Repurposing End-of-Life Coal Mines with Business Models Based on Renewable Energy and Circular Economy Technologies

Alicja Krzemień (), Aleksander Frejowski, Gregorio Fidalgo Valverde, Pedro Riesgo Fernández and Silverio Garcia-Cortes
Additional contact information
Alicja Krzemień: Department of Extraction Technologies, Rockburst and Risk Assessment, Central Mining Institute—National Research Institute, 40166 Katowice, Poland
Aleksander Frejowski: Department of Extraction Technologies, Rockburst and Risk Assessment, Central Mining Institute—National Research Institute, 40166 Katowice, Poland
Gregorio Fidalgo Valverde: School of Mining, Energy and Materials Engineering, University of Oviedo, 33004 Oviedo, Spain
Pedro Riesgo Fernández: School of Mining, Energy and Materials Engineering, University of Oviedo, 33004 Oviedo, Spain
Silverio Garcia-Cortes: Polytechnic School of Mieres, University of Oviedo, 33600 Mieres, Spain

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 22, 1-25

Abstract: This paper presents a methodology to select the most exciting business models based on renewable energy and circular economy technologies within end-of-life coal mines to help develop a renewable-based energy sector, promote sustainable local economic growth, and maximise the number of green and quality jobs. To achieve this goal, first, a structural analysis was developed to select the technical variables that better identify this complex system. Second, a morphological analysis allowed the construction of the scenario space. Third, a multicriteria assessment was developed to achieve this goal, based on the previously assessed relevant scenarios, considering the European Green Deal policies, technical variables that characterise end-of-life coal mine environments, technology readiness level, the European taxonomy, synergistic potentials, contributions to the circular economy, and sector coupling. Finally, result indicators were selected to analyse the alternative options derived from the justification approach, considering the targets set by the European Green Deal and related taxonomy and the regional policy indicators for the Just Transition Fund. The results show that eco-industrial parks with virtual power plants represent the most appropriate business model choice, according to the scoring given to the different aspects. They may be complemented by a hydrogen production plant, provided that specific economic subventions are obtained to achieve balanced financial results.

Keywords: coal mine; end-of-life; repurposing; business model; renewable energy; circular economy; virtual power plant; green hydrogen; POTENTIALS project; GreenJOBS project (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/22/7617/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/22/7617/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:22:p:7617-:d:1281875

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().