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The succession of crises in the French professional fishing sector raises the question of the sector's capacity to adapt to changes in its global environment, and of the possibilities for fishermen to change their practices. Through interviews with fishermen and representatives, 5 ideal types of individual transitions were described, as well as two examples of changes in the fisheries management system. Some changes can be characterised as adaptations following a shock, rather than real voluntary and planned transitions. Voluntary individual transitions do exist, however, initiated by a variable trigger factor, but they require a high degree of introspection about personal and professional expectations. These examples of transitions are made possible by the rare synchronisation of external events and various characteristics of the project owners and remain overall a niche phenomenon in the current situation. There is little scope for transition in the sector, mainly because of the difficulty of accessing production rights and the rigidity of management systems. To help the sector evolve and adapt to a changing macro-environment (organisational, environmental, societal, energy, etc.), transition levers can be mobilised at organisational, political, financial, technical, social and societal levels. The age structure of ships and people will probably be the mainstay of a major reconfiguration of the sector in the short term.

Abstract We apply an approach that theoretically connects processes at different scales within a sociotechnical sustainability transitions frame, focusing on individual actors. Drawing on interviews with actors involved in the electric mobility transition in Lower Saxony, Germany, we analyse actors’ narratives as revelatory of situated or ‘conjunctural’ knowledge, as viewed from a strong structuration perspective of sociotechnical change. The purpose is to shed a particular type of light on structure-agency processes. Strong structuration is an extended version of Giddens’ social theory that takes account of actors’ subjective experience of their situation, viewing this as both shaped by - and shaping of - structure, in the sense of rules that are internal and external to individuals. Here we show how actors’ narratives of their experiences and positions in the sociotechnical system reveal themes relevant to the on-going structuration electric vehicles in the case study region of Lower Saxony, Germany. We identify general ‘meta-narratives’ that span more than one individual, as well as personal narratives that are specific to individuals. In addition, the analytic value of narratives in transition literature is discussed.

Electric vehicles offer the potential of climate-friendly driving and have received more and more attention in diffusion research recently. However, the effect of the availability of home charging options on the market potential of electric vehicles has not been targeted in detail in the diffusion process so far, although it represents a beneficial differentiation to conventional vehicles. Therefore, we present an agent-based simulation to address the buying behavior of German consumers regarding electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles using empirical data primarily derived from a choice-based conjoint study. We explicitly consider individual possibilities of home charging in our model, which appears to have an important influence on the diffusion of both, electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. However, its importance decreases with faster charging times at public charging stations. Furthermore, our findings reveal that in the longer term, technological progress in charging time, range, and charging station density of electric vehicles is presumably cannibalizing plug-in hybrid electric vehicles’ market shares more than that of conventional vehicles. However, with still lower technological capabilities of electric vehicles, a governmental subsidy can initially promote plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, but electric vehicles will benefit later from that promotional effect.

Users charging the batteries of their electric vehicles in an uncoordinated manner can present energy systems with a challenge. One possible solution, smart charging, relies on the flexibility within each charging process and controls the charging process to optimize different objectives. Effective smart charging requires forecasts of energy requirements and parking duration at the charging station for each individual charging process. We use data from travel logs to create quantile forecasts of parking duration and energy requirements, approximated by upcoming trip distance. For this task, we apply quantile regression, multi-layer perceptrons with tilted loss function, and multivariate conditional kernel density estimators. The out-of-sample evaluation shows that the use of local information from the vehicle's travel data improves the forecasting accuracy by 13.7% for parking duration and 0.56% for trip distance compared to the data generated at the charging stations. In addition, the analysis of a case study shows that using probabilistic forecasts can control the interruption of charging processes more efficiently compared to point forecasts. Probabilistic forecasting leads up to 7.0% less interruptions, which can cause a restriction in drivers' mobility demand. The results show that charging station operators benefit from leveraging the driving patterns of electric vehicles. Thereby, smart charging and the application of the proposed models as benchmarks models for the related forecasting tasks is an improvement for the operators.

