Sodium-ion battery cost projections and their impact on the global energy system transition until 2050

Macro-energy system modelling is used by decision-makers to steer the global energy transition towards an affordable, sustainable and reliable future. Closed-source models are the current standard for most policy and industry decisions. However, open models have proven to be competitive alternatives that promote science, robust technical analysis, collaboration and transparent policy decision-making. Yet, two issues slow the adoption: open models are often designed with particular geographic scope in mind, thus hindering synergies from collaborating, or are based on low spatially resolved data, limiting their use. Here we introduce PyPSA-Earth, an open-source global energy system model with data in high spatial and temporal resolution. It enables large-scale collaboration by providing a tool that can model the world’s energy system or any subset of it. The model is suitable for operational as well as combined generation, storage and transmission expansion studies. In this study, the novel power system capabilities of PyPSA-Earth are highlighted and demonstrated. The model provides two main features: (1) customizable data extraction and preparation with global coverage and (2) a PyPSA energy modelling framework integration. The data includes electricity demand, generation and medium to high-voltage networks from open sources, yet additional data can be further integrated. A broad range of clustering and grid meshing strategies help adapt the model to computational and practical needs. Data validation for the entire African continent is performed and the optimization features are tested with a 2060 net-zero planning study for Nigeria. The demonstration shows that the presented developments can build a highly detailed power system model for energy planning studies to support policy and technical decision-making. We anticipate that PyPSA-Earth can represent an open reference model for system planning, and we welcome joining forces to address the challenges of the energy transition together.

Mid-century net-zero emissions pathways for Japan: Potential roles of global mitigation scenarios in informing national decarbonization strategies

This study analyzes the impact of global geopolitical changes on new/renewable energy (NRE) policies and their roles in enhancing national energy security, elevating international stature, and influencing the global energy market. Using game theory, it reveals how NRE policies promote technological innovation, diversify energy supply, and strengthen international collaboration, thus advancing the global energy system towards a low-carbon transition and improving international energy governance. NRE policies significantly enhance national energy security by reducing dependency on single energy sources, facilitate the global shift to low-carbon energy, and intensify international cooperation. The effectiveness of these policies in driving energy transformation is notable, and they are expected to remain crucial for global energy security and sustainable transition. Recommendations include strengthening the stability and security of energy supply chains through enhanced oversight, increasing investment in R&D and innovation to reduce costs, fostering international cooperation for better policy coordination, and implementing diversified energy policies to encourage the adoption of NRE. These measures will address challenges from global geopolitical dynamics and drive the global energy system towards sustainability and efficiency.

The global energy transition is characterized by a shift from fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas to cleaner and more sustainable energy sources. It is emphasized that hydrogen energy has significant potential for the development of innovative business, international trade, and energy transition for a sustainable post-carbon future. Currently, most hydrogen is consumed locally, without significant volumes of interstate supplies. It is noted that the development of this market faces many technical challenges, including high costs of producing “green” hydrogen, technical difficulties with the infrastructure for its transportation and storage due to low density, and the need to create large-scale infrastructure. Demand for hydrogen is growing as it plays a key role in decarbonization and greenhouse gas emissions reduction, especially in heavy industry, transportation, and energy systems. In the short term, hydrogen trade will likely occur mainly between neighboring countries through pipelines, limiting the scope of international trade until cost-reducing technologies are developed. In the long term, as demand for green hydrogen grows, especially in Europe and Asia, the trend toward active trade in this resource will gradually change. According to the most optimistic forecasts, the global hydrogen market will gradually grow until 2030, and the volume of international hydrogen trade may reach 120 million tons per year. It has been theorized that hydrogen is becoming increasingly important in the global energy system, and the geopolitics of energy trade will inevitably change. Energy geopolitics has traditionally been dominated by fossil fuel exporters such as the Middle East and Russia. However, the transition to hydrogen has the potential to decentralize energy production, making countries with rich renewable energy resources, such as the Persian Gulf, North Africa, and parts of Europe, key players in the new hydrogen market. This underscores the importance of developing international hydrogen supply chains, particularly from regions rich in renewable energy sources, such as North Africa, the Middle East, and Australia. Institutional support for the energy transition for a sustainable post-carbon future is implemented at the global and macro levels. At the global level, through a system of rules and regulations for the international market, international trade agreements and customs regulation, and international coordination on the implementation of hydrogen quality and safety standards. At the macro level, through government institutions, regulatory frameworks, and hydrogen economy development strategies, which have already become an integral part of the energy plans of many countries seeking to achieve carbon neutrality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve energy security. It is substantiated that the hydrogen market will face a difficult path related to solving technical and economic issues. However, thanks to the development of innovative business and technological innovations, support from governments, private investors, and various stakeholder groups, this sector has a great chance to become a key player in the future energy landscape, playing an important role in the decarbonization of the global economy. Keywords: innovative business, institutional support, energy transition, hydrogen, global hydrogen economy, energy geopolitics, decarbonization, sustainable development, sustainable post-carbon future, green transition, green investments, technological innovation, international trade, emissions trading system, regulation, strategic interests, economic interests, strategy of hydrogen use for energy, energy strategy, strategizing the hydrogen economy, country strategies, global development triggers, trade policy, environmental policy, international trade agreements, customs regulation, international trade.

