In October 2022, all member states of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) committed to a net-zero CO2 future by 2050, marking a significant shift from compensating for emissions to actively reducing them in aviation. This commitment acknowledges the critical role of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector, especially since aviation accounts for 12 percent of carbon emissions and 2 percent of all global energy-related emissions. The aviation industry and governments must make careful choices to transition towards sustainable aviation, adopting sustainable aviation technologies (SATs). This research focuses on identifying stakeholder preferences towards these SATs to facilitate their successful adoption, filling a significant gap in existing literature.

The study addresses the research question: "What are stakeholder preferences towards sustainable aviation technologies for the transition to net zero CO2 aviation in 2050?" The Best-Worst Method (BWM), a Multi-Criteria Analysis approach, was chosen to explore these preferences. The research is divided into four sections: identifying promising SATs, establishing relevant evaluation criteria, obtaining weights for these criteria based on stakeholder preferences, and determining SAT performance scores.

Initially, the study identified promising SATs, categorizing them into hydrogen, electric, electrofuels, and biofuels. Electric technologies were excluded for medium- and long-haul flights due to their unsuitability. The specific SATs identified for potential adoption included Liquid Hydrogen with PEM fuel cell aircraft (LH2), HEFA-produced biofuel with used cooking oils (HEFA), and n-octane electrofuel.

The second section established evaluation criteria based on an extensive literature review and frameworks like Feitelson & Salomon’s political economy of transport innovations and the Triple Bottom Line theory. Three main criteria were established: Environmental, Economic, and Technological performance, each encompassing three sub-criteria. These sub-criteria include greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, land use impact (Environmental); minimum jet fuel selling price, investment costs, operational costs (Economic); and technological readiness level, scalability, efficiency (Technological).

The third section utilized the Bayesian BWM to determine optimal weights for these criteria from stakeholder perspectives. Data from semi-structured interviews with eleven stakeholders from the aviation industry, categorized into airline, expert/advisor, and producer/manufacturer groups, provided the necessary input. The analysis revealed that "Greenhouse gas emissions" were the most critical sub-criterion, followed by "Operational costs" and "Land use impact". Variations in weightings among stakeholder groups were noted, with airlines prioritizing Economic performance and experts/advisors emphasizing Technological performance.

Finally, the study applied the Weighted Sum Method (WSM) to combine SAT performance scores with the obtained weights, determining the final scores for the years 2024, 2030, and 2050. HEFA consistently emerged as the top SAT across all stakeholder groups for all years, except for the expert/advisor group in 2050, where n-octane ranked highest. The preference for HEFA was due to its consistently high scores across most sub-criteria, though the gap between SATs decreased by 2050 due to improvements in LH2 and n-octane’s greenhouse gas emissions performance.

In conclusion, HEFA is generally the most preferred SAT for transitioning to net-zero CO2 aviation by 2050. However, these findings are indicative, given the limited number of interviews, suggesting further research with more extensive stakeholder engagement to ensure representativeness and mitigate potential biases.

The transition to renewable energy sources is a key strategy in mitigating climate change, underscored by international agreements like the Paris Agreement and the European Union’s target of sourcing 42.5% of its energy from renewables by 2030. However, integrating Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) sources, such as solar and wind, presents significant challenges for grid stability and balancing costs.

This study empirically investigates the impact of increasing Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) capacity on European balancing market prices. Using time-series data from five European countries between 2016 and 2019, multivariate regression models are applied to analyze the effects on three types of balancing services: Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR), Automatic Frequency Restoration Reserves (aFRR), and Manual Frequency Restoration Reserves (mFRR).

The results indicate that increased BESS capacity significantly reduces balancing prices, particularly in the FCR and aFRR markets. This research extends the findings from previous studies in Australia to the European context, highlighting the potential of BESS to offer cost-effective, CO2-neutral solutions for grid stability.

These findings have important implications for Transmission System Operators (TSOs), policymakers, and stakeholders in the energy market, suggesting that specific policy and strategic investments in BESS could enhance the cost-efficiency and sustainability of future electricity systems.

Decision-making about sustainable energy development often constitutes not only choices about which technology to adopt but also the dependencies of these technological choices on the social, economic and political helms within the context they are applied. For Uganda, juggling some of the country’s innate challenges like poverty and lack of energy access whilst managing limited resources magnifies the complexity of its development efforts. Thus, crafting actionable policies and strategies to achieve the country’s development goals requires a harmonious interplay of the country’s social, technical, economic and political perspectives. Literature on sustainable energy development encompassing the different perspectives is growing. However, there is a knowledge gap in research that covers all the mentioned perspectives for Uganda.

This research focuses on rural electrification because rural communities comprise 74% of the country’s total population and hold the key to attaining the country’s sustainable energy development goals. From this, we derive the main research question: What are the plausible pathways for rural electrification development in Uganda, considering the techno-economic, socio-technical, and political perspectives, using a serious game? The main aim for including a serious game in this research is to study the tool's potential in streamlining the multi-faceted decision-making process. A pre-existing game was selected and adapted to the Ugandan context to include institutional roles, the choice of suitable rural electrification technology and other subsidy measures. The information needed for the adaptations was gathered using a mixed methods analysis approach. The information included Uganda’s feasible energy generation alternatives, the criteria for analysis of the different generation alternatives and the main actors in the arena. This was done through reviews of relevant policies, surveys and interviews with relevant stakeholders. The findings from the game, which constitute adapting institutional roles, the choice of suitable rural electrification technology and other subsidy measures, were then proposed. The game also proved to be a beneficial tool to foster learning and collaboration amongst relevant energy stakeholders.

