This thesis investigates the commercialization of next-generation nuclear fission technologies, focusing on the barriers, strategies, and timelines necessary for their deployment. With the growing need for clean and reliable energy, nuclear fission offers a low-carbon solution, but its commercialization is challenged by regulatory, financial, and technological hurdles. The research uses a dual-method approach, combining desk research and expert interviews. Through desk research, commercialization timelines of 10 key companies developing next-generation nuclear reactors were mapped. These companies are at different stages, ranging from ideation to prototyping, with varying timelines influenced by strategic partnerships, regulatory approvals, and technological progress.

The expert interviews reveal significant barriers to commercialization, including lengthy regulatory approval processes, high upfront costs, and public skepticism surrounding nuclear technology. Financial constraints, especially the difficulty in attracting investment due to long payback periods, were noted as major impediments. Experts also highlighted the need for technological innovation, particularly in materials testing and reactor designs, to meet stringent safety standards.

In response to these challenges, the thesis identifies strategies such as early engagement with regulatory bodies, diversification of funding sources, and open communication to address public concerns. Technological advancements, such as modular reactor designs and improved safety features, are critical to overcoming these hurdles. By combining the insights from commercialization timelines and expert interviews, this study offers recommendations to accelerate the commercialization process, emphasizing the need for policy support, innovative financial models, and continuous technological development. Nuclear fission remains a promising solution to the global energy crisis, but coordinated efforts are required to unlock its full potential.

The transportation sector continues decarbonizing with the increasing number of Electric Vehicles (EVs) replacing gasoline and diesel cars every year. However, the integration of vast amounts of EVs introduces complexities in energy distribution and grid stability. Charge Point Operators (CPOs), positioned at the intersection of EVs and the grid, play a critical role in managing these complexities. They ensure that the charging infrastructure meets the needs of both EV users and the grid, highlighting the importance of smart charging strategies.

In this thesis, a smart charging approach is proposed from the point of view of a CPO. The proposed approach aims to optimize the charging schedules for EVs parked at a commercial building's parking lot. The objective of the optimization problem is to minimize the Power Setpoint Tracking (PST) error, which indicates the error between the contracted energy in the day-ahead market by the CPO and the aggregated consumption of charging stations the next day. This optimization involves complex sequential decision-making, where the uncertain nature of EV arrivals and departures demands a fast and adaptive solution. Thus, this thesis proposes a Markov Decision Process (MDP) formulation and solves it using the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) algorithm to minimize the PST error by scheduling the charging of EVs. DDPG is chosen for its ability to efficiently handle complex problems with continuous state and action spaces, making it ideal, considering the uncertainties inherent to the arrival of EVs and the charging process. Additionally, DDPG's application in a commercial building's parking lot, where EV arrival and departure patterns are usually consistent, further solidifies DDPG as a strong alternative.

Evaluating the proposed DDPG approach with alternative benchmarks, such as the uncontrolled "charge as fast as possible" (CAFAP) and the optimal solution obtained through a Mixed Integer Non-Linear Programming (MINLP) formulation, signifies DDPG's superior performance in several metrics. Specifically, it outperforms the CAFAP algorithm by achieving a reduction in PST error by an average of 34% for a parking lot with 10 chargers over 12 hours of charging for a day. This highlights DDPG's efficacy in optimizing EV charging schedules over the CAFAP algorithm. Moreover, DDPG's model benefits from the ability to be trained offline with historical data and deployed online once trained. This approach allows for rapid, dynamic rescheduling of charging in real-world operations, offering speed advantages over the theoretically optimal solution, which requires prior knowledge of arrival and departure times and State of Charge (SoC) of EVs. All experiments validating these findings were conducted within the EV2Gym, a Gym environment specifically designed to simulate the EV charging scenarios.

Lastly, this thesis contributes to the field by demonstrating how RL, through the use of DDPG, can optimize PST for EV charging in a commercial building's parking lot. By offering a detailed comparison with other algorithms and showcasing the scalability and adaptability of DDPG, the research provides valuable insights for CPOs and stakeholders in the energy sector.

Routine maintenance is an essential requirement for the optimal functioning and longevity of any technical system that has been constructed. The issue occurs when the maintenance planning for such a structure becomes necessary. The adverse weather conditions prevalent in the Netherlands contribute to the heightened danger associated with the duty of a maintenance worker. Additionally, it is vital to comprehend the optimal time frame for minimising revenue losses when allocating time towards maintenance activities rather than operational tasks.

The objective of this project is to create a methodology for enhancing and improving the management of asset maintenance planning. This process is carried out by developing two statistical models. The primary objective of this study is to examine the feasibility of utilising API data from wind forecast sites to provide accurate production forecasts for individual wind turbines up to a 7-10 day period in advance. Furthermore, this study aims to forecast the electricity prices for the upcoming week by analysing historical data and recent day-ahead pricing. The outputs generated by these models are subsequently aggregated to yield a single outcome in terms of revenue.

