**1. Introduction**

As an ultra-wide-bandgap semiconductor with the obvious advantages of stable physical chemistry, low dielectric constant, and high mechanical strength, gallium oxide (Ga2O3) is attracting increasing attention as a new promising competitor to III-nitrides and SiC for various applications in high-voltage and high-power electronics and ultraviolet optoelectronics [1]. Compared with other oxides such as ZnO (3.24 eV) and In2O3 (3.6 eV), Ga2O3 has a larger bandgap energy of approximately 5 eV, which means a shorter absorption cuto ff wavelength and a much higher power application. There are a total of five di fferent polytypes (α, β, ε, δ, and γ) for Ga2O3. Until now, the most studied polytype was β-Ga2O3 because it is easy to obtain bulk and film β-Ga2O3 materials by the conventional crystal growth or epitaxial growth techniques, such as edge-defined film-fed growth, float-zone method, Czochralski method, molecular beam epitaxy, and metal organic chemical vapor deposition. β-Ga2O3 has a bandgap of 4.8 eV and high Baliga's figures of merit (FOM) of 3000, which is obviously superior to GaN and SiC. However, β-Ga2O3 is not the best candidate in various phases for the power application considering the bandgap. Compared to β phase, corundum-structured α-Ga2O3, another important phase for Ga2O3, has a wider bandgap of around 5.3 eV which can result in a larger Baliga's FOM, in theory. Thus, α-Ga2O3 has great potential for application in power devices. A wider bandgap

of about 5.3 eV means that the absorption cutoff wavelength can be shorter than 240 nm and then α-Ga2O3 is more suitable for ultraviolet optoelectronics. Although α-Ga2O3 has great application potential, the research of α-Ga2O3 still lags far behind β-Ga2O3 in large part because it is more difficult to obtain the high-quality α-Ga2O3 material than β-Ga2O3.

α-Ga2O3 is a metastable phase and the bulk material still cannot be obtained. There is no commercial α-Ga2O3 bulk substrate to date, so its homo-epitaxial growth is still difficult. Fortunately, the heterogeneous epitaxy provides an efficient way to obtain the α-Ga2O3 material. Corundum-structured gallium oxide belongs to the space group of R-3c with the lattice parameters a = b = 4.98 Å, c = 13.43 Å, α = β = 90◦, and γ = 120◦ [2], and the lattice mismatches between α-Ga2O3 and α-Al2O3 (sapphire) are only 4.81% and 3.54% in the a- and c-axis directions. The same crystal structure and small lattice mismatch make it easy to grow the α-Ga2O3 material on the α-Al2O3 sapphire substrate. More importantly, the same crystal structure means that it is attractive from the viewpoint of fabricating alloys for α-Ga2O3 with other corundum-structured materials, such as α-Al2O3, Fe2O3, and Cr2O3 for bandgap and material engineering [3], which is another advantage of α- Ga2O3.

Recent studies have shown that the growth of crystalline α-Ga2O3 on an inexpensive sapphire substrate is an efficient way to obtain the α-Ga2O3 material. The key technology for the growth of α-Ga2O3 is ultrasonic mist chemical vapor deposition (mist-CVD) method [4–6]. In the growth of a metal oxide, water solutions of safe and inexpensive chemicals containing the metal, for example, acetate or acetylacetonate, have been used as the source. By atomizing the source solution ultrasonically, it turns into mist particles, which are then transferred by a carrier gas to a reaction chamber. In this way, metal elements are supplied without the use of organometallic sources. They react with an oxygen source, which may be water or oxygen gas. This offers sufficient overpressure of oxygen with respect to the metal source and prevents the formation of oxygen vacancies. Therefore, mist-CVD method is suitable for epitaxial α-Ga2O3 on sapphire substrate and can reduce the material cost [7,8]. Based on the grown α-Ga2O3, various applications of Metal Epitaxial-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor [9], Schottky barrier diodes [10], and solar-blind photodetectors [11] have been demonstrated. For example, a high performance Schottky diode with a breakdown voltage over 1 kV and a small specific on-resistance of 2.5 mΩ·cm2 has been achieved and a normally-off MOSFET has been shown based on α-Ga2O3 material grown by a mist-CVD system [9,10]. However, the present device performance is greatly inferior to the β-Ga2O3 counterparts and the main reason is still the poor α-Ga2O3 film quality. Thus, more attention is urgently required to improve the quality of α-Ga2O3 now and in the future. Recently, highly crystalline α-Ga2O3 thin films have been successfully grown at atmospheric pressure by mist-CVD on c-sapphire substrates, whose temperatures of 400–500 ◦C are reasonably low and the optimal growth conditions of solution concentration, growth temperature, carrier gas velocity, and film thickness have also been investigated [12,13]. However, there is still no systematical study about how the different carrier gas affects the film quality.

In this paper, we systematically investigate the influence of different carrier gases (O2, N2, and air) on the film quality for the growth of α-Ga2O3 on c-plane sapphire substrates by using the mist-CVD method. It is demonstrated that the crystallization quality will be different when the gallium source is carried by different gases. When N2 and O2 are used as the carrier gases, α-Ga2O3 achieves a relative smooth surface. When O2 is the carrier gas, α-Ga2O3 achieves the smallest half-height width. The oxygen element in the carrier gas may be an important reason to prevent the generation of oxygen vacancies, thus influencing the quality of the thin films. The results provide constructive perspectives for the material quality improvement.

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

In the present experiment, we used gallium acetylacetonate as the gallium source, which was dissolved in deionized water. A small quantity of hydrochloric acid was added to dissolve gallium acetylacetonate completely. The concentration of the solution was adjusted to 0.05 M. By atomizing the source solution ultrasonically, it turned into mist particles (diameter of ~3 μm at an ultrasonic

frequency of 2.4 MHz), which was then carried by air, N2, and O2, respectively, to the heated reaction chamber. In the chamber, the (0001) sapphire substrate was placed on a sample holder that was kept at 400 ◦C, because under this condition a high quality α-Ga2O3 can be obtained, as shown in Figure S1 in the supplemental information. The growth time was kept at 1h and the rate of the carrier gas was set to be 6 L/min.

The structural properties of Ga2O3 films were investigated using a range of complementary techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns were obtained from an X-ray diffractometer (D8 Advance, Bruker, Karlsruhe, Germany). The transmittance was measured by a dual-beam 950 UV-VIS spectrometer. XPS measurements were performed by the Escalab 250Xi (Waltham, MA, USA) with a source of monochromatic Al-Ka (1486.6 eV). The film morphologies were characterized by a field emission scanning electron microscope (SEM JSM-7800F, Tokyo, Japan), atomic force microscopy (AFM) (Agilent 5500, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, CA, USA), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) (Tecnai G2 F20 S-Twin, Hillsboro, OR, USA). The Raman spectra were measured using a confocal Jobin Yvon LavRam HR800 micro-Raman spectrometer (Edison, NJ, USA) with a charge-coupled device (CCD) detector.