It is uncertain which drivetrain will be used for future long haul transport of goods in the EU. One of the possible technologies is the use of hydrogen fuel cell heavy-duty trucks (HFC-HDTs). This research focuses on success and failure factors which influence the successful implementation of HFC-HDTs in the EU and aims to achieve an overview of certain conditions necessary to implement HFC-HDTs. In order to achieve an overview of these factors, a framework has been developed in which aspects are represented regarding current developments, technological factors, societal and economic factors, and political factors. To further test the framework, the learning curve equation is used to calculate different scenarios based on learning rates and perspectives based on a set of assumption deducted from the developed framework. The findings from this research show that there are absolute necessary conditions which need to be met in order to implement HFC-HDTs even on a smaller scale. These conditions mainly relate to technological factors. Firstly, the HFC-HDTs need to be available for operators to purchase. Secondly, the availability of hydrogen to be used as a fuel needs to be sufficient. Lastly, there needs to be a sufficient refuelling infrastructure along major transport routes and transport/storage for these locations. However, these basic necessary conditions are not enough to fully implement the HFC-HDTs in the EU. The findings and calculations show that the future implementation of HFC-HDTs is highly dependent on policies and regulations set by the EU and its member states. These policies and regulations should focus on taxing emission emitting transport modes and coupling these proceeds to the purchase of HFC-HDTs. Furthermore, additional incentives such as subsidies on hydrogen itself and beneficial circumstances for the construction of refuelling station should be put into place in order ensure a working HFC-HDT system. These conditions will incentivise operators to opt for HFC-HDTs instead of other alternatives which would create a positive feedback loop on the further development of HFC-HDTs and its accompanying infrastructure.

The Dutch government has set an ambitious goal: by 2030, greenhouse gas emissions in the Netherlands should be 49% lower than they were in 1990.But even though geothermal energy is gaining recognition given the high heating demand in the Netherlands and its subsurface potential, implementation of this technology, especially in urban areas, is stagnating. A threefold-knowledge gap was identified in literature. First, it was identified that the viability of geothermal energy is case-specific. Therefore, the lack of knowledge about geothermal energy implementation in metropolitan setting results in uncertainty about the possible trade-offs of stakeholders and makes stakeholders wary of entering the market. Second, it is unclear how and to what extend regional norms, rules and regulations influence development of geothermal systems in urban areas after policy has been adopted. Third, significance of social acceptance is being discussed in a growing number of studies, however it is unclear how social acceptance may be operationalized in policy implementation research. Therefore, this thesis addresses the question how and to what extent institutions influence the success of the geothermal energy policy implementation process in urban areas in the Netherlands. The aim of this research is to consistently track institutions in geothermal energy policy implementation in urban areas in the Netherlands. For this purpose, a comparative case study has been designed to contrast the geothermal policy implementation process of two municipalities, The Hague and Nieuwegein, that share similarities in urban development, external context and type of geothermal technology, but differ in policy outcome. To structure the individual case analysis, a theoretical framework is developed that utilizes elements from the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) by Kingdon and the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework by Ostrom. From the findings it can be concluded that taking institutions into consideration influences the political and policy flow directly. The primary issues raised by the comparative analysis relate to social, ethical, and politically significant transactions. The lengthy policy implementation process was tainted by a general (mis)trust of the decisionmakers, and concerns were focussed about the equitable allocation of risks and rewards and the willingness to work together for a sustainable system.

One of the major emitters of CO2 is the aviation industry which keeps growing. A solution to reduce carbon emissions is to focus on Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) such as biofuels or synthetic fuels or to focus on sustainable alternative technologies such as electric-powered or hydrogen-powered aircraft. A literature review is conducted that indicates a lack of scientific knowledge regarding factors on social feasibility of sustainable aviation technologies in the industry. This resulted in the research question: What are the motivations, commitments, and beliefs of aviation stakeholders with respect to promising sustainable aviation technologies? The research used a qualitative exploratory research approach using primary data collecting consisting of semi-structured interviews held with relevant stakeholders in the aviation industry. Exploratory research on the different sustainable technologies has indicated that biofuels are currently the only commercially available SAF, but require feedstock. Therefore, synthetic fuels based on captured CO2 with green hydrogen has currently the most potential for aviation although it is very energy-demanding, it still requires development, and it has an expensive production process.
Based on scientific literature, a conceptual framework is constructed from innovation and business theories on why motivations, commitments, and beliefs are relevant for adoption and whether there are examples in literature. The conceptual framework visualizes the coherence of the theories and presents potential adoption factors but the combination of theories lacked specification, degree of importance, and a concise list of all relevant adoption factors reflected by the industry. Therefore will this research as a relevant scientific contribution, with the use of the conceptual framework, explore and specify relevant motivations, commitments, and beliefs in the industry toward adopting sustainable aviation innovations into the current technological regime.
The interviews that have been held with stakeholders have resulted in multiple specified types of adoption factors regarding motivations, commitment, and beliefs. Within these types are factors determined on their importance as well as factors that can be stated as new interesting knowledge. Based on these factors, the research concludes that over the last couple of years sustainable awareness is increasing a lot and therefore it is one of the most important motivations to start adopting SAF. SAF is becoming more widely known and it is seen that momentum for sustainable transition is being built in the industry. Nevertheless, the research can conclude the implementation of regulations is strongly demanded to create motivation for adoption in the industry. The industry explicitly claims that they require the implementation of blending mandates that cause pressure which is needed to motivate businesses to already start adopting SAF.
The main recommendations to put on the scientific agenda are to do additional similar research including more European countries or on other continents. For policymakers, they need to lay focus on the development of regulations that stimulate the adoption of SAF. For the industry, this research recommends using the specifications of the adoption factors at the negotiation table or as advice for firms as a supportive base to start adopting SAF

