This research describes a generic step-by-step approach that can be used to depict energy transition-enhancing overvoltage mitigation strategies that fit the local context of a neighbourhood. Although high PV induced low-voltage grid overvoltage mitigation has been studied extensively, this research adds onto existing literature in three ways. It is the first generic approach to develop neighbourhood overvoltage mitigation strategies. Moreover, it considers spatial and socio-economic aspects. Lastly, it regards system integration and wider energy transition ambitions.
The 6 steps of the transition-enhancing overvoltage mitigation framework (TENOMF) are described. Subsequently, the TENOMF is demonstrated on a case study in the Diamantbuurt in Amsterdam.
The results of the case study show that conventional mitigation strategies are very effective in overvoltage mitigation, however, they lack in wider energy transition ambitions. In consideration of local energy transition plans, hydrogen conversion shows to be very effective financially and energetically. In combination with high electrification, home batteries prove to be effective in system integration. The final decision-making should be done with the involvement of local stakeholders. For the social acceptance of a strategy, co-ownership, local benefits and involvement in the planning process are of great importance.
With the TENOMF, strategies mitigating PV induced overvoltage in the LV grid can be chosen that fit the local context of a neighbourhood. By using system integration, the TENOMF matches overvoltage mitigation strategies with energy transition ambitions. Therefore, using the TENOMF, overvoltage mitigation can be seen as an opportunity as it helps catalysing the energy transition as a whole.
Largest limitations were caused by the used PtX model for the energetic assessment. It is recommended to improve PtX’s overvoltage modelling by using a higher time-granularity and by considering fundamental electrotechnical principles.

The Dutch Government is picking up the pace in the energy transition. However, the expansion of wind generation is facing congestion challenges, and the decarbonization of household heating and agricultural mobility proves that electrification is not always an option. These challenges occur together in rural areas like Oudeschip.
Hydrogen has emerged as a possible solution to the encountered problems. By producing hydrogen from the wind power and transporting the hydrogen through the natural gas infrastructure, household heating can be decarbonized without electrification. Furthermore, by converting the tractors of the local farmers to diesel-hydrogen hybrids, they can reduce their emissions. This research approaches the energy system of Oudeschip as a socio-technical system, and tackles the challenges in different sectors in an integrated manner.

Corporate Venturing, is a recurrently researched mechanism for corporates to stay innovative. However, the difficulty of establishing a Corporate Venturing Unit, becomes apparent in the literature. ENGIE Ventures and Integrated Solutions (EVIS) also resorts to external CV activities, in order to cope with the pace of technological innovations in the predominantly classical energy industry making it an interesting case to conduct the research. The first part of the research consisted of research endeavors into external CV objectives, in order to develop a version of the intended external CV objectives for a CVU at EVIS. This has been done by conducting a thorough literature review. Consequently, these insights were used as a foundation to conduct internal interviews at EVIS in order to develop a set of intended CV objectives for a CVU at EVIS. The second part, researching the factors, started with a literature study, resulting in the development of a conceptual framework of factors. This conceptual framework has been used as a foundation for a total of nine external interviews. Ultimately, the insights of both the internal interviews and external interviews are processed into implications for EVIS. For the CV objectives intended for a CVU at EVIS, strategic objectives should outweigh the financial objective, where the following strategic objectives are specifically mentioned in order of importance: Strategic corporate renewal and a window on new technology, business models and capabilities – Promoting ENGIE’s innovative and entrepreneurial image – Developing an innovative and entrepreneurial culture within the corporate – Leveraging internal capabilities, competencies and ideas to create new business – Accelerating innovation though ventures – Creating deal flow for corporate M&A. For the financial objective, the interviewees at EVIS indicated the room for potential loss-making investments and ambiguity towards whether every investment should be financially viable. However, external interviews provided a different insight: every investment should show good financial returns, purely looking at the investment financials. Furthermore, the factors that should be considered in order for a CVU to engage in external CV activities, based on literature and external interviews, have been approached by categorizing them into five categories: Factors internal to the CVU, factors in the relation between the CVU and the corporate parent, between the CVU and external ventures, between the CVU and spin-offs and between the CVU and external investment partners. The following factors have been found to be most crucial to consider for a CVU engaging in external CV activities: balancing strategic and financial objectives, the CVU’s team composition and compensation, the autonomy of a CVU and the degree of autonomy it provides to ventures, collaborative investments together with financial and strategic co-investors, and specific activities of a CVU with spin-offs (e.g. motivation to spin-off, involvement of external investors, etc.). However, most importantly, there is no one size fits all for the factors identified. Hence, each CVU should make its own decisions with regard to the identified factors, in order to create the most suited circumstances for their CVU.

