Corporations’ economic activities put significant stress on the environment. In order to limit global warming to 1.5°C, companies need to significantly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. However, shifting the responsibility of decarbonisation from being solely on governments to being shared with these companies is only a recent phenomenon. This study therefore explores how more companies can be stimulated to take climate action. To research this, the steel industry is taken as a case study. This particular industry is responsible for a large share of global emissions and includes many non-European firms which have been shown to trail behind their European counterparts considering climate action. The number of companies committing to the SBTi is defined as a quantifiable metric to track the development of climate action in the sector. Initial findings suggest that companies respond vigorously to financial stimulants like carbon pricing. Moreover, it is found that different stakeholder groups can stimulate the decarbonisation of heavy industry in various ways. Firms require certain factors to be at adequate levels before they commit themselves to deep decarbonisation. As such, governmental agencies can play an important role by ensuring that limiting factors like low-carbon electricity are abundant. Financial institutions can furthermore use their position to limit the financial risk for companies willing to decarbonise, while other stakeholder groups can focus on creating awareness and urgency. Altogether, the study results in a novel attempt to develop a useful agent-based model of a business ecosystem in light of the net zero energy transition. Apart from providing insights to stakeholders on how to effectively stimulate climate action, it functions as a foundation for future academic work on this topic.

One of the main strategies for reducing energy demand—and thereby carbon emissions— is increasing energy efficiency. In the Netherlands, energy efficiency policy and energy reduction targets in the residential sector are based on the theoretical energy consumption of buildings, which often over- or underestimates the measured energy consumption. The difference between the actual energy consumption and the calculated energy consumption of a building is referred to as the energy performance gap (EPG). As a consequence of this discrepancy, the estimated energy savings are inaccurate and the energy-saving targets are unattainable. Narrowing the EPG is necessary to develop more accurate estimates of energy savings and realistic targets, and to improve the effectiveness of energy reduction policies and campaigns. Most studies on the EPG have focused predominantly on data from the social rental housing sector, failing to represent the national distribution of home ownership type. At the same time, homeowners and tenants have been shown to behave differently regarding energy consumption.
This thesis investigates the effect of home ownership on the actual natural gas consumption and the EPG by descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression on a representative sample of the Dutch housing stock. The multiple regression analysis controls for building and occupant characteristics that are expected to influence the actual gas consumption and the EPG, in order to measure the ceteris paribus effect of ownership type on the actual gas consumption and the EPG.
The results show that ownership type does not have a practically significant effect on actual gas consumption or the EPG, while controlling for building and household characteristics. However, without controlling for these factors, there is a moderate positive correlation between home ownership and actual gas consumption, and a weak positive correlation between home ownership and the magnitude of overpredictions. This suggests that observed differences in gas consumption or EPG between ownership groups may be explained by building and household characteristics, rather than by potential behavioral differences. Specifically, the positive correlation between home ownership and actual gas consumption can be explained by the larger floor area, type of buildings, higher income, and larger household size. The positive correlation between home ownership and the size of overpredictions is explained by type of building and larger floor area. Thus, there are no major differences in energy consumption behavior between homeowners and tenants that cause large differences in their actual gas consumption or EPG. Nevertheless, the distinction of ownership type may still be of practical use to policymakers. Targeting homeowners could be an efficient way to promote energy-saving measures in the largest and highest energy-consuming dwellings.

Multi-renewable energy systems, which must consider emerging technologies that exploit other available renewable energy resources, have the potential to reduce the variability of current mature renewable technologies such as solar and wind, increase power availability, diversify the electricity supply, and ultimately accelerate the substitution of fossil fuels. Ocean energy technologies can represent an important part of these multi-renewable generation low-carbon energy systems, given their vast and yet untapped source of renewable energy medium. They are increasingly being perceived as an important piece of future energy systems, given they are characterized by stable generation profiles, predictability, and high energy density. Among the different ocean energy technologies, wave energy shows strong potential to support carbon reduction targets and meet expected increases in electricity demand. It is considered one of the most dense, predictable, and persistent energy sources, with multiple regions exposed to the wave energy resource.
This researched performed an exploratory investigation of the impacts and interactions of wave energy in a wider context under future cost-optimal and multi-renewable configurations of the European transmission network. This was achieved, first, by expanding the renewable energy capabilities of the existing open-source PyPSA-Eur, energy system model and dataset of the European power system at the transmission level covering the full ENTSO-E area, to include the wave energy resource. And second, by simulating a set of future, cost-optimal, and multi-renewable European power systems at 2030, 2040, and 2050 horizons employing a greenfield optimization approach and considering cost-reduction potentials of wave energy and other generating technologies.

