Athanasios Rentizelas - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Athanasios Rentizelas
This presentation looks at market evaluation for gasifiers in Greec
Biomass tri-generation constitutes an innovative renewable energy application. An approved UNFCCC... more Biomass tri-generation constitutes an innovative renewable energy application. An approved UNFCCC baseline methodology has been extended in this paper to examine a biomass trigeneration application. Some environmental and financial aspects of this type of applications were investigated through a case study. It has been shown that tri-generation may result in significant emissions reduction, compared to using conventional energy sources or even biomass cogeneration. The emissions reduction achieved may be materialized into a considerable revenue stream for the project, if traded through EU ETS. However, the high volatility of the tCO2e value and the EU Trading Scheme being still in its infancy prevent a reliable estimation of the related revenue. For this reason, a sensitivity analysis has been performed. The work concludes that greenhouse gas emissions trading may develop into one of the major revenue streams of biomass tri-generation projects, significantly increasing their financial yield and attractiveness.
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal has been a controversial issue in many countries over the pa... more Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal has been a controversial issue in many countries over the past years. Issues such as the increasing public opposition in creating new landfills, stricter environmental regulations, as well as a change in the European Union directives for MSW management, have complicated further the decision of locating a MSW disposal facility. One of the ways of treating/disposing MSW is energy recovery, as waste is considered to contain a considerable amount of bio-waste, therefore being able to lead to renewable energy production. Especially if co-generation or tri-generation is performed, the overall efficiency can be very high. In this paper, a model is presented, aiming to support decision makers on issues relating to Municipal Solid Waste energy recovery. The idea of using more fuel sources, including MSW and agricultural residue biomass types that may exist in a rural area is explored. The model aims at optimising the system specifications, such as the capacity of the Waste-to-Energy co-generation facility, the capacity of the peak-load biomass boiler and the location of the energy conversion facility. Furthermore, it defines the quantities from each potential fuel source that should be used annually, in order to maximise the financial yields of the investment in the energy conversion facility. The results of a case study application at a rural area of Greece are presented, for energy tri-generation from mixed MSW and biomass fuel. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is performed on the effect of the most important parameters of the model on the optimum solution.
This paper examines multi-biomass supply chain and optimisatio
Electricity markets constitute an important and rapidly developing research field in the area of ... more Electricity markets constitute an important and rapidly developing research field in the area of energy economics. Deregulation and other organizational advances in international level have boosted electricity markets allowing customers to choose their provider and new producers to compete Public Power Companies. Within the frame of electricity market deregulation, energy related enterprises ought to be one step ahead of competition. Furthermore, emerging electricity generation technologies as well as technologies based on renewable energy sources progressively become attractive investment alternatives. CO2 trading and Kyoto protocol's targets on the other hand impose new standards on the financial aspects of power generation thus altering the environmental planning of private energy-related industry. The experience gathered till now, is not sufficient to derive safe conclusions regarding the efficiency and applicability of electricity production within the frame of the above mentioned advances. A computational tool is presented that models different investment options based on older and new emerging power production technologies. This model investigates important economic aspects as well. Electricity demand and prices of fuels fluctuate in ranges characterized by numerical uncertainty and this is dealt with appropriate stochastic numerical techniques. The same stands for the emissions trading allowance prices which contribute significantly to both cost and revenues through a highly volatile pattern. Finding the contribution of emissions trading to the expenses and revenues of the electricity sector is the primary objective of the model. Additionally, a comparison between the different electricity production technologies in terms of financial efficiency is presented. The different investment options analyzed, lead to interesting conclusions which might affect State policy interventions as well as potential private investment strategies.
