Policies and measures for energy efficiency improvement at households: A bibliometric analysis

Energy security is getting louder globally as there are growing concerns about the risk of climate change from using traditional non-renewable energy sources. This systematic literature review is conducted to identify the current state of renewable energy technologies in Nepal supporting the energy sustainability issue, opportunities, and challenges. The peer-reviewed journal articles published in Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases were searched with specified search strings. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis(PRISMA) framework was utilized to search and screen the relevant literature published from 2012 to 2023 related to renewable energy development in Nepal. The Biblioshiny () function of the R-tool was utilized to conduct the meta-analysis of the identified literature. The result shows that the majority of articles were produced after 2019 and among them 50% of the research were conducted on mixed renewables, 19.4% on hydro, 14.5% solar, 8.1% wind, and 8.1% bio-energy. Renewable energy, climate change, sustainability, and policy interventions were identified as major themes in the research. Biomass (66.4%) still dominates the total energy mix and hydropower dominates in electricity generation. This review has explored how the studies were conducted on energy sustainability and renewable energy technologies in the context of Nepal. The review also provides challenges faced by Nepal’s renewable energy sectoral development and the underlined opportunities towards energy sustainability.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A systematic literature review on renewable energy technologies for energy sustainability in Nepal: Key challenges and opportunities

Adhikari,

Techato,

Jariyaboon

2024

Energy retrofit and climate adaptive design of dwellings in the hot arid climate: Trends and future challenges

Aldhaher,

Selçuk

2024

As long as buildings face various climate change impacts in recent decades, such as increased heat, particularly in the residential sector. Therefore, energy retrofit, and climate-adaptive designs may contribute significantly to climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. At the same time, these strategies do not only improve the sustainability of dwellings/houses/residences but also contribute to broader goals of increasing energy efficiency, reducing environmental impact, offering economic benefits, and enhancing the community's resilience in the challenges they face impact from the effects of climate change. This study aims to examine and present the development of energy retrofitting, energy efficiency and climate-adaptive design for dwellings/ residential buildings in hot weather publications through bibliometric research. The research has been examined within the Web of Science™ Core Collection (W.O.S.) online database spanning from 2012 to November 2023 by using the "Title/Abstract/Keywords" category, and a comprehensive data visualisation has been conducted utilising the VOSviewer and CiteSpace programmes. The findings indicate the research trends in the literature and future challenges, and the results from these findings demonstrate the need for sustainable and energy-efficient buildings to preserve the environment and climate. These sustainable developments focus on improvements in energy retrofitting technologies, energy efficiency and saving targets, indoor thermal comfort, optimising passive design and minimising energy demand. This study will probably be a source to provide valuable insights for researchers, practitioners, experts, and policymakers to understand the implications of energy retrofitting and climate-adaptive design in hot arid climates. As well as it would offer theoretical and practical initiatives to be applied in this field.

Quantification of household electricity consumption for supporting energy efficiency of urban metabolism: Material flow analysis

Sharif Ali,

Kasavan,

Razman

et al. 2024

Despite growing public, academic, and government awareness of the energy consumption issue, there is still little research on the scales and patterns of Household Electricity Consumption (HEC), particularly in developing countries such as Malaysia. Therefore, the present study examines the status of HEC using electricity consumption breakdowns, key performance indicators (KPIs) for electricity consumption and Material Flow Analysis (MFA) by showing potential electricity savings, cost savings, and emission reductions using 5-star energy efficiency appliances. This study used a face-to-face survey of 400 participants in Seremban, the capital city of Negeri Sembilan. The study found that the majority of respondents (49%) consumed about 300-600 kWh/month of electricity with an estimated cost of MYR231.80 per month. Additionally, the study found that households in flats recorded lower average electricity consumption (460.16 kWh/unit) than bungalow households (885.92 kWh/unit) due to respondents’ socio-economic status, the physical size of the houses and the number of appliances owned. The study also revealed that the average energy consumption was higher for refrigerators (9.6 kWh/day) and air conditioners (4.5 kWh/day) due to the use of large amounts of energy to maintain a steady temperature. The material flow analysis shows that energy savings were approximately 22.53%, potential cost savings were MYR12,676.15 per month, and the potential reduction emissions were about 100,759.92 kgCO2e for one month with using EEA compared to non-EEA. The present study empirically discussed the significance of HEC quantification and the opportunity for energy efficiency is critical as a solution for sustainable urban metabolism in a developing country.