Having argued for and created a vision of the global entity, we now consider the system and process framework for GET. During global transition, organizations often face many explicit as well as implicit factors that could delay or, in the worst cases, even destroy the globalization process. In order to eliminate these unnecessary incidents, enterprises need to identify, document and follow the activities of the process of GET. In the past decade, researchers have made significant efforts to identify the global information systems management (GISM) activities. Most notable are Senn’s six key information technology issues (Senn, 1992), and the eight multinational categories of global information technology challenges by Palvia and Saraswat (1992). Based on the implication of activities on the process of globalization, six categories are identified to facilitate classification and collation of the GISM activities (Figure 3.1). The core concept of categorization intends to provide the organizations with an abstract overview of concerns in relation to the transition to globalization. These categories are labeled as:

Nuclear power in the global energy-environmental system

Modeling of energy transformation pathways under current policies, NDCs and enhanced NDCs to achieve 2-degree target

The global energy transition depends on large-scale photovoltaic (PV) and wind power deployment. While 2050 targets suggest a transition endpoint, sustaining these systems beyond mid-century requires continuous renewal, marking a fundamental yet often overlooked shift in industrial dynamics. This study examines the transition from initial deployment to long-term renewal, using a two-phase growth model: an exponential expansion followed by capacity stabilization. By integrating this pattern with a Weibull distribution of PV panel and wind turbine lifespans, we estimate the annual production required for both expansion and maintenance. Our findings highlight two key factors influencing production dynamics: deployment speed and lifespan. When deployment duration (from 10% to 90% of target capacity) is shorter than 1.3 times the average lifespan, production overshoots and exhibits damped oscillations due to successive installation and replacement cycles. In contrast, gradual deployment leads to a smooth increase before stabilizing at the renewal rate. Given current growth rates, the PV industry could experience significant oscillations, from 20% to 150% of global production, while wind power follows a monotonic growth trajectory. These oscillations, driven by ambitious energy targets, may result in cycles of overproduction and underproduction, affecting industrial stability. Beyond solar and wind, this study underscores a broader challenge in the energy transition: shifting from infrastructure expansion to long-term maintenance. Addressing this phase is crucial for ensuring the resilience and sustainability of renewable energy systems beyond 2050.

Geopolitical transformations produce their impact on the cross-border regulation of hydrogen production and transportation. Russia's military aggression has blown up the global energy system and driven up energy prices. This exacerbated the issue of energy security, highlighting the excessive dependence of the EU on imports from the Russian Federation. These factors have accelerated Europe's transition to clean energy and increased hydrogen production. The object of the research is legal relations in the field of development, transportation and storage of hydrogen in the territory of European states. The results made it possible to propose mechanisms for reforming the legal regulation of the production and transportation of hydrogen across Europe. The vectors of the regulatory policy of European states are revealed, which should coordinate the increase in the potential of Ukraine in the regional leadership in decarbonization. It was stated that the legislative innovations of Ukraine are the basis for adaptation to EU practices. The practical approbation of the changes in production practice declared by the states of Europe in the context of the global energy transition to a carbon-neutral society is substantiated. It has been established that reducing the cost of hydrogen and finding its wide application will become a global priority in the short term. The basis of the hydrogen infrastructure has already been laid by including it in the renewed trans-European energy network. The issue of full-fledged approbation of production procedures in modern geopolitical conditions is debatable. Despite the hostilities, Ukraine continues the course of reforms by coordinating and arranging the purchase of hydrogen from renewable sources, which will allow full accession to the EU Energy Platform. The results of the study can be used in the legislative sphere for a comprehensive reform of the national legislation of Ukraine