The North Sea has significant potential in becoming a green energy hub, due to its remarkable offshore wind potential, and could therefore facilitate the energy transition to a net-zero energy system in Europe in the coming decades. In this transition, hydrogen is also predicted to play a key role, due to its ability to transport and store substantial amounts of energy. Previous studies have shown that for large offshore wind capacities and substantial distances from the shore, transporting the produced energy in the form of molecules (converting the electricity to hydrogen) via dedicated pipelines would be a more cost-effective option than using electricity cables and converting electricity to hydrogen. This transport could be achieved by developing new hydrogen-dedicated infrastructure or reusing existing natural gas pipelines, which is a cost-effective alternative.

This research study aims to determine the potential for repurposing existing gas infrastructure in the North Sea for hydrogen transport, taking into consideration that this infrastructure will still have to transport natural gas to the shore over the coming years. Redirecting an amount of this natural gas to other, neighboring pipelines creates the possibility for existing pipelines to be freed up for hydrogen transportation, and therefore achieve parallel transmission of green hydrogen and natural gas from the Dutch North Sea to the shore. Consequently, the purpose of this thesis project is to examine the geographical, technical, and economic feasibility of large-scale green hydrogen transportation (produced offshore with green energy from wind turbines), with parallel natural gas transport, via new and already existing gas infrastructure in the North Sea, by 2030.

The first aspect to be analyzed was the geographical configuration of such a system. For that purpose, different possible configurations for parallel transport of hydrogen and natural gas via existing North Sea infrastructure were examined. This analysis indicated that the most suitable scenario, considering the projected timeline and current circumstances, would be repurposing the NGT pipeline for 100% hydrogen transportation (produced from offshore wind search areas 7 and 3), and rerouting the natural gas to the NOGAT pipeline. Both NGT and NOGAT pipelines are parts of the North Sea offshore pipeline system, currently transporting natural gas to the Dutch shore. The next part of the study concerned the physical configuration of the hydrogen transportation system. A component analysis was done, highlighting the most suitable components across the entire system configuration, including the offshore hydrogen production by water electrolysis, its compression, and its transportation via the NGT pipeline among others.

Furthermore, a more elaborate analysis was done to determine the project’s technical feasibility, with emphasis being placed on the key aspects of hydrogen compression and transportation, evaluating its flow characteristics and compression requirements. The analysis results showed that transporting hydrogen via the NGT pipeline to the Dutch shore is technically feasible. Based on the analyzed scenario, the maximum hydrogen transport capacity was found to be 7.9 GW, and the total compression capacity 103 MW. During its transportation along the length of the pipeline (253 km), hydrogen experiences a pressure drop of 10.4 bar (65 bar to 55 bar). An economic evaluation of the system was also performed, indicating that the project is feasible from a financial standpoint as well. The LCOH transport for the proposed system, including hydrogen compression and NGT pipeline repurposing costs, was found to be 0.17 €/kg/1000km. The overall conclusion of this study is that reusing existing infrastructure in the North Sea for hydrogen transportation is a physically and technically feasible option, which can be achieved at a competitive cost.

