The global energy issue is crucial for the development of the population and the environmental protection of the planet. The agricultural sector is part of economic, social and environmental development. However, in Ecuador, this sector has internal problems due to the suspension of the bioconversion project (e.g., ethanol production). This study aims to analyse the situation of sugarcane ethanol production in Ecuador and, through information management, to search for development strategies. The methodology includes the following: (i) sugarcane production analysis in Ecuador and ethanol distribution; (ii) policies and legal context concerning renewable energies and biofuels production in Ecuador; (iii) Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Ecological and Legal (PESTEL) as well as Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis of ethanol production, based on the criteria of the experts involved and (iv) strategic guidelines for sustainable sugarcane ethanol development. Ecuador has a potential for sugarcane ethanol production that is currently not fully exploited; that is, the consumption of this resource would reduce energy demand and economic problems in the agricultural sector. Sugarcane ethanol production has generated a direct contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (0.5%) and a contribution to social growth (751,799 people benefited). Ethanol production could increase by 20%, generating new alternatives for biofuel consumption. This progress in Ecuador would strengthen the contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals criteria and benefit the population with new job opportunities (approximately 42,000). Therefore, the production of ethanol from sugarcane, under a legal framework, benefits economic, social and ecological relations.

Norway is leading the share of renewable energy in Europe by almost 75%. However, the share of bioenergy in Norway’s energy supply is insignificant. Bioenergy, the most common type of renewable energy, generates more energy than all other forms. This fact demonstrates the value of bioenergy, which will play an increasingly important part in the future energy mix. There are different biomass resources such as agricultural crop residues, forestry, wood processing residues, algae, dedicated energy crops, and municipal and wet organic waste. Biofuel markets in Norway are relatively immature. In past decades, bioenergy consumption in Norway ranged between 4% and 6% of the total primary energy supply. Norway has experienced a gradual increase in total energy supply of biofuels and wastes, and it has almost doubled since 1990, which is 80 petajoule in 2020. However, various barriers are hindering the development of the biomass industry. The present study aims to identify and classify Norway’s biomass supply chain challenges and prioritize them using the Delphi-Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. Based on a comprehensive literature review, 42 challenges were recognized and classified into seven major categories. Then, a Delphi technique is used to define and choose the main challenges in the context of Norway through an expert panel. Finally, 4 main categories, 9 sub-categories, and 37 challenge indicators related to Norway’s biomass industry were selected. Moreover, the AHP method is employed to determine the weight of the challenges using a geometric mean approach. The results show that ‘high investment cost’, ‘Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission’, ‘minor differences between the energy prices achievable for the sales of heat and electricity’, and ‘small market size’ were the most critical challenge indicators.

To meet the domestic demand for biodiesel, because the application of the biodiesel blending mandate is very aggressive and even exceeds that of all countries in the world, it is suspected that Indonesia, which is involved in export trade, has lost its export competitiveness when compared to other leading biodiesel exporting countries in the world. The purpose of this study is to determine whether biodiesel can survive or lose its competitiveness with the application of the biodiesel blend- ing mandate in that country which is the highest when compared to all other biodiesel producing and exporting countries. By using the analysis method of export market share and comparative advantage, research was conducted to determine whether Indonesian biodiesel has export competitiveness or not when compared to other leading biodiesel exporting countries. The results show that the average market share of Indonesia’s biodiesel exports is still higher when compared to that of the majority of biodiesel exporting countries and including biodiesel exporting countries that have a comparative advantage even when the biodiesel blending mandate is enforced every year com- pared to the majority of the world’s leading biodiesel exporting countries that have a comparative disadvantage.

Controlled recycling of different materials, typical to household appliances, from the landfills located in developing countries in West Sub-Saharan Africa and their subsequent reuse can favour the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the involved regions. This process reduces the unhealthy conditions associated with landfills and the inadequate use of fuels, and it also solves certain deficits in the population. As a continuation of previous studies, this article proposes a practical example of manufacture through the controlled reuse of an asynchronous wind-powered electricity generation system, analysing the benefits and possibilities detected, especially in domestic self-generation and in the reduction of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. In summary, the topic is the manufacture of an energy generating system using recycled material for domestic use. In this way, the associated self-generation of electricity can supply or reduce the energy demand of a large part of the population in these regions that do not have electricity supply; for example, for a household in Nigeria, it would save between 15% and 75% of the electricity supply. Providing electricity supply also prevents deforestation in regions that use natural biomass as an alternative energy source, an issue that has a global impact on CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.