Solar Electric Vehicles recently emerged in the market to solve dilemmas that have been hindering the EVs mass uptake: limited driving range, long charging time, and limited charging infrastructures. The SEV utilization is especially interesting for those who live in areas with many sun hours annually but have limited EV charging infrastructures. Interestingly, Indonesia is located along the equator, lacks EV charging facilities, and has a big market size for SEV. Even more, Indonesia has the urge to boost its decarbonization to meet its climate goals, especially in its transport sector. The combination of these facts leads to the overarching question if SEV could be easily mass adopted in Indonesia. However, the TIS perspective argues that, as part of a complex system of systems, SEV would need not only good technological features but also other “actors, factors and functions” to help it to reach its mass adoption (Ortt et al., 2013). Therefore, it leads to the main research question:

“From the technical innovation system perspective, how could solar electric vehicles reach mass adoption in Indonesia?”

This research is conducted in collaboration with Lightyear – a SEV producer. As Lightyear is aiming to mass produce its SEV, therefore, this research is conducted to explore and evaluate the Indonesian market, so that the best strategy recommendation could be provided to Lightyear so it could commercialize its SEV in a large scale in Indonesia. The qualitative research approach is implemented in this research by reviewing diverse online literature, including both scientific and grey literature.

The TIS Framework (Ortt & Kamp, 2022) and the Ten Niche Strategies framework (Ortt et al., 2013) are used as the starting point of the research. TIS is defined as innovation systems around a specific technology that consists of four main elements: the technology, a network of actors, the institutions, and the demand. Ortt & Kamp’s TIS framework is a tool to examine the TIS of an innovation that is in its adaptation phase to judge whether the innovation is ready for its mass uptake or whether a small-scale niche introduction strategy is needed prior to the large-scale diffusion. The framework consists of three major elements: TIS building blocks (most important aspects needed for large-scale diffusion), influencing factors, and strategies. When certain influencing factors negatively affect the completeness of the TIS building blocks, they pose as barriers to the mass adoption of the innovation. Certain strategies could be implemented to circumvent these barriers, such as the generic Ten Niche Strategies proposed by Ortt et al.

The research is conducted in four major steps. First, basic information about SEV technology is explored. Second, a new framework called “the Best Strategy Framework” is developed to extend and complete the original TIS Framework and Ten Niche Strategies Framework so that the users/readers could select the best strategy based on the combination of barriers that hinder mass adoption of the innovations. Third, the newly developed framework is used to evaluate the Indonesian market and to identify the barriers that might hamper Lightyear’s SEV mass adoption in Indonesia. Finally, by using the newly developed framework, the best strategy that could circumvent the identified barriers is selected and proposed to Lightyear.

Climate change intensifies the frequency and severity of floods - the most devastating and costly climate-induced hazard. Government adaptations such as dikes or beach nourishments are important, yet insufficient in the face of worsening hazards. They reduce the hazard probability, but the local actions at the household level determine the extent of damages and inequalities in its distributional impacts on various societal groups. To design effective policies and risk reduction strategies it is critical to quantify the speed and scope of the household adaptation uptake and the resulting damage prevention. This is especially the case for distributional impacts (i.e., how different societal household groups adapt), which are often neglected. Quantifying both aggregate and distributional impacts of household climate change adaptation (CCA) on flood risk fosters the design of tailored flood risk management policies which allocate resources to the societal groups that need them most. This thesis presents a state-of-the-art agent-based flood model in downtown Shanghai, China to understand the role of household CCA in reducing coastal flood risk both in its aggregate and distributional impacts. To model the households’ exposure to climate-induced floods we overlayed the geolocations of 18.039 residential buildings with 21 inundation maps that depict dike failures and dike overtopping under different climate-change scenarios. We further parameterized households using context-specific micro-level survey data from Shanghai and depicted households’ adaptation decisions using an extended version of the Protection Motivation Theory. Our results show that autonomous household adaptation (adaptation without government policy) to climate change plays an essential role in reducing flood damage in downtown Shanghai. However, despite the considerable adaptation uptake, the residual damages increase over time due to the effects of sea level rise and land subsidence. This shows that autonomous household adaptation alone is insufficient to keep pace with the increasing severity of climate-related flooding, as it is constrained by barriers in the form of adaptation measure costs and regulations. Thus, additional policies are needed to overcome these barriers. These policies should take into account differences in adaptation behaviour and damage prevention among societal household groups. Specifically, our results indicate that households with lower worry, self-efficacy, and income adapt measurably slower to climate-induced floods, which makes these household groups significantly more vulnerable to flooding.