On December 12, 2015, at the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties, 195 countries adopted the Paris Agreement (PA) to address climate change and its negative impacts, with the goal of limiting human-caused climate change to slightly less than 2°C, preferably 1.5°C, from pre-industrial levels (United Nations, 2015). From that point on, these countries were expected to share their own mitigation and adaptation plans, which are known as their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Parties were asked to resubmit the next round of NDCs by 2020, and every five years thereafter (United Nations Climate Change, 2021). The new NDCs should go beyond the commitments made in the previous cycle and reflect the "highest possible ambition" (UNFCCC, 2015). However, there are significant differences in the level of ambition between countries' NDCs (Tobin, 2017), leaving room to reflect on why some countries have included more ambitious mitigation targets in their pledge compared to others. A literature review revealed two gaps, whereby further research on NDC ambition should focus on comparing countries at the global level (first gap), while considering combinations of influencing national factors (second gap). There is a multitude of national factors that influence NDC ambition. Hall's (1997) "Ideas, Interests and Institutions framework", serves as a theoretical checklist in policy making (Walt et al., 2008), and is used to organize the variables. Based on recommendations from previous research (van Coppenolle, 2002; Lamb & Minx, 2020), a fourth " societal" category was added to the framework. The main research question is therefore: How can national conditions (ideas, interests, institutional or societal) explain the presence or absence of ambition in a country's Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement? The aim of this study was to explore what combination of national conditions influence the ambition of NDCs submitted to the PA and therewith, being able to provide recommendations for national policymakers, decision-makers and more specifically the governing bodies of the Conference of the Parties (COP), who are the decision-makers of the UNFCCC, seeking to understand collective progress. Firstly, to identify the most relevant national conditions that affect NDC ambition, a desk study was performed. This led to the identification of six national conditions in total. The national conditions selected and analyzed in this research were corruption, democracy, individualism, dependency on natural resources, vulnerability to climate change and a country’s wealth. In this report, an NDC was considered ambitious if the pledges were consistent with a fair share effort to hold warming below 2°C. In contrast, an NDC was considered unambitious if the commitment was inconsistent with a fair share effort to hold warming below 2°C. A fair share effort is based on what a country its total contribution would need to be to implement the PA. In total, the ambitiousness of NDCs of 32 countries and the European Union have been compared, which together account for 80 percent of global emissions (CAT, 2021). As a main method, it was decided to apply a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). fsQCA is a configurational approach, which considers the possibility that NDC ambition is the outcome of a combination of factors as opposed to the sum of net effects (Ragin & Fiss, 2008). This method is selected as a main method over other statistical approaches, such as regression analysis, because NDC ambition is a complex issue for which it is assumed that the conditions do not act independently of each other. However, to check whether this assumption is correct, and to see whether a statistical approach might give additional insights, a series of bivariate correlation analyses have been performed as well. In addition, two semi-structured interviews were conducted to verify that the results were valid. The two interviewees have been selected and approached based on their expertise on subjects related to the comparison of national climate commitments and their expertise on which factors explain their success and the lack thereof. The results of the fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis and the correlation analysis have been combined and provided insights into why certain countries submit ambitious NDCs, and why other countries submit non-ambitious NDCs. In total one configuration is obtained that is sufficient in explaining the submission of ambitious NDCs, and four configurations are obtained that is sufficient in explaining the submission of non-ambitious NDCs. With fsQCA, a configuration is a set/combination of conditions that explains a certain outcome. It is found that the combination of not being dependent on natural resources and being vulnerable to climate change is sufficient to explain the submission of ambitious NDCs. When such a country also has a low gross national income (GNI) and is corrupt, there is an even greater likelihood that the submitted NDC is ambitious. Regarding the submission of non-ambitious NDCs, it is found that being dependent on natural resources and/or not being vulnerable to climate change is sufficient to explain the submission of non-ambitious NDCs. When a country presents either one of these two factors, it is already adequate to submit an unambitious NDC. Besides these (core) conditions, the chance of submitting an unambitious NDC is even greater when the society of a country is rather collectivistic, meaning people easily sacrifice individual benefit for the success of a group. It was more difficult to draw general conclusions regarding the effect of GNI or corruption. The fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis showed that the obtained configurations are sufficient, but not necessary to occur. In general, this means that knowing the configuration to be true, is adequate grounds to conclude that the outcome (NDC ambition) is true; However, knowing that the configuration is not to be true does not necessarily mean that the outcome (NDC ambition) is not true. This highlights the need for good governance, monitoring and decision-making processes. Additionally, in 2023, the global stock take will take place, in which the collective progress made towards achieving the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement will be assessed. The aim of the global stock take is to become a driver of ambition. Based on the findings of this research, recommendations for policymakers and decision makers have been established. The recommendations are of interest to all climate policy and decision-makers, but perhaps even more so to the governing bodies of the COP, who are the decision makers of the UNFCCC. The first recommendation is based on the finding that five different sufficient configurations have been identified, which shows the need for tailored strategies. For example, specific taxes can be introduced for countries that are highly dependent on natural resources, making it less attractive to show little ambition in their NDCs. The second recommendation is to emphasize just transitions principles. This recommendation is based on the finding that GNI plays an ambiguous role, and that countries with ambitious NDCs set unrealistic goals in the hope to receive financial support. Policymakers and decision-makers should focus on achieving an equitable transition, addressing country-specific challenges, and sharing the benefits of achieving PA equitably. This implies a fair distribution of both the expenses and the gains. The third recommendation is the use of iterative risk management. This recommendation is based on the finding that being vulnerable to climate change is a prerequisite for submitting ambitious NDCs. It is likely that more countries will become vulnerable to the climate as global surface temperatures rise. Iterative risk management is a framework for making decisions in such complex contexts that are marked by large potential impacts, long timeframes, and multiple climatic and non-climatic influences that change over time. Evaluating a wide range of potential impacts is critical to understand when submitting NDCs.

