldwide. In this research, we have examined the current situation of Australia’s energy sector as well as its prospects for development. In this way, the research focuses on assessing the country’s investment climate in the sector and the potential for further changes within it. The methods used in the study include analysis, modeling, forecasting, induction and deduction. Within the research, the impact that global trends, which are currently representative of the global energy market, have had on the development of this industry in Australia are assessed. Additionally, the inner specifics of the changes within the sector are described and investigated. In particular, the Australian energy sector development strategy is briefly described and trends in renewable and conventional energy production are assessed. The authors also describe the country’s prospects with regard to the current international energy market situation and the possible risks. This publication creates a new understanding in the energy sector, particularly in Australia, and its renewable and conventional components. Additionally, new data is being generated as part of the country’s economic research.

Portugal is a country on the Iberian Peninsula with a population of just over 10 million people. The country has no reserves of energy resources such as oil, natural gas, or coal and is therefore dependent on their imports. Nevertheless, it has no problems ensuring energy security. It imports oil from countries such as Brazil, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Angola, and gas from Algeria, Nigeria, the United States of America and Qatar. All imports of crude oil and most imports of petroleum products pass through the two main ports of Sines and Leixões, while gas is imported via the Sines LNG terminal and two cross-border gas pipelines at Campo Maior and Valença do Minho. Coal imports are no longer a problem following the closure of the last coal-fired power plant in 2021. As recently as 2019, fossil fuels accounted for as much as 76% of Portugal’s total primary energy supply, with oil accounting for 43%, but the majority of this demand was consumed by road transport (51%), followed by oil-based industries (16%) and household heating (5%). Now, however, the situation is changing. Hydropower and rapidly developing wind and solar energy account for a large share of electricity generation. By 2030, Portugal plans to commission between 600 and 900 MW of new solar capacity annually. Energy security in Portugal is the responsibility of the government and the relevant ministries. As in many other European countries, there is a clear drive towards decarbonization and measures are being taken to ensure that this process takes place as soon as possible, as is explicitly stated in Portuguese government documents. The analysis presented in this article shows that Portugal, despite lacking significant energy resources, can guarantee its energy security at a high level.

Carbon taxing is an efficient instrument that is implemented by several countries to reduce CO2 emissions. Taxed products and services that result in emitting CO2 in their processes will be replaced by more sustainable alternatives. Carbon taxing is associated with concerns about high energy prices that can negatively affect households and businesses. Egypt, one of the low middle-income developing countries, depends on fossil fuels to supply more than 93% of its total energy supply. In this paper, an analysis is carried out to assess the effects of a suggested carbon tax on the major carbon emitting sectors; power generation, transport and industry. The results show that the power generation sector can absorb and benefit from a suggested tax at a rate of USD 5 per ton of emitted CO2. The transport sector, which relies heavily on subsidized liquid fuels, needs an urgent reform program to remove these subsidies, which costs the country about 10 billion USD annually, and after that, the carbon tax can be introduced. The industry sector may be affected negatively by the suggested tax, due to competitiveness with non-taxed imported products. On the other hand, this tax can help this sector to be prepared to compete when exporting its products to foreign markets that apply carbon taxes. In conclusion, developing countries like Egypt need a well-planned carbon tax program that can make revenues, remove subsidies, and prepare local industries for fair competitiveness in the global market.

The rapid development of grid integration of solar energy in developing countries like India has created vital concerns such as fluctuations and interruptions affecting grid operations. Improving the consistency and accuracy of solar energy forecasts can increase the reliability of the power grid. Although solar energy is available in abundance around the world, it is viewed as an unpredictable source due to uncertain fluctuations in climate conditions. Global horizontal irradiance (GHI) prediction is critical to efficiently manage and forecast the power output of solar power plants. However, developing an accurate GHI forecasting model is challenging due to the variability of weather conditions over time. This research aims to develop and compare univariate LSTM models capable of predicting GHI in a solar power plant in India over the short term. The present study introduces a deep neural network-based (DNN) hybrid model with a combination of convolutional neural network bi-directional long short-term memory (CNN BiLSTM) to predict the one minute interval GHI of a solar power plant located in the southern region of India. The model’s effectiveness was tested using data for the month of January 2023. In addition, the results of the hybrid model were compared to the long short-term memory (LSTM) and BiLSTM deep-learning (DL) models. It has been observed that the proposed hybrid model framework is more accurate compared to the LSTM and BiLSTM architectures. Finally, a GHI prediction tool was developed to understand the trend of the results.

