The construction industry is subjet to a wide range of uncertainties and risks. Although detailed risk management processes have been created, many projects still fail one or more of the initial objectives. This research looks into the influence of risk attitude on the risk amnagement process and provides practitioners with both a tool to observe risk attitude as well as an outline that can be used to monitor it. This aims to help decision-making and the achievement of project goals by limiting the negative inflence of te human factor.

Port performance is under pressure due to high congestion levels and a need to reduce GHG emissions. The industry is looking for ways to increase efficiency in ports. A promising concept is known as port call optimization where waiting times and turn-around times can be reduced. This research contributes to the body of port call optimization literature by identifying the importance of performance attributes for innovations. Identifying the performance attributes and how stakeholders weight these has never been explored before in literature. The relative importance has been derived using the Bayesian Best-Worst Method. The performance attributes: incidents, near misses, robustness and added value, are most important for evaluating an innovation for port call management. Results on micro level show heterogeneity and homogeneity in preferences for port attributes. Both ports with complex nautical restrictions prefer performance attributes related to safety. The port with centralised management is more commercially driven and there is homogeneity within a port. Furthermore, heterogeneity is seen between stakeholder groups and between port authority (PA). PAs from centralised port value attributes relatively different than a PA with decentralised and licensing activities. Some differences and similarities can be explained by the port contexts. The findings can be used for the design of innovations in port call management. Research could be repeated in other port cases to validate the significance of these results.

Emission-free zones are being instituted in cities in the Netherlands to combat the emissions caused by transportation activity causing operators of large commercial vehicle fleets to electrify their vehicle fleet. E-truck fleets need sufficient charging infrastructure and power capacity at the distribution centres they operate from. However, due to the prevalence of grid congestion causes, the capacity of actors’ connection to the power grid is be constrained and solutions behind the electricity meter are necessary to either increase local supply or reduce momentary demand. The main research question is: “What is the most cost-effective electric infrastructural composition and operation to facilitate the electrification of heavy truck fleets of large-scale distribution centres in grid congested areas in various scenarios to ensure that the route schedules can be driven?” This thesis proposes a mathematical mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model which simultaneously optimizes the composition and operation of the electric infrastructure of a distribution centre, while considering the periodic energy balance, for various scenarios in the electrification process. This has not been done earlier in the literature for distribution centre-like systems, while no similar use case has been studied in the Netherlands or its general region. Before the model was applied to the real-world case, it was verified using a recalculable numerical test and validated using linear regression analysis. In the model validation the K-means method was used to determine a typical day per month, to comprise the simulation period to 288 time periods of an hour. The proposed mathematical model was tested by means of a case study and various scenarios for the distribution centre of a supermarket company to analyse the models’ behaviour in a practical setting. The results show that from a greedy charging subscenario to a variable electricity prices subscenario, the model is able to decrease the yearly total costs and the number of infrastructure components required. The model is able to reduce the yearly total cost by up to 19.4% in the final scenario. The infrastructure investment steps in the electrification process to take, would be to install consecutively or collectively 1, 3 and 7 charging stations and 994, 1623 and 4340 PV panels in 2022, 2025 and 2030, leading to a PV installation with a total rated power of 1.562 MW, which proved to be the more cost-effective than wind turbines and battery storage. The results of the scenarios, the graphs and the sensitivity analysis show that the model is effectively able to optimize the infrastructural composition and operation to minimize the cost in all cases, giving managerial insights into the decisions that need to be made in all steps of a fleet electrification process.

The energy transition makes us less dependent on fossil fuels, but it also brings a new dependence to the table: a dependence on critical metals for green technology. This study used an Exploratory System Dynamics Modelling and Analysis approach to analyse the transition to a circular lithium system towards 2050 and the potential effectiveness of the Battery Regulation. It was shown that the Battery Regulation is likely to increase the end-of-life lithium recovery rate. However, it is yet unsure whether the set of policies is robust in preventing recycling from coming at the cost of lifetime-extending strategies. Furthermore, even with a successful implementation of the Battery Regulation, the contribution of circularity strategies to increase supply and reduce demand is limited in the short term. It is therefore recommended to improve the prioritisation of lifetime extending strategies and to give extra focus to decreasing the material intensity of our economy.

