A.P.C. Faaij

• Professor
• Managing Director at TNO

Background While energy communities working on electricity provision have been extensively studied, thermal energy communities (TECs) focusing on bringing district heating (DH) systems to decarbonise heat systems in buildings have been relatively under-researched. This study addresses this gap by presenting the first comprehensive examination of ke...

Access to electricity is a crucial factor in boosting the economic, environmental, and social development of developing nations. This study presents a framework that combines and integrates indicators and methods to determine the most sustainable solution for off-grid electrification, focusing on the Mavumira village in Mozambique. The framework co...

Introduction Cities are taking up services of social importance under the (re)municipalisation movement. The Dutch government embarked on an ambitious heat transition and proposed in 2022 to make all district heating projects public or semi-public, with a majority public share. This proposal has sparked intense debates among groups in favour of and...

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) can lead to negative emissions, and is seen as an important option to decarbonize energy systems. Its potential decarbonization contribution depends on low-carbon resource availability, its ability to meet end-use demand and the geological storage potential to safely trap CO2. Here an energy system...

Bioenergy combined with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is projected to be an important technology option for climate change mitigation. However, the mitigation potential and feasibility of the large-scale deployment of BECCS depend on factors that include co-location of suitable storage basins and biomass resources with low-carbon stocks. Moreo...

The Loess Plateau, with a large area of marginal land, holds the potential to produce 62–106 Tg per year of switchgrass biomass; however, the economic feasibility of producing bioenergy in the region is unclear. The farm-gate feedstock production (FGFP) cost of switchgrass was calculated in a spatially explicit way by taking the geographic variatio...

Access to electricity in a sustainable, affordable, and reliable manner is still a challenge, especially for rural communities in developing regions. In this study, we applied the HOMER Pro software for scaling up electricity and finding the optimum system that can satisfy the future electricity demand cost-effectively. Additionally, we analyzed th...

Regional level energy system analyses and corresponding integrated modeling is necessary to analyze the impact of national energy policies on a regional level, while considering regional constraints related to energy infrastructure, energy supply potentials, sectoral energy demands, and their interactions. Nevertheless, current literature on energy...

The large-scale integration of variable renewable energy sources into the energy system presents techno–economic challenges. Long–term energy system optimization models fail to adequately capture these challenges because of the low temporal resolution of these tools. This limitation has often been addressed either by direct improvements within the...

Switchgrass is a promising energy crop has the potential to mitigate global warming and energy security, improve local ecology and generate profit. Its quantitative traits, such as biomass productivity and environmental adaptability, are determined by genotype‐by‐environment interaction (GEI) or response of genotypes grown across different target e...

It is essential to consider the social context when designing sustainable energy systems that lead to successful implementation in neighbourhoods. Current methods often only consider techno-economic aspects and are insufficiently capable of including social factors, because they are unclear about which social factors are relevant and how they can b...

Growing EU energy ambitions in the North Sea region are urging for an accelerated deployment of large-scale renewable energy (RE) infrastructure, with offshore wind farms (OWF) playing an essential role. However, implementing the current EU targets is limited by the competing spatial claims between existing sea uses and OWFs and uncertainties relat...

The North Sea Offshore Grid concept has been envisioned as a promising alternative to: 1) ease the integration of offshore wind and onshore energy systems, and 2) increase the cross-border capacity between the North Sea region countries at low cost. In this paper we explore the techno-economic benefits of the North Sea Offshore Grid using two case...

Biomass use for energy and materials is, on the one hand, one of the key mitigation options to reach the 1.5 °C GMT target set in the Paris Agreement, as highlighted by the IPCC and many other key analyses. On the other hand, particularly in parts of the EU, a strong negative connotation has emerged in public debate and EC policy, with a particular...

Municipalities are key actors in planning and enabling the transition in the built environment to sustainable heat systems. Literature on the municipal experiences in the early phases of the heat transition is scarce. This paper addresses this gap by depicting the approaches of twenty-eight municipalities in the Netherlands. It aims to assess the m...

Owing to the complexity of the sector, industrial activities are often represented with limited technological resolution in integrated energy system models. In this study, we enriched the technological description of industrial activities in the integrated energy system analysis optimisation (IESA-Opt) model, a peer-reviewed energy system optimisat...