Thirteen percent of the world’s population currently does not have access to electricity. This lack of access to electricity limits the overall development. Having access to clean energy can provide education access, productivity and possibilities for economic growth. Frugal innovations are new or improved products, with a lower cost and fewer used resources in their production chain, while maintaining quality, achieving predefined criteria, fulfilling a specific purpose and are user-friendly. Frugal solar-photovoltaic systems, are one of the possible technologies that could be able to contribute to reducing the number of people without access to electricity. Despite the potential of frugal solar-PV systems for reducing energy poverty, market diffusion of these innovations is not a given. Political risks can pose a barrier to the market diffusion of these innovations, due to endangering a stable environment for development and investments.
However, the span of this relationship, specifically in the combination with frugal solar-PV systems, is unknown. To analyse this, the following main research question has been posed in this research: ‘To what extent is there a relationship between political risks and the market diffusion of frugal solar-PV systems?’. The answer to this research question has been researched with a mixed-methods research approach. First, a quantitative analysis is performed with a correlation analysis. The second phase includes qualitative research. Based on the results of the quantitative results, the factors which could influence the diffusion of frugal solar-PV systems in Uganda and Namibia are analysed with means of case studies and interviews.
The correlation analysis showed that there is no relationship between political risks and the diffusion of frugal solar-PV systems. There are too little significant results to convince that there is a relationship between the political risks and the diffusion of frugal solar-PV systems worldwide and per continent. Given the fact that this is a research area where little operationalising has been done so far, it is also important to find possible explanations for this result. Based on the case studies and interviews, it can be stated that that there are more factors playing a role in the diffusion of frugal solar-PV systems than the included political risks. For example, the need for frugal innovations, (renewable) energy technologies which are already invested in, the varying degree of involvement of foreign investors and non-governmental organisations, the history of relationships with other countries and current trading agreements.
To conclude, this research has contributed to the knowledge gaps and scientific debates in the frugal innovation field by looking at the market diffusion of these systems and the possible role political risks can play in this process. Valuable knowledge has been gathered, which has contributed in filling in gaps in academic research: political risks have been operationalised, a contribution has been made in the field of diffusion theories, specifically for frugal innovations, and the scope of the extent of a relationship between political risks and the diffusion of frugal solar-PV systems has been determined. The results of this research can hopefully on the long term contribute to increasing the percentage of people having access to affordable and renewable generated electricity and reducing the energy poverty worldwide.

To meet the ambitious renewable energy target of 170 GW, India is eyeing its vast solar energy potential. To tap this potential, it needs large swaths of land and massive infrastructure development. Research in the western countries has shown that renewable energy infrastructure developments has led to instances of injustices at local level. In India too, limited scientific research in this area indicates that local communities are invariably bearing the brunt of these developments, resulting into deepening of the existing socio-economic inequities. This research aimed at generating empirical findings by conducting a case study of a utility scale solar park in Maharashtra, India. It uses energy justice framework to reveal the (in)justices that locals in the area have experienced or seen. We interviewed 14 locals from the villages around the solar parks. All interviews were telephonic and were conducted in Marathi. The data was analysed manually using qualitative content analysis techniques. Findings of the case study echo the concerns found in other solar park case studies in India. Locals, especially the poor and uneducated locals who lost access to land as a result of development of solar park, suffered more. Injustice and feelings of unfairness persist among locals when they talk about the jobs, local development, access to energy and additional burdens like risks and responsibilities created due to the solar park. Unjust procedures led to unjust outcomes. Locals were deprived of full and impartial information, local power dynamics influenced decision-making process leading to injustices done to rightful beneficiaries and local voices were ignored during various stages of project operation. Lack of transparency, accountability and participation, changes in resource use, and practices such as political influence, corruption, intimidation were identified as factors causing the injustices in the implementation of solar parks. Most of these factors, however, are systemic and are present across various sectors. Renewable energy projects proved to be no exception!

With the effects of decarbonization and digitalization trends already felt throughout the energy sector, oil refineries face technological and environmental challenges that threaten their role and relevancy in future energy systems. The most standard type of refining products, transportation fuels, are undergoing a massive transition from fossil fuel-based to greener means while the emergence of electric vehicles threatens combustion engine vehicles completely. Not only the products of oil refineries but the refining processes and operations are also subject to change for energy efficiency and emission reasons. Meanwhile, the expected expansion of the middle-class in areas like China, India, Indonesia and the Middle East corresponds to an increase in consumption of refining products and petrochemicals, which are seen as the next driver of demand in the future. This paper aligns the technological and environmental challenges and developments that the industry is preparing with Qualitative Content Analysis to generate meaningful criteria to evaluate the integration of oil refineries in decarbonized and digitalized energy systems. Then, the meaningful criteria are analyzed through scenario building in the context of relevant scenarios and forecasts to generate a roadmap for relevancy and integration of oil refineries in future energy systems. This roadmap consists of three steps of recommendations and actions: increased CO2 efficiency of refining operations, relentless progression of emission mitigation and finally, integration of oil refineries into industrial clusters.

The Dutch carpet tile industry is one of the most polluting and unsustainable industries worldwide, with a waste product that is only fit for landfilling. This thesis set out to model the industry and conclude on effective sustainability increasing measures. It was identified that the creation of one carpet tile (0.25 square meters) causes a global warming equivalent of 4.9 kilograms CO2-equivalent units and requires up to 78 megajoule of energy. With the current material composition of a carpet tile, no fully sustainable supply chain can be achieved. The recycling of these materials is simply too costly and too difficult. This makes for the downcycling of end-of-lifecycle (EOL) carpets into building insulation material the most effective form of disposal, only achieving a 31% reduction in environmental effects at best. This is a far cry from the envisioned full circularity by the carpet industry. In order to achieve a fully sustainable carpet industry, a shift in problem ownership is required. Currently, the consumer and government are paying for the inability of the carpet industry to produce a carpet that is (fully) recyclable. Once a carpet is sold, the costs of disposal are the responsibility by whoever buys the carpet, and the environmental costs affect welfare and are thus a governmental problem. This study advices a product-service system, where through leasing contracts and deposit systems, the carpet manufacturer remains the owner of a carpet at its EOL. Through this system, the carpet manufacturer is incentivized to produce a carpet that is more easily recyclable, or to establish a market and create demand for the EOL product. This study set out to discover how the current generation of carpets can be diverted from landfills and be used to establish a sustainable industry. It can be concluded that recycling cannot be achieved, and downcycling needs further exploration as it requires the establishment of a new market. Thus, it is concluded that the current generation of carpets is unfit to create any sort of sustainable supply chain, and efforts are best invested in the establishment of a new type of carpet which is more easily recyclable.

