NEEDS: New Energy Externalities Development for Sustainability
from 2012 to 2009

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

The NEEDS Integrated Project funded in the 6th EU FP lasted 54 month and involved 66 partners coming from EU and extra-EU countries. Its main goal was to evaluate the full costs and benefits (i.e. direct and external) of energy policies and of future energy systems, both at the level of individual countries and for the enlarged EU as a whole. In order to achieve these objectives, a methodological approach has been developed involving the following areas: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of energy technologies Monetary valuation of externalities associated to energy production, transport, conversion and use Integration of LCA and externalities information into policy formulation and scenario building Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to examine the robustness of the proposed technological solutions in view of stakeholder preferences In particular, the externalities methodology already set up in the previous Extern-E project has been developed and refined. From the point of view of the structure, NEEDS was built as series of Research Streams, each  addressing a specific area of research.

LAME ACTIVITIES

The leading Team was ISIS (Italy); the LAME research group was involved in Research Streams 1a, 1c and 2a. It prepared all the relevant scientific and administrative papers for the WP it was responsible of. In particular:
RS1a:
responsible for the WP on fuel cells and contributor to the WP on hydrogen. The group performed the life cycle assessment of PEM fuel cells and coordinated the analysis of the other type of fuel cells working in a CHP configuration. Making use of the methodology developed in other RS, it evaluated the externalities due to the use of fuel cells.
RS1c: responsible for the WP on the evaluation of externalities due to the transportation of hydrogen and other innovative fuels. It contributed effectively to the evaluation of externalities due to the transportation of oil and natural gas.
RS2a: responsible for the Task on the modeling of the UK energy system to be integrated in Pan EU model. It supported other research groups in preparing their spreadsheets on other EU countries energy systems, thanks to the advanced expertise of the group.
 
RS1c: for the WP on the evaluation of externalities due to the transportation of hydrogen and other innovative fuels. It contributed effectively to the evaluation of externalities due to the transportation of oil and natural gas.

RS2a: responsible for the Task on the modeling of the UK energy system to be integrated in Pan EU model. It supported other research groups in preparing their spreadsheets on other EU countries energy systems, thanks to the advanced expertise of the group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WORK PACKAGES

  • Stream1:    Enhancements in energy externalities:
    RS 1a
    - LCA of new energy technologies
    RS 1b - New and improved methods to estimate the external costs
    of energy conversion
    RS 1c - Externalities associated to the extraction and transport of
    energy
    RS
    1d - Extension of the geographical coverage of the current knowledge of
    energy externalities

  • steam 2:  Development of long term strategies:
    RS 2a - Modelling internalisation strategies, including scenario building
    RS 2b -  Energy Technology Roadmap and Stakeholder Perspectives

  • Steam 3: Input to policy making & dissemination:
    RS 3a -
    Transferability and generalization
    RS 3b -
    Dissemination/communication

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