Integrated Environmental Assessment of Supply‐Side and Demand‐Side Measures for Carbon Dioxide Mitigation in Tokyo, Japan

Abstract

SummaryBuilding on previously introduced concepts and software, we constructed an interlinked system of models, called an "integrated model project," for assessing integrated effects of supply-side and demand-side technologies and policies for carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) mitigation in urban areas. We used the integrated model project to evaluate scenarios that included introduction of a solid oxide fuel cell combined with a gas turbine topping cycle (SOFC/GT) as a supply-side technology and reduction of electricity demand by energy conservation and rooftop photovoltaic (PV) cells in residential and commercial buildings as a demand-side measure in Tokyo, Japan. Modeling results indicate that integrating multiple supply-side and demand-side countermeasures can result in more effective mitigation of CO 2 emissions. In particular, although separately a moderate CO 2 tax and the SOFC/GT technology do not produce large CO 2 mitigation, the combination of the two with PV installation could result in a 50% reduction in CO 2 emissions in 2050. Cancellation effects of combinations of supply-side and demand-side measures were also seen between supply-side SOFC/GT systems and demandside rooftop PV cells, effects that might not be apparent without the integrated environmental assessment approach that we have adopted. An integrated environmental assessment approach using tools such as those described in this article could help researchers to assess these kinds of dynamic, nonlinear effects, which would not be predicted by conventional linear, "additive" approaches.

Industrial Ecology and Cities

“…At least two papers have examined the historical use of energy in cities (Reiter and Marique 2012 ; Baynes and Bai 2012 ). Also related to energy, amongst other activities, is a large number of papers on greenhouse gas emissions for cities (Ramaswami et al 2012a , b ;Mohareb and Kennedy 2012a , b ;Chavez et al 2012 ;Sugar et al 2012 ;Feng et al 2012 ;Shi et al 2012 ;Bullock et al 2011 ;Kraines et al 2010 ;Lebel et al 2007 ;VandeWeghe and Kennedy 2007 ), although this is just a subset of a larger literature. Other contaminants featured include heavy metals (Batzias et al 2011 ) and PBDEs (Vyzinkarova and Brunner 2013 ).…”

An Inexact Dynamic Optimization Model for CO2Emission Reduction in Subei Region, Northeast China

“…In the past, many studies examined the contributions of different technologies to CO 2 and greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation on multiple industries and evaluated their effects within the global domain (Smith et al 2008;Liu, Shi, and Jiang 2009;Paksoy et al 2009;Pone, Halleck, and Mathews 2009;Dagher and Ruble 2010;Flamos, Georallis, and Psarras 2010;Huang and Tang 2010;Kraines, Ishida, Wallace 2010;Schmidt et al 2010;Tirado et al 2010;Bäckstrand, Meadowcroft, and Oppenheimer 2011;Zaman, Khan, and Saleem 2011). For instance, Edwards and Smith (2003) developed multiple models to predict emissions of air pollutants and analyze contributions of residential fuel/stove in China to global CO 2 emissions.…”

Integrating Distributed Computational Models as Dynamic Expressions of Knowledge: The Case for Evaluating Measures for Urban Ecosystem Sustainability

“…In previous publications, we have described the development and application of a "virtual urban ecosystem" in the form of a computational model integration environment on the web [6], [9], [10]. The virtual urban ecosystem simulation platform uses the DOME (distributed object-based modeling environment) software to make available a set of computational models that give the boundary conditions of the urban ecosystem, such as census databases, input-output tables, electric power dispatch models, transportation models, and atmospheric circulation models.…”