Technology Transitions Towards a Green and Low-Carbon Economy

Abstract

The present research analyses over 300 pieces of literature and specifies the opportunities how a "EU Green Deal" on energy systems can be practically implemented in a country such as Austria, Germany or any other state. In order to facilitate a real-world structural transition of the energy system towards non-carbon sustainability, both (i) technologies and (ii) underlying long-term trends are evaluated. (i) Results show present levels of feasibility for smart metering, micro-PV systems, electricity storage, heat storage, diverse industrial applications, smart cities, sector coupling, bridging time through energy storage, using the existing gas infrastructure, decentralized energy conversion, low temperature district heating, heat management, large heat accumulators, the Big Solar project in Graz, Austria, industrial waste heat, island networks, and an equally needed "heat transition", while adopting a system dynamics viewpoint. (ii) Inspired by long-term trends as rendered visible through the "Global Change Data Base", especially that end-user-friendly energy carriers increase their market shares. Thus, a conclusion, a structural societal transition is an indispensable component of the "energy transition" worldwide, mainly based on solar and wind energy. The structure of an energy economy mirrors the views that a society has of itself: flexible, sustainable, and self-responsible.

Received: 8 December 2023 | Revised: 1 November 2024 | Accepted: 27 February 2025

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares that he has no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

Data available on request from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Author Contribution Statement

Gilbert Ahamer: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition.