Finite fossil fuel resources, as well as the instability of renewable energy production, make the sustainable management of energy production and consumption some of the key challenges of the 21st century. It also involves threats to the state of the natural environment, among others due to the negative impact of energy on the climate. In such a situation, one of the methods of improving the efficiency of energy management – both on the micro (dispersed energy) and macro (power system) scale, may be innovative technological solutions that enable energy storage. Their effective implementation will allow it to be collected during periods of overproduction and to be used in situations of scarcity. These challenges cannot be overestimated - modern science has a challenge to solve various types of problems related to storage, including the technology used or the control/ /management of energy storage. Heat storage technologies, on which research works are carried out regarding both storage based on a medium such as water, as well as storage using thermochemical transformations or phase-change materials. They give a wide range of applications and improve the efficiency of energy systems on both the macro and micro scale. Of course, the technological properties and economic parameters have an impact on the application of the chosen technology. The article presents a comparison of storage parameters or heat storage methods based on different materials with specification of their work parameters or operating costs.
The purpose of the article is to present perspectives for the development of offshore wind farms in the leading, in this respect, country in the EU and in the world – Great Britain. Wind power plays a remarkable role in the process of ensuring energy security for Europe since in 2016 the produced wind energy met 10.4% of the European electricity demand while in 2017 it was already around 11.6%. The article analyses the capacity of wind farms, support systems offered by this country and the criteria related to the location of offshore wind farms. The research has been based on the analysis of legal acts, regulations, literature on the subject, information from websites. The article shows that in recent years, the production of energy at sea has been developing very rapidly, and the leading, in this matter, British offshore energy sector is character-ised by strong governmental support.
The aim of the research is to assess and discuss the diversity of energy production and consumption in European Union countries. The time scope covers the years 2007 and 2016. The diversity of EU countries was examined using the cluster analysis. The following diagnostic features were adopted for the analysis: energy dependency rate (in %), gross inland consumption of energy per 10,000 inhabitants (toe/10,000 inhabitants), primary production of energy (all products) per 10,000 inhabitants (toe/10,000 inhabitants), primary production of renewable energies per 10,000 inhabitants (toe/10,000 inhabitants), primary production of energy (without renewable energy) per 10,000 inhabitants (toe/10,000 inhabitants). Comparing the included indicators from 2016 to 2007 for all EU countries, an increase was recorded only for the primary production of renewable energies per 10,000 inhabitants,. Based on the cluster analysis, the examined countries were divided into six groups. According to the results of the research carried out, Northern and Eastern European countries are characterized by low energy dependence. However, according to the analysis carried out, this dependence is guaranteed based on various energy sources. The Scandinavian countries (Sweden, Finland) owe their high independence to the production of large amounts of energy from renewable sources. On the other hand, countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark, Estonia and the whole of Eastern Europe are based on primary energy sources such as: coal, oil and gas. Southern Europe countries (Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus, Malta) are characterized by high energy dependence, as evidenced by low rates in the area of energy production, both in total and renewable and non-renewable energy production.
The agrarian process includes many industrial phenomena and events. The goal of economics as a science is to precisely detect and describe the relationships between various market mechanisms. These phenomena can be presented as the desire “to describe reality in terms of systems, their components and relationships, both between components of the system and between different systems” (Jankowski 1997). The energy sector is a special field among many areas of the national economy, and the products of this sector have a major impact on the branches of the economy and the mechanisms of action occurring in them. The publication is devoted to the construction of a mathematical model used to support the energy policy of local government units. The aim of the study is to build a mathematical model of energy production, taking the development potential of renewable energy into account, as well as to propose the desired direction of energy policy development in the analyzed periods to the regional authorities and to offer a model for creating an energy policy in other local government units: poviats, communes. Until now, few authors have comprehensively dealt with this issue. To date, no detailed research has been published on issues related to renewable energy development and the use of mathematical methods in the construction of the energy production model in local government units. The undertaken research is a contribution to the development of knowledge about alternative energy sources in the energy margin.
According to International Energy Agency (IEA) energy security is the continuous supply of energy at acceptable prices. National energy is based primarily on its own energy resources such as hard coal and brown coal. The 88% of electric energy production from these minerals gives us full energy independence. Additionally, the energy production costs from these raw materials are the lowest compared to other technologies. Of these two, the energy produced from brown coal is characterized by the lowest unit technical generating cost. Poland has the resources of these minerals for decades to come, the experience related to mining and processing them, scientific and design facilities and technical facilities and factories producing machines and equipment for their own needs, as well as for export. Coal is and should remain an important source of electricity and heat supply in Poland for the next 25–50 years. It is one of the most reliable and profitable energy sources. This policy may be difficult in the next decades due to the exhaustion of the available resources of hard and brown coal. The conditions for the construction of new mines, and thus for the development of coal mining in Poland, are very interdisciplinary in legal, environmental, economic and reputational terms. Germany has similar problems. Despite the fact that it is an image of a country investing in renewable energy sources, which are pioneers of energy production from RES, in reality hard and brown coal are still the primary sources utilized to produce electric energy.