• Energy Research
• 13. Climate action close
• 15. Life on land close
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• BE close
• University of Liège close

Underground Pumped Storage Hydropower (UPSH) is an alternative to manage the electricity production in flat regions. UPSH plants consist of two reservoirs of which at least one is underground. For this last reservoir, abandoned mines could be considered. UPSH related activities may induce hydrochemical variations, such as the increase of the oxygen (O2) partial pressure (pO2), which may entail negative consequences in terms of environment and efficiency, especially in coal mined areas where the presence of sulfide minerals is common. This work assesses the main expected environmental impacts that UPSH using abandoned coal mines may induce. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. E. Pujades and A. Jurado gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the University of Liège and the EU through the Marie Curie BeIPD-COFUND postdoctoral fellowship programme (2014/16 and 2015/17 fellows from “FP7-MSCA-COFUND, 600405”). This research has been supported by the Public Service of Wallonia – Department of Energy and Sustainable Building. Peer reviewed

AbstractThe mechanistic pathways connecting ocean-atmosphere variability and terrestrial productivity are well-established theoretically, but remain challenging to quantify empirically. Such quantification will greatly improve the assessment and prediction of changes in terrestrial carbon sequestration in response to dynamically induced climatic extremes. The jet stream latitude (JSL) over the North Atlantic-European domain provides a synthetic and robust physical framework that integrates climate variability not accounted for by atmospheric circulation patterns alone. Surface climate impacts of north-south summer JSL displacements are not uniform across Europe, but rather create a northwestern-southeastern dipole in forest productivity and radial-growth anomalies. Summer JSL variability over the eastern North Atlantic-European domain (5-40E) exerts the strongest impact on European beech, inducing anomalies of up to 30% in modelled gross primary productivity and 50% in radial tree growth. The net effects of JSL movements on terrestrial carbon fluxes depend on forest density, carbon stocks, and productivity imbalances across biogeographic regions.

Abstract. The responses of crop functioning to changing climate and atmospheric CO2 concentration ([CO2]) could have large effects on food production, and impact carbon, water and energy fluxes, causing feedbacks to climate. To simulate the responses of temperate crops to changing climate and [CO2], accounting for the specific phenology of crops mediated by management practice, we present here the development of a process-oriented terrestrial biogeochemical model named ORCHIDEE-CROP (v0), which integrates a generic crop phenology and harvest module and a very simple parameterization of nitrogen fertilization, into the land surface model (LSM) ORCHIDEEv196, in order to simulate biophysical and biochemical interactions in croplands, as well as plant productivity and harvested yield. The model is applicable for a range of temperate crops, but it is tested here for maize and winter wheat, with the phenological parameterizations of two European varieties originating from the STICS agronomical model. We evaluate the ORCHIDEE-CROP (v0) model against eddy covariance and biometric measurements at 7 winter wheat and maize sites in Europe. The specific ecosystem variables used in the evaluation are CO2 fluxes (NEE), latent heat and sensible heat fluxes. Additional measurements of leaf area index (LAI), aboveground biomass and yield are used as well. Evaluation results reveal that ORCHIDEE-CROP (v0) reproduces the observed timing of crop development stages and the amplitude of pertaining LAI changes in contrast to ORCHIDEEv196 in which by default crops have the same phenology than grass. A near-halving of the root mean square error of LAI from 2.38 ± 0.77 to 1.08 ± 0.34 m2 m−2 is obtained between ORCHIDEEv196 and ORCHIDEE-CROP (v0) across the 7 study sites. Improved crop phenology and carbon allocation lead to a general good match between modelled and observed aboveground biomass (with a normalized root mean squared error (NRMSE) of 11.0–54.2 %), crop yield, as well as of the daily carbon and energy fluxes with NRMSE of ~9.0–20.1 and ~9.4–22.3 % for NEE, and sensible and latent heat fluxes, respectively. The model data mistfit for energy fluxes are within uncertainties of the measurements, which themselves show an incomplete energy balance closure within the range 80.6–86.3 %. The remaining discrepancies between modelled and observed LAI and other variables at specific sites are partly attributable to unrealistic representation of management events. In addition, ORCHIDEE-CROP (v0) is shown to have the ability to capture the spatial gradients of carbon and energy-related variables, such as gross primary productivity, NEE, sensible heat fluxes and latent heat fluxes, across the sites in Europe, an important requirement for future spatially explicit simulations. Further improvement of the model with an explicit parameterization of nutrition dynamics and of management, is expected to improve its predictive ability to simulate croplands in an Earth System Model.

The potential of carbon dioxide emissions mitigation in the building sector can be achieved through energy policies, progressive goals, and support systems to attain sustainable constructions that guarantee the reduction of emissions. Net-Zero Energy Buildings (NZEB) is a concept that allows moving forward to neutralize buildings’ carbon emissions. This has been demonstrated by more industrial countries which have set goals and challenges to progressively approach an energy neutrality balance for buildings. Therefore, the target of this research is to define a framework for a new standard to reach NZEB in Chile. Firstly, an exhaustive review of the energy policies, NZEB definitions, and components of an NZEB system took place. Secondly, focus group discussions with local and international professionals from the building sector were organized to define a vision, opportunities, and potential measures with a focus on policies, to implement and develop local technologies for NZEB buildings in Chile. The study identifies the need to advance public policies to achieve an integrated policy for the implementation of energy neutral concept buildings. Finally, the paper presents a NZEB standard framework, including key performance indicators and suggested performance metrics thresholds.