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Advanced drop-in biofuels in the UK to 2030

The UK has ambitious decarbonisation targets, and it is likely that advanced drop-in biofuels will form a key part of reducing GHG emissions from hard-to-decarbonise transport sectors such as aviation and freight. The Department for Transport (DfT) commissioned E4tech to evaluate the potential for production of advanced drop-in biofuels to 2030. The outcomes enabled the DfT to understand how UK policy can best be shaped to overcome commercialisation barriers and increase deployment of UK facilities, with several of the report’s recommendations taken up in the finalised changes to the Renewables Transport Fuel Obligation after an extensive public consultation.

The challenge of integrating large amounts of intermittent cheap renewable electricity requires a transformation of the energy system. The use of demand-side response (DSR) from distributed sources in homes, shops and offices is a potential source of flexibility. Controlling loads interactively also allows convergence between the electricity, heat and mobility sectors and helps to build resilience. Small scale DSR is already widely used in some countries and – in a simple form – has been widely used in UK in the form of Economy 7 tariffs.

What could the European cellulosic ethanol industry achieve by 2030?

The cellulosic ethanol industry is at a critical development stage; there are technology developers who are taking stock of the lessons learnt during the development of their first plants, and several more are constructing or planning their first plant. E4tech has undertaken a study on behalf of the European cellulosic ethanol industry to understand the deployment potential of the technology in the coming decade. This is important to determine the impact the industry can have on renewable energy use in the transport sector and its decarbonisation to 2030 and beyond.

E4tech completes “Efficient firewood utilization in households” project for GIZ in Serbia

After 44 months of activities E4tech successfully completed the “Efficient firewood utilization in households” project, part of the Serbian-German cooperation programme “Development of a Sustainable Bioenergy Market in Serbia “, run by GIZ, the German development agency. The project’s main objective was to improve the efficiency of firewood use in households. An awareness building campaign was implemented in the chosen pilot regions of Leskovac and Vlasotince (“South Serbia Region”) as well as Užice and Bajina Bašta (“South-West Serbia Region”), with the municipalities Ivanjica and Nova Varoš serving as “Control Region” in the impact evaluation of the undertaking.

Integrating renewable generation into the German electricity market is increasingly challenging. A new E4tech study proposes a solution for cost-efficient integration of renewables into grids and markets, whilst balancing and fostering technology and business model innovation. The work, commissioned by the German Renewables Foundation (Bundesverband Erneuerbare Energie e.V.) and Deutsche Messe AG, has been widely covered in the German Press (Erneuerbare Energien, SONNEWIND&WARME, pv magazine, SOLARIFY, EW Magazin) for its potential future use in innovation tenders as a blueprint for integrating renewables into markets and grids under the revised German Renewable Energies Act (EEG 2017).

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