Energy, Sustainability and Society最新文献

{"title":"Prospective dynamic average and marginal electricity emission factors for Germany until 2070: a methodological extension incorporating energy storage","authors":"Tobias Blanke,&nbsp;Joachim Göttsche,&nbsp;Bernd Döring,&nbsp;Jérôme Frisch,&nbsp;Christoph van Treeck","doi":"10.1186/s13705-026-00562-2","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-026-00562-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of electricity consumption requires temporally resolved emission factors. Two established metrics are the Average Emission Factor (AEF), allocating total system impacts to consumed electricity, and the Marginal Emission Factor (MEF), reflecting the response of marginal generation. Previous studies in regard to Germany (e.g. Seckinger &amp; Radgen) provided hourly AEFs but focused mainly on the Global Warming Potential (GWP) and represented storage using constant annual discharge factors, neglecting round-trip losses and construction-related (upstream) emissions. This study addresses these limitations by proposing an extended electricity impact model that treats storage as an <i>impact storage</i> carrying time-varying charging impacts and allocates storage construction impacts to discharge cycles.</p><h3>Methods</h3><p>The reference model by Seckinger et al. and the new approach are applied to a consistent hourly dataset for Germany covering 2020–2070. Hourly AEFs and MEFs are calculated for GWP, AP, EP<span>(_{fw})</span>, ODP, POCP, ADPF, and ADPE. The new model accounts for storage round-trip efficiencies and consumption-based accounting of imports, exports, and charging. It also allocates construction impacts to discharge events using a cycle-based approach linked to the state-of-charge distribution. The results are compared with those achieved by existing studies, and a sensitivity analysis evaluates key assumptions on storage construction and power plant characterization factors.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>The new model yielded higher hourly emission factors than that from Seckinger &amp; Radgen, particularly during periods of high storage activity. Differences increased over time with rising storage deployment and are primarily driven by construction-related impacts, while hourly attribution introduces additional temporal variability. Across most impact categories, the refined storage representation leaded to higher average and marginal emission factors in storage-rich scenarios. In contrast to GWP and several other categories, ADPE increased over time, indicating a shift in environmental burdens toward non-fossil resource use as renewable generation and storage expand.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Energy storage representation strongly influences time-dependent electricity emission factors, especially in future systems with high storage penetration. Although differences between modeling approaches are small in early years, explicitly accounting for time-varying charging impacts and storage construction emissions improves accuracy and avoids systematic underestimation of future electricity footprints. Extending dynamic LCA beyond operational emissions is therefore essential to capture emerging trade-offs in highly renewable electricity systems.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-026-00562-2.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147342707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fostering sustainable economic development and mitigating energy poverty through renewable energy communities","authors":"Alberto Biancardi,&nbsp;Idiano D’Adamo,&nbsp;Alessandro Donadel,&nbsp;Massimo Gastaldi,&nbsp;Madjid Tavana","doi":"10.1186/s13705-026-00564-0","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-026-00564-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Energy poverty remains an urgent social and economic challenge, exacerbated by rising energy costs, climate change, and inequalities in access to renewable technologies. Renewable energy communities (RECs) offer a promising approach that combines local energy production, democratic participation, and shared benefits, with the potential to reduce costs and improve energy access for vulnerable households. However, their effectiveness depends on economic viability, equitable distribution of benefits, regulatory support, and active community involvement. This study is relevant in that it assesses the viability, critical success factors, and benefit-sharing mechanisms of a photovoltaic REC, providing insights into how such models can foster sustainable, inclusive, and socially cohesive energy transitions.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>The analysis assesses the profitability of an 80 kW photovoltaic system for a REC located in Northern Italy. The project’s profitability ranges from 2556 to 5791 €/kW for self-consumption levels of 30% to 70%. Even without incentives, the investment remains economically sustainable, with profits ranging from 1693 to 3777 €/kW. Profitability is strongly influenced by self-consumption, but the incentive also makes the project much more attractive to prosumers. Sensitivity, scenario, and risk analyses confirm the project’s robustness with respect to other variables, including energy purchase and sale prices, investment costs, and the opportunity cost of capital. A new methodology for distributing benefits across stakeholder categories (producers, consumers, households in energy poverty, territorial redevelopment, and the State) is proposed, also including ESCOs as facilitators and catalysts for RECs.