Meet the editor

Dr. Georgios Tsoulfas received his medical degree from Brown University School of Medicine and completed his general surgery residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, as well as a transplant research fellowship at the Starzl Transplant Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. He then completed a two-year transplantation surgery fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and then joined the

Division of Solid Organ Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery at the University of Rochester Medical Center as an assistant professor of surgery. He has currently moved back to Greece, where he is an associate professor of surgery at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has published more than 90 papers in peer-reviewed journals and in PubMed, as well as 29 book chapters. He is a reviewer for more than 40 international journals and is on the editorial boards of several others. He is currently the Vice Chair of the International Relations Committee of the American College of Surgeons and the World President of the International College of Surgeons.

## Contents

*by Lejla Čalkić*


**3. Results**

#### **3.1. Control group (n = 20)**

The number of pre-teaching teachers of the control group was 20 (n = 20). Among the partici‐ pants, 75 % were females, 55 % with master degree, 30 % were studying in College of Man‐ agement, and 70 % with experiences of Internet surfing for less than four years. And they were all sharing similar purposes of Internet surfing, such as e-mails, chatting on-line, gathering information, on-line games, and on-line learning. In addition, the results indicated that the participants rated the hypothesized five criteria as important elements with an average of more than 3.4 of the five-point Likert scale on the same variables mentioned above.

Among pre-teaching teachers who attended the seminar hosted by the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology Teachers' Center in 2012, the distribution percentages were as follows: male teachers with 25 % and female teachers with 75 %.

Among pre-teaching teachers who attended the seminar hosted by the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology Teachers' Center in 2012, the distribution percentages were as follows: College of Management with 30 %, College of Design with 25 %, College of Engineering with 20 %, and College of Humanities and Applied Sciences with 25 %.

Study of the Assessment Criteria on e-Learning Websites http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/61062 193

**Figure 1.** distribution of gender of pre-teaching teachers

**2.2. Instrument and return rate**

192 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

4. Website communication interaction

**Table 1.** Sample questionnaire

**3.1. Control group (n = 20)**

(interactivity)

**3. Results**

A descriptive survey method was used to collect data. After a close review of studies [5, 6, 7, 8] and particular website guidelines [9, 10, 11], a closed-ended questionnaire, called Criteria of Instructional Website, was designed to gather data related to participants' perceptions of experiences on instructional websites. The questions related to each of the five criteria are listed in Table 1 including six variables, gender, professional field, years of hands-on experience of Internet surfing, educational background, years of teaching (for faculty only), and purposes of using the Internet, also set up for analyzing vocational education faculty's and students' perceptions of instructional websites. The overall response rate for this study was 77.6 %.

**Item of criteria Sample question**

3. Website interface The web should offer an exact time for downloading each file

5. Website system The instructional website should offer a diversity of learning assessment

The number of pre-teaching teachers of the control group was 20 (n = 20). Among the partici‐ pants, 75 % were females, 55 % with master degree, 30 % were studying in College of Man‐ agement, and 70 % with experiences of Internet surfing for less than four years. And they were all sharing similar purposes of Internet surfing, such as e-mails, chatting on-line, gathering information, on-line games, and on-line learning. In addition, the results indicated that the participants rated the hypothesized five criteria as important elements with an average of more

Among pre-teaching teachers who attended the seminar hosted by the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology Teachers' Center in 2012, the distribution percentages

Among pre-teaching teachers who attended the seminar hosted by the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology Teachers' Center in 2012, the distribution percentages were as follows: College of Management with 30 %, College of Design with 25 %, College of

Engineering with 20 %, and College of Humanities and Applied Sciences with 25 %.

than 3.4 of the five-point Likert scale on the same variables mentioned above.

were as follows: male teachers with 25 % and female teachers with 75 %.

1. Website material development The material should be genuinely related to the Web name that tells 2. Website graphic design The instructional website design should contain multimedia effects,

such as sounds, 3-D pictures

The instructional website should offer some kinds of sections for

motivating students to participate in discussion

**Figure 2.** distribution of pre-teaching teachers who studied in college

**Figure 3.** distribution of pre-teaching teachers

Among pre-teaching teachers who attended the seminar hosted by the Center of Teacher Education in the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology Teachers' Center in 2012, the percentages were as follows: master degree with 55 %, four-year bachelor's degree with 20 %, two-year bachelor's degree with 20 %, and doctoral degree with 5 %.

**Figure 4.** distribution of time in using Internet for pre-teaching teachers

Among pre-teaching teachers who attended the seminar hosted by the Center of Teacher Education in the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology Teachers' Center in 2012, the percentages were as follows: never used with 0 %, 1 year and less with 30 %, 2-4 years with 40 %, 5-7 years with 30 %, and more than 7 years with 0 %.

**Figure 5.** Distribution of the purposes of using Internet for pre-teaching teachers

Among pre-teaching teachers who attended the seminar hosted by the Center of Teacher Education in the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology Teachers' Center in 2012, the percentages were as follows: receiving and sending e-mails with 25 %, BBS or online chatting with 20 %, browsing data with 25 %, playing online games with 25 %, and online learning with 5 %

#### **3.2. Teachers group: (n = 78)**

Among pre-teaching teachers who attended the seminar hosted by the Center of Teacher Education in the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology Teachers' Center in 2012, the percentages were as follows: master degree with 55 %, four-year bachelor's degree

> one-year and less 30%

Among pre-teaching teachers who attended the seminar hosted by the Center of Teacher Education in the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology Teachers' Center in 2012, the percentages were as follows: never used with 0 %, 1 year and less with 30 %, 2-4 years

> receiving and sending emails, 25 , 25%

BBS or online chatting, 20 , 20%

Among pre-teaching teachers who attended the seminar hosted by the Center of Teacher Education in the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology Teachers' Center in 2012, the percentages were as follows: receiving and sending e-mails with 25 %, BBS or online chatting with 20 %, browsing data with 25 %, playing online games with 25 %, and online

one-year and less 2-4 years 5-7 years

receiving and sending

playing online games

emails

chatting

BBS or online

bwowsing data

online learning

30% never used

with 20 %, two-year bachelor's degree with 20 %, and doctoral degree with 5 %.

never used 0%

194 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

5-7 years

bwowsing data, 25 , 25%

online learning, 5 , 5%

playing online games, 25 , 25%

learning with 5 %

2-4 years 40%

with 40 %, 5-7 years with 30 %, and more than 7 years with 0 %.