The predictive model for electricity prices utilises data sourced from ENTSOE to generate an aggregate of electricity prices spanning the previous 7-8 years. This aggregate is subsequently adjusted by incorporating the electricity prices observed within the most recent three-week period. The model exhibits high accuracy in predicting day-ahead pricing during weekdays, but its performance is not consistently replicated on weekends.

The wind turbine output forecast model utilises operational archival data and high-resolution 10-day forecasts obtained from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). A correlation has been established between the archival data and the historical turbine data provided by Green Trust Consultancy for the designated wind farm. The aforementioned correlation is subsequently employed to establish a connection between the output of a turbine and the real-time forecast data. The accuracy of the power generation forecast decreases from the initial day to the tenth day of the projection, resulting in inconsistent outcomes.

The combined outputs of these two models yield a solitary outcome that aids in predicting the potential revenue loss for the selected turbine during the period of maintenance-induced idleness. The limitations inherent in both models contribute to the generation of imprecise outcomes inside the revenue model pertaining to wind turbines. The model accurately predicts outcomes in two out of the four tested scenarios.

The establishment of a well-developed charging infrastructure is imperative for the broader adoption of Electric Vehicle (EV) and necessitates the formulation of an effective charging infrastructure policy. To navigate the intricacies involved in the policymaking process, the incorporation of EV charging models can be advantageous. Existing research indicates that models have a significant impact on facilitating policymaking in the broader energy sector. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether computer-based models exert a similar influence on the EV charging policies. Previous studies lack comprehensive insights into the practical application of models in EV charging policy processes and the resultant policy modifications due to the unique attributes of both EV charging models and policies. Furthermore, there exists a lack of systematic understanding regarding the utilization of charging infrastructure models. Given these gaps in knowledge, this research aims to investigate the following question: How does modeling evidence influence EV charging infrastructure policymaking in the UK and the Netherlands?
This study finds that EV charging models have exerted substantial influence across various stages of local policy cycles, significantly shaping decision-making processes. Such impact has pre- dominantly concentrated on the practical and operational aspects of the models, primarily concerning the optimal number and spatial distribution of charging points. However, there remains a noticeable lack of attention to strategic considerations pertaining to broader energy transition and green transport initiatives. This oversight is particularly evident in the insufficient exploration of how EV charging in- frastructure can be effectively integrated into a more extensive and long-term blueprint. This research highlights the need for a strategic-level approach to comprehend the interplay between EV charging networks and the larger energy transition agenda, encompassing themes such as renewable energy integration, smart grid compatibility and urban planning synergies. Consequently, policymakers and modelers should expand their planning of charging infrastructure to encompass the broader landscape and envision how EV charging models can harmonize with sustainable urban development, ensuring a cohesive and effective implementation within the overarching framework of environmental conservation and sustainable mobility.

Currently, there are optimization models that are able of modeling building renovation, but their scope is limited only to the heating system. There are also models that consider interactions between different energy subsystems, but they lack the ability to simulate building renovation. Having those two things combined would be beneficial as the impact of renovation on the power system might be significant.
The goal of this thesis is to assess the impact of building renovation on the energy system. It was done with the use of Euro-calliope model, which is capable of minimizing the cost of the whole energy system. In the current state, Euro-calliope model does not offer the chance to renovate the building stock. Therefore, the aim of this work is to introduce the building renovation option subject to the software objective function and reshape, when necessary, the heating sector.
The main outcome is that the heating sector significantly affects the distribution of power generation sources as most of heat is supplied via heat pumps. The penetration of renovation increases the fraction of energy generated by photovoltaics in the energy mix. However, when it comes to absolute values, in all scenarios wind farms are dominating.
The cost-optimal renovation always results in a higher renovation level than the currently present renovation levels. However, those levels are usually lower than the currently imposed local renovation standards. Moreover, the renovation has a positive impact on decreasing the variability of the system costs for scenarios with low renewable supply.

The report focuses on the analysis of a cost-optimal hydrogen network in Europe within the context of an integrated energy system. It addresses the need for understanding the required capacity and spatial distribution of hydrogen infrastructure to meet the growing demand for clean energy carriers. Previous studies often overlook the integration of a hydrogen network and lack optimized designs considering a sector-coupled energy system.

To overcome these limitations, this report models hydrogen pipelines using the Calliope energy system modeling software with the objective of determining the necessary capacity and distribution of a hydrogen grid in Europe under a fully renewable scenario. Modeling was conducted with a spatial resolution of 35 nodes and a temporal resolution of 2 hours over a full year, using the 2018 weather data. The software uses a linear optimization method to determine the optimal configuration of the hydrogen network.

