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Energy and Business: New and Disruptive Business Models, Blockchain Experiments and Regulation

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "C: Energy Economics and Policy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (6 February 2023) | Viewed by 12882

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Business Administration, Institute of Markets and Competition, al. Niepodległości 162, 02-554 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: international business; energy companies; transnational corporations in the digital economy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue entitled "Energy and Business: New and Disruptive Business Models, Blockchain Experiments and Regulation" focuses on the impact of digitization on the new, breakthrough business models in the energy sector, namely the energy platforms, virtual power plants and peer-to-peer models. These new business models are increasingly using not only IoT and smart grids, but also blockchain and AI. The digital energy transformation is also accompanied by the entry of new economic entities into the energy market. Digitization is seen as an important factor in intensifying the development of renewable energy. This is in line with the climate policy of more developed countries (e.g. the European Green Deal in the EU). Digitization tools can constitute significant support in managing dispersed energy sources (through smart contracts), as well as in the inclusion of prosumption energy into the energy distribution network, and in ensuring energy security at the local and national levels. The high efficiency of new business models in the energy sector also requires a slightly different approach to legal regulations, combining energy with digitization.

Special Issue topics: 

  1. Platforms in the energy sector
  2. Virtual power plants
  3. Growing role of prosumption in RES
  4. Digital innovations in the area of dispersed energy sources
  5. New technologies and energy security
  6. Energy distribution and the challenges of digital transformation of the energy sector
  7. Regulations on the energy market in the conditions of the digital economy
Prof. Dr. Teresa Pakulska

Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Virtual power plant
  • Model peer to peer
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Blockchain
  • Energy platform
  • Smart grids
  • Business models
  • Renewable energies
  • Energy transition
  • Energy generation technologies