**Figure 5.** Distribution of the purposes of using Internet for pre-teaching teachers

**Figure 4.** distribution of time in using Internet for pre-teaching teachers

Two thirds of the participants were males teaching in the College of Management with 20.8 %, College of Art and Design with 20.8 %, College of Humanities with 20.8 %, and College of Engineering with 37.5 %. One fourth of them had less than 15 years of teaching experiences. Interestingly, a teacher who had more than 10 years of teaching experiences indicated that the main purpose of Internet surfing was only for e-mail sending/receiving rather than instruc‐ tional purposes. Compared with others, most of the teachers indicated that they used Internet for class activities with 83.3 %, and information collection with 77.5 %. More importantly, there was not significant difference between the control group and the teacher group for the perception of the instructional website based on the hypothesized five criteria at the probability of 0.05. Nevertheless, different college faculties shared slightly different opinions about the importance of item 1 of the criteria of website material development (e.g. the material should be compatible with the title which it belonged to) as shown in Table 2. Also, different college faculties shared slightly different perceptions on the items of the appropriate location of frame design in the criteria of "website interface" based on the Schaffer test.

**Table 2.** Website material development, item #1 Schaffer test

**Figure 6.** Distribution of gender of YUNST teachers who have built web pages as teaching aids

Among YUNST teachers who have built Web pages as teaching aids, the percentages were as follows: male with 87 % and female with 13 %.

**Figure 7.** Distribution of YUNST teachers who have built Web pages as teaching aids

Among the college of YUNST teachers who had built Web pages as teaching aids, the percen‐ tages were as follows: College of Management with 21 %, College of Design with 21 %, College of Humanities and Applied Sciences 21 % and College of Engineering with 37 %.

**Figure 8.** Distribution of seniority of YUNST teachers who have built Web pages as teaching aids

Among seniority of YUNST teachers who have built Web pages as teaching aids, the percen‐ tages were as follows: 5 years and less with 25 %, 6-10 years with 38 %, 11-15 years with 25 %, 16-20 years with 8 %, and 21 years and above with 4 %.

Among the time YUNST teachers who have built Web pages as teaching aids used the Internet, never used was 0 %, one year and less 46 %, 2-4 years 50 %, 5-7 years 0 %, 7-10 years 0 %, and more than 10 years 4 %.

**Figure 9.** Distribution diagram of time YUNST teachers who have built Web pages as teaching aids used the Internet

**Figure 10.** Distribution program of the purpose of YUNST teachers who have built Web pages as teaching aids to use the Internet

Among the purpose of YUNST teachers who have built Web pages as teaching aids to use the Internet, the percentages were as follows: receiving and sending e-mails with 25 %, browsing data with 25 %, BBS or online chatting with 20 %, playing online games with 25 %, and online learning with 5 %.

#### **3.3. NYUST students group (n = 240)**

management college 21%

humanities 21%

**Figure 7.** Distribution of YUNST teachers who have built Web pages as teaching aids

and applied science college 21%

196 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

21 years and

16-20 years with 8 %, and 21 years and above with 4 %.

engineering college 37%

11-15years, 25 , 25%

more than 10 years 4 %.

16-20 years, 8 , 8%

design college

Among the college of YUNST teachers who had built Web pages as teaching aids, the percen‐ tages were as follows: College of Management with 21 %, College of Design with 21 %, College

> 5 years and less, 25 , 25%

above, 4 , 4% 5 years and less

6-10 years, 38 , 38%

Among seniority of YUNST teachers who have built Web pages as teaching aids, the percen‐ tages were as follows: 5 years and less with 25 %, 6-10 years with 38 %, 11-15 years with 25 %,

Among the time YUNST teachers who have built Web pages as teaching aids used the Internet, never used was 0 %, one year and less 46 %, 2-4 years 50 %, 5-7 years 0 %, 7-10 years 0 %, and

**Figure 8.** Distribution of seniority of YUNST teachers who have built Web pages as teaching aids

of Humanities and Applied Sciences 21 % and College of Engineering with 37 %.

management college

design college

humanities and applied science

engineering college

college

6-10 years

11-15years

16-20 years

21 years and above

About half of the respondents were male or female. Most of them studied in the College of Management (31.8 %) and College of Engineering (31.3 %) with a college degree (47.0 %), and two- to four-year Internet application experience (55.6 %). The results also revealed that the major purposes of surfing the Internet were for e-mail (69.7 %) and information collection (76.1 %). Based on the results of t-test analysis, there was no significant difference between the control group and the student group for the perceptions of the instructional website based on the hypothesized five criteria at the probability of 0.05. However, different college students have slightly different perceptions on the items of the appropriate updated relevant informa‐ tion given on the side of the site in the criteria of "website material development" based on the Schaffer test.

Third, NYUST students (n = 240), about half of the respondents were male/female. Most of them studied in the College of Management (31.8 %) and Engineering (31.3 %) with a college degree (47.0 %) and two- to four-year Internet application experience (55.6 %). The results also revealed that the major purposes of surfing the Internet were for email (69.7 %) and information collection (76.1 %). Based on the results of t-test analysis, there was no significant difference between the control group and the student group for the perceptions of the instructional website based on the hypothesized five criteria at the probability of 0.05. However, different college students have slightly different perceptions on the items of the appropriate updated relevant information given on the side of the site in the criteria of "website material develop‐ ment" based on the Schaffer test.

**Figure 11.** Distribution of gender of YUNST students

Among YUNST students, the percentages were as follows: male with 46 %, and female with 54 %.

**Figure 12.** Distribution of college students at YUNST

Among students at YUNST, the percentages were as follows: College of Management with 32 %, College of Design with 14 %, College of Engineering with 23 %, and College of Humanities and Applied Sciences with 31 %.

Among the degrees of YUNST students, the percentages were as follows: master's with 25 %, four-year bachelor's with 47 %, two-year bachelor's with 21 %, and doctoral with 7 %.

**Figure 13.** Distribution of students' degree at YUNST

between the control group and the student group for the perceptions of the instructional website based on the hypothesized five criteria at the probability of 0.05. However, different college students have slightly different perceptions on the items of the appropriate updated relevant information given on the side of the site in the criteria of "website material develop‐

Among YUNST students, the percentages were as follows: male with 46 %, and female with

management college 32%

design college 14%

Among students at YUNST, the percentages were as follows: College of Management with 32 %, College of Design with 14 %, College of Engineering with 23 %, and College of Humanities

Among the degrees of YUNST students, the percentages were as follows: master's with 25 %,

four-year bachelor's with 47 %, two-year bachelor's with 21 %, and doctoral with 7 %.

Male 46%

Male Female

management college

design college

humanities and applied science

engineering college

college

ment" based on the Schaffer test.

198 E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management

Female 54%

**Figure 11.** Distribution of gender of YUNST students

humanities and applied science college 31%

**Figure 12.** Distribution of college students at YUNST

and Applied Sciences with 31 %.

engineering college 23%

54 %.

**Figure 14.** Distribution of years in using the Internet of YUNST students

Among the years YUNST students have used the Internet, the percentages were as follows: never used with 3 %, less than 1 year with 5 %, 2-4 years with 53 %, 5-7 years with 30 %, and 7-10 years with 6 % and more than 10 year with 4 %.