Wind power plants are considered as one of the most feasible pathways to move towards a carbon fr... more Wind power plants are considered as one of the most feasible pathways to move towards a carbon free economy. However, several issues have to be mitigated to achieve this goal. In this paper we analyse in detail the technical, financial and economic issues and try to quantify the benefits and costs associated with the transition to a zero-carbon economy through the use of wind turbines. This clarification will help us address the obstacles we need to overcome in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a more efficient manner. Dangerous Climate Change is a fact and immediate action should be taken to avoid its negative impacts. The power production industry is the most polluting industry, releasing the largest amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Although wind power generators are a promising technology, their implementation cannot address this problem totally, as several challenges have to be alleviated. Firstly, the construction of wind turbines emits carbon gases that alter greenhouse effect equilibrium. Moreover, the intermittency of wind power generation may fail to meet the requested demand. From a financial perspective, wind power facilities are more expensive in comparison to power plants operating with fossil fuels. The high amount of capital needed for investments has to be bridged within the current market conditions and additional frameworks should be implemented. Furthermore, the economy as a whole will be affected; socioeconomic effects with employment impacts and increased electricity bills may alter current economic standards.
A model to investigate a fuel based optimality approach for strategic investments in the power se... more A model to investigate a fuel based optimality approach for strategic investments in the power sector is presented. The innovative concept of switching between the available operating fuel sources of the power plant over its lifetime is examined. More specifically, the case study examined, concerns an existing lignite power plant that may switch its fuel to natural gas, and from that point on it may either switch back to lignite or retain natural gas or routinely switch between the alternative fuels. This research concentrates on the electricity market of Greece, for the period of 2010-2030. Probabilistic models to forecast future prices are used in conjunction with a real options model to cope with alternative strategies. Depending on the economical and environmental standings of each period, the power plant can alter its input fuel to maximize profits or reduce emissions. Therefore, more options for the operating fuel emerge, thus reducing business risks and exploiting the most profitable operational option in response to markets instabilities (i.e. fuel price differences over time, emissions cost fluctuation, etc.). Strategic flexibility, security of supply, stability, and increased profits are the potential advantages of the presented model dealing with energy investments.
Municipal solid waste management is one of the most pressing issues of today's societies as t... more Municipal solid waste management is one of the most pressing issues of today's societies as the consequences of growing economies in waste generation have serious effects on the environment. These effects are even more difficult to tackle in remote areas such as islands or mountainous areas, both types of which are dominant in the Greek topography. More specifically, the current situation is compared financially to a municipal solid waste transportation scenario for treatment in large scale facilities. A statistical analysis of population data and waste generation in the past years will be used to predict the future waste generation in the examined regions. This research concentrates on areas where sanitary landfills are either obsolete or non-existent, and where the common practice is using open dumps. Using geographical data in conjunction with satellite information and some rough estimations for fuel cost in the future, transportation costs are calculated. Advantages of the e...
Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
A fuel based optimality approach is to be presented, adapted for large retrofitting projects in t... more A fuel based optimality approach is to be presented, adapted for large retrofitting projects in the electricity market. The case study focuses on existing lignite power plants that may switch their fuel to natural gas and from that point on they may either switch back to lignite or retain natural gas or routinely switch between these two alternative operating fuels. The goal of the operating fuel rotation is to maximize profits, depending on the economical and environmental characteristics of each discrete time period under study. The business risks may also be reduced by exploiting the most profitable operational option in response to markets’ instabilities. The data for this research have been retrieved from the Greek Power Sector. Probabilistic models are utilized for the simulation of future prices, in conjunction with a real options model used for the analysis of the alternative strategies. The study has shown that the potential benefits from the implementation of fuel rotation are reflected in the anticipated financial yields, which may be significantly higher than in single fuel operation. Moreover, the operational stability and flexibility as well as the security of fuel supply are also ensured in the target power plant.
The experience curve effect has always challenged technology-related decisions. In the electricit... more The experience curve effect has always challenged technology-related decisions. In the electricity sector, new renewable electricity generation technologies have shown a considerably high learning rate up to now, which could differentiate the profitability of energy generation technologies in the near future. The scope of this work is to investigate the effect that the Experience Curve of the renewable energy technologies may have on the orders for new electricity generation technologies and therefore, on the future electricity generation mix of Greece. The official renewable energy generation targets are considered as a constraint of the system, and the learning rates of the various technologies are included in the calculations. Three scenarios of learning rates have been applied, to examine the experience curve effect on renewable energy penetration. The national electricity generation system is modeled for long-term analysis and a linear programming method is applied, in order to come up with the optimal generating mix that minimizes electricity generation cost, while satisfying the national emissions reduction targets. In addition, two scenarios for future emission allowance prices are considered, in order to examine the effect of changes in this very volatile parameter. Furthermore, an investigation is made to identify if a point should be expected when renewable energy will be more profitable than conventional fuel electricity generation.
