Marika Rošā

Riga Technical University | RTU · Institute of Energy Systems and Environment

Energy service contracting (EPC) is one of the private sector instruments to improve end use energy efficiency. The dominant part of EPC projects is implemented in the industrial, governmental and municipal sectors while the residential sector has been less attractive to energy service companies (ESCO). This paper describes the first EPC project im...

This paper presents results from the newly developed DTReM-LV model (Dynamic TRansport emission Model) for CO2 policy mitigation analysis and design in the transport sector in Latvia. Despite the large number of studies analysing transport sector decarbonisation scenarios, previous research has focused much on the analysis of particular policy meas...

This paper presents methodology and assumptions underlying the DTReM-LV model. DTReM-LV (Dynamic TRansport emission Model for Latvia) is a System Dynamics based computer simulation model for CO2 emission mitigation analysis in the road transport sector in Latvia. To date, decoupling transport energy consumption from increasing greenhouse gas emissi...

Agriculture is the second most significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with approximately 24 % of Latvia’s total GHG emissions in 2014. Emissions from agricultural soils contributed major share of the total emissions – 59.6 %, enteric fermentation emissions was second largest source – 32 %. The share of manure management emissions was...

Research paper is focused on energy reduction in district heating company introducing energy management system. Methodology is tested on example of district heating company SIA “Salaspils Siltums” in Latvia.

Energy planning in municipalities in some EU countries was introduced some two to three decades ago. In 2008 a wide European initiative – Covenant of Mayors – for local governments was launched to initiate their commitment towards energy and climate targets. Municipalities are considered among the main stakeholders to foster and implement energy sa...

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture account for 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union (EU). Mitigation potential of agriculture can be obtained from enhancement of avoidance and reduction of GHG emissions through management of land and livestock. The share of emissions from agriculture in different EU member states...

Textbook "Biotechonomy" is supplemented with this methodological material. This edition looks at bio-resource use opportunities that are based on the principles of sustainable development, to obtain products with high added value. The book deals with bio-resources, biotechnology and bio-products interaction. The development of biotechonomy is linke...

This paper addresses important links and synergies between two essential parts of an urban energy system, waste and transport sectors, respectively. Accomplishing sustainable urban development is a key challenge for cities addressing social equity, economic prosperity and the environment. Mobility needs in cities are continuously increasing and rel...

The work is based on the EU Directive 2012/27/EU concerning energy efficiency. One of the objectives for energy efficient solutions is improvement of existing district heating systems. Compared to individual boilers, district heating ensures a low-carbon and cost-effective way to heat buildings. In order to determine what would make significant imp...

Electric mobility is a key technology towards the decarbonization of the transport sector. However, before achieving high rates of market penetration of electric vehicles several important barriers must be overcome. The aim of this research was to collect first experiences with electric vehicle use in a municipal fleet in Latvia. It was done throug...

The current needs of sustainable urban development give an effort to focus on environmental issues during decision making. In urban areas major environmental concerns are usually related to air quality problems caused by transport activity. Another crucial issue concerns increasing amounts of waste and inefficient waste management. The aim of the p...

Resource and energy efficiency in industrial production is promoted within the European Union. For small and medium size companies, resource and energy efficiency is significant for improving both the economic and environmental performance of a company. For benchmarking and the identification of potential improvements, relevant data must be collect...

This research analyses opportunities and procedures how an energy management system can be implemented in municipalities. The goal of this research is to develop guidelines for energy management system (EnMS) implementation in municipalities according to standard EN ISO 50001:2011 “Energy management systems – Requirements with guidance for use (ISO...

The aim of the study is to provide a deep analysis of the potential impact of energy efficiency improvements by focussing on the evaluation of energy consumption and efficiency in various sub-departments at a small brewery – the locus of our research. To thoroughly analyze the specific energy consumption, an analysis of the historical energy consum...

The current needs of sustainable urban development are rising. As the transport sector expands, emissions continue to rise. Due to their negative impact on human health and the environment, air quality requirements are becoming more and more stringent. At the same time, the amount of waste is increasing. Europe Union policies attempt to relieve the...

The research paper focuses on the assessment of the application of the International Standard ISO 50001 by municipalities to facilitate the implementation of their sustainable energy action plans. Traditional energy management schemes are combined with provisions of the standard by applying measurable energy indicators. The methodology is tested on...

The development and implementation of effective policies for promoting energy efficiency in the household sector has been an emerging target of the EU. A recent analysis of Latvian households included in a smart metering pilot, shows this type of housing as the most statistically significant variable to impact electricity savings. This study deals...