In the Netherlands, it is envisaged that hydrogen will play a crucial role in the energy transition. Especially in this heavy industry, hydrogen will become essential to make this sector sustainable. In general, three types of hydrogen are used: grey, blue, and green hydrogen. This study focuses on green hydrogen, as it is produced without CO2 emissions and therefore complies with the climate goals of the Netherlands. Using green hydrogen in these industries is useful because it can accomplish easy and cost-efficient significant reductions in this sector. However, some stabilizing pressures (stabilizing pressures), such as the suppliers' lack of a business case and there are more, hinder this transition and keep the incumbent regime based on fossil fuels in position. Fortunately, some destabilizing pressures (destabilizing pressures) stimulate the transition, such as the Paris Climate Agreement. Policy instruments can stimulate these destabilizing pressures and overcome stabilizing pressures. To get the transition started, the Dutch government will have to deploy policy instruments. For the Dutch government, it is currently unknown which policy instruments can accomplish this. The aim of this research is to conduct an analytical framework to assess policy instruments on the identified pressures and give an advice to the Dutch government which policy instruments should be deployed. Two streams of literature are combined into an analytical framework that can assess policy instruments to answer this research question: the transition literature and the economic literature. The outcome of the case study of the heavy industry in the Netherlands is the identification of six stabilizing pressures. The first is a lack of coordination as the necessary policies and regulations are not yet to facilitate the transition. Furthermore, there is no business case for green hydrogen yet. Next, the learning process has to be stimulated, as the development of the technology is moving slow. To foster the transition, it is crucial to have powerful actors involved. At last, a hydrogen market has to be established to accelerate the transition. Also, one destabilizing pressure is identified: the industry sector has a lot of hydrogen experience, which positively influences the transition. These are the pressures on which the policy instruments will be assessed in this research. The following policy instruments will be assessed on their contribution to transition: a higher national CO2 price for the industry sector, Carbon contracts for Difference, a subsidy of the supply, a subsidy for demand, and a financial contribution for the construction of the infrastructure. These are the policy instruments that will be assessed by the identified pressures. It is advisable for the Dutch government to deploy a policy mix of multiple policy instruments to impact all identified pressures positively. This research shows that a combination of a subsidy for supply, financial support for infrastructure development, and CCfD complement each other. This policy mix has therefore been found adequate to stimulate the hydrogen transition in the heavy industry in the Netherlands.

In recent years, there is growing evidence that global warming arises from human activities, and as a result, efforts are being made worldwide to ease the burden on the environment and avoid the worst consequences of climate change. One of the most important interventions is the decrease in carbon emissions from the energy sector. In the Cyclades islands there is still a very large margin for improvement, especially considering the great potential from renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar. While there have been relevant studies for some of these islands, there is not a complete plan for the transition towards sustainable energy. Therefore, a backcasting analysis is used in this thesis in order to answer the main research question: How can a sustainable energy system in the Cyclades islands be realised by 2030? While there is a lot of ground to be covered in the transition, the slightly short end-point of 2030 is chosen, also to align with the policies of the Greek state. It is envisioned that the energy system by then shall be sustainable, self-sufficient, efficient, and reliable. After developing the energy mix for each island, a “What-Who-How” backcasting analysis is conducted as part of the backcasting framework, in order to identify the full extent of the necessary interventions. The chief change towards the transition is of course the installation of renewable energy projects, and other, supporting systems, while the development of a strong policy framework is also a key requirement. Moreover, it is important that the public is also included in the transition, educated, and informed. Also, it is worth noting that further attention is being placed on the accommodation sector, owing to its considerable effect brought on by the touristic character of the islands. Based on the identified actions and interventions, an implementation timeline is developed until the end-point of 2030. The transition is split into three phases, each with a specific goal in mind. In the beginning, the first steps and the preparation for the future will be made, while afterwards the system will be ready to be functioning with the generation of energy by RES. Finally, in the third phase the storage of energy will also be available and the transition will thus be complete. Overall, transitioning to a sustainable energy system in the Cyclades is technically feasible. Nevertheless, there are quite a large number of both technical and non-technical changes necessary, and they need to be carried out in a rather short amount of time if the target of 2030 is to be attained. It is understandable therefore that a strong policy framework and a keen cooperation between the stakeholders are of utmost importance, in order for the Cyclades to have a sustainable energy system by 2030.

