Energy nexus最新文献

{"title":"Green restaurants: An economic assessment of solar photovoltaics and energy storage systems","authors":"Idiano D'Adamo ,&nbsp;Simone Di Leo ,&nbsp;Massimo Gastaldi ,&nbsp;Anna Chiara Maccallini","doi":"10.1016/j.nexus.2025.100612","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.nexus.2025.100612","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The transition to sustainable business models in the catering sector requires the integration of environmental innovation with economic feasibility. Restaurants, as energy-intensive businesses, represent a strategic context for assessing the financial viability of renewable energy technologies. This study evaluates the economic viability of photovoltaic (PV) and battery energy storage (BES) systems in Italy. The analysis evaluates the project under different policy conditions, with and without public incentives (40 % capital deduction on investment costs), and identifies the key factors that influence their profitability. A comprehensive methodology combining financial and sensitivity analysis, scenario analysis, LASSO regression, break-even point and Monte Carlo simulations was applied to assess economic performance and risk. The results show that the PV system is profitable in both contexts, although incentives significantly improve returns: from 425 to 1590 €/kW. Profitability depends mainly on specific production, the cost of purchasing electricity and the percentage of self-consumption. For the BES, profitability only occurs when self-consumption increases by at least 22–25 % with incentives and 30–35 % without them. Overall, the results emphasise that policy support and management strategies to optimise self-consumption are key to ensuring financial profitability. This work enables restaurant owners to identify the variables that most strongly influence the final outcome, helping them mitigate risks and maximise returns, while supporting more informed decisions that contribute to long-term sustainable development.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93548,"journal":{"name":"Energy nexus","volume":"21 ","pages":"Article 100612"},"PeriodicalIF":9.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145747037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pathways to feasible hydrogen production in alkaline water electrolyzers","authors":"Adnan Ozden","doi":"10.1016/j.nexus.2025.100620","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.nexus.2025.100620","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Renewable-electricity-powered hydrogen production via alkaline water electrolysis provides an efficient route to hydrogen economy. Recent advances in catalysts, membranes, and systems have enhanced the technology’s practicality. This work provides a techno-economic assessment of hydrogen production, offering scenarios that needs to be met toward wide-scale industrial implementation. The work explores the cost implications of critical performance metrics and parameters, including current density, cell voltage, Faradaic efficiency (FE), electricity and water prices, catalyst/membrane and system lifetimes, and electrolyzer cost. The study reveals 15 scenarios that could take the technology a step closer to the DOE’s hydrogen cost targets. The analysis reveals that the economically compelling production of hydrogen requires performance enhancements (particularly voltage reductions), along with lower electricity (&lt;3.6 c kWh⁻¹) and water (&lt;3 $ ton⁻¹) prices, longer catalyst/membrane lifetimes (&gt;13,140 hours), electrolyzer costs (&lt;200 kW⁻¹), and catalyst/membrane costs (&lt;5% of total electrolyzer capital). The work discusses the remaining technical and economic challenges, offering research directions toward marketable electrified hydrogen production.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93548,"journal":{"name":"Energy nexus","volume":"21 ","pages":"Article 100620"},"PeriodicalIF":9.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145747038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A pathway to food and energy security: Agrivoltaic potential in the MENA region","authors":"Mohammed E.B. Abdalla ,&nbsp;Osama Ayadi ,&nbsp;Aseel Al Omari ,&nbsp;Bilal Rinchi ,&nbsp;Jawad T. Al-Bakri","doi":"10.1016/j.nexus.2025.100610","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.nexus.2025.100610","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Agrivoltaics (AV), the co-location of solar photovoltaic energy generation and agricultural farming, directly addresses the water-energy-food nexus and associated security challenges. Maximizing land efficiency is a long-standing practice, and AV presents an untapped opportunity to optimize land use in countries struggling with water, energy, or food security. Despite its promise, AV potential remains unexplored in countries that could benefit the most, particularly those in the Middle East &amp; North Africa (MENA) region. While AV suitability has been studied in many countries, no region-wide, quantitative assessment exists for the MENA region, despite its acute resource constraints. This study is the first to quantify AV suitability across the MENA region, expressed as a proportion of national agricultural land, using