The carbon energy economy is gradually transforming into a sustainable energy economy, of which green hydrogen is regarded as one of the key players within it. However, although green hydrogen is spoken about extensively, significant production volumes and applications are yet to be introduced globally. The same holds for the Netherlands. Therefore, this thesis studied one theoretical production method for green hydrogen and assessed the potential market for it. In order to determine whether or not this technology would seem relevant at the moment of writing and in the near future. This thesis was done in collaboration with the French multinational Engie, who are a strong contender within the Dutch geothermal energy market and are also interested in renewable energy sources such as green hydrogen.

Following the Paris Agreement, the national government of the Netherlands reached the Climate Agreement together with more than 100 organizations. As part of this agreement, the industry sector is faced with the ambitious goal of 59% CO2 reduction in 2030 with respect to 1990 levels. Since the naphtha cracking industry is one of the most emission-intensive industries worldwide, decarbonization of this industry can deliver a significant contribution to reaching the climate goals. Among other transformations, electrification is regarded as an important decarbonization strategy. However, electrification in the naphtha cracking industry currently faces several barriers. For an important part, these stem from fundamental uncertainties concerning the future markets, the availability of renewable electricity and the capacity of the electricity grid. Moreover, high investment costs combined with a lack of financial and fiscal incentives and low carbon prices make the business case for electrification currently unattractive. In addition, the high degree of systems integration onsite and the baseload nature of the cracking process make the implementation of electrification challenging. Government policy could play a pivotal role in resolving these barriers. The purpose of this research is therefore to explore policy options at a national level that enable an acceleration in the chemical industry’s electrification while being robust against uncertainty. For this purpose, the Robust Decision-Making (RDM) framework was applied. As part of this framework, a system dynamics (SD) model was built to describe the behavior of the socio-technical system of the naphtha cracking industry. This model was then subjected Exploratory Modelling & Analysis (EMA) to simulate the impact of various policy options on the electrification rate against a large number of plausible future scenarios. Moreover, a robust policy search was conducted using a multi-objective robust optimization algorithm.The analyses of the simulation results suggest that profound changes in current policy instruments are required to achieve a significant degree of electrification in the naphtha cracking industry with sufficient certainty. It is advised to increase government funding for electrification, implement a fiscal shift away from gas towards electricity and to increase the effective carbon levy imposed on the industry. However, though the analyses show that government policy has a significant impact on the development of electrification, its success appears conditional on external factors, most importantly, developments in the energy and carbon markets. In fact, the electricity price and the ETS carbon price turn out to be more influential on emission reduction than most policy interventions. The availability of renewable electricity is the single most influential factor affecting CO2 emissions and hence, is considered paramount in achieving emission reduction. Therefore, policy aimed at accelerating electrification should be accompanied by decisive government action regarding the development of renewable electricity sources.

The Dutch government program “ A circular economy in the Netherlands by 2050“ prioritizes the 100% recycling of plastics used in the country by 2050 to reduce the consumption of fossil resources and increase the value of the plastic waste, which is currently incinerated or exported in its majority [1]. This objective can be facilitated by including chemical recycling techniques to recover valuable chemicals such as syngas (H2/CO) and monomers (ethylene/propylene) from plastic waste [2]. Among the chemical recycling techniques, gasification is a mature technology with the highest flexibility on the feedstock composition, allowing to treat complex mixtures as plastic waste [3]. In this framework, the project “Towards improved the circularity of polyolefin-based packaging” evaluates the technology readiness level of gasification for recycling a plastic waste mixture representative of the packaging sector (39.6% of the European plastics demand in 2019 [4]), to increase the knowledge of polyolefins waste (PW) gasification to contribute in closing the plastics loop [5]. The Process and Energy Department of TU Delft is part of this project and is responsible for gasifying a polyolefins waste mixture representative of the packaging sector (PW-DKR350) in a novel Indirectly Heated Bubbling Fluidized Bed Steam Reformer (IHBFBSR) [6]. This thesis focuses on developing a kinetic model of the IHBFBSR, which describes the bed hydrodynamics according to the two-phase theory (TPM) in Aspen plus as a complementary tool for the validation of the experimental work and narrow down the number of laboratory tests by identifying the gasification parameters (temperature, ER and SF ratios) that optimizes the following key performance indicators: carbon conversion efficiency (CCE), cold gas efficiency (CGE), product gas yield (GY) and tar yield (TY). This document describes the development of the TPM-IHBFBSR model. It starts with a literature review of the most-used modelling approaches for carbonaceous materials. Next, it describes the upgrading strategies applied, according to the equilibrium and kinetic approaches, emphasizing in the hydrodynamic models and simulation settings. Through this part were identified the optimal gasification parameters: 680°C<T<800°C, ER=0.15 and SF=2. Finally, the comparison of the TPM-IHBFBSR model and its previous versions against two validation cases found in the literature, highlights the advantage of having developed an adaptable model to a particular PW mixture, making possible to continue improving it