Among the purpose of YUNST students in using the Internet, the percentages were as follows: receiving and sending e-mails with 43 %, BBS or online chatting with 7 %, browsing data with 45 %, playing online games with 2 %, and online learning with 3 %.


**2. The ontology of sustainability and concept of sustainable leadership**

The concept of sustainable leadership is complex as it combines two key aspects: Sustainability and leadership. First, it is crucial to delve into the ontology of

sustainability in terms of its complexity and multi-dimensional nature before focusing on the concept of sustainable leadership.

### **2.1 Ontology of sustainability**

According to Layman, sustainability refers to the capacity and thresholds to maintain and protect a particular entity, process or outcome at a certain level over some time [8]. In more technical and specific parlance, sustainability is conceived in terms of the triple bottom line, namely the social, economic and environmental [5]. First, the environmental aspect of sustainability includes the reduction of people's negative impacts on the environment and the protection of nature and ecosystems [3]. Human beings must act responsibly and sensitively to use all resources as they have a limit. Second, the social dimension refers to sustainability's human, institutional, cultural and societal aspects. Lastly, the economic dimension relates to the link between economic activities, growth and effects. Sustainability in business dwells on reducing or avoiding unsustainable business models with adverse effects on the environment and society [1]. Sustainability's environmental, economic and social dimensions are interdependent and interconnected and interact in non-linear ways. A shift in one can, in turn, cause a series of knock-on effects in the others. This interconnection brings to the fore the dynamic and temporal aspects of sustainability, where the cause and effect are subtle, and the results of interventions are not immediately apparent. Sustainability entails a conscious effort to create shared value in the mutual balance of all interests. Shared value reflects a win-win scenario that differs from the concept of 'trade-offs' as a 'win/lose' scenario.

The Brundtland report for the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) [9] defines sustainability as 'meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. This definition has aspects of dynamic and temporal complexity. At its core, sustainability implies the continued flourishing of human societies in a constantly changing world competing for social, economic and environmental conditions. Complexity arises from 'inter-relationship, inter-action and inter-connectivity of elements within a system' among elements that make up the system (micro-level) and different systems (macro-level) [10]. Sustainability is a complex process of continuous adaptation to change. The processual perspective opposes the view of sustainability as an outcome or a specific end state, best captured by static outcome indicators [11].

Path dependencies help deal with sustainability problems but may stifle an organisation or society from reflexively adapting to existing change or allowing radically new conditions to be possible. Complexity may also arise from counterintuitiveness, which occurs when interactions intended to produce the desired outcome generate opposite results [9].

The ontological view of sustainability depicts multiple dimensions. Four dimensions of sustainability decipherable in Refs. [1, 9, 12] are (1) environmental-based sustainability, (2) corporate sustainability, (3) business-related sustainability and (4) sustainability in education. Proactive and environmentally friendly behaviours that people perform in the natural environment or that try to reduce the negative impact of their activities on the natural environment are termed pro-environmental behaviours [12]. Employees can choose whether or not to implement pro-environmental

behaviours in the workplace (e.g. actively recycling paper and saving water and electricity). In pursuit of sustainability, short- and long-term objectives are complementary rather than incompatible.


**2.1 Variants**

The evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 has been continuous with several variants emerging with unusual frequency. Although the clinical picture is similar, these genetic mutations have meant the prolongation of the pandemic with numerous unsolved effects and challenges. Omicron (B.1.1.529), the last variant that originated in South Africa in November 2021 has been classified as a concern variant, which, like the previous variants, has generated globalized uncertainty. These genetic mutations can affect the gene encoding the Spike (S) antigen with effects on preventive and therapeutic strategies known so far. The gold standard for the identification of variants is the sequencing of the entire genome, although recently real-time PCR techniques have been developed for the detection of specific mutations that can facilitate their identification.

Studying the variants could help assess risks and develop better treatment and prevention strategies [12–17]. An international classification system has been established to distinguish emerging variants of this virus into variants of concern (VOC) and variants of interest (VOI), which are listed in **Table 1**.

The under surveillance and de-escalated variants are also included in this classification. The classification of SARS-CoV-2 variants is continually modified

**Table 1.** *COVID-19 variants.* according to the genetic mutations of the virus and the WHO, CDC, and ESDC guidelines [16, 17, 18].


*Article* **Renewable Energy Attitudes and Behaviour of Local Governments in Poland**

**Joanna Rakowska \* and Irena Ozimek**

Institute of Economics and Finance, Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
**\*** Correspondence<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
**Abstract:** The deployment of renewable energy at the local level can contribute significantly to mitigating climate change, improving energy security and increasing social, economic and environmental benefits. In many countries local authorities play an important role in the local development, but renewable energy deployment is not an obligatory task for them. Hence there are two research questions: (1) Do local governments think investments in renewable energy (RE) are urgent and affordable within the local budgets? (2) How do they react to the public aid co-financing investments in renewable energy? To provide the answer we performed qualitative analysis and non-parametric tests of data from a survey of 252 local authorities, analysis of 292 strategies of local development and datasets of 1170 renewable energy projects co-financed by EU funds under operational programs 2007–2013 and 2014–2020 in Poland. Findings showed that local authorities' attitudes were rather careful, caused by financial constraints of local budgets and the scope of obligatory tasks, which made renewable energy investments not the most urgent. Public aid was a factor significantly affecting local authorities' behavior. It triggered local authorities' renewable energy initiatives, increasing the number and scope of renewable energy investments as well cooperation with other municipalities and local communities. Despite this general trend, there were also considerable regional differences in local authorities' renewable energy behavior.

**Keywords:** renewable energy; local authorities; European Union funds

#### **1. Introduction**

Do local governments think investments in renewable energy are urgent and affordable within the local budgets? How do they react to the public aid co-financing investments in renewable energy? The crucial and still growing role of renewable energy sources in meeting the urgent need of mitigating climate change, improving energy security and increasing social, economic and environmental benefits has been well recognised and acknowledged [1–6]. Despite all the drawbacks of fossil fuel energy use and benefits of renewable energy (RE), the deployment of renewable energy happens neither on its own nor fast enough [7–9]. It needs to be policy-driven [10–14], supported by adequate legal regulations, international and national strategies, and public aid and incentives [15–19] addressed to relevant beneficiaries. Local governments are considered very important entities in the process of increasing renewable energy production and use at the local level, in many economic, social and political contexts. However, the literature lacks cohesive conclusions on the renewable energy attitudes and behavior of local governments in Poland. This study aims to fill this gap.

#### **2. Literature Review**

The European Union began to build its policy framework for renewable energy in 1997 with the White Paper for a Community Strategy and Action Plan Energy for the future: Renewable sources of energy [20], setting basis for the policy on renewable energy. The policy has significantly evolved afterwards [21–26]. The recent legal framework for the

**Citation:** Rakowska, J.; Ozimek, I. Renewable Energy Attitudes and Behaviour of Local Governments in Poland. *Energies* **2021**, *14*, 2765. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14102765

Academic Editor: Piotr Gradziuk

Received: 30 March 2021 Accepted: 7 May 2021 Published: 12 May 2021

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

promotion of renewable energy sources until 2020 was laid down in directive adopted in 2009 [27], while renewable energy production and consumption goals until 2030 are set in the Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action (EU) 2018/1999 [28], for the EU as a whole and for its individual member states [29].