The shifts towards more use of electric vehicles and more use of renewable energy sources create the need for Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology. To penetrate the market, the development of V2G business models is critical. However, there are no sustainable V2G business models determined yet. Therefore, this research focused on what the key components are for such business models focusing on the Netherlands. By applying a qualitative approach, this study analyzed the actor's environment, technological developments, and three cases. After that, semi-structured interviews were conducted interviewing eleven experts with regards to the development of sustainable V2G business models. The results showed that there are three themes (business environment, business model, sustainability), twenty-six categories, and 229 components. This research provided an overview of the key components in a business model framework categorized into three use cases: Public V2G charging, V2G for homeowners (Vehicle-to-Home), and V2G for office/building owners (Vehicle-to-Building). The results showed that the business environment is vital and that the Dutch market is at the moment not ready for V2G to be commercial because of institutional, technical, and standardization issues. However, there is also potential due to the increasing trend of EVs, increasing grid congestion, decreasing costs of V2G charging infrastructure, and other trends.

During the next few decades, a significant increase in the use of intermittent renewable energy sources is expected in the Netherlands as well as a general increase in electricity consumption. Due to the increased demand as well as a more uncertain, volatile supply, substantial upgrades and redesign of the current Dutch electricity grids are needed. These upgrades will inevitably require large investments as the design and installation of electricity grids is costly. Additionally, the investments are lumpy and irreversible. It is therefore important that the investments will be made in such a way that the future grids will operate successfully, supplying consumers with the demanded electricity at sufficient quality with a low rate of interruptions. Recently, the Netherlands has been divided into 30 energy regions, which allows the Netherlands to work on its climate agreements both from a regional and from a national level. These regions will work on generation and consumption of electricity and heating as well as on the energy infrastructures needed to supply this energy. This aim of this research paper has been to create a method that can be used to design suitable electricity distribution networks for the energy regions in the Netherlands. One approach to designing electricity grid topologies is with the use of graph theory heuristics, which has shown to be a useful way of approaching the electricity design problem by discretising plots of land into a graph. The research paper has shown that by taking into account spatial constraints specific to the Dutch regions, more valid networks can be created. This further leads to increased implementability of the final networks in addition to a reduction in the possibility for unforeseen costs related to building on certain plots of land. The proposed method aims to minimise the investment costs of the future regional electricity distribution networks in the Netherlands, taking both cable lengths and capacities into account. A radiality constraint is applied, ensuring that the network is connected but does not contain any cycles. A flexible way of ensuring that the final networks do not overlap with unavailable land is thereafter applied and demonstrated. A heuristic method aiming to minimise network length is applied before assigning the required capacities to the network. An improvement procedure is performed in order to further reduce investment costs. The cost function is formulated as a non-linear function, incorporating the characteristic that savings can be made by combining lines in order to create a shorter, high-capacity network instead of a longer, low-capacity network. The proposed method has thereafter been verified with respect to the problem formulated and demonstrated using a case study on the energy region Goeree-Overflakkee. Experimental results have also been generated in order to assess the effectiveness of the method. In comparison to an alternative simultaneous topology and production optimisation, it has been found that the proposed method leads to a shorter final network that additionally leads to lower total investments costs.  