In the face of increasing climate concerns and the intensive development of the renewable energy sector, oil and gas companies need to develop strategies to not only comply with the new rules of the game, but to also benefit from them. This study includes prospects for development of the global energy system along with analysis of decarbonization strategies for the largest players in the oil and gas market, and defines conceptual directions to improve strategic planning systems of oil and gas companies in order to ensure sustainability in the context of a global energy transition. The theoretical background of this study is based on the fundamental concepts and methods of strategic planning, as well as modern approaches to strategic planning in the oil and gas industry. This study makes three contributions. First, we maintain that a broad, systematic understanding of the consequences of energy system transformation and defining its role in the new market should be the crucial task of players in the oil and gas industry, and we clarify the opportunities and threats of transitioning to decarbonization. Second, the study results contribute to the development of the design theory of strategic planning systems by improving well-known methods and approaches with reference to global energy transformation. Third, we offer proposals for the development of a climate adaptation strategy using the example of a Russian oil and gas company based on the company’s business capabilities.

Global energy systems are undergoing significant structural changes in response to the overarching aim of mitigating and adopting to the geophysical impacts of climate change. One of the key strategies for enabling this structural change is the incremental transition away from fossil fuels and gradual uptake of renewable and low carbon energy sources. While remarkable progress has been achieved in electricity decarbonisation - which contributed around 35% global GHG emissions in 2025, a significant part of the energy system pie is still exploring suitable solutions especially for “hard-to-abate" sectors—such as steel manufacturing, chemical production, and long-haul shipping—where direct electrification is technically or economically challenging. With increased decarbonisation of electricity sectors using variable renewable generation technologies like solar and wind, there is also a growing need to balance and store the wasted energy from intraday supply and demand mismatch. Additionally, increasing severity of climate change impacts globally is accelerating these structural changes where some nation states have also attempted to raise the climate change mitigation ambition by suggesting complete phaseout of fossil fuels at UNFCCC’s COP28 and COP30. Consequently, there is renewed interest in global hydrogen economy and its direct benefits in circumventing majority of the issues highlighted above. Pursuant to this, under the Horizon Europe’s HyWay project, researchers are generating future scenarios for hydrogen economy and analysing the warming impacts of subsequent fugitive hydrogen emissions. In this research, hydrogen economy scenarios are being generating using MESSAGEix-GLOBIOM-GAINS modelling framework of IIASA. The modelling framework generates bottom-up energy system futures for 12 Global regions, while also capturing intra-regional and inter-regional energy commodity trade. The framework generates a least cost solution under various technology transition and climate mitigation constraints using linear programming-based optimisation. Using this framework, we generate a set of scenarios using national implemented policies, nationally determined goals, regional net zero targets, hydrogen generation infrastructure and trade policy data, and different global temperature targets for various Shared Socioeconomic Pathway narratives. In addition, some specialised scenarios also looked at more wide-spread use of hydrogen in the energy system vs. more confined use in industrial clusters. These broad policy and techno-climatic levers along with discussions with key industry stakeholders enabled us to analyse in detail a) the future hydrogen generation configuration at various time steps, b) displacement of fossil-fuels from global energy systems, and 3) sectoral utilisation of hydrogen especially in the industrial sector. Across the scenario solution space, we observe that from a current production volume of 100Mt H2 at a global level mainly for industrial use, hydrogen economy can surpass 400Mt H2 production by 2050 and upwards of 1000 Mt H2 by 2100. This would require significant investment in hydrogen economy infrastructure and possibly underwriting and repurposing of fossil fuel-based energy generation units. We also observe that from current domination of “grey hydrogen”, the energy system will transition completely to “green hydrogen” generation by 2050, with “blue hydrogen” acting as a transition enabler. The results also provide significant insights into regional and global dynamics of hydrogen economy including its climate impacts.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant challenges for energy transition. Concerns about the overwhelming emphasis on economic recovery at the cost of energy transition progress have been raised worldwide. More voices are calling for “green” recovery scheme, which recovers the economy while not compromising on the environment. However, limited academic attention has been paid to comprehensively investigating the implications of COVID-19 for global energy transition. This study thus provides a comprehensive analysis of the dynamics between energy transition and COVID-19 around the world and proposes a low-carbon energy transition roadmap in the post-pandemic era. Using energy data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), we first summarized and reviewed the progress of energy transition prior to COVID-19. Building on prior progress, we identified the challenges for energy transition during the pandemic from the perspectives of government support, fossil fuel divestment, renewable energy production capacity, global supply chain, and energy poverty. However, the pandemic also generates opportunities for global energy transition. We hence also identified potential opportunities for energy transition presented by the pandemic from the perspectives of price competitiveness, policy implementation efficiency, and renewable energy strengths. We further provided an in-depth discussion on the impact of current worldwide economic recovery stimulus on energy transition. Based on the identified challenges and opportunities, we proposed the post-pandemic energy transition roadmap in terms of broadening green financing instruments, strengthening international cooperation, and enhancing green recovery plans. Our study sheds light on a global low-carbon energy transition framework and has practical implications for green recovery schemes in post-pandemic times.

