• Energy Research
• 2016-2025close
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The rapidly changing climate presents unprecedented challenges, especially in permafrost regions, where its thawing directly affects houses, mines, roads, pipelines, airport runways, and rail tracks. Monitoring the dynamics of ground ice in permafrost landscapes is essential for assessing geohazards and adapting infrastructure to changing conditions. This abstract presents a new initiative utilizing cosmic neutrons metrology for permafrost studies, specifically focusing on ground-ice content monitoring. Traditional methods for assessing ground-ice content in permafrost regions involve labor-intensive surveys and analysis of geomorphological features. However, these approaches are often limited in spatial coverage and may not capture the full extent of ground-ice distribution. In response to these challenges, we propose leveraging cosmic neutrons as a non-invasive and scalable method for assessing ground-ice content. Cosmic neutrons naturally penetrate the Earth's surface and interact with hydrogen atoms in the soil, including those bound in water molecules. By measuring the cosmic neutron albedo, which is the flux of epithermal neutrons that are partially thermalized in the ground, we can infer the presence and distribution of ground ice. This approach builds upon established techniques used for soil moisture monitoring, adapting them for permafrost studies. In that regard, we conducted Monte Carlo simulations of cosmic neutron transport and interaction with modeled ground to investigate the feasibility of using cosmic neutrons for ground-ice content monitoring. Our simulations considered various ground compositions and ice concentrations to assess the sensitivity of cosmic neutron measurements to ground-ice content. The results of our simulations provide promising proof-of-concept for the proposed method, demonstrating its potential for accurately estimating ground-ice content in permafrost landscapes. Additionally, we are developing at DOSEO (CEA – Saclay, France) thermal over fast neutron reference fields that could be used to test, characterize, and calibrate detectors specifically for the presented application. The proposed method offers several advantages. Firstly, it provides measurements on a metric scale (~10m wide on ~1m depth), effectively balancing local detail with regional coverage, thus making it well-suited for mapping geohazards on a kilometric scale. Additionally, cosmic neutrons albedo measurements is non-destructive and non-invasive and can be applied across diverse permafrost landscapes, offering valuable insights into ground-ice dynamics. Moreover, mapping ground-ice content is feasible through the flexible deployment of neutron detectors. These detectors can either be moved around the study area to gather spatially distributed measurements or installed as fixed monitoring stations, enabling continuous observation of ground-ice dynamics across different seasons and over time. Integration of data from cosmic neutrons albedo measurements into Geographic Information System (GIS) applications enhances the ability to map geohazards and predict future changes in permafrost landscape stability. By combining information on ground-ice content with elevation, drainage patterns, periglacial features, and infrastructure, a better understanding of the interactions between climate change and geohazards in permafrost regions is achievable.In conclusion, cosmic neutrons metrology offers a promising approach for monitoring ground-ice content in permafrost landscapes. By advancing our understanding of permafrost dynamics, this initiative contributes to the broader goals of cryosphere monitoring and sustainable development.

Abstract The adoption rate and stringency of building energy standards in the U.S. have been increasing since the mid-1990s as a result of the Energy Policy Act mandate of 1992 (EPAct). Current evidence on the energy savings that accrue from commercial building energy standards is based on engineering simulations, which do not account for realized behaviour once a standard is actually adopted. This paper uses quasi-experimental variation in commercial building energy standard adoptions to estimate their effect on realized electricity consumption and cost-effectiveness. In states induced by EPAct to adopt an energy standard where all new nonresidential construction was erected under a commercial standard, electricity consumption per service worker is lower by about 12%, and total commercial electricity consumption is lower by 10%. Including early adopters and never-adopters to the analysis leads to a downward bias in the treatment effect. The realized electricity savings in the EPAct states represent three quarters of predicted simulated savings, and electricity saved in 2010 came at a cost of approximately 7.7 cents per kWh.

The delivery of precipitation through large and small scale precipitation features plays a key role in the hydrological cycle. Therefore, it is important to understand how the organization of precipitation will change as the earth warms. The organization of precipitation can be characterized into either widespread, mesoscale precipitation features (MPF) or short-lived, isolated precipitation features (IPF). The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model was used to simulate precipitation features at a 3 km resolution during the 17-22 June 2010 period in the Southeast US under present and future climate conditions. In this methodology, the model is first run in present climate mode and then rerun with an adjusted initial state that adds projected temperature anomalies for the 2090s based on Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5 from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) in the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). In the future climate simulations, small changes in precipitation occurred under RCP4.5 warming, but many significant changes were noted under RCP8.5 warming. Domain-averaged precipitation increased in the future climate simulations, with the largest changes over the ocean relative to the continent. In the future climates, IPF grew larger in length and eventually coalesced into MPF, reducing the total number of IPF and increasing the number of MPF. IPF and MPF also extended deeper into the troposphere and produced more precipitation overall.

