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This is a set of aggregated data tables that underly the key figures in the SERL stats report "Smart Energy Research Lab: Energy use in GB domestic buildings 2021" (Volume 1). The report describes domestic gas and electricity energy use in Great Britain in 2021 based on data from the Smart Energy Research Lab (SERL) Observatory, which consists of smart meter and contextual data from approximately 13,000 homes that are broadly representative of the GB population in terms of region and Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) quintile. The report shows how residential energy use in GB varies over time (monthly over the year and half-hourly over the course of the day), with occupant characteristics (number of occupants, tenure), property characteristics (age, size, form, and Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)), by type of heating system, presence of solar panels and of electric vehicles, and by weather, region and IMD quintile.

Replication data and materials for "Changing Prices in a Changing Climate: Electoral Competition and Fossil Fuel Taxation".

Batteries are the most abundant form of electrochemical energy storage. Lithium and sodium ion batteries account for a significant portion of the battery market, but high-performance electrochemically active materials still need to be discovered and optimized for these technologies. Recently, tin(II) oxide (SnO) has emerged as a highly-promising battery electrode. In this work, we present a facile synthesis method to produce SnO nanoparticles whose size and shape can be tailored by changing the solvent nature. We study the complex relationship between wet chemistry synthesis conditions and resulting nanoparticle morphology. Furthermore, high-level electronic structure theory, including dispersion corrections to account for van der Waals forces, are employed to augment our understanding of the underlying chemical mechanisms. The electronic vacuum alignment and surface energies are determined, allowing the prediction of the thermodynamically-favoured crystal shape (Wulff construction) and surface-weighted work function. Finally, the synthesized nanomaterials were tested as Li-ion battery anodes, demonstrating significantly enhanced electrochemical performance for morphologies obtained from specific synthesis conditions. Open-access publication in npj 2D Mater & Appl here.

Abstract Electricity dispatch is a difficult optimisation problem that aims at minimising total fuel cost while satisfying system power demand and certain thermal unit constraints. Modelling valve point effects, multiple fuel options or transmission losses brings non-convexity and non-smoothness into the mathematical models. This paper proposes mathematical programming-based models for valve point effects, multiple fuel options and transmission loss problems respectively. Mathematical programming leads to robust and rigorous optimisation methods for these problems. The applicability of the proposed methods is demonstrated through a number of case studies. For all the case studies, the corresponding methods identify power schedules at least as good as or better than the best known in literature.

The decarbonisation of heating in the United Kingdom is likely to entail both the mass adoption of heat pumps and widespread development of district heating infrastructure. Estimation of the spatially disaggregated heat demand is needed for both electrical distribution network with electrified heating and for the development of district heating. The temporal variation of heat demand is important when considering the operation of district heating, thermal energy storage and electrical grid storage. The difference between the national and urban heat demands profiles will vary due to the type and occupancy of buildings leading to temporal variations which have not been widely surveyed. This paper develops a high-resolution spatiotemporal heat load model for Great Britain (GB: England, Scotland a Wales) by identifying the appropriate datasets, archetype segmentation and characterisation for the domestic and nondomestic building stock. This is applied to a thermal model and calibrated on the local scale using gas consumption statistics. The annual GB heat demand was in close agreement with other estimates and the peak demand was 219 GWth. The urban heat demand was found to have a lower peak to trough ratio than the average national demand profile. This will have important implications for the uptake of heating technologies and design of district heating.