Transport sector CO2 emissions are on the rise and responsible for nearly 30% of the EU’s total CO2 emissions (European Parliament,2019). An attractive way to reduce the CO2 emissions by transport is by changing the fuel used. Hydrogen is expected to play a key role in a clean, secure and affordable energy future (IEA). However, a clean, widespread use of hydrogen in global energy transitions faces several challenges. Currently, the global hydrogen production is approximately 7.2 EJ per year, 96% of which comes from fossil fuels. To harness the potential of hydrogen on the way to a clean energy future requires the capture of CO2 from hydrogen production from fossil fuels and greater supplies of hydrogen from renewable energy sources. This study focuses on assessing the techno-economic potential of the membrane technology coupled with carbon capture technology, to produce decentralized bio-hydrogen in realizing a low carbon society in The Netherlands. A literature survey was performed to determine the performance of the membrane reactor & cryogenic capture technologies and expected technological advancements. With the information obtained,a basic process of membrane reforming with carbon capture was modeled in Aspen Plus. Different configurations of the basic process were developed. In the first stage, thermodynamic key performance indicators were used to compare the performance of the different configurations developed. Secondly, one promising configuration was chosen and the levelized cost of hydrogen was used to optimize the process parameters like sweep ratio, permeate pressure, feed pressure etc. Finally, the optimum configuration was used to determine its economic and CO2 emissions potential compared to the conventional steam methane reforming process. Exergy analysis for the optimum configuration was also performed.The optimum levelized cost of hydrogen of the decentralized hydrogen production system developed in this work is calculated to be 4.19 €/kg H2. The levelized cost of hydrogen for the equivalent centralized steam methane reforming system is 5.98 €/kg H2. Therefore, the decentralized system developed is more attractive than the centralized system. The higher costs of the centralized system are due to the hydrogen transportation costs. Furthermore, the carbon capture unit costs 0.68  €/kg H2 and an additional dehydration unit at 0.4 €/kg H2 is required to meet the PEM fuel-cell hydrogen specifications. The efficiency and carbon capture rate of the developed configuration is 66.07% and 72.13% respectively,higher than the conventional process. The exergy efficiency of the developed process is 65.1%. The CO2 emissions for the decentralized system across the value chain are calculated to be 1.4 kg CO2/kg H2. Future scenarios with renewable energy in the electricity mix result in negative CO2 emissions, making the system attractive to limit the climate change and also benefit financially from the EU-ETS. The CO2 emissions of the centralized system are 5.45 kg CO2/kg H2 with post-combustion carbon capture and 10.14 kg CO2/kg H2 with state-of-the-art reforming. With a carbon tax to be implemented soon,the costs of this system will rise making the decentralized system even more attractive. However, uncertainties in the development of an integrated hydrogen transport infrastructure, fuel-grade hydrogen demand, technological advancements in membrane reactors etc. may affect the comparative attractiveness of the systems.

