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Electricity supply in India is from a centralized grid. Many parts of the country experience grid interruptions. Life cycle energy and environmental analysis has been done for a 27 kWp photovoltaic system which acts as grid backup for 3 h outage in an Indian urban residential scenario. This paper discusses energy requirements and carbon emission for a PV storage system for five different battery technologies in Indian context. This can be used as a metric for comparative analysis for new batteries, with an undeveloped market. The energy requirements for the components are quantified and are compared in terms of energy payback time (EPBT) and Net Energy Ratio (NER). All the calculations are done for Indian context. EPBT is found to be in the range of 2–4.5 years for all the systems, while NER is in the range of 6.6–2.52. NaS has the highest emission factor of 0.67 kgCO2/kWh and the least for NiCd (0.091 kgCO2/kWh). These factors can be used to select a PV battery option and to target selection of materials and systems based on the reported values.

An efficient pack-level battery thermal management system is essential to ensure the safe driving experience of electric vehicles. In this work, we perform three-dimensional modeling of a liquid thermal management system for a real-world battery pack powering electrical vehicles. The effects of system structures, coolant flow direction layout, coolant flow rates, and inlet temperatures on the thermal performance are investigated. Under 2.0 C discharge, the system structure with interspersed cooling plates reduces the maximum temperature of the battery pack to 36.3 °C, which is 15% lower than that of the conventional design with bottom-mounted cooling plates. With the present system structure, around 62.2% of the heat produced by the batteries is dissipated. Moreover, the temperature difference is decreased by 10.5% with appropriately arranging coolant flow directions in different liquid cooling plates. In addition, increasing the coolant flow rate and lowering the inlet coolant temperature can greatly reduce the maximum battery temperature, while the latter parameter shows little influence on the pack temperature difference, which only changes 0.3 °C when the inlet temperature is decreased by 6 °C. This work provides valuable guidance for the development of pack-level liquid battery thermal management systems in electric vehicles.

Recent unveiling of electric semi-trucks by a number of electric vehicle manufacturers indicates that part of the existing long-distance transportation fleets may soon be electrified. Operators of electric fleets will have to select travel routes considering charging station availability and cost of charging in addition to usual factors such as congestion and travel time. This requires combined modeling of transportation and electric power networks. We present such a model that considers interactions between the two networks to develop optimal routing strategies. The problem is formulated as a multi-objective bilevel conic optimization model. The upper level obtains the routing decision by minimizing a function of charging cost and travel time. The routing decision is used in the lower level that solves the AC optimal power flow model, using second order cone constraints, to determine nodal electricity prices. The model is demonstrated using a numerical problem with 24-Node transport network supported by a modified 5-Bus PJM network. The results show that our model yields optimal routes and charging strategies to meet the objectives of fleet operators. Results also indicate that the optimal routing and charging strategies of the electrified transportation fleet can support power networks to reduce nodal prices via demand response

With rapid growth in the number of personal motor vehicles, Indian cities have been facing increasing congestion and worsening air quality. Yet until early 2005 little attention was paid to this problem, and remedial measures were focused largely on overpasses and new roadway capacity. Only Delhi, Calcutta, and Chennai had built functioning metro rail systems. However, by the second half of 2006, barely a year and a half later, the situation changed considerably, and public transport became the focus of attention in most large and medium-sized cities. This paper looks at the national initiatives that helped bring about those changes. The adoption of a national urban transport policy along with the launching of a national urban renewal mission with a sizable commitment of funds helped focus attention on improving public transportation. These were supplemented by a series of well-conceived and -planned initiatives, again led by the national government, to generate more widespread awareness of urban mobility problems and how they could be successfully addressed. The results were visible in a mere 18 months, by which time several cities had already formulated plans for significantly improved public transport and the first incremental phase of what will be India's first bus rapid transit system had become operational.

Motor vehicle ownership and utilization are growing rapidly in Asia, because of rapid urbanization and growing urban incomes. This sudden growth is resulting in increasing traffic congestion, fuel use, and CO2 emissions and in deteriorating air quality. This paper presents a common framework to explore scenarios of vehicle and energy use and emissions in three South Asian cities: Bangalore, India; Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Dhaka, Bangladesh. Scenarios are built by separately analyzing transportation activity (in tonne kilometers or passenger kilometers), modal structure (i.e., share of tonne kilometers or passenger kilometers occurring on each mode), modal energy intensity (in energy burned per tonne kilometer or passenger kilometer), and emission factors. Although the types of data available across cities vary widely and there are deficiencies and inconsistencies in the available data, the analysis suggests that motor vehicle use would roughly double in each city by 2020 in the business-as-usual scenario, largely because of expected income increases; fuel use and CO2 emissions would triple; and pollution loading would rise exponentially. An alternative scenario of slower vehicle and energy growth is explored, premised on substitution of personal vehicles with buses and reduction in traffic congestion. Consequently, fuel use and CO2 emissions would only double in Bangalore and Dhaka, whereas in Colombo the increase would not be significantly lower than in the business-as-usual scenario. The cumulative carbon mitigation potential over a 15-year period would be 13% in Bangalore, 9% in Dhaka, and 2% in Colombo. The drop in pollution loading would be different in each city.