The techno-economic performance and CO2 equivalent (CO2eq) reduction potential of bio-based aromatic production cases with and without CO2 capture and storage (CCS) have been evaluated and compared to those of fossil-based aromatic production. The bio-cases include naphtha catalytic reforming (NACR), tail gas reactive pyrolysis (TGRP), catalytic py...

Spatially sensitive regional renewables’ potentials are greatly influenced by existing land-use claims and related spatial and environmental policies. Similarly, heat particularly related to low-temperature demand applications in the built environment (BE) is highly spatially explicit. This study developed an analytical approach for a detailed spat...

To analyze the role of nuclear power in an integrated energy system, we used the IESA-Opt-N cost minimization model focusing on four key themes: system-wide impacts of nuclear power, uncertain technological costs, flexible generation, and cross-border electricity trade. We demonstrate that the LCOE alone should not be used to demonstrate the econom...

Offshore wind is a rapidly maturing low-carbon energy technology, for which the technology cost has increased before starting to decline. In literature, the cost development trends of offshore wind and factors responsible were poorly studied. Understanding the factors contributing to the cost developments and their individual impacts are vital for...

The North Sea Offshore Grid concept has been envisioned as a promising alternative to: 1) ease the integration of offshore wind and onshore energy systems, and 2) increase the cross-border capacity between the North Sea region countries at low cost. In this paper we explore the techno-economic benefits of the North Sea Offshore Grid using two case...

Models with a wide technological representation of energy systems can hardly adopt hourly resolutions to study the energy transition towards low-carbon technologies due to extended problem size. This compromises the model's ability to address the challenges of variable renewable energy sources and the cost-effectiveness of cross-sectoral flexibilit...

The oil and gas industry is responsible for 6% of total global CO2 emissions, from exploration to downstream petrochemical production and account for another 50% when including the use of its products. Thus, this industry has a significant role in realising the target of net “zero” CO2 emissions by 2070, essential to limit global warming to 1.8 °C...

Intending to analyze the role of nuclear power in an integrated energy system, we used the IESA-Opt-N cost minimization model focusing on four key themes: system-wide impacts of nuclear power, uncertain technological costs, flexible generation, and cross-border electricity trade. We demonstrate that the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) alone should...

Intending to analyze the role of nuclear power in an integrated energy system, we used the IESA-Opt-N cost minimization model focusing on four key themes: system-wide impacts of nuclear power, uncertain technological costs, flexible generation, and cross-border electricity trade. We demonstrate that the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) alone should...

Environmental factors, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and soil organic carbon (SOC), should be considered when building a sustainable biofuel supply chain. This work developed a three‐step optimization approach integrating a geographical information system‐based mixed‐integer linear programming model to economically optimize the biofuel s...

Agricultural intensification is a key strategy to help meet increasing demand for food and bioenergy. It has the potential to reduce direct and indirect land use change (LUC) and associated environmental impacts while contributing to a favorable economic performance of the agriculture sector. We conduct an integral analysis of environmental and eco...

Estimating the oil recovery potential using CO 2 (CO 2 -EOR) at a national level is resource-intensive at a scale that is not usually available. The aim of this study is two-fold: first, the potential for CO 2 storage and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in Colombia is evaluated; and, second, the results from two different calculation methods (stochasti...

Detailed analysis of technological learning of energy technologies is scarce. For floating wind, this is missing altogether. In this study, we applied experience curve and bottom-up cost modeling methodologies and assessed the long-term cost reduction potential of fixed-bottom and floating offshore wind in their mature markets. The contributing fac...

La expansión de las plantaciones de palma de aceite, tanto para la extracción de aceite de palma crudo (APC) como para la elaboración de productos de origen biológico, ha generado gran preocupación en torno al impacto de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI) de este cultivo. Aunque Colombia tiene el potencial para producir bienes de or...

As natural gas (NG) demand increases in China, the question arises how the NG infrastructure fit into a low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions future towards 2050. Herein, the potential role of the NG infrastructure in supplying low-carbon gases during 2020–2050 for China at a provincial resolution was analyzed for different scenarios. In total, four l...