The transportation sector is considered to be one of the significant contributors of carbon emissions around the world. With the rise in carbon emissions, electric vehicles are increasingly becoming popular globally. Most of the developed countries are moving towards the electrification of the transportation sector at a faster pace. Although the concept of electrification is novel and environmentally friendly, the electricity demand is predicted to rise exponentially in the next decade. Concerning this demand, Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology is considered to be one of the best solutions by experts to incorporate future electricity demand. Even though the technology was introduced in the late 20th century, it is yet to be commercialized for public use on a large scale. There are various pilot projects under development around the world, especially in the European continent. A few private clients in Denmark have already commercialized the technology for private usage, but certainly, it is not available for the general public. Hence, Europe was considered to be an ideal choice for geographical focus. The most important barrier to the adoption of V2G technology is related to the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in the market. While the demand for EVs is gradually increasing, the large scale adoption of V2G technology will eventually grow. The charging equipment that is used to charge the electric cars at the charging stations is another critical barrier. Three different standards are competing against each other to dominate the market (i.e., CHAdeMO, CCS Combo, and Tesla). Most of the charging stations in Europe consists of either or all the three types of charging equipment. A few private charging infrastructure companies have also established charging stations locally or nationally in Europe. As there is an equal distribution of CHAdeMO and CCS Combo charging stations around Europe, standardization of the charging equipment could become a necessity for the implementation of V2G technology in the future.

According to the literature, there are three different modes of standardization processes, namely: committee-based, market-based, and government-based standardization. Based on the involvement of various actors in the standardization processes, the concept of multi-mode standardization was introduced in the literature. The case of charging standards related to V2G technology involves actors from various domains indicating the potential case of multi-mode standardization. While the three charging standards are still in the early phases of the battle, it is imperative to analyze the factors that could influence the standardization of charging standards. Hence, the main research question for this research was framed: "What are the factors that influence the success of charging standards in the context of multi-mode standardization in the European market for the implementation of V2G technology?". The factors influencing success within the case of multi-mode standardization were recently introduced into the literature. A thorough literature review was carried out to identify a total of 39 influential factors within various case studies of multi-mode standardization. And it resulted in the proposition of a new framework for further analysis in this research. With the combination of a literature review and interview with the experts, 35 factors were found to be relevant. Further, a Multi-criteria Decision Making (MCDM) tool known as the ‘Best Worst Method (BWM)’ approach was used to rank the factors based on expert’s preferences. A total of seven interviews were conducted to allocate weights for each factor using the BWM approach to rank the factors. The experts belonged to academic as well as industrial backgrounds. The results of the analysis showed that the factors ‘brand reputation and credibility’, ‘compatibility’, ‘financial strength’, ‘bandwagon effect’, and ‘lobbying’ ended up being the top five influential factors in this research. While there were two groups of interviewees, a set of two different statistical tests were performed to analyze the significant differences between the results obtained from the two groups of experts. The weight of the factor ‘delay in the standardization process’ was found to be significantly different among the two groups. Hence, this factor was not considered for listing the influential factors.

Compared to the previous framework in the literature, a set of ten factors were added to the framework constructed during this research. The new factors were found to be indeed relevant in the standardization of charging standards. It was also observed for the first time in the BWM literature that a total of 35 factors were found to be relevant. Researchers can use the new framework for analyzing the factors influencing standards battle in different domains. Also, the BWM approach was used for the first time to identify success factors in the selection of charging standards for the implementation of V2G technology. Additionally, the articles that discussed success factors previously in literature from the market perspective were re-analyzed to explore the concept of multi-mode standardization for the first time. Out of ten reviewed articles, eight articles were recategorized to a relevant combination of multi-mode standardization. Moreover, empirical evidence was found for the factors that were considered to be relevant in the third phase of technology dominance. Additionally, it was also found for the first time that a few factors believed to be crucial in the fourth phase of technology dominance were found to be essential already in the third phase of standards battle between charging standards. The statistical analysis tests used in this research can also be used where there are more than two experts involved in the application of the BWM. Finally, the results obtained in this research provide empirical evidence to assign weights to the relevant factors and analyze the importance of those weights to explain their influence in the standardization using the BWM approach.