This study formulates several allocation scenarios for electrolysis capacity to examine the capacity and spatial distribution of an optimal hydrogen network under different conditions. It is found that an energy system with hydrogen hubs requires the development of extensive new pipeline infrastructure, while a system with a more balanced distribution of electrolysis across Europe requires less pipeline capacity and relies mostly on repurposed infrastructure. The estimated capacity of the network ranges from 135 to 244 TWkm. This is 40% to 70% lower than what is estimated in the European Hydrogen Backbone (EHB) vision.

In the scenario with hydrogen hubs, the study identifies four hydrogen corridors that align with the vision presented in the EHB report, with Britain, Ireland, Denmark, and Portugal as key hydrogen producers. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the significant role of salt caverns as the predominant storage technology for hydrogen, despite uncertainties surrounding their capacity estimates. The optimal storage capacity in salt caverns ranges from 42 to 178 TWh when accounting for cost and weather uncertainty.

The analysis initially considered a self-sufficient energy system, but the sensitivity to international imports was also considered. To analyze this aspect, hydrogen imports from four North African countries were included. The findings revealed that international imports play a relevant role in shaping the optimal configuration of the hydrogen network. Imports increase the required investment in infrastructure but also reduce hydrogen storage capacity and its associated uncertainty. Changes in the network configuration result in a 6% reduction in total system costs due to decreased renewable energy capacity and reliance on external hydrogen supply.

Overall, this study emphasizes the need for accurate electrolysis allocation estimation, alignment with international import planning, and efficient utilization of storage technologies in the development of hydrogen infrastructures. The findings contribute to informed decision-making and the creation of sustainable hydrogen networks that integrate effectively with renewable energy systems.

The ever-rising greenhouse gas emissions move the European Union to transition towards a future decarbonized energy system. To achieve this, the future energy system will mainly comprise variable renewable energy generation sources. Energy production from these sources is susceptible to weather fluctuations. Uncertainty of future weather scenarios translates into energy system models that help decision-makers to design the future renewable energy system. Energy system models often use a single weather year to simulate weather behaviour. Thus, many energy system models fail to take weather fluctuations between various years into account. Identifying energy system designs that are robust to weather fluctuations, i.e. systems that are able to suffice demand regardless of the weather circumstances, is therefore key.

The research described in this thesis has aimed to develop and test a method to give insight to decision-makers into the composition of robust and efficient energy systems, given weather uncertainty. To achieve this, the SPORES methodology has been used and extended to identify energy system configurations that are both robust and efficient. For this, a decision option space for decision-makers has been created that has been diversified based on renewable energy generation and storage technologies. To test the developed method, the North Sea region has been used as a case, as this is the region thought by policy to have great potential to house renewable generation sources in Europe.

The method developed in this research systematically covers the decision option space over three weather scenarios (worst, typical and best). From these decision spaces, configurations that meet demand with installed capacities that exist across the whole weather options space have been selected as robust. Clustering was used to identify types of energy system configurations, having commonalities in the installed generation capacities. Energy efficiency has been identified as key for measuring energy system performance. This research, therefore, takes curtailment and energy system yield into account to quantify efficiency. Using a Pareto analysis, both robust and efficiency-wise high-performing energy system configurations were identified as most promising for decision-makers.

The no-regret decisions, visualized by the SPORE-core, are minimum capacities required across the whole decision space. Results showed that robust energy systems are typically comprised of balanced configurations, meaning that solar PV and wind power both have the largest capacity of energy generation sources. The balanced configurations also contain high transmission capacities and typically no storage capacities indicating energy is distributed rather than stored. The robust and efficient configurations need additional capacity investments on top of the no-regret decisions. Especially solar PV needs a large increase in capacity when robustness and efficiency are required. Combined heat and power from biofuels and electrolysis capacity are also key to robust and efficient configurations. Additional results showed that the majority of robust and efficient configurations utilised more offshore than onshore wind capacity.

The findings of this research are based on a case of the North Sea energy system with a high level of aggregation and are thus of limited use for precise designs of the North Sea energy system. The method created in this study can be adapted to contain more detail and offers space for researchers to include their own performance indicators. However, this research already used significant computational efforts, so adding more resolution and detail will mean the computational process can be restricting. Future research should focus on using the developed method to select promising and robust energy system configurations with higher levels of detail and conduct further weather scenario analyses on the selected configuration.