In order to limit global warming to well below 2°C compared to pre-industrial temperatures, a lot still needs to happen. Carbon free hydrogen as an energy carrier can significantly reduce the CO₂ emissions of the entire energy system. In this report, a concept for a spatially efficient, initial hydrogen corridor in the European Union is proposed. The corridor links up areas with high hydrogen consumption to regions with great hydrogen production potential. The spatial distribution of hydrogen demand in a bottom-up scenario was determined first. With this information an optimal hydrogen corridor was composed and subsequently the consumption potential for this corridor was estimated. Finally a hydrogen system was designed with plans for production, transmission and storage. The areas that make up the corridor, going from the Sahara to the North of England, have a combined surface area of only 7% of the EU total. The proposed corridor currently consumes 50% of the total hydrogen consumption in the EU. In 2050 the corridor will consume an estimated 33% of the EU total. In an ambitious scenario, the proposed system is designed to produce and transport almost 31 million tons of hydrogen, or about 1200 TWh, to the corridor. About 35% of the hydrogen is produced in the EU, mainly on the North-Sea, and the rest in the Sahara desert. The hydrogen is distributed among the corridor by identifying 7800 kilometers of existing natural gas infrastructure. The estimated levelised cost of hydrogen transmission amount to 0.12 € per kilogram. Next to that more than enough hydrogen storage potential is available in the vicinity of the infrastructure using already existing rock-salt caverns. Although the project presented in this research may be of large scale and bring severe challenges, the positive environmental consequences are potentially even greater. The EU has the bold ambition to make Europe the first climate neutral continent on the planet and this hydrogen corridor can very significantly contribute to this ambition. Furthermore the EU currently has the political and economic power, as well as the required knowledge, to take a leading role in the development of hydrogen technology. A leading role that may turn out to be very profitable because hydrogen, with its versatility and undeniable strength to decarbonise entire energy systems, will undoubtedly be used by the rest of the world.

This thesis explores how the benefits and drawbacks found in previous government-citizen use cases of Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) translate to a company environment PVE use case. This research is conducted at and with the help of Liander. Liander is one of three energy distribution system operators in the Netherlands. The following research question is answered: “To what extend do the benefits of PVEs that are deployed in citizen to government context apply to the use of PVE within a company environment?”. This is done by doing exploratory research within Liander and conducting a PVE survey for their asset management department about the architectural life cycle of a compact secondary substation. Previous use cases are explored to identify the benefits and drawbacks of PVE. Agency theory is used to make a comparison between the government-citizen environment and the company environment. This comparison and the principal-agent relation is used to make predictions on the results of the survey to see if the survey produces valid data. Two of the four benefits found in previous cases translated to a company environment and the drawback translates to a lesser extent. The PVE survey used in this thesis became more complex and much more on an operational level compared to previous PVE surveys. This resulted in a smaller group of relevant participants, which directly impacted the benefits. Employees see potential to use PVE in different ways that would benefit efficiency or the flow of information. These implementations vary a lot, but for all of them the current PVE tooling is unsuitable. PVE tooling could be adapted to suit this new type of use and to increase the ease of use for companies. Further research on the exact adaptations of the PVE tooling would be needed to implement this. Future research on the use of PVE in a business environment could focus on more strategic subjects. As an example, general strategic direction could be the subject of the PVE between a company board and the company shareholders. These subjects would more closely match previous PVE cases and would help provide context for the results of this thesis.

Current energy concerns like growing energy demand, the desire for a clean environment and energy conservation started thrusting the society towards distributed renewable electricity generation (DG) technologies. These technologies such as PV solar, Fuel Cells (FC) and urban wind produce Direct Current (DC). The electronic equipment such as laptops, PCs, communication systems, LED lighting, batteries, Electric Vehicles (EV) and Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) also operate in DC. But the present-day electricity distribution system is based on Alternating Current (AC). From this conventional system, the conversion losses can be substantial when DC generation and DC loads are operated. For which, several (DC/AC – AC/DC) conversion steps are required. These conversion losses can be mitigated by removing the intermediate conversion steps and distributing DC power to the DC loads directly. For which, the main aim of the thesis focuses on the technical and commercial potential of Low Voltage DC (LVDC) grids for buildings in the Netherlands. DC office is a small office building at The Green Village (TGV) in TU Delft where a 350 Vdc LVDC system is installed for experimental purposes. The experiments are carried out using both LVDC and LVAC grids in DC Office project. The obtained experimental data are randomized using Matlab to create a year-long load profile. The results are used for discussing the LVDC technical potential in terms of overall efficiency and energy savings. From these results cost-savings are calculated. Along with this, usage of copper and aluminum as electrical conductor in buildings and its investment cost-savings are discussed. For the commercial potential of LVDC grids for buildings in the Netherlands, the Function of Innovation Systems (FIS) approach is used to identify the corresponding LVDC stakeholders, research, pilot projects, rules and regulations and policies for development. For the technical potential, there are three different cases formulated for analysis. They are ACTube case, DCLED case and ACLED case. In the experiments, tubelights are used in the ACTube case and LEDs are used in the DCLED case, in-order to neglect the energy savings obtained from LED technology, ACLED case is assumed. The overall efficiency of the LVDC grid (DCLED case) is 94.82% and the LVAC grid (ACTube case) is 88.16% and the LVAC grid (ACLED case) is 88.67%. From all these cases, the LVDC grid is around 6.5% more efficient than LVAC grid in small buildings similar to the DC Office. The energy savings obtained by LVDC grid replacing LVAC grid (ACTube) is 2013 kWh/year, and if tubelights in AC are replaced with LEDs in AC, then 1854 kWh/year is estimated to be saved. The cost-savings are calculated from the energy savings obtained by replacing LVAC grid (ACTube case) with LVDC grid (DCLED case). Considering the total lifetime of the LVDC system as 12 years, the cost savings obtained are € 221.43/year achieving payback in 6 years. For the commercial potential, using seven functions of FIS it is identified that there are several stakeholders interested in LVDC projects and are responsible for pilot projects. The government also is implementing the new NPR 9090 as the rules and guidelines for LVDC grid installations in buildings. It is also identified that people have positive acceptance of the LVDC grid in their houses. But the knowledge sharing about LVDC among the society is currently lacking. Moreover, the AC electricity distributors are interested in shifting towards the DC micro grid distribution.