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‘Productive Uses of Energy and gender in the Street Food Sector’, is a title of our four year project which is part of the DFID funded ENERGIA Gender and Energy Research programme. This research focuses on male and female owned micro enterprises preparing and selling food in Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa. This sector provides livelihoods for many women and men in these countries and this project provides the gender and energy nexus analysis. One of the primary goals of this project is to influence energy policy making and implementation in the focus countries.

This paper introduces an innovative energy management system architecture for Smart Grids, designed in the European 7th framework program project e-balance. The architecture is hierarchical and fractal-like, which results in better scalability and reuse of algorithms and programming code for energy management. It supports both micro-grids and distributed energy resources. The system is structured into two main parts – the communication platform and the energy management platform. The former provides a common data exchange layer, while the latter provides the local energy management logic, currently supporting energy balancing and grid resilience services. The system is being deployed in two pilots: in Portugal and in the Netherlands, where use cases on energy balancing, grid monitoring and grid reliability will be demonstrated.

We present a detailed material study of n+-type polysilicon (polySi) and its application as a carrier selective rear contact in a bifacial n-type solar cell comprising fire-through screen-printed metallization and 6" Cz wafers. The cells were manufactured with low-cost industrial process steps yielding Vocs from 676 to 683 mV and Jscs above 39.4 mA/cm2 indicating an efficiency potential of 22%. The aim of this study is to understand which material properties determine the performance of POCl3-diffused (n-type) polySi-based passivating contacts and to find routes to improve its use for industrial PERPoly (Passivated Emitter Rear PolySi) cells from the point of view of throughput, performance, and bifacial application. This paper reports on correlations between the parameters used for low pressure chemical vapour deposition (LPCVD), annealing, and doping on optical, structural, and electronic properties of the polySi-based passivating contact and the subsequent influence on the solar cell parameters.

Climate change effects are not uniform and have disproportionate impacts among different groups of people within communities. It is therefore important to understand the underlying issues of intersectionality for climate change adaptation and human well-being. This paper aims to measure human capabilities and freedom of choice by analyzing perceived climate change impacts and current climate change adaptation ability among ethnic and non-ethnic communities in Bangladesh. This study applies a range of participatory rural appraisal tools and key informant interviews to assess impacts of climate change when considering gender and ethnicity. Women in the coastal regions have less access to resources and services because of social capital and cultural practices and this directly or indirectly influences their adaptation to climate change. Women have limited or no participation in decision-making processes at family or community levels and this impacts their vulnerability and well-being. In consequence, women’s capabilities must be focused on moderating their vulnerability and risk, and developing effective adaptation to the adverse impacts of climate change and natural hazards.

Nearly 840 million people still lack access to electricity, while over a billion more have an unreliable electricity connection. In this article, the three different electrification pathways—grid extension, centralized microgrids, and standalone solar-based solutions, such as pico-solar and solar home systems (SHS)—are critically examined while understanding their relative merits and demerits. Grid extension can provide broad scale access at low levelized costs but requires a certain electricity demand threshold and population density to justify investments. To a lesser extent, centralized (off-grid) microgrids also require a minimum demand threshold and knowledge of the electricity demand. Solar-based solutions are the main focus in terms of off-grid electrification in this article, given the equatorial/tropical latitudes of the un(der-)electrified regions. In recent times, decentralized solar-based off-grid solutions, such as pico-solar and SHS, have shown the highest adoption rates and promising impetus with respect to basic lighting and electricity for powering small appliances. However, the burning question is—from lighting a million to empowering a billion—can solar home systems get us there?The two main roadblocks for SHS are discussed, and the requirements from the ideal electrification pathway are introduced. A bottom-up, interconnected SHS-based electrification pathway is proposed as the missing link among the present electrification pathways.

Gait training robots should display a minimum added inertia in order to allow normal walking. The effect of inertias in specific directions is yet unknown. We set up two experiments to assess the effect of inertia in anteroposterior (AP) direction to the ankle and AP and mediolateral (ML) direction to the pelvis.We developed an experimental setup to apply inertia in forward backward and or sideways directions. In two experiments nine healthy subjects walked on a treadmill at 1.5 km/h and 4.5 km/h with no load and with AP loads of 0.3, 1.55 and 3.5 kg to the left ankle in the first experiment and combinations of AP and ML loads on the pelvis (AP loads 0.7, 4.3 and 10.2 kg; ML loads 0.6, 2.3 and 5.3 kg). We recorded metabolic rate, EMG of major leg muscles, gait parameters and kinematics.Adding 1.55 kg or more inertia to the ankle in AP direction increases the pelvis acceleration and decreases the foot acceleration in AP direction both at speeds of 4.5 km/h. Adding 3.5 kg of inertia to the ankle also increases the swing time as well as AP motions of the pelvis and head-arms-trunk (HAT) segment. Muscle activity remains largely unchanged.We found that inertia up to 2 kg at the ankle or 6 kg added to the pelvis induced significant changes, but since these changes were all within the normal inter subject variability we considered these changes as negligible for application as rehabilitation robotics and assistive devices.

Like human walking, passive dynamic walking-i.e. walking down a slope with no actuation except gravity-is energy efficient by exploiting the natural dynamics. In the animal world, neural oscillators termed central pattern generators (CPGs) provide the basic rhythm for muscular activity in locomotion. We present a CPG model, which automatically tunes into the resonance frequency of the passive dynamics of a bipedal walker, i.e. the CPG model exhibits resonance tuning behavior. Each leg is coupled to its own CPG, controlling the hip moment of force. Resonance tuning above the endogenous frequency of the CPG-i.e. the CPG's eigenfrequency-is achieved by feedback of both limb angles to their corresponding CPG, while integration of the limb angles provides resonance tuning at and below the endogenous frequency of the CPG. Feedback of the angular velocity of both limbs to their corresponding CPG compensates for the time delay in the loop coupling each limb to its CPG. The resonance tuning behavior of the CPG model allows the gait velocity to be controlled by a single parameter, while retaining the energy efficiency of passive dynamic walking.