In light of the energy transition to a fossil-free energy system, Europe is experiencing a colossal shift toward renewable energy generation. To facilitate the rapidly growing demand for clean energy, new technologies, and resources are being investigated. Airborne wind energy (AWE) and floating wind turbines have the potential to unlock untapped wind resource potential and contribute to the balancing of the system in unique ways. So far, the techno-economic potential of both technologies has only been investigated at small scale, while the most significant benefits will likely play out on a system scale. Demonstrating the economic feasibility and additional benefits of emerging technologies in an energy system context is vital to accelerate political traction and funding.
This research aimed to find the main system-level trade-offs involved with integrating AWE and floating wind turbines in a highly-renewable future energy system. To do so, a modelling workflow was developed that consists of future costs and performance estimation, wind resource assessment and integration into a high-resolution large-scale energy system cost-optimization model, based on the Calliope modelling framework. The investigated region contains 10 countries in the North Sea region. The wind resource and system balancing are hourly-resolved. Key findings include:
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Onshore AWE significantly outperforms onshore wind turbines due to higher wind resource availability.
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The main limiting factor in large-scale onshore AWE deployment is the spatial energy density.
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Offshore AWE shows highly identical performance compared to offshore wind alternatives.
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Deployment of offshore AWE is mainly cost driven.
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Floating wind turbines demonstrate great potential because of the high capacity factors that can be achieved in high wind resource areas where conventional offshore wind is not technically feasible.
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Offshore wind potential in general strongly depends on available onshore technical potential.
The outcomes show significant potential for both emerging technologies that could be realized in the near future. This study provides first exploratory findings that lay the foundation for future studies in the context of this research topic. Multiple directions for follow-up research have been identified to quantify this potential in more detail.

The integration of variable renewable sources and electrification is straining electricity grids worldwide, resulting in congestion events. This research aims to understand the consequences of unmet electricity demand caused by demand congestion, to support informed decision making. Using a mixed methods approach, the study focuses on the medium voltage distribution network in Amsterdam, examining the implications of congestion for different customer segments. The research finds that demand congestion leads to a lack of universal access to electricity, as it becomes spatiotemporal-specific and dependent on the type of connection required. The study identifies industry, commercial business, public services, and urban development as key segments with varying responses to congestion. The societal impacts of congestion hinder sustainable development across environmental, social, and economic dimensions. CO2 emissions, housing delays, and employment losses are highlighted as significant impacts in Amsterdam. To mitigate these impacts, it is recommended to foster collaboration among stakeholders within the multi-actor network and make segment-specific as well as area-targeted investments. The research establishes a foundation for further studies on demand congestion and offers insights for effective congestion management in urban areas.

The European energy system faces one of its greatest challenges: transitioning from a system dominated by fossil-based energy sources to a completely climate neutral system in 2050. Energy system models provide useful tools that can help to navigate this complex task of designing a future energy system by modelling future systems and assessing the impact of future design choices.

Current literature adopts either a step-wise optimisation towards a final configuration of an energy system or deploys a modelling to generate alternatives (MGA) approach to generate a diverse set of system configurations. While the first approach provides temporal insights, it may biased and miss less trivial solutions, the second approach offers robustness but lacks insights into timing of technol- ogy deployments and neglects existing infrastructure. This highlights a gap in combining the strengths of both approaches to understand the dynamic between short-term decisions and long-term flexibility, while being robust under changing conditions.

The purpose of this study is to develop a method that combines the strengths of both modelling approaches. A method is developed and applied to two case studies to uncover how policy targets influence the maneuvering space towards a climate neutral European energy system. Many European nation states have set ambitious targets to increase renewable generation capacity while also phasing out fossil-based power generation. It is important to analyse impact of such targets on the rest of the energy system in the short- and the long-term. Aggressive phase-out or growth of deployed infrastructure might work in the short term but could restrict flexibility of options further into the future.

This study uses spatially explicit practically optimal results (SPORES) for 2030 and 2050 provided by the sector-coupled Euro-calliope model, which is an adaptation of the MGA approach. Energy system characteristics were found by analysis of the distributions of primary energy sources and power sector technology deployments. Trade-offs were uncovered by computing Pearson correlation of technology deployments on national and European scale. A k-means clustering algorithm was applied to condense the set of hundreds of SPORES to manageable amount of scenarios that is more accessible for poli- cymakers. The scenarios reveal trends and trade-offs between the two different time-frames. Finally, two case-studies were presented that use a filtering of the SPORES to reveal the impact of the 2030 PV capacity target in Germany and the 2030 offshore wind capacity target in the Netherlands on the maneuvering space of their respective future energy systems. Key finding of this study include:
• Phase-out of fossil-based energy sources by 2050 is enabled by a doubling of renewable elec- tricity generation by 2030 and a more than ten-fold increase of renewable electricity generation in 2050.
• Solar (PV) and wind turbines are must-have technologies by 2050, however trade-offs exist in the the proportional balance between them, and the timing and location of deployment.
• Early phase-out of coal-fired power generation can reduce flexibility in the system as it is often accompanied by high deployment of gas turbines and PV that could create lock-in risk.
• Germany’s ambitions to deploy 215 GW of PV by 2030 requires increased coal-fired generation capacity to remain in the cost-efficient design space of 2030. Thus the PV target introduces lock-in risk of coal-fired power generation, which requires a complete phase out by 2050.
• The Dutch offshore wind target of 21 GW by 2030 introduces a potential conflict between deploy- ment of offshore wind and growth of PV and onshore wind that is required for 2050.