From a managerial point of view, a few practical contributions were also made during this research. The technology managers can use the proposed framework for the selection of charging standards globally in the future. The combination of the proposed framework and the BWM approach can be used to analyze technologies within similar domains in a situation of multi-mode standardization. The identified factors in the framework can be used to define strategies by the technological managers in the market to gain an edge over competitors in the market. Furthermore, the newly introduced factors in the proposed framework influence the members of the committees and help them to arrive at a consensus in standard development organizations. These factors can not only be validated by the technology managers but also by the committee members representing other aspects in the process of technology standardization. The proposed framework can be modified by the addition of new factors based on the relevance in the technology battle. With the increasing number of startups in the market, the framework can act as a guidance tool for entrepreneurs to analyze, validate and evaluate various factors that could influence the standardization of their product in the market.

A trend in current society is reducing the environmental impact of products. One of the industries in which this trend is noticeable is the yachting industry. Yachts with a lower environmental impact are being demanded. Furthermore, regulations are being put in place that are likely to limit the effect yachts can have on the environment. One problem arising with this demand is that there is no clear indication of what the environmental impact of a yacht is. Therefore, the concept of the Yacht Environmental Transparency Index (YETI) has been developed. To ensure the YETI will be used in the industry, it is proposed that the development of this index be done by yacht builders and designers. However, there is no structured process how this group of stakeholders can develop a credible environmental impact index. Therefore, the goal of this research is to develop a process design towards a credible environmental impact index for yachts. The research is divided into five steps that contribute to the development of this process design and find an answer to the following main research question: How can a process design towards a credible environmental impact index for the operational lifetime of superyachts be developed? The research begins by defining an environmental impact index via a literature study. The literature study was undertaken to identify what must be developed by the yacht builders and designers and what must be the result of the process design. It was found that, to develop a credible index, a test procedure must form the basis of an environmental impact index. The second part of the literature study was executed to obtain insights into how a test procedure can be made credible. From the literature, seven principles have been identified that must be considered during the development of an environmental impact index. These seven principles can be divided into two groups. Where one groups contains principles that are regarding characteristics of the index that is developed, the other presents principles regarding the development process. The principles are not, however, specifically focused on the development of an index by stakeholders from an industry. Therefore, the IAD framework is used that structures the principles of credible index development and identifies the effects they have on the behaviour of and interactions between stakeholders during the development. Certain rules are provided by the framework that are coupled with principles. This process results in an overview of how a credible environmental impact index can be developed by stakeholders of an industry. The rules prescribe how the development process has to be governed and what has to be the outcome of the development process. The two groups of principles are assigned to the rules accordingly. From the IAD framework, it is apparent that the development of the index partly depends on the environment in which the stakeholders act and who is involved. Therefore, an analysis of the industry was executed to identify its influence on the development of an index. It was found that the technical characteristics of a yacht and the behaviour among yacht builders and designers complicate the development of an index. In addition to the influences of the industry, the development of the process design is based on the results obtained from a workshop with yacht builders and designers. This workshop had the goal to specify the rules assigned to the principles of environmental impact index development. These rules concerned how to develop a credible index that is capable of indicating the effect on the environment by a yacht during its operational lifetime. Based on these rules, a process design is developed. The process design consists of two aspects, the governance of the development process and steps that have to be executed in order to provide a credible index. The most important aspects of this process design are highly correlated with transparency. The credibility of the index is ensured when stakeholders develop it and reach a consensus on how the YETI should be developed. Any index that is developed must be made public, including the development method. A third party must verify whether what is included in the test procedure can be predicted and measured correctly and transparently. Also, standardisations must be developed for all procedures to calculate and verify the value of indicators included in the ‘test procedure’. Standardisations enable verification by stakeholders and therefore make the index credible. In general, credibility is objective and dependent on the perception stakeholders have of the index. The process design leads toward the YETI in such a way that that stakeholders are likely to perceive the index as credible.