Abstract For 118 million residential housing units in the U.S., there is currently a gap between the potential energy savings that can be achieved through the use of existing energy efficiency technologies, and the actual level of energy savings realized, particularly for the 37% of housing units that are considered residential rental properties. Additional quantifiable benefits are needed beyond energy savings to help further motivate residential property owners to invest in energy efficiency upgrades. This research focuses on assessing the adoption of energy efficient upgrades in U.S. residential housing and the impact on rental prices. Ten U.S. cities are chosen for analysis; these cities vary in size across multiple climate zones, and represent a diverse set of housing market conditions. Data was collected for over 159,000 rental property listings, their characteristics, and their energy efficiency measures listed in rental housing postings across each city. Following an extensive data quality control process, over thirty different types energy efficient features were identified. The level of adoption was determined for each city, ranging from 5.3% to 21.6%. Efficient lighting and appliances were among the most common, with many features doubling as energy efficient and other desirable aesthetic or comfort improvements. Then using propensity score matching and conditional mean comparison methods, the relative impact on rent charged in each city was calculated, which ranged from a 6% to 14.1% increase in rent for properties with energy efficient features, demonstrating a positive economic impact of these features, particularly for property owners. This was further subdivided into five types of energy efficiency upgrade and three housing types. Single family homes generally demanded higher premiums with energy efficient features, however there was not a consistent pattern across the types of efficient upgrades. The results of this work demonstrate that investment in energy efficient technologies has quantifiable benefits for rental property owners in the U.S. beyond just energy savings. This methodology and results can also be used in other cities and by property owners, utility companies, or others, ultimately encouraging further investment and positive economic impact in residential energy efficiency and in turn improving energy and resource conservation in the building sector.

Abstract The Seed-and-Blanket (SB it is few percent higher than that of the 2-stage PWR-ABR system. Approximately 7% of the thorium fed to the blanket is converted into energy, which makes the thorium fuel utilization approximately 12 times the utilization of natural uranium in PWRs. A comprehensive fuel cycle evaluation performed with the methodology developed by the recent U.S Department of Energy’s Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation and Screening campaign concludes that the PWR-S&B system has similar fuel cycle performance characteristics as the PWR-ABR system. The S&B concept may potentially feature improved economics and resource utilization relative to the ABR.

Abstract Climate change has been repeatedly linked to phenological shifts in many taxa, but the factors that drive variation in phenological sensitivity remain unclear. For example, relatively little is known about phenological responses in areas that have not exhibited a consistent warming trend, making it difficult to project phenological responses in response to future climate scenarios for these regions. We used an extensive community science dataset to examine changes in the adult flight onset dates of 38 butterfly species with interannual variation in spring temperatures in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, a region that did not experience a significant overall warming trend in the second half of the 20th century. We also explored whether voltinism, overwintering stage, and mean adult flight onset dates explain interspecific variation in phenological sensitivity to spring temperature. We found that 12 out of 38 species exhibited a significant advance in adult flight onset dates with higher spring temperatures. In comparison, none of the 38 species exhibited a significant advance with year. There was a significant interaction between mean onset flight date and voltinism, such that late-emerging, multivoltine species tended to be the most sensitive to spring temperature changes. We did not observe a significant correlation between phenological sensitivity and the overwintering stage. These results suggest that butterfly arrival dates may shift as temperatures are projected to rise in the southeastern United States, with late-emerging, multivoltine species potentially exhibiting the greatest shifts in adult flight onset dates.

Les conséquences du changement climatique sont particulièrement aiguës au Kenya, où 80 % des terres sont arides ou semi-arides. Quelle perspective critique et constructive le concept d’habitabilité peut-il offrir dans ce contexte ? Fondé sur un travail de terrain réalisé au Kenya en 2022 et 2023, cet article entend affiner une définition in situ de l’habitabilité, en utilisant exclusivement des données qualitatives issues de deux phases de recherche, complétées par des exercices de vidéo-cartographie. Loin de proposer une lecture positiviste de l’habitabilité, portée par une conception exclusivement mécanique et linéaire des dynamiques de mobilité, cette étude propose de mieux relier l’habitabilité aux pratiques quotidiennes, aux habitudes, aux solidarités, voire aux résistances qui constituent la vie ordinaire des habitants des communautés et des personnes déplacées. L’habitabilité se situerait alors au cœur de l’intrication entre socialité et spatialité, entre social et biologique, qui définit – selon Stanley Cavell – la forme de vie humaine. The consequences of climate change are particularly acute in Kenya, where 80% of the land is arid or semi-arid. What critical and constructive perspective can the concept of habitability offer in this context? Based on fieldwork carried out in Kenya in 2022 and 2023, this article aims to refine an in-situ definition of habitability, using exclusively qualitative data from two research phases, supplemented by video-mapping exercises. Far from proposing a positivist reading of habitability, driven by an exclusively mechanical and linear conception of mobility dynamics, this study proposes to better link habitability to the daily practices, habits, solidarities and even resistances that make up the ordinary lives of community dwellers and displaced persons. Habitability would then lie at the heart of the intricacy between sociality and spatiality, between the social and the biological, which defines – according to Stanley Cavell – “the human form of life.”