To promote renewable energy and thus achieve climate goals, the EU applies Cohesion policy instruments, including structural and cohesion funds. They are said to be the most important funding sources for promoting renewable energy among the EU spending programmes, of continusly increasing value—from only 600 million euro during the 2000–2006 programming period, through approximately 4.7 billion euro in the 2007–2013, up to 27 billion euro in 2014–2020 [30]. The EU policy is based on the already well verified assumption that decarbonisation requires solutions at all levels of governance and collaboration—global, regional, national and especially local [31–37].

The focus on the deployment of renewable energy at the local level results from its positive impact on local communities, economies and environment. Renewable energy production and use provide new job opportunities [38–40], cause income generation, diversification of economic activities, use of endogenous resources [41], contribute to satisfying local energy demands [42,43], are drivers of economic recovery in peripheral or remote areas [44–46] and drivers of relevant business opportunities in large metropolitan areas [47]. Renewable energy enables transfer to community-owned energy sources [48,49], decentralisation of energy production and supplies [50,51], even local and regional energy autarky [52–55]. Renewable energy can cause such externalities as positive health effects [56]. However, achieving these benefits requires social capital [57] and the involvement of local actors. Local authorities are of particular significance in this process.

Many studies, providing insight into different political, economic and administrative backgrounds argue that local authorities can play a key role in promoting renewable energy production and use [58–62]. Local authorities can initiate, invest, produce and be the end users of renewable energy [63–66]. Due to the importance of renewable energy the EU addresses its structural funds also to potential beneficiaries who can invest in renewable energy. Local authorities implement some of the state's tasks on a local scale because they have the best knowledge of local factors and development conditions as well as of the needs of local communities. This enables a more accurate adjustment of the supply of public goods and services to local demand. Such approach is in line with the principle of subsidiarity enforced in the cohesion policy of the EU [67]. It orders the decentralization of activities and the delegation of decision-making and executive powers to the lowest possible level of administration, capable of implementing them, in order to ensure the most effective use of public funds. The principle of subsidiarity is anchored in Art. 4, Section 3 of the European Charter of Local Self-Government [68]. Despite this general rule, local authorities in individual member states of the EU have different obligatory and facultative tasks to perform, as well as different measures to obtain their goals. Thus they also play different roles in supporting renewable energy deployment at the local level.

In the Polish legal system, there are currently three main statutory acts that directly regulate the production and use of renewable energy. These are: the Act of 10 April 1997 Energy Law [69], the Act of 20 February 2015 on renewable energy sources [70], and the Act of 20 May 2016 on investments in wind farms [71]. The Act of 20 February 2015 on renewable energy sources defines renewable energy sources as renewable, non-fossil energy sources, including wind energy, energy solar radiation, aerothermal energy, geothermal energy, hydrothermal energy, hydropower, wave, current and tidal energy, energy obtained from biomass, biogas, agricultural biogas and bioliquids. The Energy Law Act specifies, among other, the development of the use of renewable energy installations and provides for certain tasks and competences of administrators, also in relation to local authorities (Articles 17–19 of the EPA). According to Polish law local authorities in Poland are to create and implement the development policy and monitor its effects, using the instruments available and effective in the given conditions [72]. They can support the deployment of renewable energy within their own public tasks, in order to meet the needs of the local

community, as pursuant to the Act of 8 March 1990 on the commune self-government [73], art. 7 sec. 1, they are responsible for 'meeting the collective needs of the community'. Electricity, heat and gas supplies are mentioned expressis verbis among the tasks of the local government.

In Poland, local authorities of municipalities (called in Polish 'gmina' and classified by the European Union as lower LAUs [74]) which are the basic local government unit, can play a special role on the energy market and in the field of renewable energy sources. On one hand, they can independently create energy through their own activities, and on the other hand, they can support the development of energy in their area, due to the applicable regulations [75]. According to some authors [76], a commune and its local authority may act as 'an energy user and a participant in the competitive energy market, as a local energy regulator, as an investor and producer of energy, and as an entity responsible for planning and financing the lighting of public places and roads within its area'. It should be stressed however, that Polish law does not give local authorities too many tools to effectively stimulate the development of renewable energy. The law does not introduce a transparent system of tasks of competences of the administrative entities, in particular in case of the local government [77]. Summing up, Polish local authorities are allowed to, but do not have to support renewable energy.

The European Union structural and cohesion funds allocated in eligible member states in consequent budget perspectives under operational programmes of regional policy were to suport member states also in deploying renewable energy and in achieving overall national targets in this field [78]. In 2007–2013 EU funds co-financing renewable energy investments were available in Poland from the Operational Program Infrastructure and Environment 2007–2013, which received the highest EU funding for any operational program in the history of the EU regional and cohesion policy and from 16 regional operational programs [79]. In financial perspective of 2014–2020 renewable energy projects were supported by EU funds under 16 regional operational programmes. In both these financial perspectives EU funds for renewable energy projects have been addressed to many groups of potential beneficiaries, including local governments.

The review of literature provides theoretical assumptions on the role of local governments in deployment of renewable energy, while the European Union and national legal frameworks together with the EU financial support give local governments opportunities to actively participate in renewable energy deployment. Despite all the above, the literature lacks a broader insight into renewable energy attitudes of local governments in Poland. It also lacks comparative analysis of local governments behavior related to the deployment of renewable energy, supported by EU funds in 2007–2013 and 2014–2020 financial perspectives. The aim of this study is to fill in this gap.

#### **3. Materials and Methods**

The main aim of the study was to answer the following research questions on the attitudes and behavior of local governments: (1) Do local governments think investments in renewable energy are urgent and affordable within the local budgets? (2) How do they react to the public aid co-financing investments in renewable energy? To answer these questions, the study was based on qualitative and quantitative data analyses.

The attitudes of local governments to renewable energy investments were analysed based on the answers to the first research questions, i.e., whether local governments think that investments in renewable energy are urgent and affordable within the local budgets. The data used to answer these questions came from two sources: (i) a survey of local governments of municipalities of Mazovian Voivodship and (ii) a qualitative analysis of data obtained from the strategies of development of municipalities of Mazovian Voivodship. Both analyses were carried out for the municipalities of Mazovian, which is currently NUTS 1 by Eurostat [80]. It was selected for the survey, as it is the largest voivodship in Poland, both in terms of population and the area. At the same time it is a voivodship with the biggest number of municipalities and consequently the largest number of local governments, which are a subject of this research. As the local governments have been functioning within the borders of the same region, they have been addressees of the same regional operational programmes for 2007–2013 and 2014–2020. On the other hand, municipalities of Mazovian Voivodship represent very different types concerning population, population density, total annual budget revenues, rural-urban categories, etc. All these give rationale for the studying the attitudes of local governments to renewable energy investments based on municipalities of Mazovian Voivodship.