The Netherlands aims to accelerate the energy transition. Accordingly, ambitious targets have been set for the industrial sector. This will require additional investments in the Dutch industry which is expected to reduce the CO2 emissions at limited costs in comparison with other sectors. However, the ambition to reduce the emissions can create a risk of loss of activity and jobs if the industrial businesses prospects are not ensured. Power-to-heat technology provides an opportunity to the industry to reduce the emissions for heating processes. This technology can be implemented in hybrid configurations to ensure the electrification of heat. Hybrid configurations are characterised by their ability to switch between natural gas and electricity which could cost-effectively reduce the emissions consuming electricity at low prices. In this research, a techno-economic evaluation of hybrid boiler systems is performed to analyse the potential of this technology to cost-effectively reduce the CO2 emissions for steam generation in a production process, in 2030. To this end, the operation of hybrid boiler systems was simulated and assessed. The performance of hybrid configurations was compared to alternative options. Finally, the hybrid systems were analysed under different scenarios for 2030. The results for the case study presented, showed that hybrid configurations saved operation costs and reduced the direct CO2 emissions by almost 20%. Therefore, the hybrid boiler could cost-effectively reduce the emissions. However the potential benefits of hybrid boilers are subjected to variation of electricity, natural gas and CO2 prices.

Most countries have shown their concern towards global warming and made commitments to decrease carbon emissions. Energy usage will have to become more efficient and generated by an increasing amount of sustainable resources. Hard-to-abate industries will require incentives to decarbonize their processes. Research shows that consumer-facing companies (CFCs) are willing to and can incentivize upstream production to decarbonize processes. Literature research concludes that steel, ammonia, methanol and refineries are highly dependent on hydrogen to be decarbonized. Demand sectors of these heavy industries are analyzed to identify potential demand for hydrogen-based products, and whether their value proposition towards consumers increases using hydrogen-based products. Some case studies on CFCs using heavy industry’s products do confirm this. A table with scores per industry is provided to show the relative degree of downstream capability and willingness to decarbonize upstream production. The research shows that the steel sector will be the most applicable industry to be incentivized from a CFC’s perspective, followed by ammonia and to less extent methanol and refineries. CFC initiated decarbonization mechanisms are qualitatively sorted and discussed for applicability on hydrogen-based transition. The mechanisms holding the highest potential to initiate upstream decarbonization are discussed regarding applicability for the steel industry. Business model innovation, industry & sector level collaboration, performance standards and industry & market standards are considered to have the highest potential among CFC mechanisms to reduce risks in transitioning upstream industries.

In order to achieve the goal of sustainability, industries will have to make a transition to renewable energy and a more circular production. This requires substantial investments as well as constructive cooperation between the various companies in industrial clusters. The problem addressed in this thesis is to find ways of determining optimal investment paths for industrial clusters under specific constraints: the investments should contribute to sustainability (e.g., reduce emissions), provide a positive return for a cluster as a whole, and allow for a distribution of costs and benefits (e.g., through contracts) such that the companies that make the investment have strong incentives for cooperation.
The idea that underlies this thesis is to represent industrial clusters as networks of processes that are owned and operated by different companies, and interdependent via their input-output flows. Such representation should then facilitate analysis from an industrial ecosystem perspective, and identification of potential investment options that would improve the cluster’s sustainability. From a game theory perspective, these investment options can then be seen as potential moves, and the companies as players. Assuming a time horizon (e.g., somewhere between 10 and 40 years), any combination of investments in that period constitutes a strategy, while for each company the difference in cumulative cash flow for that company with/without these investments constitutes the players’ payoffs. Analysis of such a multi-company investment game will reveal rational strategies. We have elaborated and tested this idea by using the Linny-R modelling language and its associated MILP optimisation tool that is being developed at TU Delft first to represent and analyse a variety of simple process configurations with only one or two investment options. Conducting this first series of small-scale simulation experiments, and verifying their outcomes has demonstrated the feasibility of our approach. Subsequently, we have applied the same approach to a realistic, albeit simplified and stylised, industrial cluster that comprises three companies. After identifying a set of potential investment options, we have used the resulting Linny R model to conduct a second series of experiments to simulate and analyse solitary investment strategies per company, a cluster-wide cooperative strategy, as well as competitive strategies with various contractual arrangements. The results of this study show that we can indeed use Linny-R as a modelling language and simulation tool to represent and analyse investment decisions as multi-actor games, which then allow us to infer and evaluate cooperative as well as competitive investment strategies. This study has several limitations. We did not investigate the scalability of the method. We experimented with a relatively small and simplified cluster; upscaling to a cluster with 10 or 100 times more processes could become computationally infeasible. Another limitation is that we did not test in practice whether models in the Linny-R notation will indeed effectively support communication and negotiation between companies. Thirdly, the set of categories of investment options that we have identified is not exhaustive. Our recommendations for future research hence are to explore the computational limits using a state-of-the-art commercial solver, and to conduct real-world case studies, meanwhile extending and refining the categories of investment options that can be instrumental in furthering the transition towards more sustainable industrial clusters.

