The EU has set the policy target of reducing energy use by 20% by the year 2020. Therefore, a substantial consumption decrease is needed in built environment sector. Despite the great energy efficiency improvements in households, recent energy consumption data analyses show that these targets will unlikely be reached. The general aim of this study is to point out the need to define new indicato...

The increasing penetration of renewable generation increases the need for flexibility to accommodate for growing uncertainties. The level of flexibility is measured by the available power that can be provided by flexible resources, such as dispatachable generators, in a certain time period under the constraint of transmission capacity. In addition to conventional flexible resources, energy stor...

climate change and its possible impacts on the environment and socio-economic systems now constitute the most important environmental problem facing mankind in the 21st century. climate change will increase poverty and hardship, endanger food security, destabilize economies, decrease food and water and create social insecurity in many countries and undermine our goals for achieving sustainable ...

Given the constantly raising world-wide energy demand and the accompanying increase in greenhouse gas emissions that pushes the progression of climate change, the possibly most important task in future is to find a carbon-low energy supply that finds the right balance between sustainability and energy security. For renewable energy generation, however, especially the second aspect turns out to ...

Multi-energy systems can integrate heat and electrical energy efficiently, using resources such as cogeneration. In order to meet energy demand cost-effectively in a multi-energy system, adopting appropriate energy resources at the right time is of great importance. In this paper, we propose an expansion planning method for a multi-energy system that supplies heat and electrical energy. The pro...

The need for effective energy harvesting from renewable resources becomes increasingly important, especially in the light of the inevitable depletion of the fossil fuel energy sources. Among renewable energy sources, wind energy represents one of the most attractive alternatives. In this thesis, we construct several stochastic optimization models, including the traditional risk-neutral expectat...

The dramatic scale-up of renewable energy over the coming decades is likely to pose significant challenges for coordinating land use allocation, environmental assessment, energy system planning and the design of greenhouse gas abatement policy. Of particular concern is the establishment of institutions and processes that enable consideration of multiple objectives and attributes, with adequate ...

Micro energy grids have many merits and promising applications under the smart grid vision. There are demanding procedures for their optimal planning and performance enhancement. One of the key features of a micro energy grid is its ability to separate and isolate itself from the main electrical network to continue feeding its own islanded portion. In this paper, an optimal sizing and operation...