The Sustainable World, 2010
Tunnels are regarded as one of the most important infrastructures in Europe as they may improve t... more Tunnels are regarded as one of the most important infrastructures in Europe as they may improve the connection of regions and aid economic development through facilitating the transportation of people and goods. In order to achieve a minimum acceptable level of safety the EC issued the Directive 2004/54/EC that describes specific safety measures that have to be taken for all road tunnels in the trans-European road network. In parallel, there are several qualitative or quantitative methods for measuring road tunnels safety, while the method that seems to be the mostly accepted by administrative authorities for quantitative risk analysis is the OECD /PIARC QRA Model (QRAM) that has been developed by INERIS, WS-Atkins and the Institute for Risk Research. QRAM is based on engineering software that aids quantitatively assessment of the societal risk because of transporting goods and dangerous goods with Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) through road tunnels. The aim of the paper is to expose the effectiveness of the measures imposed by the EC in Greek road tunnels. A typical road tunnel as designed and implemented after the Directive 2004/54/EC is compared to the same tunnel as if it was developed before the Directive was put into action. The comparison is made on the basis of the societal risk existing in the two cases. The conclusion of the paper, based on the outcome of the risk analysis with the QRAM method, is that the safety of Greek Tunnels is significantly improved due to the implementation of the measures imposed by the EC Directive 2004/54/EC.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2010
Green Energy and Technology, 2012
The issue of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management is an ever increasing problem for all countri... more The issue of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management is an ever increasing problem for all countries. Developed countries face the problem of dealing with very large amounts of MSW per capita, forcing them to develop new technologies and systems. On the other hand, countries with developing or transitional economies may generate lower amounts of MSW per capita, but the rate of increase is high and the current practices of MSW management are not as advanced as those of developed countries. Therefore, countries with developing or transitional economies may benefit from adopting MSW management technologies used by developed economies. One aspect of MSW management in developed economies is the energy recovery from MSW. The advantages of this type of technologies are mainly the significantly reduced waste volume for landfilling, the reduction of total greenhouse gas emissions, the potential for generating electricity or co-generation of electricity and heat. In this work, a comparative study of the most prominent co-generation technologies using MSW as a fuel source is presented, focusing on the evolution of their economical performance over time. An algorithm based on real-options has been applied for four technologies of MSW energy recovery: (1) incineration, (2) gasification, (3) landfill biogas exploitation using a pipeline system and (4) anaerobic digestion facilities. The financial contributors are identified and the impact of greenhouse gas trading is analyzed in terms of financial yields, considering landfilling as the baseline scenario. The greenhouse gas trading system presents an opportunity for investing in environmentally friendly technologies for MSW energy recovery, through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), in most developing countries. The results of this work indicate an advantage of combined heat and power over solely electricity generation. The most attractive technology among the ones examined proves to be incineration, mainly due to its higher power production efficiency, lower investment costs and lower emission rates. Despite the fact that these characteristics may not drastically change over time, either immediate or irreversible investment decisions might be reconsidered under the current selling prices of heat, power and CO2 allowances.