These findings contribute to research by offering a methodology that improves understanding of the dynamics within the European energy transition. This study has, for the first time, placed MGA solutions in the context of the multi-decade transition. By analysing the change between the current system, the design space spanned by the 2030 and 2050 SPORES, new insights about the time dependent trade- offs within the energy system and the limitations of the SPORES method have emerged.

To mitigate the effects of climate change, CO2-emmissions will have to be reduced. This can be done by substituting the use of fossil, CO2-heavy by the use of renewable, CO2-neutral energy carriers. Hydrogen is such a renewable energy carrier that can be produced in a CO2-neutral way. The potential of hydrogen is recognized by the European Commission as specific renewable hydrogen goals are stated in their Fit for 55 package, which is a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the European Union with 55% by 2030. These goals relate to both the production and use of renewable hydrogen within the European Union.  For hydrogen to be qualified as renewable, the European Commission has proposed a set of requirements that its production has to comply with. One of them is temporal correlation, requiring the amount of energy used by a hydrogen production plant to match the amount of energy generated by one or more connected renewable energy plants. Renewable energy plants generate a variable output of energy as they rely on variable energy sources such as wind. This causes the production of renewable hydrogen to be variable as well. The fact that this production of hydrogen is variable can be problematic as some industrial processes require or perform better with a constant input of hydrogen. Energy storage systems, such as lithium-ion batteries, can be integrated in hydrogen plants to stabilize the hydrogen production from a renewable energy source. This works through locally storing part of the energy generated during peaks to be used at times when there is a deficit of energy. The purpose of this study is to see how different energy storage systems influence the performance of wind-hydrogen plants. A wind-hydrogen plant is a hydrogen plant producing hydrogen with an electrolyzer powered with energy from a wind park. Based on the outcomes of the study, wind-hydrogen plants can be designed incorporating the most adequate energy storage system for its purpose. The outcomes of the study can also be used by policy-makers to see how the temporal correlation requirement of the European Commission influences the feasibility of the hydrogen goals in the Fit for 55 package. The performance of wind-hydrogen plants with different energy storage methods is evaluated using a simulation model. After performing experiments for wind-hydrogen plants with different types of energy storage systems, their influence on the performance of the wind-hydrogen plant can be analyzed.  Results show that the hydrogen production from a variable energy source is lower and less stable than that from a continuous source. These effects can be mitigated with the use of energy storage systems. However, the introduction of these systems makes wind-hydrogen plants less efficient and drive up the costs of hydrogen production. This illustrates a trade-off as energy storage systems do increase and stabilize hydrogen production, but at a lower efficiency and higher cost.  Comparing the performance of individual energy storage systems shows that the use of lithiumion batteries to store energy results in the highest and most stable hydrogen. At the same time, the use of lithium-ion batteries is by far the most expensive option. The use of a hydrogen energy storage system results in the most efficient and cheapest hydrogen production. This shows that another trade-off is at play when selecting an energy storage system to integrate in a wind-hydrogen plant.

Based on the results, the effects of the temporal correlation requirement on the feasibility of the Fit for 55 renewable hydrogen goals can be analyzed. The requirement makes the hydrogen goals in the Fit for 55 package less feasible as it causes a decrease in renewable hydrogen production. It also makes it less fit for use by the industry as the hydrogen supply will become less stable. Energy storage systems can be used to mitigate these negative effects, however, these cause a decrease in hydrogen plant efficiency and therefore an increase in loss of renewable energy. Also, it drives up the production cost, making renewable hydrogen less attractive to use by industry and increasing barriers for new renewable hydrogen production to enter the market. The recommendation is for the European Commission to investigate an alternative requirement than the temporal correlation to ensure the renewable production of hydrogen.

Amidst the discourse regarding the decentralization of urban energy systems, energy community has emerged as a solution for optimizing the electricity demand and distributed generation. Community energy projects also facilitate collaboration amongst local prosumers. An energy community is a collective of residential electricity consumers (or prosumers) and non-energy small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) formulating a social network involved in decentralized energy production. This study is focused on exploring demand response opportunities in community energy projects located in the Netherlands to reduce their dependence on the grid. Existing studies on community energy projects are primarily focused on residential members, and have little to no inclusion of nonresidential community members. However, recent studies regarding demand response in the energy community highlight the benefits of having a mixed configuration of residential and non-residential members. Introducing non-residential community members such as SMEs, offices, and schools with a complementary demand profile can help the community in attaining self-sufficiency through demand response. Formulating energy communities with a mixed configuration (i.e. including residential and non-residential community members) optimizes local electricity generation and consumption thus avoiding congestion in the distribution network....

Heavy-duty trucks (HDTs) are a significant contributor to global anthropogenic carbon emissions. In contrary to passenger cars, HDTs have to cope with decarbonization complications due to range and weight characteristics. Overhead catenary electric road systems (ERS-OC) can aid in decarbonizing this sector. Here, trucks are equipped with a pantograph and connect to catenaries on the highway, using electricity from the grid for propulsion. This technology complements other drivetrains and eliminates some of their major flaws, allowing HDTs to travel large distances with modest batteries or fossil-fuel consumption. Countries like Germany and Sweden have dedicated efforts and resources to ERS-OC as a carbon mitigation solution, and have multiple demonstration projects in use. However, this technology is lacking attention in the Netherlands, while emission reduction targets are closing in, and emissions keep rising.

