Abstract
This paper presents a comprehensive study of the technical and economic benefits that a typical residential prosumer may experience when investing in a solar photovoltaic (PV) system with a battery energy storage system (BESS). To this end, a home energy management system has been designed to simulate the prosumer's daily operation, considering a novel method for calculating battery degradation while minimizing its operating costs. In order to contribute to the regulatory review process of the distributed generation underway in Brazil, a set of PV+BESS configurations has been assessed under the current and future regulatory scenarios proposed for discussion by the Brazilian regulatory agency. Although the results demonstrate that the prosumer's self-consumption rate may increase up to 14% with the BESS coupling in the PV system, the investment proved to be economically unattractive in the current regulatory scenario and practically unfeasible in any of the proposed future scenarios. To make PV+BESS systems economically feasible, some business models are proposed and discussed, and for example, provide subsidies for policymakers, financial agents, and battery manufacturers. A sensitivity analysis for each business model showing its economic feasibility spectrum is provided to assist the different sector players, especially the consumers, in their decision-making process.

Abstract
In recent years, the large deployment of distributed energy resources (DERs) in low voltage networks is changing the traditional approach to power systems. This massive change is pushing towards new solutions to improve energy trading in low voltage networks. Consumer-centric options, such as full peer-to-peer (P2P) and energy community markets (CM) are seen as viable options to increase the active participation of end-users in the electricity markets. This work studies the full P2P and CM market approaches applied to the actual regulatory framework in Brazil, evaluating and comparing both approaches to be potentially applied in Brazil. A case study based on a typical Brazilian neighborhood is designed, allowing to assess the behavior of consumers and prosumers in both markets. The results show the economic viability of both models, considering the social welfare and the penetration of distributed generation in the system. An important conclusion under the current regulatory framework is that the full P2P can have greater benefits over the CM, as long as the distributed generation is enough to confer near self-sufficiency to the peer's demand.

Abstract
Renewable energy communities (REC) and local energy markets (LEM) emerge as entities capable, not only to promote the penetration of renewable energy sources into lower levels of the grid, but also to manage distributed energy resources (DER) and local energy exchanges between small players. This paper proposes a benefit assessment among different regulatory frameworks for LEM, considering network constraints and a virtual storage unit. Results show significant savings can be achieved, even without storage. Therefore, the continuous increase of DER can have considerable grid impacts if not complemented by other structures as storage or by alternative market services like flexibility.

Abstract
The circular economy contrasts with the traditional linear economy since it presents a sustainable way both to produce goods and services and to contribute to the development of economies. This paper aims to contribute to a better knowledge of the efficiency of resources productivity, a common indicator to compare how circular economies are, through the estimation of the main determinants for the circular economy in Europe. A systematic analysis and comparison of the performance of all the European Union countries was performed to get further insight into their root causes and to help designing future policies towards a more circular European Union economy. With this purpose, a set of determinant factors for a circular economy in Europe were analysed, under the period between 2000 and 2016. A cluster analysis was applied and complemented with three econometric estimation methods: panel unit root tests, panel cointegration tests and vector autoregression model. The main findings allowed to cluster European countries into three different groups according to the growth rate of their resources productivity and to explain them according to the selected exploratory factors. Special efforts were made to explain the highest productivity growth group, as a way to find relevant drivers towards sustainable productivity growths.

Abstract
Power systems will face important structural changes in the near future due to the empowerment of consumers, who may resort on self-consumption, and reduce their purchases of electricity from the grid. The avoided costs of purchasing energy, as compared to the investment costs of installing their own self-generation capacity, could be one of the drivers of the consumers' decision making. The system expansion will therefore result from the interaction of the traditional market agents, maximizing their profits by investing in and operating centralized generation assets, and the new active consumers, minimizing their expenses while meeting their energy needs. This paper presents a Nash equilibrium model that considers centralized and behind-the-meter distributed generation expansion, by representing the operation and investments decisions of both types of agents with their own conceptually different strategies. To simplify the resolution, the equilibrium model is transformed into an equivalent minimization problem from its Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions. The model application to Spain-like system case example allows to assess the impact of the network access-tariff (whether being mainly volumetric-based or power-based) and the impact of the big industrial market power on the generation expansion, for the time horizon 2019-2037.

Abstract
The way plastics are currently produced, used and disposed does not capture the economic benefits of amore 'circular' approach and is dramatically harming the environment. It is relevant to determine which European countries can be considered more or less efficient in the end-of-life of plastic products processes, what the sources of the inefficiencies are, and howthose less efficient countries could improve their performance towards a more circular economy. Although some countries have developed a variety of quantitative indicators, there is scarcity of adequate metrics for performance measurements. This paper estimates the efficiency of 26 European countries in the context of Circular Economy, for the period 2006-2016, considering the generation of waste, recovery and recycling of plastic, with a methodology based on theMultidirectional Efficiency Analysis. Apart from identifying the most efficient countries in the studied period, results show that efficiency increases for most countries with time, and that many countries reach the full efficiency by the end of the study period, and especially by 2016. Input analysis shows that increasing capital seems to be a main driver towards efficiency, since the other inputs are used with a similar efficiency by most countries. Output analysis suggest that the difference among countries efficiency is not in their reduction of total waste or emissions, but rather in the improvement of their economic growth in a circular way, that is, improving GDP but also the recovering and recycling activities. These results could be useful to design policies towards a more efficient and circular use of plastics.