Abstract The technical and geographical characteristics of fossil fuels have shaped interstate energy relations for decades. The ongoing energy transition leads to an increasing share of renewables in the electricity mix. Since technical and geographical characteristics of renewables differ significantly from those of fossil fuels, it is likely that renewables affect energy relations between countries in a different way. It is yet unknown how these deviating characteristics will exactly influence the international energy relations, and evidence from concrete cases is missing. This study therefore examines the geopolitical implications of wind power in the Danish electricity system. The aim is to assess how interstate energy relations shifted between 1990 and 2018, and whether these shifts can be attributed to the technical and geographical characteristics of wind power. A framework of analysis is constructed to outline the geopolitical implications in 1990 and 2018. Desk research and expert interviews are used to obtain the data. The research concludes that the implications of the transition have been rather positive for Denmark. While sometimes depending on its neighbours for electricity supply, Denmark is still able to safeguard energy security, generate revenues and gain global political influence by sharing knowledge. Further research should outline the implications for other types of renewable energy sources and focus on the geopolitical implications of wind power in other regions.

In 2018 the Dutch national government announced its decision to end natural gas extraction. This decision poses a challenge for local governments (municipalities) which have to organize a heat supply that is natural gas-free. Energy models can decrease the complexity of this challenge, but some challenges hinder the effective use of energy models for heat transition decision-making. The present study aims to bridge current knowledge gaps by providing insight into the advantages and limitations of using energy models in the heating transition and by providing recommendations for more effective use. To this end, literature on energy models, data-driven policy design and good modelling practices is reviewed, and case studies are conducted, including ten Dutch municipalities and 23 (expert) interviews. According to interviewees data, advantages of using energy models in heating transition projects are that the modelling process provides perspective for action, financial and socio-economic insights, transparency and legitimacy and means to start useful discussions. Perceived limitations include that models and modelling results are considered too abstract for local analysis, not user-friendly and complex. The present study concludes that the use of energy models in heating transition projects can become more effective by developing and preserving knowledge regarding energy modelling at municipalities, by providing more user-friendly models and/or model interfaces, by developing more efficient data collection processes at municipalities, by improving heat source, energy use and thermal insulation level data sets, by offering comparative modelling studies and by ensuring model developers collaborate and specialize more.