The survey questionnaire was sent by mail to governments of all 314 municipalities of Mazovian Voivodship in 2017. The response rate reached 62%. The questionnaire included questions that were compiled to avoid suggesting any answers. The respondents were asked: (i) what investments, that could be carried out by the self-government, were most urgent? (ii) what investments were necessary to improve the quality of natural environment in the municipality? (iii) how they assessed the quality of natural environment in the municipality? (iv) what were the biggest obstacles in supporting the development of the municipalities by local governments?

Strategies of local development of 292 municipalities of Mazovian Voivodship were another source of qualitative data used for the investigation into the attitudes of local self-governments to renewable energy investments. The strategies were retrieved from the websites of municipalities between 3 January 2021 and 20 January 2021. Based on these, we studied 93% of all 314 municipalities of this voivodship. Strategies of local development for the remaining 22 municipalities were not available. In Poland, pursuant to the Act of 8 March 1990 on the municipality government [73], the municipality may develop a development strategy. Although strategies are not obligatory, they are a great help in effective acquisition of funds from European funds and other external sources, including funds for the development of energy from renewable sources.

The retrieved strategies were analysed to find answer to the following, set a priori, research questions: (i) does the strategy include any plans for renewable energy investments? (ii) If so, is the type of renewable energy investment defined? (iii) What type is it (solar, wind, biomass etc.), if defined? (iv) Is the source of financing for renewable energy investments indicated (domestic, EU etc.)? (v) Are the conditions for renewable energy investments favorable in the municipality? (vi) If so, what kind of renewable energy investments are the conditions good for?

The behaviour of local self-governments in the field of renewable energy was analyzed based on qualitative and quantitative data on projects (investments) in renewable energy made by all municipalities in Poland under the 2007–2013 and 2014–2020 operational programs co-financed by the European Union funds (Table 1).

The TERYT codes, names and types of administrative units, as well as addresses and codes of municipality offices were used to verify, complete and merge the datasets, as well as to carry out data curation. To analyze qualitative data we used standard qualitative analysis tools [81–83].

To analyse quantitative data we first applied selected methods of descriptive statistics and tested the distribution of quantitative variables using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. As the results showed that the distribution of the majority of variables is non-normal, the further analysis was performed using non-parametric tests, including and Kruskal-Wallis H test, Mann-Whitney U test together with Wilcoxon rank-sum test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test (Table 2). We applied these non-parametric tests as they are appropriate to obtain answers to our research questions based on variables of non-normal distribution.

**Table 1.** Data categories and sources.

**Table 2.** Statistical methods and their application.

We looked into relations between various qualitative and quantitative features of objects assigned to one category (intra-case analysis) and attempted to define relations between different categories selected from the research sample (cross-case analysis) [91].

#### **4. Results**

#### *4.1. The Attitudes of Local Governments to Renewable Energy Investments*

The first part of the study on attitudes of local governments to renewable energy investments was based on the analysis of 292 local development strategies, retrieved from the websites of the municipalities in 2021. Therefore, the qualitative data set contains qualitative information on 93% of all municipalities of Mazovian Voivodship.

The findings show that 85% of local governments declared the deployment of renewable energy. The types of renewable energy sources were indicated in 53.5% of the analyzed strategies. Other strategies contained only general information, emphasizing that renewable, also called alternative or ecological, energy sources should be deployed.

Among the 248 municipalities which accentuated the need to develop particular types of renewable energy, many referred to several different renewable energy sources at the same time. As many as 94.7% of them pointed out deployment of solar renewable energy, which is the most widespread renewable energy source in Poland, used for electricity production and heating purposes. Since solar energy is processed with the use of solar collectors and photovoltaic panels, 72.3% of the analysed strategies declared installation of solar collectors, and 22.3% photovoltaic panels.

Biomass and its particular types were indicated in 68.1% of strategies, which articulated the need to deploy renewable energy. Biomass consists of products, waste or residues from forest and agricultural production, which are biodegradable. It can also be biogas and some fractions of municipal and industrial waste. So, in 50% of strategies local authorities stated that biomass is in general important as renewable energy sources, sometimes also biogas (6.4%), energy plants (7.4%) or a specific type of an energy plant, i.g. willow (4.3%).

Referring to the source of renewable energy, 40.4% of analyzed strategies declared investments in wind energy, 20.2% use of heat pumps, and 17% geothermal energy. In addition, biofuels were mentioned in 16.0% of them. No strategy involved the analysis or description of conditions for renewable energy investments. No strategy defined what funds will be used to cover the costs of investments in renewable energy, although SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analyses of nearly all of them stated that the possibility of obtaining EU funding is a vital development opportunity.

In the next stage, the study on attitudes of local self-governments to renewable energy investments was based on qualitative datasets obtained from a survey of local governments carried out in 2017. The response rate at the level of 62% provided answers of 195 local authorities. When asked about the most urgent investments in general, only 18% of respondents indicated renewable energy projects. However, they listed investments in renewable energy together with other urgent projects, such as construction or modernisation of roads, sewage systems, water system, support for home sewage system plants, and less of them together with water treatment plants and landfills. Other respondents (82%) listed only road, water supply and treatment, sewage and landfill investments as urgent.

Next, the respondents assessed the quality of the natural environment: 2% as very bad, 13% as bad, 56% as good and 29% as very good. Answering the question on investments necessary to improve the quality of natural environment in the municipality, 18% of respondents indicated renewable energy projects. However, most of them did not list the renewable energy projects as the most urgent for their municipality answering the earlier question. Cross-tabulation of so-far findings showed that all self-governments that listed investments in renewable energy as very urgent assessed the quality of natural environment in their municipalities either as good (61%) or very good (39%). Interestingly enough, none of those who listed investments in renewable energy as very urgent assessed the quality of natural environment as bad or very bad.

All respondents pointed at the lack of funding as the biggest obstacle in supporting the development of municipalities, both those who considered investments in renewable energy project as urgent, and those who did not.

#### *4.2. Local Governments' Renewable Energy Investments under Operational Programs 2007–2013 and 2014–2020*

According to the assumptions of this study, the behaviour of local authorities was assessed based on their investments in renewable energy under operational programs 2007–2013 and 2014–2020, shown in SIMIK database for 2007–2013 (2015) financial perspective and in SL 2014 database for 2014–2020, as a still on-going financial perspective due to *n* + 2 rule.