With the prolonged use of fossil fuels, the energy world faces the crisis of resource depletion. The emergence of new energy is driving a transformational development in the energy sector, initiating a shift in the energy structure. New energy plays an increasingly important role in development, reducing people’s dependence on traditional fossil fuels. This study examines the global energy transition, focusing on the shift from coal to renewable energy sources. It reviews the environmental and health hazards of traditional energy, particularly coal, and explores advancements in renewable technologies like solar, wind, and nuclear energy. The research highlights the role of technological innovations, such as concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) and offshore wind power, in improving efficiency and reducing costs. It also emphasizes the importance of government policies in driving the energy transition. The study concludes that renewable energy will dominate future global energy systems, with countries like China leading the way in reducing coal dependence and promoting sustainability. The transition to low-carbon, renewable energy is essential for achieving global carbon neutrality goals and addressing climate change.

The Persian Gulf is a major stakeholder in a global energy system that depends on oil and gas for 65 percent of its energy requirements. It is also a critical transportation artery for trade in oil and petroleum products, of which 60 percent is seaborne. Changes in the global energy system will therefore impact the role of the Persian Gulf as a supplier and transport corridor. The success of the strategies they implement during the next one or two decades will partly determine whether Gulf economies, societies, and ruling regimes face “existential threats” or continue to thrive and prosper in a low carbon era. Keywords: Energy; Persian Gulf; oil; gas; global markets.

As the global energy system transitions toward cleaner and low-carbon solutions, the thermal power industry faces dual challenges of improving efficiency and environmental protection. Industrial Internet technology, through integrating IoT, big data, and AI, provides crucial support for optimizing production processes, enabling intelligent equipment maintenance, and enhancing energy efficiency in thermal power plants. This paper focuses on the architecture design of industrial Internet platforms for thermal power plants, proposing a three-tier architecture model comprising edge layer, platform layer, and application layer. The edge layer integrates IoT protocol adaptation with edge computing technology to standardize access for multi-source heterogeneous devices and perform real-time data preprocessing, effectively addressing issues such as fragmented protocols and high latency in traditional thermal power plant equipment. The platform layer constructs a data middle platform and business middle platform using containerized microservices architecture, combining cloud computing and big data technologies to form a highly concurrent and available industrial PaaS platform that supports massive data storage, analysis, and service-oriented encapsulation. The application layer develops core modules including equipment health management, combustion optimization, and energy consumption analysis through digital twin technology and AI algorithms, establishing an intelligent decision support system that covers the entire production process.