De Nederlandse overheid heeft een opendataportaal (data.overheid.nl). Via dit portaal kunnen dataproviders open data beschikbaar maken voor hergebruik door datagebruikers. De datagebruikers kunnen onderverdeeld worden in standaard eindgebruikers en ontwikkelaars. Hierbij analyseren standaard eindgebruikers open data voor inzichten die hen in staat stellen om nieuwe kansen te herkennen, aan de hand van onder andere ontwikkelingen in de maatschappij. Bijvoorbeeld door aan de hand van cijfers die de netto bevolkingstoename weergeven binnen een regio, de behoefte van nieuwkomers tegemoet te zien in de vorm van nieuw aanbod aan producten. Hiervoor dienen namelijk in een vroeg stadium investeringen te zijn gedaan voor winstgevende activiteiten op de langere termijn. De ontwikkelaars zijn erop gericht om applicaties te ontwikkelen voor eindgebruikers met intuïtieve gebruikersinterfaces die een bepaalde hoofdfunctie vervullen. Hiervoor zijn ontwikkelaars geïnteresseerd in applicaties die samenvallen met ontwikkelingen in de praktijk die een onvervulde informatievraag genereren onder standaard eindgebruikers. Ontwikkelaars zijn bijvoorbeeld: applicatieontwikkelaars, data-analisten en databankontwerpers. Dit onderzoek richt zich op het gebruik van open data door standaard eindgebruikers. De gebruiksvriendelijkheid van het portaal is niet optimaal waardoor kansen onbenut blijven voor eindgebruikers.
Dit komt omdat hulpmiddelen ontbreken bij het effectief verwerken van open data. Ook is het lastig om strategische keuzes te maken bij het selecteren en gebruiken van open data, doordat het aanbod niet gestandaardiseerd is. Er is dus geen eenduidige manier waarop open data kunnen worden ingelezen en gebruikt voor de verrijking met andere datasets en informatie. De drempel voor het gebruik van het overheidsportaal is hoog waardoor het gebruik achterblijft bij de mogelijkheden die open data kunnen bieden aan standaard eindgebruikers.
Het overheidsportaal zou kunnen worden verbeterd op twee vlakken; (i) het aanbod van open data, en (ii) de strategieën vanuit eindgebruikers voor het gebruik van open data. Het uiteindelijk doel is daarbij om effectief gebruik van open data te stimuleren en daarmee te zorgen dat data gebruikt worden op een laagdrempelige manier met behulp van de creativiteit van eindgebruikers. Hierbij hoort de volgende hoofdvraag:
‘Wat moeten portaaleigenaren doen om de drempel voor het gebruik van open data te verlagen?’
Om deze hoofdvraag te kunnen beantwoorden, zijn verschillende onderzoeksmethoden toegepast voor het onderbouwen van de problemen en het komen tot aanbevelingen voor specifieke maatregelen. Het probleem is dat er technische functies ontbreken voor het verwerken van open data op het portaal. Hierbij zijn er verschillen in hoe open data is aangeboden op het portaal. Met behulp van technische functies die door alle datagebruikers kunnen worden gebruikt hoeft een gebrek aan vaardigheden en kennis geen belemmering te zijn om gebruik te maken van open data, waarbij open data verwerkt kunnen worden op basis van een vooropgestelde onderzoeksvraag en/of hypothese. De datagebruikers kunnen hiermee worden gestimuleerd om creatief gebruik te maken van open data zonder dat de drempel voor het gebruik ervan te hoog is.
Allereerst is er een literatuuronderzoek ingezet om een aantal aspecten voor het portaal vast te kunnen stellen, namelijk de benoeming van functies waarmee open data kunnen worden verwerkt, de criteria waarmee verschillen in het aanbod van open data kunnen worden benoemd, en wettelijke richtlijnen uit officiële publicatiebladen op Europees niveau ten aanzien van beleid.
Ten tweede is een empirische analyse uitgevoerd op het huidige portaal voor het bepalen van ontbrekende functies die in de literatuur zijn benoemd.
De derde onderzoeksmethode is een experimentele aanzet tot gedefinieerde gebruikerspaden die nog niet op deze manier zijn gedefinieerd als leidraad voor eindgebruikers. Dit is het eerste onderzoek dat gebruikerspaden definieert en gebruikt voor open data. De gebruikerspaden kunnen worden hergebruikt door gebruikers voor data-analyse in verschillende domeinen en voor verschillende gebruikersdoeleinden.
De vierde gebruikte onderzoeksmethode omvat interviews met deskundigen die onderzoek doen aan de Technische Universiteit Delft. Voor dit onderzoek zijn in totaal zes opendatadeskundigen geïnterviewd. Eén opendatadeskundige is voor aanvang van het literatuuronderzoek geïnterviewd om suggesties te krijgen voor geschikte wetenschappelijke literatuur voor het literatuuronderzoek. De andere vijf deskundigen zijn geïnterviewd voor het evalueren van de ontbrekende functies op het portaal en voor evaluatie van en het verkrijgen van feedback op de gebruikerspaden.

De volgorde en samenhang waarin de verschillende onderzoeksmethoden zijn toegepast is als volgt.
In de literatuur zijn vier hoofdcategorieën van criteria gevonden waarin de verschillen in het aanbod van open data en daarmee gebruiksvriendelijkheid van open data kunnen worden uitgedrukt; (i) formaat, (ii) metadata, (iii) toegang, en (iv) kwaliteit (Dawes et al., 2016).
Tevens zijn functies geïdentificeerd die onder andere kunnen worden gebruikt bij het verzamelen, analyseren en visualiseren van open data. Met een empirische analyse van het huidige overheidsportaal is bepaald welke functies uit de literatuur ontbreken. Deze ontbrekende functies zijn vervolgens geëvalueerd na interviews met vijf deskundigen met behulp van enquêtevragen waarmee het belang van elke ontbrekende functie is vastgesteld. Verder zijn er EU-richtlijnen geanalyseerd om maatregelen te formuleren waarmee portaaleigenaren met de wettelijke richtlijnen kunnen omgaan. Deze richtlijnen bepalen de verplichtingen bij het aanbieden van open data op een portaal voor de verantwoordelijke overheden.
Vervolgens zijn op een experimentele manier gebruikerspaden ontworpen met behulp van data-analysetechnieken uit literatuur. Het gebruik van open data kan op een gestructureerde manier beschreven worden doordat strategische keuzes bij het analyseren van open data bepalend zijn voorgestelde doelstellingen. De gebruikerspaden geven een reeks van activiteiten aan om open data te verwerken voor een bepaald doel. De gebruikerspaden zijn gedefinieerd in de vorm van procedures bestaande uit te volgen stappen om vooropgestelde doelen te kunnen bereiken. De manier waarop de gebruikerspaden zijn gedefinieerd is experimenteel doordat ze nog verder moeten worden verbeterd aan de hand van onderzoek naar specifieke gebruikersbehoeften bij het analyseren van open data. Deze behoeften moeten vervolgens ook nog worden vertaald naar taken die vallen binnen een gebruikerspad. De initiële gebruikerspaden zijn, met behulp van enquêtes gericht aan opendatadeskundigen, onderzocht op gebruiksvriendelijkheid en verbeteringsmogelijkheden.

Met de volgende conclusies en aanbevelingen kan het aanbod van open data en het portaal gebruiksvriendelijker worden verbeterd.