Over the analysed time local governments became more and more active in investing in renewable energy co-financed by the EU funds under operational programmes. In 2014–2020 compared to 2007–2013 there was a nearly threefold increase in the number of municipalities in Poland that carried out investments in renewable energy. In 2007–2013 it was 9.2% out of all 2479 municipalities in Poland, while in 2014–2020 it was 636 municipalities making 25.6% of all municipalities in the country (Table 3). Investigating rural-urban differences in the behaviour of local authorities we applied classification by the degree of urbanization (DEGURBA). The findings show that in 2007–2013 the shares of cities, towns and suburbs as well as rural municipalities, investing in renewable energy, were quite similar, respectively 11%, 10% and 9%. In 2014–2020 these shares doubled for cities and towns and suburbs, as 20% of each of these groups invested in renewable energy. But rural municipalities became even more active. The share of rural municipalities who invested in renewable energy almost tripled in 2014–2020 compared to 2007–2013.

The increased activity of local governments in deploying renewable energy was also proved by the fact that more and more of them carried out more than only one project. Although in 2007–2013 only 11% of municipalities carried out two projects and 1.7% municipalities three projects, in 2014–2020 the group of municipalities that carried out two and three projects increased significantly, up to 23.4% and 6.9% respectively. Moreover some of municipalities carried out four, six or even nine projects (1.2%; 0.2%; 0.2%, respectively). The increased activity of 111 local governments also shows in carrying out renewable energy investments co-financed by EU funds under operational programmes of both financial perspectives.

The increasing activity of local governments in deploying renewable energy was reflected in much higher mean total value of renewable energy projects carried out in 2014–2020 (Table 4), proving their bigger extent. This effect occurred most strongly in case of cities, which in 2014–2020 invested on average 10 mln Polish zloties more in each renewable energy project than in 2007–2013. Rural municipalities invested on average 2.2 mln more, which was the least increase, however they tripled the number of renewable energy projects as mentioned before.

The projects used mainly solar power and their share increased from 80% to 95%. Other sources of renewable energy were less popular and their share even decreased: in case of projects using hydro-, geothermal and other renewable energy sources from 14% to 3% and in case of biomass from 5% to 1%. Wind renewable energy projects made less than 1% of all renewable energy investments by municipalities. The investments resulted in modernization of heating systems for public buildings, installation of water heating systems for swimming pools, installation of economic lighting of municipal roads and squares, including hybrid lighting, biomass boiler networks together with the installation of solar collectors, installation of photovoltaics, Uniejów thermal baths.

The behavior of local authorities changed positively considering the collaboration in renewable energy projects. During the first financial perspective a prevailing majority of projects (96%) was carried out by individual municipalities, only 4% of projects were carried out in collaboration at that time. This has changed during the on-going financial perspective as 28.7% of projects were carried out in collaboration between from two to 10 municipalities, and in one case even by 41 municipalities. Analysis of qualitative data shows that investing in renewable energy municipalities collaborated with other municipalities listed as partners, and with local residents mentioned in the descriptions of projects.

**Table 3.** Number of

municipalities-investors

 and renewable energy projects under operational

 programs of 2007–2013 and 2014–2020.

In case of projects carried out in collaboration, only one municipality was registered in adequate databases as the beneficiary, which significantly influences the interpretation of data on the number of beneficiaries and the number of renewable energy projects locations, shown in Figure 1 for the financial perspective 2007–2013 and in Figure 2 for 2014–2020.

**Figure 1.** Location of renewable energy projects carried out by local authorities under operational programs 2007–2013, by the source of renewable energy.

**Figure 2.** Location of renewable energy projects carried out by local authorities under operational programs 2014–2020 by the source of renewable energy.

The increased collaboration means that there are more municipalities, actual beneficiaries of EU funding for renewable energy projects, than those shown in databases as 'leading beneficiaries'.

There are significant regional differences in the behavior of local authorities in the field of renewable energy investments under operational programs. More renewable energy projects were carried out in Podlaskie and Lubelskie Voivodships of Eastern Poland starting from 2007–2013, and the largest increase was also noted in those two regions. However, the number of renewable energy projects carried out by local governments also increased in regions of southern and northern parts of the country. Local governments of central regions were moderately active, and those in eastern Poland the least active in carrying out renewable energy projects co-financed by EU funds.

In both financial perspectives the renewable energy projects were co-financed by EU funds from the European Regional Development Fund. In 2007–2013 local authorities obtained these funds from the Operational Programme Infrastructure and Environment 2007–2013 (OPIE), which received the highest EU funding for any operational program in the history of EU regional and cohesion policy and from 16 regional operational programmes. In 2014–2020 the EU funds were obtained from 16 regional operational programmes. We tested whether the type of municipalities affected the total value of renewable energy projects and the share of EU funds in the total value of renewable energy projects using Kruskal-Wallis test (Table 5). The results show that the total value of renewable energy projects was not significantly affected by the types of municipalities in 2007–2013, but it was significantly affected in 2014–2020. The shares of EU funds in the total value of renewable energy projects were significantly affected by the types of municipalities neither in 2007–2013 nor in 2014–2020.

**Table 5.** Kruskal-Wallis tests for the type of municipalities vs. total value of renewable energy projects and the share of EU funds in the total value of renewable energy projects in 2007–2013 and 2014–2020.

To investigate whether the total value, the value of European Union funds and their share in the total value of renewable energy projects differed significantly between cities, towns and suburbs, and rural municipalities in the consecutive financial perspectives, we ran Mann-Whitney tests, and Wilcoxon rank-sum test (Table 6), illustrated with descriptive statistics for these variables in (Tables 3 and 4).

Based on the results shown in Table 4 we conclude that these variables for cities (1) did not differ significantly from those for towns and suburbs (2), both in 2007–2013 and in 2014–2020. Most of the analyzed variables describing renewable energy projects by cities (1) did not differ significantly from those describing this kind of projects by rural municipalities (3). There are only two exceptions. The first is that the value of EU funds for the analyzed projects by cities was significantly different from that obtained for projects by rural municipalities in 2014–2020. The second is that the share of EU funds in the total value of renewable energy projects carried out by the cities was significantly different from the share of EU funds in the total value of renewable energy projects carried out by rural municipalities in 2007–2013.

A \*—2007–2013 financial perspective; B \*—2014–2020 financial perspective; b—based on a sample of 10,000 tables at the starting number 92,208,573 of the generator of random numbers, \*\*\* types of municipalities coded as: (1) cities, (2) towns and suburbs and (3) rural municipalities. Grey cells show significant differences.

> Some significant differences appeared between rural municipalities and those classified as towns and suburbs in the two financial perspectives. The total value of renewable energy projects carried by towns and suburbs was significantly different from that obtained by rural municipalities in 2007–2013 and similarly in 2014–2020. Alike in case of cities and rural municipalities, in 2014–2020 the value of EU funds for renewable energy projects by towns and suburbs was significantly different from that obtained by rural municipalities.