Environmental Economics and Investment Assessment, 2006
Despite the significant boost that some renewable energy sources have undergone lately, partly pr... more Despite the significant boost that some renewable energy sources have undergone lately, partly promoted by the favourable EU legislation, biomass seems to face difficulties in realising its expected share in energy production. Some major reasons for this are the complexity of a bioenergy system and its related fuel supply chain, the wide variety of available technologies and most importantly the low and uncertain financial yield of bioenergy projects. This paper utilizes an innovative generic methodology for performing investment analysis in parallel with optimization of the location and the key characteristics of the biomass-to-energy project. This methodology may serve as a decision support tool for potential investors and may assist in promoting relevant investment decisions. The model developed focuses on the holistic optimization of the design and operational characteristics of a biomass energy conversion facility, including the discrete phases of biomass logistics, energy conversion and final energy products supply. The innovative ideas of using multiple biomass sources as well as employing tri-generation for district energy applications aim at proposing a more cost-effective system layout for biomass energy exploitation. In addition to these ideas, the recent issue of emissions trading and its potential impact on a bioenergy project is investigated in this paper. The analysis performed concludes that emissions trading is of extremely high importance for biomass-to-energy projects, as it may prove to be a major revenue stream.
Water, Air, & Soil Pollution: Focus, 2008
Biomass cogeneration is widely used for district heating applications in central and northern Eur... more Biomass cogeneration is widely used for district heating applications in central and northern Europe. Biomass trigeneration on the other hand, constitutes an innovative renewable energy application. In this work, an approved United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change baseline methodology has been extended to allow the examination of biomass trigeneration applications. The methodology is applied to a case study in Greece to investigate various environmental and financial aspects of this type of applications. The results suggest that trigeneration may lead to significant emissions reduction compared to using fossil fuels or even biomass cogeneration and electricity generation. The emissions reduction achieved may be materialized into a considerable revenue stream for the project, if traded through a trading mechanism such as the European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Scheme. A sensitivity analysis has been performed to compensate for the high volatility of the emission allowances' value and the immaturity of the EU Trading Scheme, which prevent a reliable estimation of the related revenue. The work concludes that emission allowances trading may develop into one of the major revenue streams of biomass trigeneration projects, significantly increasing their financial yield and attractiveness. The impact on the yield is significant even for low future values of emission allowances and could become the main income revenue source of such projects, if emission allowances increase their value substantially. The application of trigeneration for district energy proves to lead to increased environmental and financial benefits compared to the cogeneration or electricity generation cases.
Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy, 2010
Waste management has become a great social concern for modern societies. Landfill emissions have ... more Waste management has become a great social concern for modern societies. Landfill emissions have been identified among the major contributors of global warming and climate changes with significant impact in national economies. The energy industry constitutes an additional greenhouse gas emitter, while at the same time it is characterized by significant costs and uncertain fuel prices. The above implications have triggered different policies and measures worldwide to address the management of municipal solid wastes on the one hand and the impacts from energy production on the other. Emerging methods of energy recovery from waste may address both concerns simultaneously. In this work a comparative study of co-generation investments based on municipal solid waste is presented, focusing on the evolution of their economical performance over time. A real-options algorithm has been adopted investigating different options of energy recovery from waste: incineration, gasification and landfil...
Waste Management, 2014
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal has been a controversial issue in many countries over the pa... more Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal has been a controversial issue in many countries over the past years, due to disagreement among the various stakeholders on the waste management policies and technologies to be adopted. One of the ways of treating/disposing MSW is energy recovery, as waste is considered to contain a considerable amount of bio-waste and therefore can lead to renewable energy production. The overall efficiency can be very high in the cases of co-generation or tri-generation. In this paper a model is presented, aiming to support decision makers in issues relating to Municipal Solid Waste energy recovery. The idea of using more fuel sources, including MSW and agricultural residue biomass that may exist in a rural area, is explored. The model aims at optimizing the system specifications, such as the capacity of the base-load Waste-to-Energy facility, the capacity of the peak-load biomass boiler and the location of the facility. Furthermore, it defines the quantity of each potential fuel source that should be used annually, in order to maximize the financial yield of the investment. The results of an energy tri-generation case study application at a rural area of Greece, using mixed MSW and biomass, indicate positive financial yield of investment. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is performed on the effect of the most important parameters of the model on the optimum solution, pinpointing the parameters of interest rate, investment cost and heating oil price, as those requiring the attention of the decision makers. Finally, the sensitivity analysis is enhanced by a stochastic analysis to determine the effect of the volatility of parameters on the robustness of the model and the solution obtained.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2010
This presentation looks at market evaluation for gasifiers in Greec
Biomass tri-generation constitutes an innovative renewable energy application. An approved UNFCCC... more Biomass tri-generation constitutes an innovative renewable energy application. An approved UNFCCC baseline methodology has been extended in this paper to examine a biomass trigeneration application. Some environmental and financial aspects of this type of applications were investigated through a case study. It has been shown that tri-generation may result in significant emissions reduction, compared to using conventional energy sources or even biomass cogeneration. The emissions reduction achieved may be materialized into a considerable revenue stream for the project, if traded through EU ETS. However, the high volatility of the tCO2e value and the EU Trading Scheme being still in its infancy prevent a reliable estimation of the related revenue. For this reason, a sensitivity analysis has been performed. The work concludes that greenhouse gas emissions trading may develop into one of the major revenue streams of biomass tri-generation projects, significantly increasing their financial yield and attractiveness.