The ambitious energy policy goals set by the European Union have accelerated the pace at which energy efficiency and clean energy measures are being adopted. The Netherlands, lagging behind by a massive margin in transitioning to a green energy infrastructure, feel the need, now more than ever, to push the integration of renewable energy into the grid. The state of the electricity industry has remained almost the same ever since its inception, but has undergone relatively significant changes in the past two decades. The main advancements being decreasing costs of clean energy technologies like solar panels and storage solutions, increasing electricity demand, changing policy & regulations to achieve decarbonization and the active attempt to phase out fossil fuel energy sources like coal. However, changing the energy mix in the electricity grid is bound to make grid management more cumbersome, owing to the intermittency posed by the renewable energy sources and their lack of flexibility, leading to extreme volatility in the electricity market prices. The inertial characteristics of the heavy rotating masses of fossil-powered plants allow traditional power plants to provide flexibility in the grid. Flexibility, in this thesis, is defined as the system’s ability to respond to uncertain generation and demand, while maintaining a constant energy balance. Inertia, in the simplest terms, refers to the resistance provided by an object to a sudden change in motion. As renewables begin replacing conventional power plants, the flexibility required will have to be provided by solutions that allow the electricity generated from the renewables to be stored and used later, which also provides an avenue to hedge the risks from volatile electricity prices. Energy Storage is identified by the Dutch government as one of the most important techniques to provide flexibility surpassing alternatives like Demand Response and Energy Efficiency. This thesis proposes a new approach to design a hedging strategy using energy storage systems. It aims to hedge the risks arising from daily price volatility in the electricity market, that the various stakeholders in the distribution grid are subjected to, caused by factors like increasing grid penetration of renewables, increasing carbon prices etc. “Hedging” in this study, is the act of risk aversion by taking a certain action in the present to avoid a future consequential risk. The ability to store electricity after purchasing from the wholesale market, when looked at from an economic point of view, directly points to being able to store electricity when its in excess (accordingly also cheapest) and to sell it when it is most expensive. This is referred to as “energy arbitrage via electricity prices” and is carried out in the research presented in this work. Along with arbitrage, the strategy also proposes the idea of also being self-sufficient during period of high electricity prices. The significance of emphasizing electricity prices in the term “energy arbitrage via electricity prices” is because energy arbitrage can also be used for technical services like peak shaving that looks into the capacity constraints of the grid, which is beyond the scope of this thesis. The scope of this thesis is to find an analytical approach to design a hedging strategy, to monetize on volatility in the day-ahead electricity market to its maximum potential, for the stakeholders like energy suppliers (that do not own generation assets) in the distribution grid.

The main aim of this research was to establish which measures are significant in reducing the CO2 emission levels on the waterways between Rotterdam and Antwerp.

Risk management is undoubtedly a precious component of the overall project management field. It assists in identifying, assessing and mitigating the uncertainties that are present in a project. These uncertainties affect important measures of a project, of which cost and schedule are the most prominent, and consequently put project success under pressure. Risk analysis, especially in its quantitative form, is a core process of risk management that provides valuable insights regarding these uncertainties. Numerous different procedures for quantitative risk analysis exist, but generally, they can be classified in two types based on the way they treat the cost and schedule components of a project. In the Separated Approach two risk analyses are performed, one for schedule and one for cost, which are independent of each other. In the Integrated Approach one risk analysis is performed, where schedule and cost components are simultaneously analyzed, and are no longer independent of each other. The advantages and disadvantages for each approach are well described in literature. However, there is little empirical evidence of the performance of different approaches when they are applied on real projects. This research tries to fill this gap by comparing the outcomes of different approaches when they are implemented on a real project, against the actual outcomes of the project to get an indication of their relative performance. Particularly, the Proposed Separate Approach, the Proposed Integrated Approach and the Company’s Separated Approach are applied on a completed project and their outcomes regarding cost and schedule contingency are compared to each other and to the actual project outcomes. Based on this comparison, a conclusion is drawn, and an answer is given on which approach is more accurate. Regarding cost contingency estimate, the Proposed Integrated Approach was the more accurate, while for schedule contingency estimate, the Company’s Separated Approach was the most accurate. A similar research should be conducted on a large number of projects to be able to generalize this conclusion though.

Currently, the inland shipping industry is not sufficiently incentivised to invest in sustainable technologies in order to reduce their emissions. The industry itself wants to be more sustainable, but there is insufficient financial room to invest in alternative technologies. Besides, public authorities try to achieve a reduction using command-and-control policy instruments. Therefore, this study aims to gain insights into the relationship between policy instruments and incentivising technical alternatives. In this study, emission-reducing strategies have been identified using a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model based on the fleet owned by the Port of Rotterdam. As a result, this study has identified two effective strategies – environmentally differentiated port dues and environmental fees. The effectiveness of the environmentally differentiated port dues can be allocated to the degree of pollution control. The implication of an environmental fee on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, has led to a reduction in either greenhouse gas and pollutant emission.