July 1 - 7, 2012, Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia
SDEWES


"Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

The Report of the U.N. Brundtland Commission, Our Common Future, 1987

The 7th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems – SDEWES Conference, to be held in Ohrid in 2012, is dedicated to the improvement and dissemination of knowledge on methods, policies and technologies for increasing the sustainability of development by de-coupling growth from natural resources and replacing them with knowledge based economy, taking into account its economic, environmental and social pillars, as well as methods for assessing and measuring sustainability of development, regarding energy, transport, water, environment and food production systems and their many combinations. Sustainability being also a perfect field for interdisciplinary and multi-cultural evaluation of complex system, the SDEWES Conference has during the first decade of the 21st century become a significant venue for researchers in those areas to meet, and originate, discuss, share, and disseminate new ideas.


"Then I say the Earth belongs to each generation during its course, fully and in its right no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its existence"

Thomas Jefferson, September 6, 1789

The scope of the Conference will continue to successfully cover the following areas (with examples in parentheses, but not confined to these examples only):

  • Sustainability comparisons and measurements methodologies (metrics and indices, multi-criteria analysis, external costs, exergy analysis, footprint methods, emergy)
  • Thermodynamics in sustainability
  • Sustainable development as a driver for innovation and employment
  • Green economy and better governance (Green New Deal, energy and environment for jobs and regional development, poverty eradication, macroeconomic analysis, financial and regulatory mechanisms, trends and predictions, models and tools, rebound effects)
  • Decoupling growth from resources (potentials, models, costs and benefits, macroeconomic analysis, financial and regulatory mechanisms, trends and predictions, models and tools, rebound effects, de-growth)
  • Decarbonisation (wedges, policies, potentials, models, costs and benefits, macroeconomic analysis, financial and regulatory mechanisms, trends and predictions, models and tools, rebound effects)
  • Energy policy (security of supply, climate change mitigation, renewable energy support schemes, energy efficiency, employment generating, agriculture and forestry, financial mechanisms, tax, cap and trade, feed-in tariffs, green certificates)
  • Transport policy (urban sprawl management, traffic management, congestion and road pricing, dynamic road pricing, modal management, alternative fuels, social aspects, rail vs. air)
  • Water policy and the energy-water interaction (water management, wastewater management, water reuse, water pricing)
  • Environmental policy (waste management, wastewater management, climate change, air pollution policy, water pollution policy, land management, biomass management, social aspects, emission tax, cap and trade, cap and trade vs. pollution tax)
  • Agricultural policy (energy use in agriculture and food processing, food vs. biofuels, sustainability of biofuels production, sustainability of food subsidies, subsidies vs. free trade, new green revolution, R&D in agriculture, sustainability of GMO(Genetically Modified Organisms) vs. Terroir)
  • Environment and corporate social responsibility (quality management systems, environment management systems, eco management and audit sheme, occupational health and safety assessment systems, hazard analysis and critical control point, integrated management systems)
  • Employment and energy, transport, water and environment systems (technology development, equipment production, installation, maintenance, macroeconomic analysis, financial and regulatory mechanisms, national, regional and municipal policy)
  • Technology transfer and development (emerging markets, developing countries, least developed countries, clean development mechanism, new opportunities)
  • Social acceptance (reform, NIMBY, nuclear, wind, biofuels, hydrogen, hidden and special interests)
  • Sustainable resilience of systems (resilience of energy systems, resilience of water systems, resilience of environmental systems, resilience of agricultural systems, resilience of social systems, resilience of engineering systems )
  • Sustainable tourism (energy systems, transport systems, water systems, environment systems, green hotels, certification, labelling proliferation)
  • Urbanism (urban planning, zoning, transport, modal shift, zero energy buildings and energy system planning, district heating, district cooling, Civitas, Concerto)
  • Regional planning and cooperation (energy and environment for jobs and development, financial and regulatory mechanisms, obligations and standards, energy and resource flow optimisation, 100% renewable regions, regional cooperation and networking, sustainable development across international borders)
  • Sustainable islands (energy and environment for jobs and development, financial and regulatory mechanisms, obligations and standards, energy and resource flow optimisation, 100% renewable islands, islands networking)
  • Research, innovation and development (demand side funding, supply side funding, researchers mobility, intrasectorial mobility, industry-academia partnership, knowledge based society)
  • Education in Sustainable Development (Governance, Environmental Awareness, Higher Education in SD, Engineering Education in SD)
  • Cooperation for Development (International Development Mechanisms, Clean Development Mechanisms, emerging markets, least developed countries, etc.)
  • Energy system analysis (Energy system analysis models, tools and methodologies, Energy system analysis surveys and results)
  • Water system analysis (models, tools and methodologies, surveys and results)
  • Transport system analysis (models, tools and methodologies, survey and results)
  • Life cycle assessment, Environmental impact assessment, Eco-design and Eco-labelling, Product cycle assessment
  • Energy planning (power system planning, smart energy networks, natural gas system planning, high penetration of renewables, island energy systems, development of energy planning tools, internalizing environmental externalities, electrification of transport)
  • Transport management (modelling, optimisation, tracking, GPS/mobile systems, dynamic road pricing system implementation, electrification of transport)