Climate change has increased the interest around energy intensity to many researchers. Understanding the drivers of energy intensity is essential to produce a fitting policy. While structural changes have been acknowledged as drivers of economy-wide energy intensity, it has not been recognised as an influential factor on industry-level energy intensity because there is simply not enough data to do so. To generate a more reliable understanding of the mechanism that drives industries’ energy intensity, I explore the role of international trade on inter-country differences in the energy intensity of industries. The approach in this thesis shows with multiple panel data regressions how changes in trade specialisation in products explain inter-country differences in energy intensity of industries. The results estimate
that an industry’s energy intensity increases when it develops a comparative advantage in products whose production requires lots of energy, ceteris paribus, and decreases when it develops a comparative advantage in products whose production requires little energy. Since the effect of trade specialisation in one product goes on behalf of the effect of trade-specialisation in other products, there is a strong suspicion that there are changing compositions of industries. For policy changes, these results can provide insights into how a centralised approach in trade agreements and a decentralised approach in industry policies can tackle the industry’s energy-intensity problems. In future research, it might
be possible to accurately predict the composition effects by explaining the changes in the energy intensity of products with trade specialisation in products.

In the last couple of years there have been many different Protocols, Accords and Agreements to combat climate change, being the Paris Agreement the last global effort to unite countries for this common cause. However, regardless of these pledges, efforts, and commitments, they are not enough to keep the average rise of global temperature under 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. At the COP21, cities were recognized as key actors in the fight against climate change because of their ability to combine national with local level approaches. In a multi-level system, the increased interconnectedness and competencies among these actors allow the subnational actors to increase their representativeness in central policy processes. The emergence of city climate networks, which are thought to be governing global and local climate action, reflects this multi-level nature and its dynamics. The increased interconnectedness and polycentric governance have allowed local communities to engage in climate mitigation and adaptation policy processes, considered to be a key factor for the success of global, regional and local climate actions.

In this graduation research conditions affecting the profitability as well as the grid effects of a PV-Electrolysis system have been studied using the site of PV park Oosterwolde as a case study. During the study a wide variety scenarios have been created from a set of influential parameters on the PV-Electrolysis business case, which have produced meaningful insights into the conditions for profitability and grid effects of such a system and at the same time have emphasized the complexity of the business case as it can be affected by a wide variety of factors of which the future development remains uncertain.

According to the Base Price Scenario in this study there are multiple ways that lead to profitable PV-Electrolysis business cases in 2025, all of which including a subsidy. This is due to favourable developments in several areas, most notably electricity prices, renewable hydrogen prices, PV and Electrolysis system costs and subsidies. Sizing of the electrolyser and the grid connection can have significant effects on the business case as well, but under the scenarios simulated in this study are not able to attain profitable business cases alone in 2025.

An analysis of the grid effects of the PV-Electrolysis results in two key takeaways: 'island mode' business cases can achieve attractive returns when supported by subsidies, and: years where the 'Spread H2/Power' is mobile around the zero line reflect the response to price signals with a more balanced power-to-grid profile compared to the individual PV system, which is desirable from an electricity system point of view, leading to improved utilization of the power grid.

The energy transition ignites change and fuels modifications in numerous aspects of the society, specifically in the oil and gas industry. Besides, it creates a dynamic environment, an uncertain policy, and an economic environment for international oil companies (IOCs), affecting their business strategies. However, only a few studies focused on the implications of the energy transition on IOCs’ strategies. This paper's main objective was to map the impact of the energy transition on the factors shaping IOCs’ business strategies. By conducting a discourse analysis of annual reports of three IOCs (Royal Dutch Shell, BP, and Equinor), in combination with several interviews. The results reveal that the energy transition is a topic of debate for IOCs. Several factors have known fluctuations in importance over the years due to the energy transition. However, not all these fluctuations in factors are explained by the influence of the energy transition. Also, six new energy transition-related factors are proposed and found to impact the IOCs' strategy. Furthermore, although IOCs are an indispensable part of the puzzle to the energy transition's success, collaboration is vital. The IOC’s renewable investments lag, but the newly presented strategies could move the energy transition from being a topic of debate to a shift of substance. This paper concludes with recommendations for further scientific research.