Er zijn vier categorieën van criteria gevonden die kunnen worden gebruikt om het aanbod van open data op het portaal te verbeteren:
1. Formaat: verschillende voorwaarden voor het gebruik van open data, bijvoorbeeld waarbij software als gereedschap is benodigd om er toegang tot te krijgen. Voorbeeld: gelinkte en machine-leesbare open dataformats stellen datagebruikers in staat om direct in actie te komen met data-analyses zonder aparte preparatietaken voor het koppelen van datasets
2. Metadata: de exacte beschrijving van databronnen met een gezamenlijke context voor alle datagebruikers, in de vorm van een aparte informatiestructuur en relevante trefwoorden voor de vindbaarheid van datasets.
3. Toegankelijkheid: verschillende bestandsformaten waarin de open data worden aangeboden, inclusief de mogelijkheid om door datasets te navigeren via webpagina’s, zonder de open data eerst te moeten downloaden.
4. Kwaliteit: omgang met kwaliteitsverschillen tussen datasets waarmee ook de kwaliteit van data-analyses wordt beïnvloed indien deze niet worden gecorrigeerd met behulp van beschikbare technieken of door de dataproviders.
De open data worden beschouwd in de vorm van datasets en kunnen hierbij worden onderverdeeld in gestructureerd on ongestructureerd. Voorbeelden van gestructureerde open dataformaten op het huidige portaal zijn: XML, JSON, CSV, en andere dataformaten. Voorbeelden van ongestructureerde open data zijn PDF-documenten, video, audio, foto’s, brieven, beleidsnota’s en andere gegevens die in verschillende dataformaten worden aangeboden. Aangezien het nut in open data gelegen is in de mogelijke koppeling tussen datasets, is er een voorkeur voor gestructureerde machine-leesbare datasets die snel elektronisch verwerkt kunnen worden. Daarmee kunnen datasets namelijk efficiënt gelinkt kunnen worden met andere datasets voor waardevolle data-analyse doeleinden. Bij gestructureerde datasets kunnen op basis van attributen subsets worden gefilterd uit een dataset. Dit kan aan de hand van een querytaal zoals SQL waarbij de datasets in een relationele database worden ingeladen en gekoppeld met andere gegevens. Hiermee kunnen opdrachten worden uitgevoerd met de wiskundige logica die de samenhang tussen gegevens representeert en die tot nieuwe inzichten kan leiden voor eindgebruikers. Oftewel, het analyseren en koppelen van open data is gemakkelijker indien open data gestructureerd worden aangeboden. Het kost meer moeite om ongestructureerde open data te analyseren en te koppelen aan andere gegevens doordat de open data moeten worden afgestemd op dezelfde gegevenstypen. De gebruikte gegevenstypen zijn afhankelijk van de verschillende taken die door datagebruikers worden uitgevoerd voor de gewenste inzichten. De vindbaarheid van datasets kan worden vergroot door aparte informatiestructuurbeschrijvingen toe te voegen, bijvoorbeeld in de vorm van een doelenboom, ter verduidelijking van de inhoudelijke betekenis ten opzichte van andere open data. De toegankelijkheid is hierbij de mogelijkheid om door open data te navigeren zonder het direct te hoeven downloaden naar een applicatie. Bijvoorbeeld door middel van gestandaardiseerde HTML-webpagina’s. Ten slotte is de kwaliteit afhankelijk per situatie waarin gebruik wordt gemaakt van open data en moet er gelegenheid zijn om dit frequent te controleren door eindgebruikers via het portaal. Bijvoorbeeld met behulp van technieken die helpen om de kwaliteit van data te kunnen beoordelen voor het beoogde gebruik ervan.

De dataproviders en portaaleigenaren kunnen de EU-richtlijnen toepassen via open databeleid met behulp van de volgende drie maatregelen:
1. Privacygevoelige gegevens anonimiseren ter bescherming van personen.
2. Kostentoerekening op basis van de hoeveelheid gegevens toepassen via licenties. Bijvoorbeeld kosten in rekening brengen voor het gebruik van webservices, maar niet voor het gebruik van open data in het archief van het portaal.
3. Via onlinekanalen contact zoeken met gebruikers om te vragen wat men wil weten van de overheid en hierop inspelen door het aanbieden van nieuwe open data op het portaal.
Door middel van de hierboven genoemde maatregelen kunnen portaaleigenaren hun portaal veiliger en gebruiksvriendelijker maken. Met deze maatregelen kunnen portaaleigenaren het aanbod van open data beter laten aansluiten aan specifieke behoeften van datagebruikers.

De empirische analyse van het portaal op basis van de functies uit de literatuur laat zien dat de volgende functies (Zuiderwijk et al., 2014; Zuiderwijk, 2015), ontbreken in het huidige portaal:
1 Analyseren van open data
2 Gebruikerspaden kiezen
3 Visualiseren van data-analyse resultaten
4 Volgen van datagebruikers
5 Analysebevindingen delen via sociale media
6 Versiebeheer
7 Data kwaliteitsbeheer
8 Tutorial aanbieden
9 Interactiemechanisme
Deze ontbrekende functies kunnen een gebruiksvriendelijke verwerking van open data op het portaal stimuleren met gebruikerspaden als leidraad.

Er zijn vier gebruikerspaden gedefinieerd op een iteratieve manier als experiment voor het volgen van stappen op basis van vooropgestelde onderzoeksvragen en/of hypothesen. Dit is een experimentele en daardoor uitbreidbare reeks stappen die kan worden gevolgd om inzichten uit open data te verwerven. De gebruikerspaden stellen kennis paraat, waardoor datagebruikers gestructureerd te werk kunnen gaan. Het is geen garantie voor succes omdat dit ook afhangt van de vaardigheden met betrekking tot het verwerken en testen van de open data. De vier gebruikerspaden zijn gefocust op de volgende gebruikersbehoeften bij open datagebruik:
1. Beschrijven van samenvattende informatiewaarden van datasets, om beslissingen in de toekomst te onderbouwen.
2. Classificeren van gegevens, om in de vorm van voorspellende modellen, wat-als vragen te stellen voor het doorrekenen van verschillende scenario’s.
3. Trendontwikkelingen onderzoeken met tijd als onafhankelijke variabele of index.
4. Groeperen of scheiden van deelpopulaties met gemeenschappelijke kenmerken uit een dataset met datapunten om relaties tussen variabelen te onderzoeken.
De belangrijkste aanbeveling is dat de portaaleigenaren de drempel kunnen verlagen door de negen ontbrekende functies te implementeren in het portaal. De gebruikerspaden kunnen gebruikt worden om de drempel bij het gebruik van open data verder te verlagen. Het is te verwachten dat datagebruikers, met behulp van de functies en gebruikerspaden, minder moeite en tijd kwijt zijn door leidend gebruik van open data.