This article presents the topic of atmospheric pollution. The authors have presented the most important national air-quality regulations. They have identified measurement stations in Kraków (Poland), collected data from them and conducted their analysis. The aim of the article is to present the research results on developing a statistical model for estimating air pollution in Kraków depending on the changing weather conditions during the year. The authors used the mathematical modelling method to prepare the air-pollution model. The article presents collected data showing the situation prior to the introduction of a number of environmental regulations in the city of Kraków. The paper is based on meteorological data in the form of daily average values of air temperature, wind speed, air humidity, pressure and precipitation. Emission data included the average daily concentrations of the selected air pollutants, including sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), nitrogen oxide (NO), carbon monoxide (CO), ozone (O3) and particulate matter PM10 and PM2.5. The results of the study indicate that the three most significant factors influencing the level of air pollution (appearing as explanatory changes in the models for each of the pollutants listed) are the value of ambient air temperature (a destimulant, except for ozone), wind speed (a destimulant) and the concentration of each pollutant on the previous day (a stimulant). The article concludes with a summary and conclusions.

Based on a review of scholarly literature and statements of IAEA and Ukrainian institutions, we try to attempt to analyze the current problems in nuclear energy of Ukraine during the war based on the example of the seized Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which demonstrates the impact of this situation over global nuclear safety. Our study also outlines some solutions to this ongoing crisis and highlights that there is an urgent need for a new strategic vision at the global level with regard to nuclear safety and environmental protection. The “trial and error” approach is not the desired practice of ensuring nuclear safety in the world and therefore the world must today apply the lessons learned during the war in Ukraine to better protect people and the environment. The current situation in the world is complex and requires reasonable considerations, taking into account social, economic, environmental and geopolitical aspects. The introduction of minimum International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safety standards that are illegally enforceable, the revision of the provisions of the IAEA statute and its amendment by providing the organization with the function of maintaining the harmonization of nuclear requirements, the need to improve the existing IAEA standards in terms of taking measures during the construction of nuclear power plants to protect them from missile attacks, as well as during the operation of NPPs are all analyzed as necessary steps required to solve the issues of improving nuclear safety in Ukraine, Europe, and the world. The cooperation of Ukraine with such states as the USA, Japan, South Korea, France, and the United Kingdom, and the creation of the coalition could help to put pressure on United Nations and IAEA at the international level to withdraw all troops and ammunition supplies from Zaporizhzhia NPP.

This article studies the implications of the Fourth Energy Package and relevant EU Directives for households and explores their potential benefits in Ukraine. Understanding the effects of energy policies on the residential sector is crucial for promoting sustainability amidst global energy and climate challenges. Methods of descriptive legal studies and investment analysis are used to examine the primary EU legislation on renewable energy communities and citizens’ groups, focusing on their applicability to homes and renewable energy cooperatives. The analysis of Ukraine’s experiences with the adoption of green power and incentives have revealed challenges for small solar home installations operating without the feed-in tariff. Introducing net-billing makes projects unfeasible without such a tariff, and even selling electricity through aggregators on the intraday market does not help. Consequently, the payback period for small installations with batteries becomes unreasonably long (exceeding twenty-five years), while larger facilities have shorter payback termsolytechnic Institute, Ukraine (fifteen to seventeen years). These findings highlight the need for careful consideration of household green-power policies. Implementing the Fourth Energy Package in Ukraine requires measures to address the financial feasibility of small solar installations, particularly those lacking feed-in tariff support. Expanding legislative provisions to include consumers of green power, especially those in multi-apartment buildings, can enhance their participation in the electricity producers’ market. Moreover, raising household electricity prices may be necessary to support sustainable energy practices. Overall, this study underscores the importance of evidence-based policymaking for successful power transitions in homes and the broader energy sector.

The aim of this article is to assess the potential of converting gasoline-powered passenger cars into electric vehicles in Poland. Based on the available literature data, the vehicle structure was classified using the following criteria: vehicle age, engine capacity, car segment, type of fuel used, and curb weight. The average fuel and electric energy consumption values per vehicle before and after conversion were determined using specially developed statistical models. The conversion and operation costs of a conventionally fueled vehicle and an electric vehicle (after conversion) were estimated using a stochastic simulation model employing probability density distributions of vehicle parameters and the Monte Carlo method. Vehicle parameters were estimated to reflect the real structure of passenger cars in Poland. The estimated costs of converting a gasoline-powered vehicle to an electric vehicle (including the purchase and installation of an electric motor and battery) and its subsequent operating costs enabled the assessment of the economic efficiency of the car conversion process. The potential for converting gasoline-powered cars to electric vehicles was estimated by comparing the operating costs of the vehicle before and after conversion, taking into account the costs of the conversion itself. The potential of the studied conversion process amounted to 535,000 vehicles, which would generate an annual electricity demand of 1,746.36 GWh with electricity prices of 0.6 PLN/kWh. The conversion is economically viable mainly in passenger cars with a spark engine (more than 90% of cases).