Energy consumption in buildings is considerably high in areas of hot and humid climates due to its association with high cooling loads. Electricity grids are highly affected by the consumption of cooling systems like air-conditioning and large refrigeration facilities, which significantly impact the economic and environmental sectors. As building design and operating parameters influence the cooling demand in the building, it is believed the root cause of the problem may be detected at an early building design stage. Thus, this review identifies the building design parameters that impact the cooling loads in build- ings that are geographically restricted to countries with hot and humid climates. The building’s design characteristics are classified into four main categories: glass characteristics, wall characteristics, building orientation and dimensions (BO & D), and building cooling system. The review was conducted over high-rise and low-rise buildings. Annual energy requirements (in some cases overlapping with electricity consumption), annual cooling loads, and peak cooling loads are the three forms in which energy demand reductions in buildings are represented. It is found that maximum annual cooling load savings are obtained through cooling systems, followed by wall characteristics, then glass characteristics, with the least for BO & D, with maximum reductions of up to 61%, 59%, 55%, and 21%, respectively. As for the peak cooling load reductions, wall characteristics, cooling systems, and glass characteristics had almost the same average values of 18.7%, 15.2%, and 17.2%, respectively, while BO & D are not reported due to the incomparable number of case studies. The parameters that have the most influence on reductions in peak cooling loads are wall and glass characteristics. In general, savings that are associated with wall characteristics are more significant for low-rise buildings than for high-rise buildings, while the latter is more influenced by glass characteristics. This is a reasonable conclusion since high-rise buildings, in general, acquire higher window-to-wall ratios than the former. In general, most studies considered glass characteristics, while fewer studies considered BO & D. This review has shown various aspects that are vital in studying building cooling load demand and its related energy performance.

To preserve the harmony within a vernacular habitat, a delicate balance between living space, nature, and community must be maintained. This paper analyzes local communities from Maramureș, Romania, and their sustainable ways of living, and it also discusses the use of locally sourced materials in building settlements: a cautious combination of progressively integrating contemporary living solutions with preserving the powerful local heritage. Such initiatives become more challenging given that new, modern developments and rapid industrial changes tempt people away from ancient custom. In order to sustain the traditional habitat, as fundamental for the heritage preservation initiative, it is necessary to guide villagers in finding value and beauty locally and discourage them from migrating towards bigger cities or other countries. Based on two case studies of local craftsmen, Maria Zapca, a weaver from Săpânța, and Daniel Leș, a potter from Baia Sprie, the journey starts in Săpânța, home of the UNESCO heritage site The Merry Cemetery where the physical fabric of the place lends itself to sustaining local crafts and craftsmen. However, this is not an isolated case: Maramureș is famous throughout the world for its material culture such as wooden churches with tall spires – seven of them listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites – alongside a multitude of home decorating fabrics and traditional attire still made and used by locals. Regional resources such as clay, wood, stone, wool, or hemp stand as fundamentals in shaping the vernacular habitat. Furthermore, the region is well-known for preserving customs and practices, which emphasize local group members’ lineage to the wider community. People are proud of their heritage and are connected to the cultural values that help shape their identity.

Making a breakthrough in the energy industry is a particularly laborious cross-disciplinary challenge due to the extreme complexity of production systems and the necessity to ensure the compatibility of a huge number of technologies and industrial and managerial systems of various nature. This makes it highly relevant to provide knowledge-intensive support for teams that implement projects aimed at breakthrough transformations. This article describes a specialized science and education platform that is being rolled out by the authors at a number of major energy companies in Russia and at Ural Federal University. The platform has features of a communications platform that brings together science, education, and energy companies, and of a digital ecosystem that serves as a framework for customized services for stakeholders. The platform uses an operation mechanism that is designed to ensure the reproduction of knowledge that is in line with corresponding trends and changes emerging in the global, national, and industrial contexts, and promptly converts it into learning content and a project agenda for breakthrough teams. An original methodology for the training of breakthrough teams and arguments for the appropriateness of using a platform-based approach in order to increase intellectual capital in the energy industry constitute the scientific novelty of the article. This article has a practical value to it as it demonstrates the scaling capability of the elements of the conceptual model, of its operation mechanism, and the best practices of using a science and education platform as the organizational basis for breakthrough projects in the energy sector.