Abstract Various vulnerability assessment studies have revealed the effect of climate change and related extreme weather events on the small-scale fisheries households of coastal regions. However, hardly any study assesses the economic vulnerability of the poorest coastal households to extreme climatic events. The present study attempts to fill this gap by examining the economic vulnerability of deprived coastal households through a vulnerability assessment framework developed based on the IPCC approved strategy. A gender dimension is also brought to this study by assessing the households based on the household headship. A total of 120 male headed households and 30 female headed households from two coastal taluks of Thrissur district in Kerala, the Southwestern state of India, was selected for analysis. Female headed households emerged to be the most vulnerable group in all the three aspects considered – exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. The study put forward suggestions to reduce the risks and improve the economic characteristics of poorest sections of the coastal households through women empowerment and policy intervention.

India's burgeoning population has led to an increased demand for transportation services, particularly in urban areas. To address the growing mobility needs and mitigate the adverse effects of personal vehicle usage, efficient public transit services are imperative. Several Indian cities have implemented bus rapid transit (BRT) systems to address this problem, but ridership for the majority of the BRT systems remains below breakeven (this refers to the point at which the revenue generated from ridership equals or surpasses the costs associated with operating and maintaining the transportation system). Thus, it is necessary to assess the determinants of commuter satisfaction with BRT. The present study aims to examine factors affecting travel satisfaction among BRT commuters. By using structural equation modeling (SEM), the effect of demographic (age and gender) and travel-related variables (fare price, travel time, trip frequency, reliability, ease of using bus service, and comfort level) on BRT commuters' satisfaction and usage of BRT services were analyzed. It was found that while ease of using the service, comfort level, and reliability positively affect BRT travel satisfaction, trip frequency is significantly affected by the ease of using the service only. Furthermore, demographic variables (age, and gender of respondents) were not found to have significant effect of travel satisfaction and trip frequency. The findings from this can study serve as a base for policymakers, city officials, and urban planners to identify commuters' priorities for a well-functioning BRT in India and formulate policies to attract riders by enhancing their preferences.

In modern electric power systems, plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) potential are becoming reliable and flexible resources for energy balancing under varying energy supply and demand scenarios. In this evolving paradigm, designing energy management strategies for feasible and cost-effective utilisation of V2G is one of the several challenges faced by the utility operators and regulators. This paper proposes two energy management strategies to effectively utilize V2G potential of PEVs in managing energy imbalances in grid-connected microgrids. The contributions of this paper are in twofold. First, it proposes a novel bidding strategy for PEVs offering V2G by including the projected battery degradation cost to integrate them into microgrid operation. Second, two energy management strategies are proposed for inclusion of V2G into the microgrid operation based on the forecast accuracy on energy supply and demand, and market prices. The proposed V2G integration strategies are implemented using a multi-agent system developed in Java agent development framework and applied to a microgrid case study system. The simulation results and their analysis show that V2G can be used to maximum depth of discharge levels if the electricity price variation is high and battery cost of PEVs is low.

Policymakers as well as corporate managers want to know how to gain the lead and benefit from a paradigmatic shift in technology. This paper develops and uses a combined policy and firm-level theoretical framework to derive policy implications from a case study of the development of battery, hybrid and fuel cell electric vehicles (BEVs, HEVs and FCVs) in Japan. Among the implications of the study, it is argued that Japanese national policy has so far had a limited direct role in the electrification of vehicles; this has been very largely decided and carried out in-house at the automakers. Policymakers need to consider this as well as the inherently international nature of the automotive industry. One key factor behind Toyota's and Honda's early and sustained lead in the electrification trajectory is the intense and in some aspects quite specific type of competition on the domestic market, which has nurtured firms with a strong product development capability. Finally, it is argued that the proposed theoretical framework contributes to a more balanced view of the role of policy in this potential paradigmatic shift in technology in a mature industry, compared to traditional policy or firm-level approaches.