This thesis is an analysis of the implemntation of hydrogen in the Netherlands, in which the partnerships, organization and regulations are analysed from a Socio-technical transition perspective. The aim of this research was to find out how the implementation of hydrogen in the Netherlands has taken place and how this can be facilitated in the future. As an important aspect of hydrogen is cluster formation, this has also been taken into account in the research. Hydrogen cluster delineation is challenging, since they should have a focus not only on incremental innovations but also on radical innovations toward sustainability and often contain a mix of niche players and established regime actors. Additionally hydrogen has a plethora of end-uses, in a multitude of sectors/industries and on different scales. Therefore the clusters were delineated with the use of the proposed merged Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) and Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) framework from Markard and Truffer (2009). Once all niches that originate from the clusters were identified, these were analysed using the MLP and Strategic Niche Management (SNM), adapted to have more specific criteria. This research utilized a process perspective, which views reality in terms of a stream of events. More specifically the methodology of Event Sequence Analysis (ESA) was used, which provided specific tools for systematically identifying and comparing specific sequences of events. Primary data (from web pages, documents and news messages) was gathered through a specific data gathering process, defined by the ESA methodology, which was visualized as an event map. Secondary data from interviews were used as validation for the regular ESA. From the ESA spanning from the introduction of hydrogen as a sustainable energy carrier around 2001 until 2020, it has become clear that hydrogen implementation in the Netherlands has performed quite well from an internal niche perspective. Despite the high-quality internal niche processes across the board, implementation has been moderate due to the financial barriers that come with hydrogen, which can be attributed to the sheer expense of projects due to the niches’ infancy, the large-scale nature of the transition, with the infrastructural overhaul that needs to take place and some current legislative limitations, such as sub-optimal directives towards hydrogen-grid mixing. Next to this, there are three apparent patterns that can be identified. (1) Firstly, there is a clear succession of niches, meaning that there is a clear link between successive events which influence each other. (2) Secondly, there is a dependence on international collaboration, with most niche implementations being embedded within international (mostly European) initiatives and projects or have been subsidized by them. (3) A final pattern is the regional embedding of the implementation of most of the niches. This can be attributed to the large-scale nature of the transition and the dependence on synergistic implementations with dependence on supply to multiple sectors. To conclude, from the ESA it has become clear that the hydrogen transition is complex and needs active stimulation to become adopted more widely. This thesis suggests that the upscaling should be pursued with three main aspects in mind: (1) Firstly, it should be done within embedded regions, which are mainly formed in (harbor) clusters. (2) Secondly, the ESA proved that international collaboration is of essence in this transition. (3) Lastly, there should initially be a concrete focus on knowledge creation, due to the complexity of the transition, there is still a lack of knowledge with regard to the optimal implementation and a lack of educated personnel, which will all be pivotal for the success of this transition.

This research aims to design and analyse possible system configurations for a system in which wind energy from a Dutch wind farm, supplemented with electricity from the grid, is utilized to produce green hydrogen using an electrolyser, including options for transport of hydrogen to the consumer, and to perform an economic analysis on these system configurations. A design is made using MATLAB and Simulink software, for two system sizes; a 10 MW balance of plant system and a 1.4 MW balance of plant system. The design is made for two types of electrolysers, being an alkaline electrolyser and a PEM electrolyser. System configurations are modelled for operations on a minimum load utilizing all available wind energy, and for operations on nominal load continuously. It was found that the alkaline electrolyser is more energy-efficient and cost-efficient than the PEM electrolyser in this system. Including options for transport, it was found that the 10 MW hydrogen production system has the lowest levelized cost of hydrogen and is the most cost-efficient option. When operating on nominal load, the cost of hydrogen was slightly lower than when operating on minimum load using all available wind energy and restricting the use of grid electricity to a minimum. The cost of hydrogen was found to be sensitive to changes in the electricity price as well as changes in capital cost of the electrolyser. The most cost-effective hydrogen production, producing hydrogen at a cost of 2.95 euro per kg, was found to be the 10 MW alkaline system, operating at nominal load.

This study has been performed in cooperation with TNO and set out to analyze the robustness of Dutch energy transition policies under deep uncertainty for the scope of the built environment sector. Open data is gathered which is used in a System Dynamics model to allow exploration under deep uncertainty. The Adaptive Robust Design methodology has been adopted to understand how energy transition policies can be designed to be more robust under deep uncertainty for the period of 2019-2050. Subsidy-based policy variants have been created, inspired by promising policy instruments from current policy documents. Static, dynamic and mission-oriented policy variants have been simulated to show effects on annual CO2-eq emissions, renovated houses and awarded subsidies. Adaptive policies have shown to be promising to curb undesired influence of uncertainties. However, this study showed that subsidy percentage, alone, does not ensure that policy targets for 2050 are reached. Policies should also ensure ample increase in renovation capacity to keep up with rising demand. The limitation of merely subsidy-based policies resulted in less significant differences between the policy variants. To benefit of the adaptive nature of the climate plan, policies should include ample adjustment mechanisms within policies to realize their goals by adapting to changing circumstances.