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>RECs can be a tool for energy transition, capable of generating economic and social benefits even without government incentives in a mature photovoltaic market. However, incentives significantly enhance the project’s economic viability and promote broader participation in the creation of these communities. From a policy perspective, this suggests a shift from direct subsidies to creating conditions conducive to community development, through programs that protect vulnerable families and aim to balance the needs of all stakeholders. From a managerial point of view, profitability depends above all on optimising self-consumption, while the equitable distribution of benefits among stakeholders strengthens legitimacy, fairness, and social cohesion.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-026-00564-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147342607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The German Energiewende and the role of the EU: are misfits an Achilles heel of the energy transition in Germany?","authors":"Per Ove Eikeland,&nbsp;Stefan Wurster,&nbsp;Jörg Radtke,&nbsp;Christina Köhler-Tschirschnitz","doi":"10.1186/s13705-025-00556-6","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-025-00556-6","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>The aim of the energy policy proclaimed by all German federal governments since the Fukushima incident of 2011 is a fundamental transformation of the national energy system towards renewable (excluding nuclear) energies. However, since German energy policy is embedded into a European multilevel governance system, not only national but also European forces shape the German <i>Energiewende</i>.</p><h3>Main text</h3><p>By analysing the complex political and legal interlinkages, this study identifies fits and misfits between national and European policy initiatives in functionally related energy fields. First, it finds broad coherence between the EU and German energy transition objectives. Objectives deviate in one area, the phase-out of nuclear power in Germany which is not paralleled at the EU level. Secondly, it observes more extensive misfits around the preferred policy instruments that have pressured Germany to change. This concerns instruments tied to the support of renewable energy and the operation of electricity networks in support of the transition. Here, the German policy approach saw a misfit with internal energy market regulations in the EU.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Whereas European adaptation pressure caused a shift in the German renewable energy support policy, resulting in a slowdown in the expansion of renewable energies, EU pressure to end coal subsidies helped accelerate the phase-out of coal in Germany.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-025-00556-6.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146082645","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparing strategies and success of policy entrepreneurs in EU energy and climate policy processes","authors":"Fredrik von Malmborg","doi":"10.1186/s13705-026-00563-1","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-026-00563-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>The clean energy transition required for the decarbonisation of societies to meet climate, energy and sustainability goals make policymakers targets for broad business and non-business advocacy, ensuring that their often-conflicting interests are protected or considered in public policies. The concept of policy entrepreneurs foregrounds the role of agency in understanding such advocacy acts. This paper aims to further the understanding of policy entrepreneurship by comparing strategies used by policy entrepreneurs from various social spheres, who advocate policy change or the status quo, in four longitudinal cases related to EU energy and climate policy from 2011 to 2023.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>Policy entrepreneurship was mainly of a cultural-institutional nature, aiming at altering or diffusing people’s perceptions, beliefs, norms and cognitive frameworks, worldviews, or institutional logics. However, the European Commission’s (EC) actions also included structural entrepreneurship, aiming at overcoming structural barriers to enhance governance influence by altering the distribution of formal authority and factual and scientific information. The motives of policy entrepreneurs in the four cases differ, but strategies do not differ significantly between actors from the public, private and civic spheres of society. However, the results indicate that civil society policy entrepreneurs focus on building broader coalitions, than do public and private sector entrepreneurs. There is no indication that policy entrepreneurs from a certain sector are more successful than others in setting the agenda, changing the perceptions of policy actors, or influencing actual policy change.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>It is concluded that policy entrepreneurs advocating policy change are more active and use more elaborate strategies than policy entrepreneurs advocating the status quo. They are also more successful in influencing policy outcomes. The EC was the only policy entrepreneur using structural entrepreneurship, but other policy entrepreneurs were also found to act in non-transparent ways, hiding who takes decisions. The EC acts to expand its reach into areas where the EU holds no or limited legal competence according to the Treaty of the EU. In all, this comes with democratic deficits related to accountability and legitimacy and raises concerns about technocratisation of EU policy processes. These tendencies should be combated to reinstate and reinforce the position and powers of both national and European legislators in formally making important decisions that impact the lives of European citizens and sustainability in the EU.