This paper addresses the role of policy in driving technology change to reduce maritime transport emissions. While liquefied natural gas (LNG) is little better than fuel oil from a carbon perspective, it emits very low levels of other pollutants Sulphur Oxides (SOx), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) and Particulate Matter (PM). However, despite a great deal of policy effort, the switch from fuel oil to LNG has not occurred at significant scale. Policy makers are already turning towards other fuels such as hydrogen. This paper explores the failure of policy to support the transition to LNG through the lens of the principal-agent problem, examining the influence of its key challenges at the intersection of three geographical scales (international, supranational and national) in the European Union. The case analysis reveals a lack of incentive alignment between both different levels of public actors (the EU and member states) and between public and private actors, producing a lack of agency and an uncertainpolicy environment, exacerbated by a lack of monitoring and sanctions by the EU of its member states. This research provides a better understanding of the shortcomings of transition policy in the case of LNG which provides lessons on the need for more coherent, comprehensive and stringent policy that could prevent another policy failure in the transition towards other alternative fuels.

Adopting electric vehicles (EVs) and implementing variable electricity tariffs increase peak demand and the risk of congestion in distribution grids. To avert critical grid situations and sidestep expensive grid expansions, Distribution System Operators (DSOs) must have intervention rights, allowing them to curtail charging processes. Various curtailment strategies are possible, varying in spatio-temporal differentiation and possible discrimination. However, evaluating different strategies is complex due to the interplay of economic factors, technical requirements, and regulatory constraints - a complexity not fully addressed in the current literature. Our study introduces a sophisticated model to optimize electric vehicle charging strategies to address this gap. This model considers different tariff schemes (Fixed, Time-of-Use, and Real-Time) and incorporates DSO interventions (basic, variable, and smart) within its optimization framework. Based on the model, we analyze the ´rexibility demand and total electricity costs from the users' perspective. Applying our model to a synthetic distribution grid, we îond that ´rexible tariffs offer consumers only marginal economic benefits and increase the risk of grid congestion due to herding behavior. All curtailment strategies effectively alleviate congestion, with variable curtailment featuring spatio-temporal differentiation, approaching optimality regarding ´rexibility demand. Notably, applying curtailment from the users' perspective does not lower cost savings significantly.

Abstract Thermal storage offers an alternative to the consumption of battery charge for many applications requiring heat, space heating in electric vehicles for example. Metallic phase change materials are energy dense, thermally conductive and are economically viable for this application. The frequent cycling and non-inertial environment of an electric vehicle necessitate compatibility between the metallic phase change material and the container up to and beyond the metal's melting point. This article is concerned with the identification of alloys appropriate for this application and containers appropriate for those alloys utilising automated macro generation, implemented in two CALPHAD database. Thermal properties sufficient for engineering calculations of over a hundred eutectic compositions are tabulated and compatible containers identified where possible. The output of the study is validated by comparison to literature.

In several Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs), rapid population growth and inadequate management of coastal fish habitats and stocks is causing a gap to emerge between the amount of fish recommended for good nutrition and sustainable harvests from coastal fisheries. The effects of ocean warming and acidification on coral reefs, and the effects of climate change on mangrove and seagrass habitats, are expected to widen this gap. To optimise the contributions of small-scale fisheries to food security in PICTs, adaptations are needed to minimise and fill the gap. Key measures to minimise the gap include community-based approaches to: manage catchment vegetation to reduce sedimentation; maintain the structural complexity of fish habitats; allow landward migration of mangroves as sea level rises; sustain recruitment and production of demersal fish by managing ‘source’ populations; and diversify fishing methods to increase catches of species favoured by climate change. The main adaptions to help fill the gap in fish supply include: transferring some fishing effort from coral reefs to tuna and other large pelagic fish by scaling-up the use of nearshore fish aggregating devices; developing fisheries for small pelagic species; and extending the shelf life of catches by improving post-harvest methods. Modelling the effects of climate change on the distribution of yellowfin tuna, skipjack tuna, wahoo and mahi mahi, indicates that these species are likely to remain abundant enough to implement these adaptations in most PICTs until 2050. We conclude by outlining the policies needed to support the recommended adaptations.