The transition towards a sustainable energy system in the built environment is commonly referred to the incremental adoption of a variety of available technologies, practices and policies that may contribute to decrease the environmental impact, at reasonable costs and adequate quality standards. The complexity of the transition requires a sound information provision in order to make decisions which are future proof and optimal in the context of the system dependencies by both public and private parties. This information provision is lacking maturity, and in the era of Big and Open Data, it is believed that data has a significant role to play in the improvement of the information provision towards all stakeholders. This paper presents a study on the information provision in the Dutch energy transition with the focus on the thermal urban transition away from natural-gas. The study adopts the DE approach to answer the following research question: How and under which Data Ecosystem can Open and Big Data be utilized to improve the information provision and support decision-making in the transition towards a sustainable urban thermal energy system, in the Netherlands, given the perceptions and resources of stakeholders?

In the energy transition the expansion of the amount of renewable energy resources requires new methods for the design of energy systems. To deal with intermittent energy production, different energy technologies and solutions are in development. Hydrogen is a main candidate for this goal. Using Fuel Cell or Battery Electric Vehicles as flexible power plants is a second potential solution. This thesis explores how these two concepts can be combined in an office environment. The goal was to design an effective, integrated energy and mobility system making use of renewable energy only. A simulation model was written to carry out techno-economic analyses on a set of concept system designs. These systems were designed in accordance with three scenarios that were analysed for two future years, 2025 and 2050. The scenarios were: hydrogen-based systems, electricity-based systems and combined systems. The model was applied to a case study of the Shell Technology Center Amsterdam, an office building in the Netherlands. In addition, the same analysis was done for a hypothetical case study featuring an average office building in the Netherlands. The results of each simulation are compared mainly by their System Levelized Cost of Energy, for which electricity, gas and thermal demands are taken into account. In the 2050 scenario, the system levelized cost for a hydrogenbased system is 0.056 €/kWh, for an electricity-based system it is 0.077 €/kWh, and for a combined system it is 0.049 €/kWh. The findings of this thesis implicate that hydrogen is a viable alternative to use as an energy carrier in office buildings and for seasonal storage of renewable energy. It can be used in combination with cars as power plants, which are mainly suitable for hourly energy balancing.

The dynamic and fast-changing environment brings challenges for generating long-term visions of the future; scenarios. Outdated scenarios will result in future pathways that are no longer achievable and therefore reduces their relevance and usefulness for making decisions. As some uncertainty is resolved over time, while other uncertainties arise, it is important to take these changes into account. Although the need to update scenarios to create meaningful insight for making decisions is clearly recognized, a clear and structured method for executing this process remains unclear. I propose that to configure a solution, two concepts need to be introduced 1) scenarios consist of a multi-layered structure, and 2) changes considered should be classified according to their impact and uncertainty. Based on this classification, changes are incorporated into the different layers distinguished. To apply these concepts during an update, the paper presents a generic framework to structurally incorporate new information and uncertainties into scenarios, keeping them up-to-date, guaranteeing that the scenarios remain realistic and useful. Within a test case the framework is applied to four scenarios describing the European power market to illustrate how the framework performs in a practical context. Results show that using the framework allows the complexity of the update to be simplified into a step-by-step process. Additionally, it increases transparency by creating a common language for understanding if and how the changing external environment should be incorporated within scenarios.