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-026-00563-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146082706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The obligation to long-term governance: a philosophical analysis","authors":"Eike Düvel,&nbsp;Michael W. Schmidt","doi":"10.1186/s13705-025-00560-w","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-025-00560-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Many of the problems currently facing our societies are long-term. Long-term problems are complex, often large-scale, and may require considerable planning and resources to avert undesirable outcomes in the (far) future. Consider issues such as climate change, nuclear waste disposal, and the sustainable management of ecosystems. The ability of a society to adequately address the most relevant problems depends on appropriate long-term governance, i.e., strategic, consistent, and coherent governance over an extended period of time.</p><h3>Main text</h3><p>Serious obstacles are inherent in long-term governance. These include short election cycles, intergenerational trade-offs, and the uncertainties involved in long-term decision-making. Liberal democracies appear to encounter difficulties in providing adequate responses to pertinent long-term issues, such as climate change, due to the institutions’ current design, which primarily focuses on safeguarding the interests of the present generation.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>This paper introduces long-term governance as a distinct philosophical topic by defining it in relation to a novel perspective on long-term challenges. The paper defends an obligation to engage in long-term governance based on the basic rights of those who do not yet vote. This includes, in particular, an obligation to engage in research into long-term governance institutions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-025-00560-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146082618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What renewable energy future should we strive for? Assessing renewable energy utopias through Sci-Fi and normative energy ethics","authors":"Nynke van Uffelen,&nbsp;Daniel Wuebben,&nbsp;Giovanni Frigo,&nbsp;Roman Meinhold,&nbsp;Lorenzo Simone","doi":"10.1186/s13705-025-00559-3","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-025-00559-3","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;div&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Background&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;Socio-technical imaginaries, visions and utopias concerning energy and sustainability offer ideas about how the world should be. As such, they are normative endeavors that require a critical ethical assessment. However, normative assumptions about energy futures often remain implicit, thereby escaping critical scrutiny. This study combines science fiction and normative energy ethics to evaluate competing visions of renewable energy futures. We introduce a conceptual framework that distinguishes between the two main ways in which energy intersects with utopian futures: energy abundance and energy sufficiency. Next, we identify the ethical pros and cons of energy abundance and sufficiency as desirable future states, examining this through popular science fiction texts and normative energy ethics perspectives such as energy justice, virtue ethics, and critical theory of technology.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Results&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;The vision of renewable energy abundance provides a very appealing prospect and can motivate different stakeholders to speed up the transition to a low-carbon energy system. However, striving towards such an energy utopia comes with several caveats. First, the idea of renewable energy abundance in the near future is dangerous because it is, so far, a technological illusion. Second, regional visions of energy abundance often neglect global and intergenerational energy justice considerations. Third, according to virtue ethics, pursuing energy abundance can be considered excessive, not virtuous and hence immoral. Fourth, energy abundance can lead to problematic forms of alienation and, therefore, dystopian versions of the good life. Utopias based on renewable energy and sufficiency aim to avoid these issues. Yet they face two additional problems that seem to hinder the adoption of energy sufficiency as the leading energy policy paradigm. First, there is a real danger that citizens would protest and slow down the energy transition if energy sufficiency were to be promoted by governments on a large scale. Second, in practice, the lines between energy sufficiency and abundance, and between energy needs and wants, remain unclear and highly contextual, leading to philosophical and practical problems.