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal has been a controversial issue in many countries over the pa... more Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal has been a controversial issue in many countries over the past years. Issues such as the increasing public opposition in creating new landfills, stricter environmental regulations, as well as a change in the European Union directives for MSW management, have complicated further the decision of locating a MSW disposal facility. One of the ways of treating/disposing MSW is energy recovery, as waste is considered to contain a considerable amount of bio-waste, therefore being able to lead to renewable energy production. Especially if co-generation or tri-generation is performed, the overall efficiency can be very high. In this paper, a model is presented, aiming to support decision makers on issues relating to Municipal Solid Waste energy recovery. The idea of using more fuel sources, including MSW and agricultural residue biomass types that may exist in a rural area is explored. The model aims at optimising the system specifications, such as the capacity of the Waste-to-Energy co-generation facility, the capacity of the peak-load biomass boiler and the location of the energy conversion facility. Furthermore, it defines the quantities from each potential fuel source that should be used annually, in order to maximise the financial yields of the investment in the energy conversion facility. The results of a case study application at a rural area of Greece are presented, for energy tri-generation from mixed MSW and biomass fuel. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis is performed on the effect of the most important parameters of the model on the optimum solution.
This paper examines multi-biomass supply chain and optimisatio
Electricity markets constitute an important and rapidly developing research field in the area of ... more Electricity markets constitute an important and rapidly developing research field in the area of energy economics. Deregulation and other organizational advances in international level have boosted electricity markets allowing customers to choose their provider and new producers to compete Public Power Companies. Within the frame of electricity market deregulation, energy related enterprises ought to be one step ahead of competition. Furthermore, emerging electricity generation technologies as well as technologies based on renewable energy sources progressively become attractive investment alternatives. CO2 trading and Kyoto protocol's targets on the other hand impose new standards on the financial aspects of power generation thus altering the environmental planning of private energy-related industry. The experience gathered till now, is not sufficient to derive safe conclusions regarding the efficiency and applicability of electricity production within the frame of the above mentioned advances. A computational tool is presented that models different investment options based on older and new emerging power production technologies. This model investigates important economic aspects as well. Electricity demand and prices of fuels fluctuate in ranges characterized by numerical uncertainty and this is dealt with appropriate stochastic numerical techniques. The same stands for the emissions trading allowance prices which contribute significantly to both cost and revenues through a highly volatile pattern. Finding the contribution of emissions trading to the expenses and revenues of the electricity sector is the primary objective of the model. Additionally, a comparison between the different electricity production technologies in terms of financial efficiency is presented. The different investment options analyzed, lead to interesting conclusions which might affect State policy interventions as well as potential private investment strategies.