Integrated energy system modeling tools predominantly focus on the (inter)national or local scales. The intermediate level is important from the perspective of regional policy making, particularly for identifying the potentials and constraints of various renewable resources. Additionally, distribution variations of economic and social sectors, such...

A harmonized method was developed to assess CO2 mitigation performance and avoidance costs for different steel production routes, including blast furnace with blast oxygen furnace (BOF), direct reduced iron (DRI) production with electric arc furnace (EAF), and Hisarna with BOF. Mass and energy balances were used to evaluate each route's cradle-to-g...

The North Sea region, located in the Northwest of Europe, is expected to be a frontrunner in the European energy transition. This paper aims to analyse different optimal system configurations in order to meet net-zero emission targets in 2050. Overall, the paper presents two main contributions: first, we develop and introduce the IESA-NS model. The...

Land use change (LUC) related GHG emissions determine largely if bioenergy is a suitable option for climate change mitigation. This study assesses how LUC emissions influence demand for bioenergy to mitigate GHG emissions, and how this affects the energy mix, using Brazil as a case study. A methodological framework is applied linking bioenergy supp...

A R T I C L E I N F O Keywords: Energy intensive industry CCS Biomass BECCS CO 2 mitigation Negative emission A B S T R A C T Meeting the Paris Agreement will most likely require the combination of CO 2 capture and biomass in the industrial sector, resulting in net negative emissions. CO 2 capture within the industry has been extensively investigat...

Energy planning in the built environment increasingly takes place in local settings. Suitable planning models should therefore be able to capture local dynamics, such as stakeholder behaviour, resource availability and building characteristics. In relation to the key challenges of energy transition in the built environment, building efficiency and...

This article reviews experience curve applications in energy technology studies to illustrate best practices in analyzing technological learning. Findings are then applied to evaluate future performance projections of three emerging offshore energy technologies, namely, offshore wind, wave & tidal, and biofuel production from seaweed. Key insights...

The Colombian agricultural sector has the capacity and ambition to reduce its land use and GHG emissions through sustainable intensification of livestock production. However, the impact of such pathway on the availability of land for bioenergy crops production has not been thoroughly investigated. Moreover, previous assessments of the role bioenerg...

With a large marginal land area, the Loess Plateau in China holds great potential for biomass production and environmental improvement. Identifying suitable locations for biomass production on marginal land is important for decision makers from the viewpoint of land‐use planning. However, there is limited information on the suitability of marginal...

In this paper, we present an optimisation integrated energy system model (IESA-Opt) for the Netherlands with the use of a linear programming formulation. This state-of-the-art model represents a scientific contribution as it integrates a European power-system model with a complete sectoral representation of the energy system technologies and infras...

Supplementary material for https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2021.106096

The North Sea basin is one of the busiest maritime areas globally with a considerable number of anthropogenic pressures impacting the functioning of the marine ecosystem. Due to growing EU ambitions for the deployment of large offshore wind farm projects (OWF), as part of the 2050 renewable energy roadmap, there is a key need for a holistic underst...

The importance of spatial resolution for energy modelling has increased in the last years. Incorporating more spatial resolution in energy models presents wide benefits, but it is not straightforward, as it might compromise their computational performance. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of spatial resolution in energy models, inc...

Rural communities in developing countries lack access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable forms of energy, which are essential factors for improving living conditions. These communities rely on diesel and kerosene, which are highly polluting compared to renewable energy technologies, to satisfy their energy needs. In this study, hybrid renewab...

Energy crop expansion can increase land demand and generate displacement of food crops, which impacts greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mainly through land-use change (LUC). Increased agricultural productivity could compensate for this. Our study aims to evaluate the regional combined GHG emissions of increasing agricultural yields for food crop and b...

Sustainability is critical for biomass feedstock supply and crop production. Most studies on agricultural residue estimations ignored the loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) and thus possibly overestimated its resource potential. This study estimated the resource potential of using agricultural residues for bioenergy in China, considering soil conser...

Improving energy system modeling capabilities can directly affect the quality of applied studies. However, some modeling trade-offs are necessary as the computational capacity and data availability are constrained. In this paper, we demonstrate modeling trade-offs resulting from the modification in the resolution of four modeling capabilities, name...

This study assessed the techno-economic performance and life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for various liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chains in China in order to find the most efficient way to supply and use LNG. This study improves current literature by adding supply chain optimization options (cold energy recovery and hydrogen producti...

