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The path congestion and communication risks of electric power communication network have emerged as the carried businesses are becoming more and more heavy. In this paper, a multi-objective optimization method for power communication network routing considering the importance of the carried businesses is proposed to reduce load imbalance and transmission risk. Firstly, information entropy is introduced as the objective of communication network load balancing optimization. And a risk assessment model for power communication network nodes and links is established. Then fuzzy membership functions are adopted to singularize the two objectives to jointly optimize path congestion and communication risks. The device nodes are dynamically divided according to the carried businesses to pursue the global optimization of the power communication network in which the Yen's algorithm is adopted. Finally, this paper uses the IEEE 30-bus communication network to carry out case simulations and analyzes the proposed method to verify the effectiveness and feasibility.

Clean-tech industry, also identified as the advanced stage of eco-friendly industry and typical high-tech, has to gain enough financial support to develop. Meanwhile, it has provided substantial market opportunities as well as investment options for venture capitalist. In an attempt to form a comprehensive understanding of VC policy preferences in clean-tech sector, relevant studies have been done by researchers from organizations, universities, and firms, from various perspectives, forming an independent “niche” research field. Based on the interactive relation between industry development and clean-tech investing, this paper performs a time-sharing, multidimensional, and dynamic review on international clean-tech policies literatures, focusing primarily on investor preferences. We aim to provide references to the lenses and methods currently used for future research including policy tool design, investment attraction effects, and policy efficiency. Moreover, the findings facilitate the innovation and expansion of related research for China, by which it can form effective financial support for domestic clean-tech industry.

The power system ranks the first among the greatest engineering achievements in the 20th century. With “strong electric power” as the carrier, the power system constitutes the great aorta of modern society for energy transmission; while with “weak electric power” as the carrier, the information network constitutes the nervous system of modern society. Both of them penetrate into all aspects of human society (e.g., science, production, life, international relations), and then promote the modern civilization to achieve rapid development. In terms of science, the power system has promoted the developments of materials, physics, chemistry, automation, information, medicine, and so on. This way, the system of modern science and technology is constituted. In terms of production, the second industrial revolution marked by the wide application of “strong electric power” is also called the electric power technology revolution. It has promoted another major leap in the productivity of human society after the steam revolution. The third industrial revolution marked by the widespread application of “weak electricity” is also known as the information technology revolution, which promotes the continuous evolution of industrial civilization to a much higher level. And the fourth industrial revolution, which is centered on the energy revolution, will meet the needs of human beings at a higher level and get rid of the constraints of the environment on human activities. In terms of life, electric power has become the most indispensable part of human life, ranging from material life to spiritual life, from behavioral habits to thinking ways, and from personal life to social life. In terms of international relations, the development of the power system is conducive to the fundamental solution of energy and environmental problems, thus the international political and economic competition around energy and environment has turned to the competition centered on clean power systems to some extent. As the basic platform for energy production and supply, the development of the future power system must follow the general orientation of the energy revolution. The basic form, management mechanism and technical characteristics of the power system will also undergo tremendous changes as follows: (1) The proportion of renewable energy in the power system will be increased continuously, and the power system will be tightly coupled with gas system and thermal system to form an electricity-centric energy internet. (2) The development mode of building “higher, farther and larger” power grid will turn to the co-development mode of large power grid and small power grid, and the trend of power electronation of power system will be strengthened gradually. (3) Market competition will penetrate into the weak monopolies of the power system. Each subject can play a full game in each link, so as to obtain the optimal allocation of funds, technology and human resources. (4) Digitalization and intellectualization will be the most important technical characteristics of the future power system, which will achieve leapfrog development in observability, controllability and intellectualization.