It is important to improve the communication and collaboration of waste-to-energy stakeholders in Latvia to ensure sustainable economic and environmental development and promote innovation and local technology development. Therefore, implementation of a waste-to-energy cluster in Latvia has been proposed. The aim of this paper is to provide a compa...

Different approaches have been used to calculate and set up the benchmarks for evaluation of energy performance in industry. The main disadvantage of these approaches is that the benchmark is variable in time, thus very likely not showing the real performance of energy efficiency and its changes. This study presents a new approach for calculation o...

One of the key issues arising from extended smart metering roll-out across Europe is how the data obtained from the meters may be used to provide end users with important information on energy-saving advice, which is one of the main principles of demand side management (DSM). The investigation of the potential for demand side management to reduce p...

Greater emphasis on the individual consumers’ engagement in energy efficiency has been integrated into the concept of a comprehensive European energy policy. Households, as well as the people living there are very different and one of the important factors is to assess a consumer's behavioral aspects. Conducting surveys is the most common way to ob...

To achieve reduction in electricity consumption, it is vital to have current information about household electricity use. This allows to draw user behaviour profile based on household electricity demand for a specific time of the day. Activities involving the use of electricity for certain purposes, time of use survey and smart metering data of a f...

The objective of this research is to derive production performance indicators for comparison of industrial symbiosis initiatives and cleaner production measures. Normalization by production amounts is not applicable for multi-company industrial symbiosis systems. Therefore normalization by cumulative added value and the determination of cumulative...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the difficulty of implementing the European Union renewable energy policy in the transport sector. The authors describe a case study illustrating the capacity of the three Baltic States to meet the binding target of 10 per cent renewable energy in the transport sector by 2020. Design/methodology/ap...

This study outlines a methodology for assessing changes in household electricity consumption and CO2 emissions. The method is proposed to analyse large datasets of residential electricity consumption in the case study of the first smart metering pilot project in Latvia. The goal of the project is to achieve a reduction of electricity consumption in...

In this paper we study development patterns of Latvian electricity market based on a newly developed computer-aided simulation model. A system dynamics approach was applied to simulate long-term development of electricity sector in the region under the existing policy design. Results show that despite the relatively large share of renewable energy...

Therefore the main aim of the paper is to develop and present a roadmap for low carbon society with an overall aim to achieve independence from fossil fuels by 2050 in Latvia. The paper also reviews current and the perspective development of energy system in the country. The results show that it is possible to create energy supply system in Latvia,...

Industrial synergies – be they, the single by-product exchanges between two companies or the comprehensive industrial symbiosis networks involving numerous industrial synergies – have been recognized for their potential to improve industrial resource efficiency and provide simultaneous economic benefits. With increasing research on maximizing the i...

This paper is based on the analysis of the solar combisystem installed in a 4-storey apartment building in Sigulda, Latvia. The combisystem consists of: 42 m2 of flat plate solar collectors, a 2.35 m3 accumulation tank and a 100 kW pellet boiler as the auxiliary heater. This paper focuses on the optimisation of the thermal performance of the pellet...

The aim of the research is to identify currently existing industrial symbiosis network in Valmiera. The research consists of three main phases: (1) literature review; (2) identification of the current situation based on the analysis of empirical data provided by company representatives and other publicly available sources; (3) assessing and compari...

This article attempts to evaluate the potential of greenhouse gas emission reduction from power and transportation needs in a household by introducing a solar photovoltaic array and an electric vehicle. The study is based on analysis of data collected from a case study household and a photovoltaic unit located in Latvia. Results show that a small-s...

Recent estimates state that the European Union is on course to achieve only half of the 20% energy consumption reduction target by 2020. As the first governmental stakeholders involved in the implementation of energy saving initiatives, municipalities play a strategic role in the energy planning process. This paper focuses on establishment of an en...

Transport is the second largest greenhouse gas emission producer in the European Union (EU) right after the energy sector and is growing. Several recent regulations have been adopted in EU to increase the sustainability of transport sector. However, there is still a gap between policy incentives and the market delaying wider use of renewable energy...

Power system of the Baltic States is facing changes. On the one hand, it is being gradually integrated into international energy markets by establishing new connections with Nordic countries. At the same time increasing the share of renewable energy sources is at the top on the political agenda. Therefore questions of the role of interconnections a...

In order to assess the potential for energy efficiency in households it is important to understand the implications for household electricity consumption by analyzing the factors that impact consumption. Moreover some recent studies suggested that changes in household electricity consumption are more likely to be explained by user behavioural aspec...

Waste to energy (WTE) sector includes collecting and pre-treatment of various types of organic and recyclable waste that is used as feedstock for conversion technologies generating valuable outputs (i.e. power, heat, biomethane, syngas etc.). Consequentially, the WTE value chain includes stakeholders from waste management and energy production mark...