a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based weighted overlay analysis. The method integrated openly available datasets on solar irradiance, land cover, slope, and agricultural land distribution, providing a consistent-resolution assessment at regional and national scales. Results show that in the absence of solar radiation limitations, AV-suitable areas almost perfectly overlap with agriculturally suitable areas, yielding ranges of 74–100% under a conservative scenario and 94–100% under an optimistic scenario. Results from a control set of countries (UK, JPN, ECU, SWZ) exhibited substantially lower overlap supporting these findings. These findings highlight the immense AV potential in the MENA region and demonstrate the scalability of this open-dataset approach, providing a foundation that encourages detailed crop-specific studies and pilot projects at localized scales.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93548,"journal":{"name":"Energy nexus","volume":"21 ","pages":"Article 100610"},"PeriodicalIF":9.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145798688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mitigating the water scarcity challenges by a novel Dual Stage Water Purifier Unit-An experimental study","authors":"Sampath Suranjan Salins ,&nbsp;Sawan Shetty ,&nbsp;Shiva Kumar ,&nbsp;Reema Shetty","doi":"10.1016/j.nexus.2025.100614","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.nexus.2025.100614","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study presents the development of a dual-stage water purification system for the treatment of grey water (GW) and saline water (SW). In the first stage, water was passed through a graded series of filtration layers arranged from coarse to fine, while the second stage employed organic packing materials—Celdek (C), coconut coir (CC), and wood shavings (WS)—to further enhance purification and humidification. Water quality was evaluated at multiple stages, with the system achieving optimum performance of 0.27 LPM production rate, 19% efficiency, and a specific filtration capacity of 265 LPM/m² when operated with saline water and Celdek packing. Results indicated that water production increased during the initial six minutes before stabilizing, with the first stage accounting for the greatest removal of impurities relative to the second. Across both stages, reductions were observed in total dissolved solids (29%), hardness (58%), chloride (50%), and sulphate (33.3%). Overall, the dual-stage water filtration–humidification unit demonstrated strong efficacy in treating both grey and saline water, delivering potable water that complies with EPA standards.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93548,"journal":{"name":"Energy nexus","volume":"21 ","pages":"Article 100614"},"PeriodicalIF":9.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145798684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ecological Footprint under the lens: A bibliometric coupling analysis of institutional and socioeconomic factors","authors":"Stefania Pinzon ,&nbsp;Ernesto Rodríguez-Crespo ,&nbsp;Brayan Tillaguango ,&nbsp;Nuria E. Laguna-Molina","doi":"10.1016/j.nexus.2026.100643","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.nexus.2026.100643","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Ecological Footprint (EF) is a vital metric for assessing the evolution of global sustainability, but its underlying factors are complex and interwoven. This study employs bibliometric analysis to map the vast academic landscape exploring how socioeconomic and institutional factors may influence the EF. By analyzing 929 publications from 1992–2025 using VOS Viewer and RStudio software, we visualize the evolution of key themes, major contributing countries, leading authors, and core journals. Results show that while research on economic drivers like GDP and energy use is prevalent, the role of institutional factors, such as governance quality and political stability, is increasingly recognized as fundamental yet requires greater attention. The findings provide a clear roadmap for academic scholars, highlighting the need to integrate institutional analyses with traditional economic models to better understand and mitigate ecological degradation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93548,"journal":{"name":"Energy nexus","volume":"21 ","pages":"Article 100643"},"PeriodicalIF":9.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146037984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Thermoelectric cooling in atmospheric water harvesting: A critical review of materials, design, and applications","authors":"Anwur Alenezi ,&nbsp;Yousef Alabaiadly","doi":"10.1016/j.nexus.2026.100648","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.nexus.2026.100648","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The principle of thermoelectric cooling (TEC) has been extensively investigated owing to its advantages in atmospheric water harvesting (AWH). Key advantages of this technology include direct energy conversion, low weight, and minimal maintenance requirements. This study reviews the TEC applications in AWH, focusing on device materials, design strategies, performance metrics, and existing limitations. A detailed bibliometric