Energy efficiency measures and utilization of renewable energy sources have been consistently incorporated into energy strategic documents of the member states, addressing various sectors. Industry, being the backbone of the European economy, is still not sufficiently addressed, since its development is almost exclusively market driven. The importance of industrial sector for the economy is not questionable, nor its impact on the environment. More than a quarter of all final energy consumption in Europe can be attributed to industrial sector, representing one third of final energy consumption of natural gas and one third of electricity use, with more than three quarters of all final energy consumption of solid fuels. The paper presents an overview of the energy efficiency development trends in Slovenian industry. To assess the energy efficiency development, the Unit Consumption Index, has been applied to the Slovenian industrial sector, also highlighting some of the non-technical changes. The methodological part of this study is significantly complemented with the data, obtained from the extensive cooperation with the real industrial environment, bridging the gap between statistics, policies and practice.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 28793127According to the Directive 2006/32/EC, a Member State has to determine the energy savings achieved by measures to increase energy efficiency or the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency (2008-2016). To calculate the energy savings, the top-down (TD) and the bottom-up (BU) concepts can be used. A set of required methods for both TD and BU concepts have been developed for calculation of energy savings. A set of necessary factors / parameters and type of data have been defined to calculate the savings for each method by each sector / technology.
F.10 Improvements to an existing technological process or technology
COBISS.SI-ID: 24384295We have shown that road geometry has a great impact on overall fuel consumption and emissions. Some roads connect traffic origins and destinations directly. On the other hand, some use winding, indirect routes. Indirect connections result in longer distances driven and increased fuel consumption. A similar effect is observed on congested roads and mountain roads with many changes in altitude. Therefore, we propose a framework to label road networks in a similar way as energy labels are provided for tires, vehicles themselves and electronic devices. This framework should take into consideration traffic volume, shares of vehicle classes, road geometry and energy needed for road operation and construction.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 28792871Energy development is facing major challenges: transition to the low carbon society, enabling competitiveness despite growth of international energy prices, assuring energy security by sovereign and interconnected energy systems and building capacities to deal with changing global circumstances. Impact assessment to support decisions process for National energy programme comprises different energy strategies options and expected responses of actors. Scenarios are compared considering main energy policy objectives: (1) environmental sustainability, (2) energy security and (3) improvement of competitiveness of the society and economy, with indicators supporting trade-off analysis. The paper presents procedure and results of the analysis: a comparative assessment of scenarios with an emphasis on climate-energy package targets, reliability and security of supply indicators, particularly indicators related to the power sector, and the effects on the competitiveness of the Slovenian economy. In the national energy program (NEP), an intensive strategy of promoting sustainable and local services (RUE, RES, CHP and local energy) was selected and proposed. The priorities of this strategy, compared to other analyzed reference strategies are: lower emissions and greater robustness to meet the objectives of the climate-energy package – particularly the 25-percent share of renewables in gross final energy consumption - and in the Kyoto Protocol, less energy consumption and slower growth of electricity consumption, a higher share of RES in 2030, lower net imports and lower energy dependency, greater improvement of energy intensity, better (improved) all other indicators of energy security, greater the reduction of GHG emissions relative to a reference scenario. Weaknesses of the intensive strategy are slightly higher emissions of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, due to greater use of wood biomass. Intensive strategy represents also a better development basis for long-term transition to low carbon society.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 25042983The achievement presents mentorship of the programme group leader to a young researcher that successfully finished a doctoral work and consequently defended her doctoral dissertation at the Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School. In her work, the candidate studied influence of the initial part of nuclear fuel cycle onto vegetables, potentially contaminated by an uranium mine and mill plant operation.
D.09 Tutoring for postgraduate students
COBISS.SI-ID: 287885056The special issue of Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research contains the Proceedings of the Fifth International k0 – Users Workshop, held in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. It was the first time that the workshop was held outside Europe. This was an excellent opportunity for boosting additional momentum to ever growing interest in the current possibilities and actual potential of k0 – neutron activation analysis. Even 18 out of total 43 participants were from Brazil and altogether 24 papers are published in the special issue that previously passed usual peer review process.
C.03 Guest-associated editor
COBISS.SI-ID: 24146215The original scientific article “Soil-to-plant transfer factors for natural radionuclides in grass in the vicinity of a former uranium mine (COBISS.SIID 26695975) was selected as the most important scientific achievement for the year 2013 in the field of energetics as decided by the Scientific Council of the Slovenian research Agency covering technical sciences. The achievement was presented in as a popular lecture at the Slovenian Innovation Forum 2014. The presentation is posted on the web site videolectures.net.
E.01 National awards
The regions of Central Europe are largely dependent on the economic activities of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). In accordance with the sustainable economic development of the Central Europe SMEs, key objectives have been recognised to tackle the challenge, namely: implementation of energy efficient and environmentally friendly technologies in production process, promotion of economic and social benefits of sustainability and achieving positive changes in behaviour of employees. In the original scientific article, the framework of the web based tool 3EMT is presented. The use of the 3EMT tool enabled a unique insight into the current state of energy efficiency in SMEs. The study involved 510 European companies, of which 106 was Slovenian. By using the 3EMT tool, the barriers to implementation of energy efficiency measures in the wider region were highlighted and a comparison of different small and medium sized enterprises has been done.
F.17 Transfer of existing technologies, know-how, methods and procedures into practice
COBISS.SI-ID: 28292135Strategic planning and decision making, nonetheless making energy policies and strategies, is very extensive and has to follow multiple and often contradictory objectives. During the preparation of the new Slovenian National Energy Programme proposal complete update of the technology and sector oriented bottom up model REESSLO (Reference Energy and Environmental System of Slovenia) has been done. Within the new model the comparison and assessment of various strategies on the demand and supply side with calculations of long-term energy and emission balances and economic evaluation has been enabled. A linear network model of the national energy system for decision support was developed in MESAP (Modular Energy System Analysis and Planning) environment. MESAP open structure was used to build the model addressing the most relevant questions. During the model development, special attention was given to the aggregation of the data in accordance with statistical standards for data classification, also fully compatible with international reporting standards. Economic activities are disaggregated by branches, manufacturing industry and service sectors are further disaggregated on the sub branch level. Parallel competitive technologies have been included in the model. This was done where fuel switching is expected or where considerable energy efficiency improvements may differ significantly by strategies. Parallel modelling enabled accurate estimation of induced costs and environmental impacts. Technology oriented model REESSLO was used in the energy policy development process as a framework for consistent and equal approach to the identification of instruments, measures and impacts in various energy sectors and subsectors.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 25501223The greenhouse gas emission from agriculture contributes about 10% of all emissions in Slovenia. Carbon footprint is a term for global warming potential and refers to the total greenhouse gas emissions associated with a product or service. The carbon footprint for agriculture products depends on the agricultural farming. The research shows that emissions in organic production (case of lower yields) are higher in comparison with emissions (CO2/t of yields) in conventional and integrated farming.
F.02 Acquisition of new scientific knowledge
COBISS.SI-ID: 28296487