Dataset 1: Brain and body size Published measures of brain size (g) for 131 species of seabird. Brain size estimates were generated from the measurement of adult skulls in museum collections using the endocast method. For each species, multiple specimens were measured and a mean value was calculated to provide a single, species-specific brain size estimate. To account for the allometric relationship between brain and body size, we also obtained information on body size (g). Dataset 2: Natal and adult dispersal rates We collated data on natal and adult dispersal rates by conducting a systematic literature search using the online database, Web of Science. The literature search generated a total of 793 papers and reports and from these, we extracted natal and adult dispersal rates. Here, natal dispersal is defined as the annual proportion of fledglings recruiting into a colony different from their natal colony, and adult dispersal is defined as the annual proportion of adults relocating to a new breeding colony. The final dataset included dispersal estimates from 47 studies and 29 species. For studies that provided multiple dispersal rate estimates, i.e., for different adult age classes or for males and females (n=9), we calculated a species mean value. For this final list, we also collated information on age at first breeding and fledging time. We selected age at first breeding to reflect the species-specific time that is available to prospect different colonies, and fledging time to reflect maternal investment. Where multiple species-specific values were provided for age at first breeding, we calculated the mean weighted by the percentage of individuals that had bred by each age. Where a range was provided for fledging time, we took the midpoint. Dataset 3: Extinction risk and threats We extracted a species’ threat status from the IUCN Red List database (iucnredlist.org, 2020) and their vulnerability to six relevant anthropogenic threats listed under the Threats Classification Scheme (v. 3.3, IUCN, 2020). The six anthropogenic threats we considered were: climate change, biological resource use (e.g., fishing), human intrusions and disturbance, invasive species, energy production and mining, and pollution. Threat vulnerability was classified as: ‘vulnerable’ or ‘not vulnerable’. We used the IUCN classifications to group species into two broader categories of extinction risk. Here, species classified as Critically Endangered (CR), Endangered (E) and Vulnerable (V) were defined as ‘threatened’, and species listed as Near Threatened (NT) and Least Concern (LC) were defined as ‘non-threatened’. The cognitive buffer hypothesis proposes that species with larger brains (relative to their body size) exhibit greater behavioural flexibility, conferring an advantage in unpredictable or novel environments. Therefore, behavioural flexibility – and relative brain size – are likely to be important predictors of a species’ vulnerability to anthropogenic pressures and, ultimately, extinction risk. However, current evidence linking brain size to species vulnerability and extinction risk is inconclusive. Furthermore, studies examining the relationship between relative brain size and behavioural flexibility have mainly focused on foraging innovations, whilst other forms of behavioural flexibility remain unexplored. In this study, we collate species-specific information and examine links between relative brain size, rates of natal and adult dispersal (a measure of flexibility in breeding site fidelity), vulnerability to six anthropogenic threats and extinction risk for 131 species of seabird. We focused our study on seabirds, a highly threatened group that displays large variation in both relative brain size and dispersal behaviour. We found a significant positive relationship between relative brain size and natal dispersal rate, suggesting that relative brain size could enhance flexibility in breeding site choice in seabirds, consistent with the cognitive buffer hypothesis. However, this relationship does not persist when we consider adult dispersal, possibly reflecting constraints imposed by mate selection and knowledge transfer in seabirds. We also show that relative brain size is negatively associated with vulnerability to climate change. These findings have immediate application for predicting interspecific variation in species’ vulnerability to climate change and identifying priority species for conservation.

AbstractErbium doped silicon-rich silica offers broad band and very efficient excitation of erbium photoluminescence (PL) due to a sensitization effect attributed to silicon nanocrystals (Si-nc), which grow during thermal treatment. PL decay lifetime measurements of sensitised Er3+ ions are usually reported to be stretched or multi exponential, very different to those that are directly excited, which usually show a single exponential decay component.In this paper, we report on SiO2 thin films doped with Si-nc's and erbium. Time resolved PL measurements reveal two distinct 1.54μm Er decay components; a fast microsecond component, and a relatively long lifetime component (10ms). We also study the structural properties of these samples through TEM measurements, and reveal the formation of Er clusters. We propose that these Er clusters are responsible for the fast μs decay component, and we develop rate equation models that reproduce the experimental transient observations, and can explain some of the reported transient behaviour in previously published literature.

Abstract Techniques for evaluating water management are critical to diagnose the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Acoustic emission as a function of polarisation (AEfP) has been recently introduced as a non-invasive, non-destructive method to analyse the water generation and removal inside a PEMFC during polarisation. AEfP was shown to provide unique insight into water management within a conventional PEMFC and correlating it to cell performance. Here, AEfP is used to characterise the performance of fractal PEMFCs by evaluating the hydration conditions inside them. This is achieved by probing the water dynamics inside two different fractal flow-field based PEMFCs, namely 1-way and 2-way fractal PEMFCs, and measuring the corresponding acoustic activity generated from them. AEfP is performed on the fractal PEMFCs under relatively humid (70% RH) and fully humidified (100% RH) reactant relative humidity (RH) conditions. Flooding in the 2-way fractal PEMFC, as opposed to the 1-way fractal PEMFC, is demonstrated under different operating conditions by the relatively higher acoustic activity it generates. Corroborating evidence of flooding in the 2-way fractal flow-field under different conditions is provided by its polarisation curves, impedance tests and galvanostatic (current hold) measurements.