analysis was conducted on 202 peer-reviewed studies on TEC-AWH, sourced from Google Scholar and filtered for relevance, language, and scientific rigor (2000–2025). The temporal evolution of research output was mapped, and dominant thematic clusters were identified through keyword co-occurrence analysis. The review also highlights emerging frontiers, such as bio-inspired surfaces and AI-driven control and offers a strategic perspective for future research and innovation. Bismuth Telluride (Bi₂Te₃) remains the most widely utilized thermoelectric semiconductor material in TEC applications, owing to its high thermoelectric efficiency, stability, and availability. This makes Bi₂Te₃ a preferred candidate for integration into various energy conversion and cooling systems. Notably, bio-inspired and nature-mimicking surfaces have demonstrated a 20–40% improvement in water collection efficiency compared with flat or conventional hydrophobic coatings. Case studies further indicate that solar-TEC hybrid systems can generate 2–4 L/day in off-grid settings, significantly reducing dependence on bottled water and long-distance transportation. While TEC-AWH is not yet ready for large-scale deployment, it is on the cusp of transformative innovation. The integration of materials science, sustainable design principles, and artificial intelligence presents a unique opportunity to redefine global water sourcing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93548,"journal":{"name":"Energy nexus","volume":"21 ","pages":"Article 100648"},"PeriodicalIF":9.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146188430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Thermal degradation behaviour and kinetic analysis of effluent treatment plant sludge towards sustainable bioenergy potential","authors":"Gaurav Singh ,&nbsp;Ranjeet Kumar Mishra ,&nbsp;Neeraj Kumar","doi":"10.1016/j.nexus.2026.100669","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.nexus.2026.100669","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Effluent treatment plant sludge (ETPS) is a significant byproduct of the pulp and paper industry and has been investigated to assess its thermal degradation behaviour, kinetic parameters, and bioenergy recovery potential. Physicochemical characterisation revealed lower moisture content (4.40 wt.%), a higher volatile content (67.79 wt.%), and a significant ash fraction (19.22 wt.%), rich in catalytically active alkali metals. Thermogravimetric analysis at 10–30 °C/min showed three distinct stages: dehydration (30–150 ^oC), active devolatilization (150–700 ^oC), and char stabilisation (&gt;700 ^oC), with decomposition temperatures shifting higher at elevated heating rates due to kinetic effects. Furthermore, to capture the complex, multi-step reactions, eight iso-conversional kinetic models (KAS, OFW, FM, DAEM, STM, TM, VZM, and AVIC) were employed. The activation energy varied (139–350 kJ/mol) with conversion (0.1–0.8), confirming heterogeneous decomposition behaviour. The apparent average activation energies (185–225 kJ/mol) indicate moderate to high energy requirements influenced by inorganic interactions. Master plot analysis revealed a shift from diffusion-controlled mechanisms at early conversions to nucleation and interfacial reactions at higher conversions. Lastly, thermodynamic analysis indicated that ETPS pyrolysis is endothermic (ΔH &gt; 0), non-spontaneous (ΔG&gt;0), and disorder-promoting (ΔS&gt;0), requiring continuous heat supply. These results demonstrate the technical feasibility of ETPS valorisation through pyrolysis while highlighting the need for process optimisation to overcome ash-related operational challenges.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93548,"journal":{"name":"Energy nexus","volume":"21 ","pages":"Article 100669"},"PeriodicalIF":9.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146188344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Regenerative agrivoltaics: Challenges and opportunities in Southern California’s Inland Empire region","authors":"Kevin B. Grell ,&nbsp;Sophie S. Parker","doi":"10.1016/j.nexus.2026.100661","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.nexus.2026.100661","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>“Regenerative agrivoltaics” involves the co-location of regenerative agriculture (RA) and solar development. While RA focuses on promoting environmental quality, such as soil health, biodiversity, and other ecosystem services, agrivoltaics is concerned with the efficiency of dual land-use strategies. Here we describe a novel pilot project of a regenerative agrivoltaics installation in Southern California. We also explore the potential benefits, challenges, and future research opportunities that pertain to regenerative agrivoltaics. Despite recent progress in the development of policies that could support the co-location of solar development and RA, several challenges remain, including increasing the pace and scale of adoption of this land sharing approach, policy and regulatory barriers that prevent its adoption, technical and economic uncertainties, and social and cultural factors. Benefits that could be realized through the deployment of regenerative agrivoltaics include increased land productivity, enhanced soil health and biodiversity, climate change mitigation, and economic diversification. We discuss how agrivoltaics can provide farmers with a new revenue stream, while RA practices can enhance long-term soil fertility and crop yields. We also relate how regenerative agrivoltaics presents a promising opportunity to address growing global food and energy demands. Because this innovative land use combination is so new, further research is needed to fully maximize and quantify its benefits, especially given the potential for synergies and conflicts between solar development and regenerative agriculture.