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Conclusions&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;We propose distinguishing between two questions that may require different answers: Firstly, what kind of energy future do we, as a society, want? And what energy future should we strive for in our energy policies? Taking critiques of the pursuit of renewable energy abundance seriously, we conclude that we should resist the tendency to unquestioningly incorporate utopian ideas of renewable energy abundance into energy policies and technologies, despite the strong rhetorical appeal of abundance. This implies that the second concern regarding energy sufficiency — namely, its ambiguity, context dependency, and challenging measurement issues — should be addressed directly instead of being avoided. Energy policies ","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12886226/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146163344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impacts of key technologies on the sustainable development goals to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions in Sweden","authors":"A. Ahlbäck,&nbsp;H. Klingvall,&nbsp;E. Nordell,&nbsp;K. M. Eriksson","doi":"10.1186/s13705-025-00558-4","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-025-00558-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>The target of the Swedish climate policy framework is to reach net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2045, implying large transformations of the current industry, energy and transport sector. Electric vehicles, wind and solar power, biomass, carbon capture and storage, climate-neutral concrete and green hydrogen are considered key technologies in the Swedish climate transition. There is, however, a growing need to identify how such technologies impact the broader scope of sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to determine the positive and negative effects of the large-scale implementation of key technologies on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Additionally, the aim of this study is to allocate the effects as domestic or international spillovers. The study is based on expert opinions elicited from workshops in which the effects of each key technology on the SDGs were addressed. The workshop results were qualitatively analyzed to construct causal relationships and compared against published literature to gain empirical support.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>This study identified impacts for 11 out of the 17 SDGs. More than half of the impacts in Sweden were positive, whereas most negative impacts were identified as international spillovers. Positive impacts in Sweden are foremost linked to economic growth and job creation as well as sustainable industrialization and innovation. Internationally, negative spillover impacts mainly stem from mineral extraction, with consequences for human health, environmental degradation, local democracy and corruption.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>The multifaceted linkages between climate mitigation efforts and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are highlighted in this study, illustrating a need for policy coherence. Large-scale implementation of key technologies will result in more positive than negative impacts in the domestic context, reinforcing the Swedish implementation of the SDGs. However, the opposite is true for international spillovers, where the Swedish climate transition might hamper the fulfillment of specific SDGs in other countries. To achieve a sustainable climate transition, a holistic view incorporating all the SDGs and the core principle of “Leaving No One Behind” needs to be employed. The next steps could include stakeholders in policy and industry to identify actions and initiate collaborative approaches to strengthen positive and minimize negative impacts from climate mitigation efforts on the SDGs.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-025-00558-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146082447","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Social acceptance of a hydrogen-driven industrial transition in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany","authors":"Laura Altstadt,&nbsp;Aileen Reichmann,&nbsp;Nora Weber,&nbsp;Katja Witte","doi":"10.1186/s13705-025-00557-5","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-025-00557-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Germany’s commitment to climate neutrality by 2045 poses significant challenges for its energy-intensive industries, especially in North Rhine-Westphalia, where green hydrogen is essential for the decarbonisation of basic industries. In this study, we investigate social acceptance of the hydrogen-driven industrial transition, focusing on public perspectives and the perspectives of stakeholders in industry, non-governmental organisations, trade unions, and political administration.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>The results indicate broad support for industrial green hydrogen use but also highlight acceptance issues along its value chain. Key challenges emerge in political, economic, social, and environmental dimensions, with notable public risk perception of hydrogen transport. Our analysis shows that increasing concerns tend to be accompanied by a willingness to protest, while knowledge is associated with acceptance of industrial hydrogen use.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>Stakeholders must find ways to gather and address local public concerns. Moreover, the results indicate the need to assess green hydrogen along its entire value chain and on an international scale.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2026-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-025-00557-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146082612","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The policy landscape of agrivoltaics: a systematic review","authors":"André Alves,&nbsp;Eduarda Marques da Costa,&nbsp;Igor Sirnik","doi":"10.1186/s13705-025-00555-7","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-025-00555-7","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Agrivoltaics, the dual use of land for both agriculture and solar energy production, has gained increasing attention in recent years. However, its large-scale implementation is constrained by policy challenges. Despite growing interest, limited research has systematically examined how agrivoltaics are incorporated into policy frameworks worldwide. This study systematically reviews the scientific literature on agrivoltaic policies and the policy frameworks supporting their implementation.