Hydrogen as an energy carrier is seen as an important option to reduce the CO₂ emissions in the transport sector. However, limited research is done into the possibilities of using a hydrogen truck in freight road transport. This article considers the following question: Under which techno-economic boundary conditions a hydrogen fuel-cell tractor semi-trailer (hereafter called: hydrogen truck) is a feasible option for long-haul freight road transport in Europe? This paper uses a Total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis to identify these conditions. While looking into the cost components of the TCO and comparing this with a diesel truck, the boundary conditions for feasibility arise. This thesis identifies three sorts of boundary conditions. First of all, the availability of hydrogen refuelling stations (HRS) and the deployment of the hydrogen truck. Secondly, the affordability (TCO) of a hydrogen truck is primarily determined by the economy of scale. The effects of this are the most influential for the production of hydrogen and the hydrogen truck. Thirdly, the most important robustness in operation boundary conditions are the hydrogen storage techniques and there fuelling speed. Insight in this assists in the creation of policy for zero-emission freight transport.

The goal of this thesis is to determine the effects of integrating blue hydrogen into the Dutch energy system. A new framework is presented to assess several different designs for the business model, infrastructure, and market. This framework is applied to the case of the H-vision project. Three business models are tested against three energy system designs. As such we can determine if which of the three combinations presents the most benefits and also which combination is the most likely to be executed. I invite everyone to read this thesis with a heuristic perspective to learn more about the hydrogen economy and the Dutch energy system. I hope it will be as educating for you as it has been for me.

Electric mobility is considered as the next step towards sustainable mobility. Within the Netherlands, as one of the leading countries if it comes to electric mobility, the market share of battery electric vehicles is still limited to 0,2 percent. Many studies are executed on consumer behaviour regarding electric vehicles. But no studies are found based on users with actual experience with battery electric vehicles. A theoretical framework was developed to create better understanding on how actual user experience relates with perception, attitude and adoption behaviour. The Q-experiment shows four shared perspectives among experienced battery electric vehicle users, which are all positive. Differences were found comparing these perceptions with perceptions from unexperienced consumers found in literature. Interestingly, the result suggests positivity among experienced users is not only caused by usual vehicle characteristics as drivetrain. But also, by brand image, self-identity and innovations on user interface. Suggesting that experience influences perception on BEV usage, it is interesting to understand how to bring experience towards non-experienced users.

Barriers to CO₂ abatement impede their materialisation. In this research the Y-factor was used in expert interviews to gather information on the barriers to the materialisation of four abatement options in the Netherlands: Insulation, Carbon Capture Storage, Biofuels and Geothermal energy. The potential of these options for the Netherlands is relevant, although no acceleration of their realisation has taken place. The Y-factor proved to be a suitable research method to systematically research materialisation barriers from a system’s perspective as it included barriers related to costs and financing, multi-actor complexity, physical interdependencies and behaviour. The supporting stories of the barrier scores and links between barriers revealed the complexity of materialisation. Additional scoping of abatement options and clarification of barrier definitions can increase informative value of the supporting stories and increase the scoring quality. Researching abatement options when using a system’s perspective can improve the understanding of barriers to CO₂ abatement.

Marginal Abatement Cost (MAC) curves rank emission abatement options according to their marginal implementation cost and are an extremely popular tool to draft energy strategies. Although relevant and elegant, MAC curves are often insufficient to justify the implementation of abatement options, as many of the ones ranked financially convenient are not fully realized. The Y-factor method is an alternative approach to emission abatement curves, highlighting the relevance of 12 implementation barriers related to Costs, Multi-actor complexity, Physical interdependencies and Behavioral changes. This investigation applies the Y-factor method to construct a new emission abatement curve, validating its characterizing scores with experts. The obtained Y-curve exposes the relevance of many implementation barriers not capture by MAC curves, as financial barriers are found to account for only 30% of all the considered implementation barriers; the relevance of non-financial barriers helps explaining the reasons for which abatement options considered financially convenient are not implemented. The interviews with experts also verify the relevance of each of the 12 considered factors, each of which is found to be explicitly hampering the implementation of abatement options. Moreover, new insights are highlighted for each of the considered abatement options comparing their ranking in the Y-curve with their respective ranking in McKinsey's global cost curve. The constructed Y-curve and the Y-factor method are successively discussed with players responsible and/or consulted for drafting energy strategies in The Netherlands, namely the Ministerie van Economische Zaken en Klimaat, PBL, ECOFYS. The proposed Y-curve is accepted and the Y-factor method is found able to provide supportive insights to sustainable strategy-making. Moreover, the consulted energy strategists envisioned applications of the the Y-factor method for Policy-making, Analytical researches, and for drafting Business strategies. Lastly, a new tool integrating figures from McKinsey's global cost curve and the Y-curve is presented, as an example of possible new tools developed combining the different existing approaches to emission abatement. These new insights expose hidden complexities and thus further support the elaboration of effective and cost-efficient energy strategies and sustainable societal development.