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93548,"journal":{"name":"Energy nexus","volume":"21 ","pages":"Article 100661"},"PeriodicalIF":9.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146188446","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A conceptual demonstration of direct contact membrane distillation and freeze desalination hybrid process for reverse osmosis brine treatment","authors":"Amira Nemmour ,&nbsp;Khadije El Kadi ,&nbsp;Isam Janajreh","doi":"10.1016/j.nexus.2026.100637","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.nexus.2026.100637","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Growing volumes of hypersaline reverse osmosis (RO) brine generated by desalination plants pose significant operational and environmental challenges, underscoring the need for energy-efficient treatment pathways that support zero-liquid-discharge objectives. Freeze desalination (FD) and membrane distillation (MD) have individually shown promise, yet existing hybrid FD–MD concepts remain limited by high thermal demands and by process configurations that typically apply FD before MD. This study proposes an enhanced hybrid desalination system for the treatment of RO brine, in which direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) is performed prior to freeze desalination. The MD-first configuration is designed to maximize water recovery, increase brine concentration toward eutectic conditions, and improve selective salt-hydrate recovery. The DCMD unit is evaluated using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to optimize flux and module performance, while thermodynamic modelling is employed to predict ice and salt crystallization behaviour across different operating conditions. A key innovation of this work is the introduction of a thermal-recovery optimization framework that quantifies and integrates two internal energy-recovery pathways: (i) recovery of cold energy released during ice melting in FD, and (ii) reuse of sensible heat from the MD brine stream. This integrated heat-reuse strategy significantly reduces the specific energy consumption (SEC) of the hybrid process. System performance is assessed across MD reject salinities of 70, 100, and 130 g/L and FD freezing temperatures of −10, −15, and −30 °C. The proposed system achieves an SEC of 403 kWh/m³ of freshwater without heat recovery, which decreases to 299 kWh/m³ with thermal integration. Increasing the FD freezing temperature from −30 °C to −10 °C further reduces SEC to 235 kWh/m³, with an expected trade-off in water recovery (85% to 55%) and salt extraction (∼75% to ∼15%). This integrated approach offers a promising and energy-efficient pathway toward zero liquid discharge in sustainable brine management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93548,"journal":{"name":"Energy nexus","volume":"21 ","pages":"Article 100637"},"PeriodicalIF":9.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146188895","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The role of environmental taxes on the energy use: Evidence from G7 countries","authors":"Derya Yayman","doi":"10.1016/j.nexus.2026.100681","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.nexus.2026.100681","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Reducing non-renewable energy consumption is fundamental for a sustainable environment and development. Assessing the factors that drive energy consumption is vital. This study analyzes the role of environmental taxes (ETAX), per capita gross domestic product (GDP), renewable energy consumption (REC), and environmental technological innovations (ETC) on non-renewable energy consumption (EU) in G7 economies. The study employs Autoregressive AR(1) specifications to account for serial correlation and utilizes heteroskedasticity-resistant Applicable Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) and Panel Adjusted Standard Errors (PCSE) estimators as basic econometric approaches to yield long-run empirical estimates for the period 1995–2021.The study's findings indicate that environmental taxes, environmental technologies, and increased renewable energy consumption negatively affect non-renewable energy consumption and positively affect per capita GDP growth. The study's policy implications emphasize that G-7 countries should reduce their energy consumption, increase energy efficiency, and strengthen their environmental policies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":93548,"journal":{"name":"Energy nexus","volume":"21 ","pages":"Article 100681"},"PeriodicalIF":9.5,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147396209","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}