Wind power plants are considered as one of the most feasible pathways to move towards a carbon fr... more Wind power plants are considered as one of the most feasible pathways to move towards a carbon free economy. However, several issues have to be mitigated to achieve this goal. In this paper we analyse in detail the technical, financial and economic issues and try to quantify the benefits and costs associated with the transition to a zero-carbon economy through the use of wind turbines. This clarification will help us address the obstacles we need to overcome in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a more efficient manner. Dangerous Climate Change is a fact and immediate action should be taken to avoid its negative impacts. The power production industry is the most polluting industry, releasing the largest amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Although wind power generators are a promising technology, their implementation cannot address this problem totally, as several challenges have to be alleviated. Firstly, the construction of wind turbines emits carbon gases that alter greenhouse effect equilibrium. Moreover, the intermittency of wind power generation may fail to meet the requested demand. From a financial perspective, wind power facilities are more expensive in comparison to power plants operating with fossil fuels. The high amount of capital needed for investments has to be bridged within the current market conditions and additional frameworks should be implemented. Furthermore, the economy as a whole will be affected; socioeconomic effects with employment impacts and increased electricity bills may alter current economic standards.
A model to investigate a fuel based optimality approach for strategic investments in the power se... more A model to investigate a fuel based optimality approach for strategic investments in the power sector is presented. The innovative concept of switching between the available operating fuel sources of the power plant over its lifetime is examined. More specifically, the case study examined, concerns an existing lignite power plant that may switch its fuel to natural gas, and from that point on it may either switch back to lignite or retain natural gas or routinely switch between the alternative fuels. This research concentrates on the electricity market of Greece, for the period of 2010-2030. Probabilistic models to forecast future prices are used in conjunction with a real options model to cope with alternative strategies. Depending on the economical and environmental standings of each period, the power plant can alter its input fuel to maximize profits or reduce emissions. Therefore, more options for the operating fuel emerge, thus reducing business risks and exploiting the most profitable operational option in response to markets instabilities (i.e. fuel price differences over time, emissions cost fluctuation, etc.). Strategic flexibility, security of supply, stability, and increased profits are the potential advantages of the presented model dealing with energy investments.
Municipal solid waste management is one of the most pressing issues of today's societies as t... more Municipal solid waste management is one of the most pressing issues of today's societies as the consequences of growing economies in waste generation have serious effects on the environment. These effects are even more difficult to tackle in remote areas such as islands or mountainous areas, both types of which are dominant in the Greek topography. More specifically, the current situation is compared financially to a municipal solid waste transportation scenario for treatment in large scale facilities. A statistical analysis of population data and waste generation in the past years will be used to predict the future waste generation in the examined regions. This research concentrates on areas where sanitary landfills are either obsolete or non-existent, and where the common practice is using open dumps. Using geographical data in conjunction with satellite information and some rough estimations for fuel cost in the future, transportation costs are calculated. Advantages of the e...
Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
A fuel based optimality approach is to be presented, adapted for large retrofitting projects in t... more A fuel based optimality approach is to be presented, adapted for large retrofitting projects in the electricity market. The case study focuses on existing lignite power plants that may switch their fuel to natural gas and from that point on they may either switch back to lignite or retain natural gas or routinely switch between these two alternative operating fuels. The goal of the operating fuel rotation is to maximize profits, depending on the economical and environmental characteristics of each discrete time period under study. The business risks may also be reduced by exploiting the most profitable operational option in response to markets’ instabilities. The data for this research have been retrieved from the Greek Power Sector. Probabilistic models are utilized for the simulation of future prices, in conjunction with a real options model used for the analysis of the alternative strategies. The study has shown that the potential benefits from the implementation of fuel rotation are reflected in the anticipated financial yields, which may be significantly higher than in single fuel operation. Moreover, the operational stability and flexibility as well as the security of fuel supply are also ensured in the target power plant.
The experience curve effect has always challenged technology-related decisions. In the electricit... more The experience curve effect has always challenged technology-related decisions. In the electricity sector, new renewable electricity generation technologies have shown a considerably high learning rate up to now, which could differentiate the profitability of energy generation technologies in the near future. The scope of this work is to investigate the effect that the Experience Curve of the renewable energy technologies may have on the orders for new electricity generation technologies and therefore, on the future electricity generation mix of Greece. The official renewable energy generation targets are considered as a constraint of the system, and the learning rates of the various technologies are included in the calculations. Three scenarios of learning rates have been applied, to examine the experience curve effect on renewable energy penetration. The national electricity generation system is modeled for long-term analysis and a linear programming method is applied, in order to come up with the optimal generating mix that minimizes electricity generation cost, while satisfying the national emissions reduction targets. In addition, two scenarios for future emission allowance prices are considered, in order to examine the effect of changes in this very volatile parameter. Furthermore, an investigation is made to identify if a point should be expected when renewable energy will be more profitable than conventional fuel electricity generation.
