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electricity. In this research, the potential of ZigZag PVNBs has been investigated. The ZigZag Solar product, developed by Wallvision, has proven to offer multiple advantages in energy yield and aesthetics for building fa & ccedil;ade applications. For noise barrier applications, the ZigZag structure could offer interesting features in safety and noise cancellation (obtained by filling the ZigZag construction with Rockwool material) on top of the advantages in aesthetics and energy yield. A ZigZag PVNB has been designed and constructed at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Geleen, after which the electrical performance has been automatically monitored under Dutch climate conditions. The measurements have been compared to simulated data, which allowed optimiza

Combined cycle (CC) plants are expected to play an important role in balancing generation of heat and electricity from non-dispatchable renewable energy sources. In this work, we study different retrofit options for using hydrogen in CC plants to reduce the plant’s CO2 emissions. These options are: direct combustion in the gas turbine, supplementary firing in the heat recovery boiler (duct burner), and oxy-fuel combustion of hydrogen for direct steam production.Therefore, we first simulate the performance of an exemplary CC plant in a detailed non-linear process model. Second, we fit a surrogate, mixed-integer-linear model that can optimize the plant operation within a reasonable computation time over a long time frame (one year, with hourly resolution). This surrogate model allows for an in-depth analysis of hydrogen combustion retrofits in CC plants, assessing both profitability and environmental impacts. The findings suggest that direct combustion of hydrogen in the gas turbine becomes economically viable only when hydrogen is cheaper than natural gas. Although a duct burner fired by natural gas can enhance the plant’s profitability, it also increases the specific carbon emissions. Burning hydrogen in a duct burner, however, is not cost-effective. Retrofitting the steam cycle of the plant with an oxy-fuel hydrogen burner, however, can improve both profitability and CO2 emissions of electricity and steam generation.

In transmission networks, power flows and network topology are deeply intertwined due to power flow physics. Recent literature shows that a specific more hierarchical network structure can effectively inhibit the propagation of line failures across the entire system. In particular, a novel approach named tree partitioning has been proposed, which seeks to bolster the robustness of power networks through strategic alterations in network topology, accomplished via targeted line switching actions. Several tree partitioning problem formulations have been proposed by considering different objectives, among which power flow disruption and network congestion. Furthermore, various heuristic methods based on a two-stage and recursive approach have been proposed. The present work provides a general framework for tree partitioning problems based on mixed-integer linear programming (MILP). In particular, we present a novel MILP formulation to optimally solve tree partitioning problems and also propose a two-stage heuristic based on MILP. We perform extensive numerical experiments to solve two tree partitioning problem variants, demonstrating the excellent performance of our solution methods. Lastly, through exhaustive cascading failure simulations, we compare the effectiveness of various tree partitioning strategies and show that, on average, they can achieve a substantial reduction in lost load compared to the original topologies. 10 pages, 4 figures