As the transition to a low-carbon economy is imminent in the view of global warming and climate change, there comes a need to identify energy carriers that can completely or partially replace fossil fuels that are used today. Green hydrogen in this respect has been proposed and researched into as a possible replacement for currently used fossil fuels. Despite hydrogen being a relatively cleaner source of energy and a good energy storage medium, the transportation and storage of hydrogen acts as a barrier for the large-scale implementation of a hydrogen economy. The low density of hydrogen requires it to be compressed to high pressures or liquefied to transport and store it while the explosive nature makes it difficult to handle hydrogen. These drawbacks open up opportunities for other hydrogen energy carriers to be considered instead of hydrogen. The aim of this thesis is to identify bottlenecks in the supply chain of hydrogen and hydrogen energy carriers which include production, storage, transportation, imports and reforming of the energy carriers. The hydrogen energy carriers that have been shortlisted other than hydrogen include ammonia, methanol, dimethyl ether and synthetic methane while the transport modes considered include road transport, maritime shipping and pipeline transport. The Netherlands is chosen as a case study taking into account the demand for hydrogen across the six industrial clusters for the year 2050. The demand for hydrogen includes hydrogen for energy and for feedstock which resulted in a total demand of 444 PJ for the year 2050. Hydrogen production which also serves as a starting point for the production of the other energy carriers, is based on the predicted 15 GW surplus offshore wind energy available in the Netherlands from the North Sea wind farms by the year 2050. Considering the supply and demand, the supply chain of each energy carrier within the three transport modes are modelled resulting in the estimation of the energy efficiency and the system costs. Further, region specific costs are estimated to identify what factors affect the costs of delivering the energy carriers to the different regions in the Netherlands. The results indicate that pipeline transport was the most economical transport mode followed closely by liquid road transport. Compressed road transport was not as attractive, as the high transport pressures resulted in high loading and unloading costs and lower system efficiencies. Hydrogen pipelines was the most economical energy carrier and transport mode followed by liquid hydrogen road transport and ammonia pipeline. Transporting synthetic methane was the most expensive energy carrier across all transport modes while methanol and DME had very similar system costs. The production and import costs were the two main factors determining the system costs while transport costs had an vital impact only in the case of compressed road transport. Storage and reforming costs of the energy carrier were almost negligible in most cases. The Capex and the efficiency of the hydrogen electrolyser played a major role in determining the production costs of all the energy carriers. Ammonia reforming was identified as a bottleneck pushing the system costs of transporting ammonia higher than the system costs of transporting hydrogen. Liquefaction of hydrogen and synthetic methane resulted in higher import costs for these energy carriers and higher transport costs when transported as a liquid by road, in comparison to the other three energy carriers. Estimating region specific costs for hydrogen pipeline transport resulted in a variation in the costs of hydrogen delivered to the different regions in the Netherlands. The allocation of cheaper imports and relatively expensive domestic production across the six industrial clusters in the Netherlands was a major factor in determining the costs of the energy carrier delivered to the industrial clusters.

The European Union through its Roadmap 2050 has mandated nearly zero energy as the standard for all building stock. While newly built buildings will be of nearly zero energy standard by 31 December 2020 (public-owned buildings after 31 December 2018), new buildings form only 1% of the addition to the existing building stock which implies that to attain nearly zero energy standard for all building stock, large-scale renovations must be performed. However, the renovation to the nearly zero energy standard is not yet cost optimal. To improve the economic feasibility, it is important to find the parameters that have an impact on the cost-optimality of nearly zero energy renovations and the extent of their impact, the results of which can be used to drive the renovation to the nearly zero energy standard in an economically feasible manner. The primary objective of this thesis is the identification of the most important drivers of the economic feasibility of renovating houses in The Netherlands to nearly zero energy standard. The parameters were deduced from a framework available in the literature. The extent of influence was determined by performing partial sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo analysis. Five key parameters had an impact on the NPV- energy price, energy consumption (presented as four separate sub-parameters: electricity and gas consumption both before and after renovation), renovation cost, project life cycle and discount rate. In absolute terms, gas consumption before renovation had the highest impact followed by, renovation cost, electricity consumption after renovation, discount rate, a shift of energy price to the low price scenario, life cycle of the project and electricity consumption before renovation. The gas consumption after renovation and the shift of energy price to the high prices scenario did not have a significant effect on the NPV. The most important drivers of economic feasibility of nearly zero energy renovations are reduction in the renovation cost, discounting the benefits at a lower (social) discount rate until the end of the service life of the house, increasing the retail price of natural gas, decreasing the retail price of electricity and regulation of user behavior in reducing rebound effect (the reduction in the expected energy savings primarily due to occupant’s behavior such as requirement of further comfort). Based on the obtained results, policy recommendations were provided to the Government. Suggestions for further studies include listing all parameters and determining their effect on the NPV, identifying the complete list of indirect benefits that accrue to the citizens of The Netherlands and their valuation using contingent valuation techniques, and performing a cost benefit analysis at the macroeconomic level which will not only consider wider benefits such as infrastructure savings, but also reflect the true value of indirect benefits through reduced externalities and improvement in the productivity of the people on the economy.