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 4029 KiB  
Article
Energy Security, Sustainable Development and the Green Bond Market
by Arkadiusz Orzechowski and Małgorzata Bombol
Energies 2022, 15(17), 6218; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15176218 - 26 Aug 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1576
Abstract
Many countries are pursuing energy security (ES) in their economies while implementing sustainable development goals (SDGs). Relevant policies may include: (1) access to efficient alternative and preferably renewable energy sources (RESs); and (2) reductions in conventionally obtained energy consumption. As the demand for [...] Read more.
Many countries are pursuing energy security (ES) in their economies while implementing sustainable development goals (SDGs). Relevant policies may include: (1) access to efficient alternative and preferably renewable energy sources (RESs); and (2) reductions in conventionally obtained energy consumption. As the demand for energy is growing and alternative energy resources are expensive, new ways of financing projects to improve ES are of special interest, e.g., issuing green bonds. In such cases, the obtained funds are allocated to projects that can both improve ES and help to achieve SDGs. The aim of the study was to explore the dependences (in the sense of Granger causality) between the green bond (GB) market, different aspects of sustainable development, as measured by global indicators taken from a family of environmental NASDAQ OMX indices, and ES represented by crude oil prices. The methodology is based on the vector autoregression model. The findings reveal evidence of a short-term dependence between the GB market, ES and the multidimensional nature of sustainable development. Full article
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18 pages, 2406 KiB  
Article
The Role of Clean Generation Technologies in the Energy Transformation in Poland
by Grażyna Wojtkowska-Łodej and Elżbieta Jakubów
Energies 2022, 15(13), 4863; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15134863 - 02 Jul 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1380
Abstract
The ongoing transformation of the Polish power sector have been shaped by a number of factors. In this article, both external conditions for the Polish energy market—such as the country’s membership in the European Union—and internal ones—including domestic energy resources and demand for [...] Read more.
The ongoing transformation of the Polish power sector have been shaped by a number of factors. In this article, both external conditions for the Polish energy market—such as the country’s membership in the European Union—and internal ones—including domestic energy resources and demand for electricity, or the structure of the Polish economy—have been analysed. This study focuses specifically on the issue of development of clean generation technologies as these are fundamental to the energy-transition process. Its determinants have been examined empirically. To this end, econometric models have been developed using sectoral data from the Polish electric power industry. Improvements in technology have been measured as innovation inputs, that is, RD&D investments in environmental technologies. Explanatory variables encompass economic as well as institutional measures: energy price, environmental policy stringency, long-term interest rate, market concentration and protection of intellectual property rights. The findings obtained point to a positive impact of the variables named on the innovative activity in Poland, with the exception of market concentration, which was proven to be statistically insignificant. Full article
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21 pages, 2753 KiB  
Article
Digitalization in the Renewable Energy Sector—New Market Players
by Teresa Pakulska and Małgorzata Poniatowska-Jaksch
Energies 2022, 15(13), 4714; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15134714 - 27 Jun 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2990
Abstract
Under the conditions of climate change and energy crisis stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and the embargo on the supply of raw materials from Russia, high hopes are attached to the development of renewable energy in terms of meeting energy needs. Still, renewable [...] Read more.
Under the conditions of climate change and energy crisis stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and the embargo on the supply of raw materials from Russia, high hopes are attached to the development of renewable energy in terms of meeting energy needs. Still, renewable energy has some drawbacks too. In the most dynamically growing solar and wind energy industries, the main problems that are indicated include this energy storage and ensuring the security of supplies. These are supposed to be solved by the digital transformation of renewable power generation plus the entry of market players that implement digital business models in renewable energy. The purpose of the article is to identify a framework “digital compass” of business models in renewable energy within a group of solar and wind energy start-ups, operating in energy storage and supply industries. At the base of this study there were: digital technologies, customer orientation, delivery of value and revenue stream. The research algorithm applied here enabled the identification and classification of startup business models based on secondary data using R software. The results show that the identified startups implement digital business models to a minor extent. Startups dealing with solar energy storage stand out in a quite positive manner. The low digital attractiveness of investing in wind energy storage and supply (which, to a smaller extent applies to solar energy), is also indicated the investment preferences of big-tech. Thus, the future of the digital transformation of these industries should be related to regulatory changes rather than technological ones. Full article
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15 pages, 2042 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Energy Commodity Prices on Selected Clean Energy Metal Prices
by Maciej Mróz
Energies 2022, 15(9), 3051; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15093051 - 21 Apr 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1436
Abstract
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement has been announced as a crucial step towards combating the global threat of climate change. In the light of ambitious plans for further renewable energy sources development, high demand for nonenergy materials critical [...] Read more.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement has been announced as a crucial step towards combating the global threat of climate change. In the light of ambitious plans for further renewable energy sources development, high demand for nonenergy materials critical for RES is greatly expected. In conclusion, future energy security will be surely based on nonenergy commodities critical for them. As this article directly relates to issues related to new technologies and energy security in new form, the main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of energy commodity prices, namely crude oil, natural gas and coal prices on selected metal prices such as aluminium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, nickel, silver, tin, or zinc, both before and over the Paris Agreement period. We are looking for new insights in terms of relationships between traditional fossil fuels and metals used in clean energy technologies potentially established or strengthened shortly after the Paris Agreement was adopted. Currently, the analyses of the impact of institutional conditions such as global agreements (institutional factors) on the emerging or strengthening of relationships between energy and nonenergy resources are very limited. Hence, an autoregressive distributed lag and error correction model are employed. Full article
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20 pages, 1554 KiB  
Article
Servitization of Energy Sector: Emerging Service Business Models and Startup’s Participation
by Mahendra Singh, Jiao Jiao, Marian Klobasa and Rainer Frietsch
Energies 2022, 15(7), 2705; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15072705 - 06 Apr 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4340
Abstract
Changing asset ownership models in the energy sector is spurring established companies and startups to implement customer-centric smart services. In this sense, startups are pioneers of innovative business models, and unbundle the energy value chain to provide various services to final customers. Although [...] Read more.
Changing asset ownership models in the energy sector is spurring established companies and startups to implement customer-centric smart services. In this sense, startups are pioneers of innovative business models, and unbundle the energy value chain to provide various services to final customers. Although service business models have received large attention in the energy sector, the role of startups in service business model innovation (S-BMI) is not fully understood in the literature. To put this into perspective, the proposed work analyzes the six most practiced energy service categories, specifically, Comfort and Heating, Flexibility and Trading, Energy Efficiency and Management, Solar and Microgrid, Charging and Battery, and Energy Software Solutions are taken into account, accompanying service business model archetypes in the energy sector. Data from two different company databases are combined, and a list of 432 startups dealing with energy services are analyzed. The operating revenue, stakeholders, investors, and funding are considered as the main indicators to compare the service categories. The top two categories in terms of the number of startups are Solar and Microgrid (38.1%) alongside Energy Efficiency and Management (20.1%). The analysis suggests that X-as-a-service (XaaS) and platform-based business models are becoming the center-of-attention for investors and shareholders. Digital marketplaces are also evolving in the energy sector. In fact, the current study found that startups associated with XaaS, platforms, and marketplace activities are attracting the majority of investors and funding programs. From a theoretical point of view, the study has provided the main motivations and enablers behind the energy sector servitization. The findings could serve as an initial methodological framework to analyze services in the energy sector, putting service business models and startups into focus. Full article
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