Industry, accounting for 24% of total global CO2 emissions, needs deep decarbonization in order to meet the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. Two important options for CO2 reduction are CO2 capture and storage (CCS) and biomass. CCS in industry has been broadly investigated, while biomass has seen limited attention. In addition, inconsistencies...

The North Sea basin is one of the busiest maritime areas globally with a considerable number of anthropogenic pressures impacting the functioning of the marine ecosystem. Due to growing EU ambitions for the deployment of large-scale offshore wind farms (OWF), as part of the 2050 renewable energy roadmap, there is a key need for a holistic understan...

The Colombian agricultural sector has the capacity and ambition to reduce its land use and GHG emissions through sustainable intensification of livestock production. However, an appraisal of the impact of achieving such goal on the availability of land to produce bioenergy crops remains lacking. Moreover, previous assessments of the role bioenergy...

Fossil fuels dominate the current energy and chemicals' supply and this leads to a rapid growth in global greenhouse gas emissions. One mitigation option is using renewable feedstock for materials, chemicals (ethylene, propylene, acrylic acid and butanol) and, mostly, energy carriers (biodiesel, renewable jet fuel, ethanol and bioelectricity). This...

The oil industry needs to reduce CO2 emissions across the entire lifecycle of fossil fuels to meet environmental regulations and societal requirements and to sustain its business. With this goal in mind, this study aims to evaluate the CO2 mitigation potential of several bio‐oil co‐processing pathways in an oil refinery. Techno‐economic analysis wa...

The transition to a sustainable bio‐based economy is perceived as a valid path towards low‐carbon development for emerging economies that have rich biomass resources. In the case of Colombia, the role of biomass has been tackled through qualitative roadmaps and regional climate policy assessments. However, neither of these approaches has addressed...

Supplementary material for https://doi.org/10.1002/bbb.2167

We reviewed the literature focusing on nineteen integrated Energy System Models (ESMs) to: (i) identify the capabilities and shortcomings of current ESMs to analyze adequately the transition towards a low-carbon energy system; (ii) assess the performance of the selected models by means of the derived criteria, and (iii) discuss some potential solut...

The Colombian agricultural sector has the capacity and ambition to reduce its land use and GHG emissions through sustainable intensification of livestock production. However, an appraisal of the impact of achieving such goal on the availability of land to produce bioenergy crops remains lacking. Moreover, previous assessments of the role bioenergy...

The demand for biofuels is expected to increase significantly in the coming years. However, there are major concerns on the impact of increased biofuel production on food security. As biofuel affects food security in various ways, it is important to assess the impacts on the four pillars of food security, availability, access, utilisation and stabi...

Correction for ‘The global technical and economic potential of bioenergy from salt-affected soils’ by Birka Wicke et al. , Energy Environ. Sci. , 2011, 4 , 2669–2681, DOI: 10.1039/C1EE01029H.

Biomass can contribute to the low carbon development of the Colombian economy. However, previous investigations could not capture the complexity of the bioeconomy; in the wider context of energy and chemicals supply and climate change mitigation. We address this gap through system analysis, using a techno-economic optimization modelling framework....

This article identifies marginal land technically available for the production of energy crops in China, compares three models of yield prediction for Miscanthus × giganteus, Panicum virgatum L. (switchgrass) and Jatropha, and estimates their spatially‐specific yields and technical potential for 2017. Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis of...

Spatially explicit farm‐gate production costs and the economic potential of three types of energy crop grown on available marginal land in China for 2017 and 2040 were investigated using a spatial accounting method and construction of cost–supply curves. The average farm‐gate cost from all available marginal land was calculated as 32.9 CNY GJ‐1 for...

Over the last decade, the accelerated transition towards cleaner means of producing energy has been clearly prioritised by the European Union through large-scale planned deployment of wind farms in the North Sea. From a spatial planning perspective, this has not been a straight-forward process, due to substantial spatial conflicts with the traditio...

Increasing oil palm plantations, both for obtaining crude palm oil (CPO) and for the production of biobased products, have generated growing concern about the impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on the environment. Colombia has the potential to produce sustainable biobased products from oil palm. Nevertheless, national GHG emissions have not y...