Initiating ERS-OC activities through a demonstration project is determined to be a logical starting point in various countries. Identifying their perceptions is considered an essential step when aiming to implement an ERS-OC demonstration project. The aim of this research is therefore to answer the following research question: What are stakeholder-perceived factors that affect the feasibility of creating an overhead catenary electric road system demonstration project? This research is performed by conducting a qualitative case study for ERS-OC in the Netherlands. Nine interviews were conducted with organizations that have shown interest in the technology as a business opportunity. These nine respondents represent six out of the seven stakeholder groups that compose the ERS-OC system-of-systems. It has to be noted that no energy supplier was able to respond. Their perception of ERS-OC is therefore not considered during this research. The respondents were able to talk freely to avoid biases resulting from suggestive questioning, but the conversation was guided to other topics when necessary. The factors explaining stakeholder perceptions were extracted from the transcripts and coded to enable statistical analysis.

First, the perceptions of the individual stakeholder groups were analyzed. From the results can be concluded that the truck manufacturers mainly foresee implementation issues in the first years due to complications gathering investments. They think that when profitability is proven and the system will have shown it can play a vital role in decarbonizing HDTs, that upscaling will be just a matter of time. Freight operators are willing to engage, but need others to finance and construct the infrastructure, since they cannot afford to build infrastructure on their own. They are looking for the most cost-efficient manner to decarbonize their fleet, and it does not matter what technology that would be. The governmental entities acknowledge the potential of ERS-OC as a carbon mitigation tool, the huge reduction potential of electrifying the core highway network, and other advantages like decreased resource dependency, but await international developments to have guidelines on how to configure the system-of-systems, which explains stakeholder roles, responsibilities, and the interfaces between stakeholders,. They highlight that political acceptance of the technology is essential for the successful implementation of an ERS-OC network. Road power component producers highlight the unique capability of complementing other zero-emission drivetrains, and emphasize that ERS-OC should be considered as support for other powertrains rather than competition. They also consider it a cost-efficient measure compared to zero-emission alternatives, and say that ERS-OC is the only zero-emission technology that is currently implementable on a large scale for HDTs. There are few technical hurdles to overcome, proof of concept is present, but political urgency is lacking. Their biggest perceived barrier is a lack of leadership and priority with policymakers, and they think ERS-OC copes with an image problem. Standardization of catenary systems is considered key for the rollout of an international network. The construction firm sees the opportunity of bringing stakeholder groups together to create awareness and support base, and identify the lack of leadership as the main obstructing factor. Awareness among potentially involved parties is absent and increasing which could induce fast progression of ERS-OC implementation. The researchers state that ERS-OC seems expensive, but can have short payback periods, especially when compared to alternatives. Shuttle routes should be used when creating a demonstration project. They express concerns about power transfer issues when system occupation is high, and about the overall circularity of the system. They state further research is required before efforts and resources should be dedicated to ERS-OC.

The second sub-question investigates the perceived enabling and disabling factors for ERS-OC. Setting up policies stimulating engagement in ERS-OC is mentioned as a key enabling factor. The respondents state that they perceive configuring the system-of-systems as a significant challenge. Technological maturity is perceived as an opportunity that has to be exploited. Proof of concept is present and cost estimations are predictable, and there are few technical uncertainties. Catenary infrastructure can complement alternative powertrains, which is considered a vital enabling factor by the respondents. On the other hand, the possible technological breakthroughs of the other technologies is considered a disabling factor. On a political level, a decreased dependency on foreign resources is mentioned as an enabling factor, while the lack of political urgency to decarbonize HDTs in general is perceived as disabling. Economically, the potential cost reduction is an enabler, while the large upfront investment required is seen as an obstructing factor. The opportunity to lobby for a support base is frequently mentioned as an enabling factor. The emission reduction that can be achieved is mentioned often as an enabling factor of ERS-OC, a technology that complies with the ambitions of the organizations. However, the researchers mention that the circularity of the system as a whole should be furtherly assessed before conclusions on the overall environmental impact of ERS-OC can be made.