The goal of this study is to develop a method for assessing Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) according to various criteria, and to develop recommendations to improve statements and the EIA procedure. To develop a method to assess report quality, the most significant current methods were examined. Their advantages and disadvantages were analyzed...

The aim of this paper is to assess the voluntary agreement for increasing energy efficiency in industry of Latvia and provide recommendations for more effective implementation in the future. In the first part of the paper the energy efficiency in Latvian industry is analyzed. The first chapter of the practical part is data monitoring analysis of CC...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to recognize whether consumers on long time perspective have an influence on the increase of energy efficiency in manufacturing industries. Design/methodology/approach Literature review, online survey, in‐depth interviews. Findings Although the connection between consumer and energy efficiency promotion in man...

The aim of this research is to describe options and solutions for the effective communication and cooperation engaging stakeholder in the smart metering pilot in Latvia (i.e. electricity consumers, electricity suppliers, smart meter suppliers and scientific research institutions) using a variety information resources (such as detailed electricity b...

Latvia has set a target to increase the gross final consumption of energy from renewable energy sources up to 40% by 2020. To reach this ambitious objective an increase of the amount of energy produced from locally available biomass is a priority. In Latvia, as in the European Union, consumption of wood and wood waste has increased during the la...

The purpose of this research is based on a literature review analysis mainly based on the evaluation of the effectiveness from the smart metering implementation as a behavioural feedback on the consumer daily lives and their motivations on reducing energy consumption. A feasibility analysis of the improved household monitoring system with integrate...

This paper focuses on the optimization of a new solar thermal system and the analysis of a demonstration project. The solar thermal system has been developed by three industrial partners working in cooperation with Riga Technical University. The industrial partners joined their forces to develop a new product, which could benefit their core busines...

One of the main priorities among European Union member states is to promote renewable energy. Latvia also has to comply with the European Parliament and Council Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of renewable energy initiated on 23 April 2009. The directive states that the share of renewable energy has to reach 40 % of total final energy consump...

The paper focuses on the application of wood pellet and solar combisystem for space heating and hot water preparation at apartment buildings under the climate of Northern Europe. A pilot project has been implemented in the city of Sigulda (N 57° 09.410 E 024° 52.194), Latvia. The system was designed and optimised using TRNSYS - a dynamic simulation...

The aim of this study is to develop a method that allows selecting appropriate measures for reductions in negative environmental impacts on a regional energy system. In this paper a sophisticated screening method based on theoretical and practical basics of decision-making is proposed. The proposed method is applied and tested on the energy system...

Latvia has the unprecedented opportunity to be the first country in the world to sell assigned amount units under Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol – International Emissions Trading. Negotiations are ongoing with a number of buyers for pilot transactions with a cumulative volume of 8–10 million assigned amount units (AAUs) out of 40 million AAUs ear...

In 2009 the European Parliament adopted a climate and energy package, which set ambitious targets for climate and energy policy until 2020, including certain requirements in relation to the total quantity of emissions allowances in Emission trading system from 2013. Emission trading is one of the main mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions....

Climate change and global warming has become one of the main topics worldwide. The European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS) was established to limit climate change, providing regulations which encourage companies to invest in cleaner production and more energy efficient production. Latvian energy intensive enterprises are operating under the...

Evaluation of CO 2 Emissions from Energy Sources in Latvia The authors propose an empirical model for evaluation of the CO 2 emissions released from the energy generation sources as a function of the fuel types, energy efficiency of the technologies used, and the emission factors of the fuels. In the research, multifactor linear and nonlinear regre...

The Riga Technical University Institute of Energy Systems and Environment, in cooperation with three Latvian companies, is implementing the project "Compact solar and pellet module" financed by the European Union. Within the framework of this project a combisystem will be installed in the Grandeg Ltd modular pellet boiler house. The solar combisyst...

In this paper the possibility to reduce CO2 emissions by energy recovery from waste tyres is discussed. The objective of the study is to analyze the end-of-life tyre market in Latvia, to assess the amount of used tyres available and to calculate the potential reduction of CO2 emissions by energy recovery from tyres in mineral products industry. Cal...

The article provides the uncertainty analysis for electricity and heat energy production measurements at a cogeneration plant. It is analysed how the uncertainty in the input data affects the uncertainty in the data on primary resource savings. In the work, the standard uncertainties have been estimated for both data sets. The uncertainty budget is...

Small-Scale Cogeneration Plant Data Processing and Analysis In the article, the operational data on electricity and heat energy generation in a small-scale cogeneration plant are analysed. Different measurements done in the plant formed a basis for estimation and evaluation of the savings of primary energy in comparison with distributed energy prod...