Energy Planning

This Special Issue focuses on progress in energy transition planning. Many national governments as well as sub-national governments have announced goals to achieve net zero by mid-century. In parallel, the UNFCCC has established a mechanism for its parties to formulate and communicate long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies (LT-LEDS, or LTS for short) to operationalize the carbon-neutral vision stipulated by the Paris Agreement. As of March 2022, 51 countries have submitted their LTS to the UNFCCC.

There is a need to understand better all aspects of how energy supply and energy demand can be fully decarbonized. Given the energy system complexity, there is an important role for models and energy planning in such assessment. Long-term energy scenarios (LTES) are effective tools for policymakers to agree on how to achieve ambitious goals. While LTES have been used for decades to guide energy policy, the energy and socio-economic transformation that is caused by net zero emissions pushes the boundaries of LTES further.

This Special Issue contains 13 papers that contribute to the science of energy planning. The papers cover new country analyses from around the world (Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Ghana, Italy, Mexico, Sweden, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom). A number of analyses use well-established energy system analysis methodologies but apply them in combination with new energy technology data in the context of specific countries. The findings suggest there is no one-fits-all solution, and that national circumstances must be considered in the design of energy transition strategies.

The papers also contribute to the energy planning methodology:

• Energy and climate policy planning processes: a number of papers discuss how to combine different models to yield policy-relevant results.
• New methodologies are proposed for post-processing of modeling results: one paper discusses the breakdown of global modeling results for countries and sectors. Integrated assessment model (IAM) results are translated into lifestyle impacts, and decomposition analysis is used to identify the role of contributing factors for carbon neutrality.
• One paper assesses the impact of climate change on future solar PV generation.
• Carbon budgets at the sectoral, sub-national, national, and global levels: one paper focuses on the national and sectoral carbon budgets that follow from global models.
• Sector coupling and decarbonization: two papers focus on sector coupling for electromobility and decarbonization of the chemical and petrochemical industries, respectively. One paper discusses the role of liquid biofuels for transportation.
• Use of modeling results for policy making: one article focuses on the better use of modeling results for policy making, and another focuses on the role of regulation.

Source:

https://mdpi-res.com/bookfiles/book/5440/Energy_Planning.pdf?v=1756861563