The last sub-question is dedicated to extracting the enabling and disabling factors that directly affect the feasibility of a demonstration project through the yes/no approach. Enabling incentives for organizations to engage in a demonstration project are that ERS-OC is a zero-emission technology that is considered sustainable. The opportunities that enable a demonstration project are technological maturity, setting up policies, lobbying for a support base, and using a shuttle route for the demonstration to ensure utilization. The perceived barriers to a demonstration project are a lack of leadership, vision, and perspective. This puts a risk on the significant investment that is required for the realization of the demonstration. The challenges that have to be overcome exist in configuring the system-of-systems, and gathering the investments required for the demonstration. Politically, the urgency to decarbonize HDTs has to increase, and ERS-OC has to be accepted by policymakers as a decarbonization measure before the demonstration project can take place.
Aggregating the findings of the three sub-question enables answering the main research question. The stakeholder-perceived factors that affect the feasibility of creating a demonstration project are divided into internal and external factors for the organizations. The incentives that positively affect the feasibility of creating a demonstration project, according to stakeholders, are organizational ambitions, political urgency, the need for electrification, the societal pressure on decision-makers, and the opportunity for stakeholders to generate more business by entering new markets. The opportunities, perceived by stakeholders, that positively affect the feasibility of creating a demonstration project are the technological maturity, lobbying for support base, creation of enabling policies, the proof of concept that shows the functionality of the technology, and creating a test site or game to familiarize stakeholders with the technology and their future role and responsibility. Starting with a shuttle route and gradually expanding the network is an opportunity that needs to be kept in mind when choosing a location. Stakeholders can take an early advantage when engaging in the demonstration project, and green investors that aim to gain profits from the sustainability trend can be attracted when struggling with financing the project. The stakeholder-perceived barriers that negatively affect the feasibility of creating a demonstration project are waiting for international developments to provide an example, a lack of leadership, a lack of vision and perspective, absence of incentives to engage in ERS-OC projects, the lack of consequences when emission agreements are not met, the magnitude of investment that individual organizations have to make, and the risk of losing that investment when the technology will not become successful as an HDT decarbonization measure. The challenges that might negatively affect the feasibility of creating a demonstration project are mainly political. Setting up the system-of-systems that explains stakeholder roles, responsibilities, and interactions is required before a demonstration project can be set up. An attractive business case that is profitable for all involved parties needs to be composed before the required suitable partners can be attracted. It is essential that ERS-OC is politically accepted as a decarbonization measure, and that the political urgency is present that allows for the required resources to be released.

When interpreting the results, the following statements can be made. All respondents acknowledge the potential added value of ERS-OC to HDT decarbonization. They are also all positive about engaging in a demonstration project. But, there are planning and financing concerns that have to be addressed first before stakeholder engagement can be ensured. The respondents expect governmental entities to take the lead, and account for (part of) the funding. But, they are waiting for international developments and feasibility reports before dedicating efforts to ERS-OC. Still, it is this stakeholder that is expected to take the lead and induce progression. It is up to the researchers to provide the substantiated information on ERS-OC implementation that justifies investments for the governmental entities. When clear statements and promises about the future of ERS-OC are subsequently made, freight operators and truck manufacturers will investigate the possibility to engage in ERS-OC. When these stakeholders decide to engage in ERS-OC-related projects as well, ERS-OC is likely to succeed. Trust in the future of the technology will increase among stakeholders. And then, the construction firms, road power component suppliers, and energy suppliers will engage too, adding an additional market to their portfolio without having to change their core business.

The main themes that are identified when aiming to create a demonstration project are questions like: who will take the lead? What is expected from me? Where do we start? How do we finance this? How do we start? Based on the findings of this research, the following can be recommended. Start with assigning a project leader, and create a clear vision for the future of ERS, this will create trust among stakeholders about the investments they have to make. Then, the required investments for the infrastructure should be gathered from either public or private money. When this is secured, find a suitable corridor where multiple operators drive back and forth daily and which has a high truck occupation. Bind them by making a financially attractive offer, for instance by subsidizing catenary trucks or usage of catenary infrastructure. When legal matters are in order, construction can initiate.

Further research is required on the potential environmental and financial gains when electrifying the core highway network. Here, ERS-OC should be approached as a complementary technology, thus, also integrating other zero-emission technologies into the calculations.

Urgent and significant changes in all parts of the current Dutch energy system are required to achieve the national climate goals. This thesis explores the impact from traditional to renewable district heating (DH) on the Dutch electricity and heating sector, at both a national and regional level. The results provide relevant lessons for policy-makers and project developers regarding the realization of DH projects and the electricity and heat transition overall. The main research question is answered: What is the impact of the transition from traditional to renewable district heating on the Dutch electricity and heating sector?

Both qualitative and quantitative methods are applied within this exploratory research. On the national level, future trends within the electricity and heating sector are analyzed using scenario analysis and energy flow analysis (EFA). On the regional level, regional energy plans are analyzed in order to determine how the trends are substantiated within the region North-Holland South. This case study includes a stakeholder analysis, interviews with involved actors and an EFA.

The results show that there is uncertainty regarding the realization of the national heat and DH transition. The national transition to renewable DH does not always seem to make sense alongside the strong expectations of a fully renewable electricity supply. Nonetheless, within the region North-Holland South, renewable DH is expected to be one the main heating alternatives. The transition to renewable DH can partly substitute the current natural gas-based heat supply and provide some relief for the electricity sector, when renewable high- and/or low-temperature DH sources are available. However, local renewable DH sources are still uncertain.

