IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v250y2025ics0960148125009735.html

Strategic analysis towards household heating sustainable transition

Author

Listed:
  • Cifuentes García, Roberto
  • Galán, Guillermo
  • Martín, Mariano

Abstract

Defossilize household heating systems is a paramount target, where electricity and pellets are considered potential alternative sources. A multiscale techno-economic analysis is performed to select the best combination of electricity production and pellet manufacturing as well as the selection of raw materials. The lignocellulosic waste considered includes residues of pinewood, eucalyptus wood and corn stover. An MILP is formulated considering economic, social, and environmental objectives for substituting all the natural gas-powered boilers in the peninsular soil of Spain. It will require 18 thermal power stations and 3 pellet plants, whose consumption is up to the 12.2 % of lignocellulosic waste available, being necessary to invest 2173.5 M€. In consequence, the greenhouse emissions non-released will be 59.2 % of the ones using natural gas. In addition, the effect of using the Spanish Government budget and the NUTS 2 division ones is analysed, resulting that with fewer funding pellets replace a higher percentage of the potential demand. Finally, as corn stover utilization in the base case is up to 90 %, 4 scenarios are carried out (75, 50, 25 and 0 % of raw material exploitation) to evaluate how its reduction affects the facility location problem, involving more exploitation of pinewood resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Cifuentes García, Roberto & Galán, Guillermo & Martín, Mariano, 2025. "Strategic analysis towards household heating sustainable transition," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:250:y:2025:i:c:s0960148125009735
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2025.123311
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148125009735
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2025.123311?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Palenzuela, Patricia & Zaragoza, Guillermo & Alarcón-Padilla, Diego C. & Guillén, Elena & Ibarra, Mercedes & Blanco, Julián, 2011. "Assessment of different configurations for combined parabolic-trough (PT) solar power and desalination plants in arid regions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 4950-4958.
    2. Soltero, Víctor M. & Quirosa, Gonzalo & Rodríguez, Diego & Peralta, M. Estela & Ortiz, Carlos & Chacartegui, Ricardo, 2023. "A profitability index for rural biomass district heating systems evaluation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    3. Connor, Peter M. & Xie, Lei & Lowes, Richard & Britton, Jessica & Richardson, Thomas, 2015. "The development of renewable heating policy in the United Kingdom," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 733-744.
    4. Hannon, Matthew J., 2015. "Raising the temperature of the UK heat pump market: Learning lessons from Finland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 369-375.
    5. Heras, Jorge & Martín, Mariano, 2020. "Social issues in the energy transition: Effect on the design of the new power system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    6. Taifouris, Manuel & Martín, Mariano, 2023. "Towards energy security by promoting circular economy: A holistic approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).
    7. Robert Gross & Richard Hanna, 2019. "Path dependency in provision of domestic heating," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 4(5), pages 358-364, May.
    8. Čuček, Lidija & Varbanov, Petar Sabev & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Kravanja, Zdravko, 2012. "Total footprints-based multi-criteria optimisation of regional biomass energy supply chains," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 135-145.
    9. Guerras, Lidia S. & Martín, Mariano, 2020. "On the water footprint in power production: Sustainable design of wet cooling towers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    10. Davis, William & Martín, Mariano, 2014. "Optimal year-round operation for methane production from CO2 and water using wind energy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 497-505.
    11. Vorushylo, Inna & Keatley, Patrick & Shah, Nikhilkumar & Green, Richard & Hewitt, Neil, 2018. "How heat pumps and thermal energy storage can be used to manage wind power: A study of Ireland," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 539-549.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. González-Núñez, Sofía & Guerras, Lidia S. & Martín, Mariano, 2023. "A multiscale analysis approach for the valorization of sludge and MSW via co-incineration," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PE).
    2. Renaldi, Renaldi & Hall, Richard & Jamasb, Tooraj & Roskilly, Anthony P., 2021. "Experience rates of low-carbon domestic heating technologies in the United Kingdom," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    3. Mingkun Yu & Lei Zhao & Zuliang Chen & Jingyu Wu, 2025. "Balancing Solar Potential and Environmental Risk: A GIS-Based Site-Selection Approach for Concentrated Solar Power in Tibet," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-25, May.
    4. Galán, Guillermo & Taifouris, Manuel & Martín, Mariano & Grossmann, Ignacio E., 2025. "Multiscale analysis through the use of biomass residues and CO2 towards energetic security at country scale via methane production," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    5. Jan Rosenow & Duncan Gibb & Thomas Nowak & Richard Lowes, 2022. "Heating up the global heat pump market," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 7(10), pages 901-904, October.
    6. Charitopoulos, V. & Fajardy, M. & Chyong, C. K. & Reiner, D., 2022. "The case of 100% electrification of domestic heat in Great Britain," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2210, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    7. Thomaßen, Georg & Kavvadias, Konstantinos & Jiménez Navarro, Juan Pablo, 2021. "The decarbonisation of the EU heating sector through electrification: A parametric analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PA).
    8. Sihvonen, Ville & Ollila, Iisa & Jaanto, Jasmin & Grönman, Aki & Honkapuro, Samuli & Riikonen, Juhani & Price, Alisdair, 2024. "Role of power-to-heat and thermal energy storage in decarbonization of district heating," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    9. Ba, Birome Holo & Prins, Christian & Prodhon, Caroline, 2016. "Models for optimization and performance evaluation of biomass supply chains: An Operations Research perspective," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(P2), pages 977-989.
    10. Khosravi, Fatemeh & Lowes, Richard & Ugalde-Loo, Carlos E., 2023. "Cooling is hotting up in the UK," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    11. Backhaus, Klaus & Gausling, Philipp & Hildebrand, Luise, 2015. "Comparing the incomparable: Lessons to be learned from models evaluating the feasibility of Desertec," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 905-913.
    12. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Martiskainen, Mari, 2020. "Hot transformations: Governing rapid and deep household heating transitions in China, Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    13. Petersen, Nils Hendrik & Arras, Maximilian & Wirsum, Manfred & Ma, Linwei, 2024. "Integration of large-scale heat pumps to assist sustainable water desalination and district cooling," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    14. Elena Helerea & Marius D. Calin & Cristian Musuroi, 2023. "Water Energy Nexus and Energy Transition—A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-31, February.
    15. Lowes, Richard & Woodman, Bridget, 2020. "Disruptive and uncertain: Policy makers’ perceptions on UK heat decarbonisation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    16. Han, S.-H. & Cho, D.H. & Kim, Y.H. & Shin, S.-J., 2013. "Biobutanol production from 2-year-old willow biomass by acid hydrolysis and acetone–butanol–ethanol fermentation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 13-17.
    17. Cambero, Claudia & Sowlati, Taraneh, 2014. "Assessment and optimization of forest biomass supply chains from economic, social and environmental perspectives – A review of literature," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 62-73.
    18. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Lipson, Matthew M. & Chard, Rose, 2019. "Temporality, vulnerability, and energy justice in household low carbon innovations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 495-504.
    19. Uche, J. & Círez, F. & Bayod, A.A. & Martínez, A., 2013. "On-grid and off-grid batch-ED (electrodialysis) process: Simulation and experimental tests," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 44-54.
    20. Deakin, Matthew & Bloomfield, Hannah & Greenwood, David & Sheehy, Sarah & Walker, Sara & Taylor, Phil C., 2021. "Impacts of heat decarbonization on system adequacy considering increased meteorological sensitivity," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:250:y:2025:i:c:s0960148125009735. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.