> We tested whether the total value, the value of EU funding and the share of EU funding in the total value varied in the analyzed two financial perspectives using a Wilcoxon signedrank test (Table 7). Its results show, that both the total value of projects and the value of EU funds were higher in 2014–2020 than in 2007–2013, while the share of EU funds in the total value of renewable energy projects decreased in 2014–2020, which is explained by the fact that the increase in total value was higher than the increase in the value of EU funds.

#### **5. Discussion**

Local authorities of 85% of the analyzed municipalities declared deployment of renewable energy in their municipalities as one of the aims of development strategies. However, the strategies themselves contained rather general information on the type of renewable energy that could be used. Additionally, none of the strategies involved analysis of the conditions for renewable energy development or the sources of funds for such investments. It shows that, although the strategies can be an important instrument of encouraging

renewable energy development at the local and regional level in other countries [92–95], they are not used this way in Poland yet.

Although such a large share of local authorities declares deployment of renewable energy, many less of them find it the most urgent need. Knowing the local conditions and being obliged by the law to perform obligatory tasks, local authorities indicate construction or modernisation of roads, sewage systems, water system, support for home sewage system plants, and less of them together with water treatment plants and landfills as the most urgent. This hierarchy is also caused by local budgets constraints that do not allow local authorities to extend their investments beyond the obligatory tasks. These obstacles in developing renewable energy are also observed in other countries [96–98]. Referring to this problem, local authorities pointed at EU funds as a crucial factor moderating budget constraints. This is in line with many studies which prove that the success in introducing renewable energy largely depends on public aid [13].

Findings of our study prove that there is a substantial progress in the number and scope of investments in renewable energy carried out by local authorities in Poland under operational programmes 2007–2013 and 2014–2020. Taking into consideration rural-urban classification of municipalities, the cities, towns and suburbs doubled their renewable energy projects co-financed by the EU funds, while rural municipalities even tripled them. This is an important outcome as renewable energy is said to be an under-utilised resource both in urban and rural areas [99–101]. The increase in the intensity of renewable energy projects is reflected also by the fact that during 2014–2020 more communities carried out more than 1 renewable energy project.

In both analysed financial perspectives there were more renewable energy investments in the north and east of Poland. The numerous renewable energy projects in voivodships of Eastern Poland confirm that smaller and more remote communities may be more willing to deploy renewable energy [102], as regions of Eastern Poland are among the poorest in the EU.

During 2014–2020 there was a more widespread collaboration between local authorities and between local authorities and residents in carrying out renewable energy projects. The collaboration with the local population may increase their acceptance and support for developing renewable energy sources. Local acceptance is recognised as one of the main determinants of deploying renewable energy at the local level and transition towards decentralized energy systems and achieving regional energy self-sufficiency [32,45,103,104]. Mutual projects carried out by local authorities and municipality residents can have an added value. They may enable to 'experience benefits' and start a 'local participatory process' [105], by encouraging others to benefit from renewable energy and increase their support and commitment to renewable energy development. This is important as resistance or unwillingness of local population to new energy infrastructure may cause conflicts [106] and hinder achieving the EU goals [107]. None of the projects showed collaboration between local authorities and university, industry, or government, which could be favorable to increase renewable energy at local level [108].

Renewable energy projects carried out by communities used mainly sun renewable energy, which is the most easily accessible and relatively least controversial. The effects of projects improved energy efficiency of public buildings and public utilities, as well as family homes in case of projects carried out in collaboration with residents. Such effects are also observed in other countries [109]. The effects improved the quality of life which is are considered success factors in case of renewable energy projects carried out by local governments [104].

The use of EU funding (international aid) by local authorities proves that multilevel governance is effective and necessary to achieve the renewable energy and consequently sustainable development goals [110].

#### **6. Limitations**

As the study is based on a survey carried out in one of Polish regions and on the data for the EU supported projects, we think there may be two limitations to it. We sent the survey to all municipalities in Mazovian Voivodship and we achieved response rate of 62% for this largest region in Poland. However, local governments in other regions were not surveyed and their opinions may be different.

The other limitation may result from the fact that findings on the analysed effects of projects under operational programs tell an important, but possibly not the whole story on the behaviour of local governments towards renewable energy investments. Other sources of financing for such investments can be available to some local governments and used by them. Thus other studies should look into this matter.

#### **7. Conclusions**

According to the law, deployment of renewable energy is not an obligatory task for Polish local authorities. However, they are allowed to support its development. Based on the findings we claim that a majority of local authorities declare deployment of renewable energy as one of goals in the strategies of local development, but they do not perceive it the most urgent matter. In local governments' experience the catalogue of obligatory tasks together with budget constraints make renewable energy deployment less feasible and less urgent. Thus we conclude that the careful declarations on renewable energy deployment reflecting local authorities' attitudes are caused by the awareness of financial (dis)abilities of local budgets. However, possibilities of obtaining public aid, here EU funds, are a stimulus affecting local authorities' behaviour positively, resulting in the increasing number and scope of investments in renewable energy between consecutive financial perspectives.

There were significant differences in the number of local governments' renewable energy investments carried out in the regions of Western and Eastern Poland, but there were no regional differences in the sources—a prevailing majority of the analyzed projects used sun renewable energy. As many projects were carried out jointly by either different local governments or by local governments and residents, they improved energy efficiency of not only public buildings and public utilities, but also family homes. So it is recommended to promote such practices and achieved benefits of local collaboration to start or strengthen participatory processes in more local communities.

Drawing up on the findings and discussion, it is recommended that more public aid should be addressed to co-finance renewable energy projects carried out by local authorities. The principles of co-financing should be evidence-based and should promote practices that are best in a given social, economic and environmental context. Thus, further research into the attitudes and behaviour of local authorities and other actors should be carried out to provide a basis for multilevel decisions on the deployment of renewable energy.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, J.R.; methodology, J.R. and I.O.; validation, J.R.; formal analysis, J.R. and I.O.; investigation, J.R. and I.O.; data curation, J.R.; writing—original draft preparation, J.R. and I.O.; writing—review and editing J.R.; visualization, J.R.; supervision, J.R. and I.O.; project administration, J.R.; funding acquisition, J.R. and I.O. Both authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

#### **References**


*Edited by Fatma Ben Salem*

This book deals with the design and analysis of Direct Torque Control (DTC). It introduces readers to two major applications of electrical machines: speed drive and position control and gives the readers a comprehensive overview of the field of DTC dedicated to AC machines. It includes new DTC approaches with and without control of commutation frequency. It also covers DTC applications using artificial intelligence. The book combines theoretical analysis, simulation, and experimental concepts.To make the content as accessible as possible, the book employs a clear proposal in each chapter, moving from the background, to numerical development, and finally to case studies and illustrations. The book is a wide-ranging reference source for graduate students, researchers, and professors from related fields and it will benefit practicing engineers and experts from the industry.

Published in London, UK © 2021 IntechOpen © gornostaj / iStock

Direct Torque Control Strategies of Electrical Machines

Direct Torque Control

Strategies of Electrical

Machines

*Edited by Fatma Ben Salem*