</p><h3>Main text</h3><p>Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA 2020) framework, peer-reviewed literature from Scopus and Web of Science was analysed, including journal articles, review papers, and conference proceedings in English. Out of 308 publications, 12 focused on policy instruments for agrivoltaics and met the inclusion criteria. The selected studies, published between 2021 and 2024, were examined to identify recurring policy themes, instruments, and implementation approaches. The review identified two main research approaches: one assessing the potential of agrivoltaics within legal frameworks through policy adjustments of existing legislation, and the other addressing policy instruments specific to agrivoltaics. A compilation of policies from several countries was conducted, encompassing different types of instruments, with economic and financial incentives being the most frequently identified. Key literature gaps included limited geographic coverage and inadequately addressed issues. The lack of policy integration across the energy, agriculture, and land use sectors, coupled with unclear guidelines regarding agrivoltaics, was identified as a constraint to its upscaling.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>The study highlights the fragmented nature of agrivoltaic policy and the need for more policy-integrated frameworks to support its expansion. The findings underscore the importance of addressing policy effectiveness, stakeholder roles, business models, and strategies in underrepresented regions. Limitations of this review stem from the limited geographic scope of the literature analysed and the non-inclusion of grey literature. Future research should examine how different policy instruments influence the adoption of agrivoltaics and how cross-sector coordination can support its development. These insights contribute to advancing research on agrivoltaics and policymaking, supporting the broader energy transition.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-025-00555-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146082748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Multi-criteria feasible optimisation of a sustainable aquaponic system for rural areas in Cape Verde","authors":"Luis Mazorra-Aguiar,&nbsp;Fabian Deniz,&nbsp;Priscila Velazquez,&nbsp;Eduardo Vega-Fuentes,&nbsp;Lidia Robaina","doi":"10.1186/s13705-025-00553-9","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s13705-025-00553-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><p>Climate change is exacerbating the lack of fertile land and the scarcity of irrigation water. To guarantee food security in this context, aquaponic systems have been developed. An aquaponic system achieves the simultaneous production of plants and fish by recirculating water through both subsystems. Combining these two production technologies provides an efficient and sustainable method of growing fish and producing plants. These types of systems are often installed in rural areas, where the electrical grid is not completely reliable.</p><h3>Methods</h3><p>This work assesses a Hybrid Renewable Energy System to improve the sustainability and efficiency of isolated aquaponic production systems. The simulated systems are based on renewable energy sources using photovoltaic, wind, diesel and battery technologies. The main contribution of this study is the improvement in the decision-making process for selecting the optimal hybrid system for each project. A multi-criteria decision-making procedure based on technical and economic variables of the project is proposed. The criteria used in this study are NPC (20 and 10 years), payback, initial cost, O&amp;M cost and renewable fraction (%) cover by the system. The procedure requires calculating hourly simulations of the energy flow in the installation with different hybrid configurations. In this work, a case of a hybrid system located on the island of Santo Domingo (Cape Verde) is presented using more than 1680 different sizing configurations.</p><h3>Results</h3><p>The solution obtained improves the results offered by other hybrid system optimisation software. The investment in the multi-criteria solution is 20 k€ less expensive than that obtained using other software and provides a payback period of four years, half a year less without affecting the rest of the decision criteria. Compared to the diesel base case, the solution saves more than 200 k€ in 20 years and will save more than 28 tonnes of CO<span>(_2)</span> per year. Moreover, this approach ensures the selection of a technically feasible configuration that aligns with the constraints of each project.</p><h3>Conclusions</h3><p>This study will have an impact on the circular economy of experimental aquaponic farming production systems, making them more accessible in agricultural areas with energy problems.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":539,"journal":{"name":"Energy, Sustainability and Society","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":5.1,"publicationDate":"2025-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s13705-025-00553-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145886911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}