Journal of Security and Sustainability Issues

Our paper is dealing with the issues of energy security and economic development. Our focus is on the changes and challenges that are posed in front of the many countries with regard to the threat of the shortages of energy sources and the depletion of the existing carbon sources. Economic, social and demographic changes in the world call for the novel solutions that would include innovative ways how to secure the smooth and undisrupted flow of energy for maintaining the daily lives of the citizens. We are particularly interested in showing how the integration of energy systems or the coordination between neighboring energy systems might contribute to the sustainable development and operation of the energy sector. The paper uses an example of hydro energy storage in order to show the shortcomings of the battery energy storage and the ways how it can be solved. Our results and findings show that renewable energy sources might become a viable solution to the problems specified above. Well-balanced and well-placed usage of renewables might cushion the shortcomings of the traditional energy systems and prevent major shocks to the energy security through the world and in the European Union countries.

The aim of the article is to explicate methodology, facilitating the evaluation of biomass cluster‘s impact to the growth of the energetic independence and national security. The analysis of the biomass clusters‘ impact to the energetic security is related to the critical analysis of the resources as well as to the analysis of the secondary data. The conception of a biomass cluster is relatively new as it emerged basically given the complex geopolitical situation and the aim of the pursuit for some energetic alternatives. The cluster unites enterprises, operating in some certain region and engaged in biomass preparation, logistics and burning. The main impetus of the cluster activity is the objective of the consumers‘ provision by some local renewable energy. Some serious issues, related to the energetic resources consumers‘ behaviour, are often occurring in the states where import-based structure of energy prevails. Lacking some competition and local production, both energetic and national state security is “walking with a limp“. Under the above circumstances, a biomass cluster may become a counterweight from monopoly-based import, ipso facto, increasing national security of the state itself. In the latter case, some stable energy supply would be assured and the price would be based on the market but not on the shifts of the geopolitical situation. The authors have created the following research methodology, contributing the evaluation of the benefit of the local resources use.

Energy security is conditioned by numerous factors, among which solutions and patterns of energy storage play important role. Electrical energy storage (EES) is the process by which energy is stored from the power network to a form which can be used later when converted back to electrical energy. There are various ways by which electrical energy can be stored for future purposes. Nowadays, the electrical energy is mainly stored in pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES) that comprises about 99% of EES worldwide and the battery energy storage (BES) that uses chemical energy with both methods yielding characteristic advantages and disadvantages. Electrical energy is mainly stored when there is low demand and when there is high generation of power at low costs. The energy is then used when there is high demand of power and the generation cost is high or when there are no other means of generating electrical energy. Electrical energy storage has many uses such as in the electrical devices, motor vehicles and stationery energy resources and is gaining special attention with the widespread usage of renewable energy sources (RES).

Presented paper aims to indicate what types of interrelationships between energy usage patterns prevailing in particular country, economic growth and finally, sustainable development could be distinguished. The topic of paper, or, rather research area, is neither new nor original. Nevertheless, an array of approaches towards character of considered interrelationships can be encountered. Complicity of chosen issue, we reckon, lies in differences of perception of the following questions. Our findings consequently would depend on, at first, how we measure economic growth in short and long terms, the second, how we measure energy security, and, the third, how we benchmark progress towards sustainable development. Methods, which we consider as being applicable for measuring of selected interrelationships, comprise a separate part of scientific elaboration. Therefore we formulate a task to overview the most contemporary measurable perceptions of economic growth, perceptions of energy security facets affecting economic growth and consequent reaction of sustainable development to various scenarios of energy consumption and economic growth. Resulting conclusions about measurement of indicated phenomena and argumentations of their plausible interrelation would lead us to choice of methodological approaches of described interrelations’ analysis.

Economic growth and income differentiation problems are the most actual problems of modern research. The research is attributed to sustainable development research area. In a case of Latvian economy these problems have a huge actuality because of lack of researching works, where these parts of science are completely opened. Special interest causes question about the trajectory of economic growth and and uneven income. If GDP growth is connected with increasing income differentiation of population, then increasing income differentiation absorbs part of the effect on the growth of aggregate income. If GDP growth is on the background of lower income differentiation, the increase in total income is supplemented by regularity of revenue growth. Thus the social effect of economic growth increases significantly. What trends are taking place in income differentiation by regions and economic development of the regions in Latvia after the EU accession? What trends are taking place in interregional differentiation in income per household member, and in GDP? Is there a relationship between trajectories of economic growth and income differentiation in the regions of Latvia?