  • Renewable energy resources (forest and agricultural biomass, biofuels, second generation biofuels, biogas, hydro, wind, solar, geothermal, wave and ocean, technical and economic potentials, barriers, cost and benefits)
  • Primary energy resources (oil, gas, coal, uranium, thorium, oil peaking)
  • Water resources (surface, ground, desalination, etc.)
  • Food and agriculture (energy and water use, environmental impact, financial mechanisms, subsidies, free trade, impact of biofuels, new green revolution, R&D, GMO, biogas, using renewables in agriculture, solar and wind energy in agriculture)
  • Renewable electricity generation systems (biomass, grid and fluidized bed, biofuels, biogas, hydro, wind, photovoltaic, concentrated solar thermal power, geothermal, wave, tide, ocean thermal)
  • Thermal power plants (clean coal, fluidized bed, combined cycles, advanced cycles)
  • District heating and/or cooling infrastructures in future energy systems (Integration of renewable energy heat supply, Cogeneration, waste incineration and CHP, heat pumps, integration of CHP with district heating and electricity markets).
  • Nano and micro technologies and science for sustainable development of energy, water, and environment systems
  • Carbon capture and storage/sequestration (oxy-fuel combustion, pre-combustion capture, post-combustion capture, CO2 transport, enhanced oil/gas recovery, enhanced coal bed methane recovery, chemical fixation, aquifer storage, bedrock storage, ocean storage, leakage)
  • Nuclear energy (new power plant designs, waste, proliferation, fusion, transmutation, sustainability, policies, social acceptance)
  • Advanced sustainable energy conversion systems (fuel cells, thermoelectric, thermionic, organic, ORC, waste heat recycling)
  • Pyrolisis, torrefaction
  • Renewable heat systems (biomass, biofuels, biogas, solar, geothermal)
  • Biofuels and biorefineries (biodiesel, bioethanol, second generation biofuels, anaerobic digestion, BTL, biorefineries, vehicles, infrastructure, combustion modeling, sustainability assessment, pyrolisis, torrefaction)
  • Hydrogen production and use technologies (stationary, mobile, small applications, electrolysis, reforming, nuclear hydrogen, infrastructure)
  • Hybrid and electric vehicles (first generation, plug in, charging, batteries, infrastructure)
  • Other alternative fuels (BTL, DME, CNG, resources, production, vehicles, infrastructure)
  • Water treatment (methods, health issues, standards, grey water)
  • Water Desalination (distillation, reverse and forward osmosis, electrodialysis, energy recovery, discharge management)
  • Wastewater treatment (municipal, industrial, agricultural)
  • Waste treatment (composting, incineration, landfill, anaerobic digestion, gasification, mechanical biological treatment, mechanical heat treatment, plasma arc waste disposal, pyrolysis, recycling)
  • Waste to energy (incineration, landfill gas capture, biogas, RDF, cement industry, tyres, combustion modelling)
  • Recycling waste (glass, paper, metals, containers, tyres, textiles, batteries, biodegradable waste, electronic waste, separation, financial schemes)
  • Pollution modelling (CFD models, air pollution spreading, water pollution spreading, combustion modelling)
  • Heat and mass transfer modelling (CFD models, energy efficiency)
  • Cogeneration (heat and power, water and power, biofuels and power, transport and energy, food and energy, waste to energy)
  • Trigeneration, polygeneration
  • Storage (heat storage, hydrogen storage, hydropower as storage, pump storage, compressed air storage, batteries, water storage, biofuels storage, storage optimisation modelling, financial support mechanisms, maximising renewables, optimising load, power market arbitrage)
  • Electricity transmission (grid extension and robustness, long distance transmission, automation)
  • Smart energy networks (smart meters, dynamic electricity pricing, ICT, network-user interface)
  • Energy efficiency in industry and mining (cement and lime, construction material, glass, pulp and paper, food industry, metallurgy, chemical industry, process optimisation, kilns, boilers, heat exchangers, pinch analysis, exergy and exergoeconomic analysis, energy audits, waste minimisation)
  • Energy efficiency in agriculture and aquaculture
  • Energy efficient appliances (smart appliances, labelling and standards, user interfaces, user behaviour)
  • Buildings (zero energy buildings, passive buildings, smart buildings, smart metering, ICT, load and demand side management, green buildings, building standards, heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, cooling, insulation, renewables, heat pumps, storage, sustainable architecture, buildings certification)
  • Energy markets (liberalisation, deregulation, spot markets, pools, storage, renewables, merging and acquisitions, modelling)
  • Emission markets (Emission trading system, carbon taxing, carbon markets, GHG, SOx, CER, ERU, AAU, EUA, certification standards, VER, air transport participation)
  • Political aspects of sustainable development (long term planning, the role of political leaders and of voters, international conflict vs. sustainable development)

In addition, acknowledging that regional coordination is the only feasible solution for gaining synergy effects for the small and only partially connected emerging energy markets of the South East European Region, the Conference will address the core goals of the Energy Community (which regional aspects, after the recent enlargement, go beyond the geographic Western Balkan area):

  • Competitive integrated regional energy market (regional cooperation, market opening, price reform, regulatory framework and independence, coordination on regional projects)
  • Security of supply (diversification of fuels, energy efficiency, oil and gas storages, regional emergency response)
  • Climate change and environment (regional emissions reduction plans, fuel mix in power generation – renewable energy – gasification – energy efficiency, intelligent use of energy)
  • Infrastructure development (investment projects of regional interest – minimum definition criteria, investments in the gas sector, electricity interconnections, grid access and integration of renewable energy)
  • Social dimension (definition of vulnerable customers, protection schemes, stepwise phasing out of regulated energy prices)
  • External relations in light of sustainable development (enlargement - EU neighbours, cooperation with other international organizations)