The Sustainable World, 2010
Tunnels are regarded as one of the most important infrastructures in Europe as they may improve t... more Tunnels are regarded as one of the most important infrastructures in Europe as they may improve the connection of regions and aid economic development through facilitating the transportation of people and goods. In order to achieve a minimum acceptable level of safety the EC issued the Directive 2004/54/EC that describes specific safety measures that have to be taken for all road tunnels in the trans-European road network. In parallel, there are several qualitative or quantitative methods for measuring road tunnels safety, while the method that seems to be the mostly accepted by administrative authorities for quantitative risk analysis is the OECD /PIARC QRA Model (QRAM) that has been developed by INERIS, WS-Atkins and the Institute for Risk Research. QRAM is based on engineering software that aids quantitatively assessment of the societal risk because of transporting goods and dangerous goods with Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV) through road tunnels. The aim of the paper is to expose the effectiveness of the measures imposed by the EC in Greek road tunnels. A typical road tunnel as designed and implemented after the Directive 2004/54/EC is compared to the same tunnel as if it was developed before the Directive was put into action. The comparison is made on the basis of the societal risk existing in the two cases. The conclusion of the paper, based on the outcome of the risk analysis with the QRAM method, is that the safety of Greek Tunnels is significantly improved due to the implementation of the measures imposed by the EC Directive 2004/54/EC.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2010
Green Energy and Technology, 2012
The issue of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management is an ever increasing problem for all countri... more The issue of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management is an ever increasing problem for all countries. Developed countries face the problem of dealing with very large amounts of MSW per capita, forcing them to develop new technologies and systems. On the other hand, countries with developing or transitional economies may generate lower amounts of MSW per capita, but the rate of increase is high and the current practices of MSW management are not as advanced as those of developed countries. Therefore, countries with developing or transitional economies may benefit from adopting MSW management technologies used by developed economies. One aspect of MSW management in developed economies is the energy recovery from MSW. The advantages of this type of technologies are mainly the significantly reduced waste volume for landfilling, the reduction of total greenhouse gas emissions, the potential for generating electricity or co-generation of electricity and heat. In this work, a comparative study of the most prominent co-generation technologies using MSW as a fuel source is presented, focusing on the evolution of their economical performance over time. An algorithm based on real-options has been applied for four technologies of MSW energy recovery: (1) incineration, (2) gasification, (3) landfill biogas exploitation using a pipeline system and (4) anaerobic digestion facilities. The financial contributors are identified and the impact of greenhouse gas trading is analyzed in terms of financial yields, considering landfilling as the baseline scenario. The greenhouse gas trading system presents an opportunity for investing in environmentally friendly technologies for MSW energy recovery, through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), in most developing countries. The results of this work indicate an advantage of combined heat and power over solely electricity generation. The most attractive technology among the ones examined proves to be incineration, mainly due to its higher power production efficiency, lower investment costs and lower emission rates. Despite the fact that these characteristics may not drastically change over time, either immediate or irreversible investment decisions might be reconsidered under the current selling prices of heat, power and CO2 allowances.
