Sustainability assessment of renewable energy based projects

Dombi, Mihály – Kuti, István – Balogh, Péter

Keywords: sustainable energy management; project evaluation; survey, choice experiment

Transition toward sustainability is being driven by the global ecological problems. For planning the efficiency of this transition in environmental and development policies the assessment of renewable energy sources in an elaborate and complex way is required. The aim of the study is to consider the contribution of renewable energy based technologies to environmental protection and socio-economic development – and thus to sustainable development. The opinion of Hungarian experts regarding the attributes of renewable energy based technologies was examined. The primacy of land demand as well as social aspects was stated. An analysis of numerous Hungarian renewable energy based projects was then undertaken. We concluded that the profitability on the local market was the priority of the investors. Also the advantages of large-scale wind utilisation, the geothermal district heating and the small-scale biomass burning were shown.

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