The desirability of the shift to renewable DH depends on the regional context. Important factors are energy source availability and the decision-making by municipalities. In the region North-Holland South, uncertainty regarding the source availability of the planned renewable heating alternatives results in risks. The implementation of renewable DH can contribute to spreading these risks, and can provide some relief for the electricity sector, as a significant electrification is expected. However, spreading the risks does naturally not remove these risks. Municipalities in the region North-Holland South lack experience regarding the local heat transition. This can lead to ineffective decision-making, resulting in misaligned local initiatives and malfunctioning infrastructural and heat source lock-ins.

To steer the heat transition, concrete choices regarding renewable heating sources and synergies between electricity and heat must be made and effective legal and regulatory frameworks are urgently required. Therefore, municipalities are strongly advised to collect new knowledge, expertise and competences and assertively collaborate with provinces, energy producers and grid operators. It is particularly important to be aware of the risks and stimulate the development of renewable heat sources and heat storage. Implementing these recommendations within the region North-Holland South and possibly within other energy regions contributes to the realization of the national heat transition and therefore a future low carbon Dutch energy system.

Climate change, unfavorable geopolitical developments and resource scarcity pushes the fossil fuel based energy sector in the direction of renewable, carbon-neutral resources. The volatile nature of these, however, created new, technical needs for increased storage capacity and interconnectedness of demand and supporting grid, providing flexibility options. Hydrogen re-emerged as a possibility in the scientific discussion because as a potentially green energy carrier it is easy to store, transport and convert to and from electricity. The economic advantages of transporting hydrogen in its original, molecular form via pipelines rather than relying simply on the electric transmission grid are connected to the amount of energy that needs to be transported – the pipeline transportation usually requiring larger upfront investment but operating with lower unit costs. The uncertainty, however, regarding the competitiveness of hydrogen in possible end-use applications translates into unpredictability in its penetration of the future economy, bringing the return on investment of pipeline transportation options into question.
This thesis, using a quantitative analysis, compares the advantages and disadvantages of the identified, technologically possible transmission options – electric transmission, blended natural gas-hydrogen transmission, or the virtual, retrofitted and dedicated pipeline options – through the resulting average hydrogen price, volatility and grid stability of the Dutch energy grid and market under different penetration scenarios. By formulating the research as a constrained optimization problem, and using the Calliope framework to find an optimal (minimum cost) solution, it is possible to extract the shadow prices of the relevant constraints and use them as an indicator for hydrogen price and grid stability.

Indonesia is facing a challenge in fulfilling its future energy demand given the combination of a consistently high economic growth and a fast-growing population. The country also needs to increase the integration of renewable energy into the electricity system. Wind energy, one of the renewable energy alternatives, is severely underutilized in Indonesia. Accordingly, the Indonesian government aims to increase the installed wind farm capacity by twelvefold within the next five years. This research aims to fill a knowledge gap in the literature by determining economic potential of onshore and offshore wind energy in Indonesia and formulating recommendations for institutional changes to proliferate wind energy development. A techno-economic analysis is performed by means of a GIS-based modelling to determine the technical and economic potential. Based on the analysis, onshore and offshore wind technical potential amounts to 17.6 – 30.9 GW and 470.6 – 595.6 GW, respectively. Meanwhile, the LCOE of wind energy can be as low as 6.1 (onshore) and 13.4 (offshore) USD ct/kWh. However, only up to 8.0% and 1.4% of the onshore and offshore wind technical potential, respectively, is economically feasible under the current regulations. An institutional analysis is then conducted to identify the institutional barriers hampering wind energy development. The analysis focuses on the institutional environment (L2) and governance (L3) layer of Williamson’s four layers of institutions framework. Barriers related to electricity pricing (L2) include regulatory uncertainty and a low purchase price of RE-based electricity. Furthermore, the barrier in infrastructure planning (L2) is the low amount of additional wind farm capacity being planned and the inconsistency in planning. Issues on property rights allocation (L2), i.e. ownership transfer and foreign ownership restrictions on wind energy projects, have been addressed in recently enacted laws. Lastly, barriers in contracting (L3) encompass prolonged negotiations between PLN and IPPs, poor law and contract enforcement, insufficient coordination and leadership in the multi-layered governance, and limited availability of project funding. Three institutional recommendations are derived based on the identified barriers. First, the Government shall create an electricity pricing masterplan, which entails a phased implementation of economic policy instruments. Second, project funding should be provided by sustaining the Government’s subsidy to PLN and promoting local participation and ownership in the projects. Third, an independent regulator dedicated to the electricity sector should be formed to ensure sufficient stakeholder involvement and monitor the actors’ activities in this sector. Future research can perform a similar study at the regional level, particularly at provinces with promising economic wind energy potential. Furthermore, future studies can involve a comprehensive design of institutions and a roadmap for wind energy development in Indonesia.