Environmental Economics and Investment Assessment, 2006
Despite the significant boost that some renewable energy sources have undergone lately, partly pr... more Despite the significant boost that some renewable energy sources have undergone lately, partly promoted by the favourable EU legislation, biomass seems to face difficulties in realising its expected share in energy production. Some major reasons for this are the complexity of a bioenergy system and its related fuel supply chain, the wide variety of available technologies and most importantly the low and uncertain financial yield of bioenergy projects. This paper utilizes an innovative generic methodology for performing investment analysis in parallel with optimization of the location and the key characteristics of the biomass-to-energy project. This methodology may serve as a decision support tool for potential investors and may assist in promoting relevant investment decisions. The model developed focuses on the holistic optimization of the design and operational characteristics of a biomass energy conversion facility, including the discrete phases of biomass logistics, energy conversion and final energy products supply. The innovative ideas of using multiple biomass sources as well as employing tri-generation for district energy applications aim at proposing a more cost-effective system layout for biomass energy exploitation. In addition to these ideas, the recent issue of emissions trading and its potential impact on a bioenergy project is investigated in this paper. The analysis performed concludes that emissions trading is of extremely high importance for biomass-to-energy projects, as it may prove to be a major revenue stream.
Water, Air, & Soil Pollution: Focus, 2008
Biomass cogeneration is widely used for district heating applications in central and northern Eur... more Biomass cogeneration is widely used for district heating applications in central and northern Europe. Biomass trigeneration on the other hand, constitutes an innovative renewable energy application. In this work, an approved United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change baseline methodology has been extended to allow the examination of biomass trigeneration applications. The methodology is applied to a case study in Greece to investigate various environmental and financial aspects of this type of applications. The results suggest that trigeneration may lead to significant emissions reduction compared to using fossil fuels or even biomass cogeneration and electricity generation. The emissions reduction achieved may be materialized into a considerable revenue stream for the project, if traded through a trading mechanism such as the European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading Scheme. A sensitivity analysis has been performed to compensate for the high volatility of the emission allowances' value and the immaturity of the EU Trading Scheme, which prevent a reliable estimation of the related revenue. The work concludes that emission allowances trading may develop into one of the major revenue streams of biomass trigeneration projects, significantly increasing their financial yield and attractiveness. The impact on the yield is significant even for low future values of emission allowances and could become the main income revenue source of such projects, if emission allowances increase their value substantially. The application of trigeneration for district energy proves to lead to increased environmental and financial benefits compared to the cogeneration or electricity generation cases.
Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy, 2010
Waste management has become a great social concern for modern societies. Landfill emissions have ... more Waste management has become a great social concern for modern societies. Landfill emissions have been identified among the major contributors of global warming and climate changes with significant impact in national economies. The energy industry constitutes an additional greenhouse gas emitter, while at the same time it is characterized by significant costs and uncertain fuel prices. The above implications have triggered different policies and measures worldwide to address the management of municipal solid wastes on the one hand and the impacts from energy production on the other. Emerging methods of energy recovery from waste may address both concerns simultaneously. In this work a comparative study of co-generation investments based on municipal solid waste is presented, focusing on the evolution of their economical performance over time. A real-options algorithm has been adopted investigating different options of energy recovery from waste: incineration, gasification and landfil...
Waste Management, 2014
Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal has been a controversial issue in many countries over the pa... more Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal has been a controversial issue in many countries over the past years, due to disagreement among the various stakeholders on the waste management policies and technologies to be adopted. One of the ways of treating/disposing MSW is energy recovery, as waste is considered to contain a considerable amount of bio-waste and therefore can lead to renewable energy production. The overall efficiency can be very high in the cases of co-generation or tri-generation. In this paper a model is presented, aiming to support decision makers in issues relating to Municipal Solid Waste energy recovery. The idea of using more fuel sources, including MSW and agricultural residue biomass that may exist in a rural area, is explored. The model aims at optimizing the system specifications, such as the capacity of the base-load Waste-to-Energy facility, the capacity of the peak-load biomass boiler and the location of the facility. Furthermore, it defines the quantity of each potential fuel source that should be used annually, in order to maximize the financial yield of the investment. The results of an energy tri-generation case study application at a rural area of Greece, using mixed MSW and biomass, indicate positive financial yield of investment. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is performed on the effect of the most important parameters of the model on the optimum solution, pinpointing the parameters of interest rate, investment cost and heating oil price, as those requiring the attention of the decision makers. Finally, the sensitivity analysis is enhanced by a stochastic analysis to determine the effect of the volatility of parameters on the robustness of the model and the solution obtained.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2010