Abstract Reasonable assessment of the environmental benefits of integrating forest products into global value chains (GVCs) is important to promote sustainable development. Based on the forest product sector data for 41 countries from 2002 to 2014, this paper explores the impact of GVC participation on carbon embodied in exports using the 2008 financial crisis, a quasi-natural experiment of negative global value chain shocks. We found that deepening backward participation in forest product value chains led to more substantial increases in carbon emissions than did forward participation. Countries with large decreases in GVC participation reduced more carbon embodied in forest product exports after the financial crisis (relative to countries with small decreases) through a larger reduction in the scale of forest product exports, and a decrease in the growth rate of capital-intensive products as a result of the relative decline in capital investment. They increased the embodied carbon of exports through a decrease in the growth rate of skilled personnel. Strengthening the technology effect of GVCs with the guidance of skilled forestry personnel is a key way to decrease exported embodied carbon.

Developing a low-carbon economy is the only way for countries to achieve sustainable development. Carbon emission reduction policies and low-carbon technology (LCT) innovation play key roles in developing low-carbon economy. Under government reward and punishment regulations, based on the bilateral matching and evolutionary theories, this paper constructs an evolution model consisting of a manufacturer investing LCT and a supplier offering LCT to analyze multi-phase LCT investment strategies. Firstly, the profit optimization model of a green supply chain is constructed from the perspectives of centralized-matching (CM), decentralized-matching (DM), and mismatching (MM), and the spatial information internal evolution law of multi-phase LCT investment is described by the Markov chain. Then, a bilateral matching algorithm is proposed to solve the equilibrium solutions, and the evolution process of the three modes is analyzed by numerical simulation. Finally, based on the product green degree, we analyze the impact of subsidies and taxes on investment-production decisions. Analytical results show that the matching mechanism proposed in this paper can help supply chain firms to obtain stable matching and has a significant effect on the realization of "triple wins" of society, economy, and environment. The investment utility of CM is higher than that of DM and MM. Manufacturers are inclined to adopt LCT, and the investment level tends to be stable over time. Government reward and punishment regulations are helpful to motivate supply chain firms to invest in LCT, and the synergistic effect of subsidies and taxes is better than that of a single policy.

Global warming caused by the emission of fossil fuel consumption has become critical, leading to the inevitable trend of clean energy development. Of the power generation systems using solar energy, the floating photovoltaic (FPV) system is a new type, attracting wide attention because of its many merits. The latest progress in the research and applications of FPVs from multiple aspects is summarized in this paper. First, the development of FPVs is briefly described with a summary of typical installed FPV systems. Innovative photovoltaic design concepts and hybrid usage with other renewable energies are emphasized for offshore applications. Furthermore, critical structural design considerations are discussed, particularly emphasizing critical aspects such as load estimations, wave-structure interaction analysis, floating structure types, and mooring system design. Finally, several significant future challenges to the development and applications of marine FPV systems are identified, including survivability in the open sea, long-term reliability, and environmental impact. It aims to provide a broad overview of the development status, offering limited insights into the trends and challenges for marine FPV systems.

Aluminum industry is an energy intensive and high pollution industry that recently rapidly developed in China. Circular economy (CE) development in the aluminum industry has significant achievements in easing the environmental pressure and facilitating green development in the last decade. Following a stepwise analytic framework, this study aims to elaborate the manner in which CE measures function in upgrading the aluminum industry. Xinfa Industrial Park (XFIP), the largest aluminum production base in China, was chosen as the case study. The CE measures were summarized, and 10 year in-depth data were collected to reveal the changes in the system structure and overall performance of the XFIP. Results show that the mean nodal degree and the flexibility of the industrial symbiosis network increased due to the extended and coupled industry chains. Furthermore, overall performance improved, as reflected in the significant increase of industrial added value, the reduction of energy and fresh water consumption intensities and the enhancement of solid waste utilization efficiency. The CE development pattern of the XFIP sets an example for other industrial parks to upgrade their economic and environmental performances.

Abstract Mitigating the effects of environmental deterioration requires a focus on not just CO2 emissions from energy consumption, but also environmental pollution from industry sectors. To reach this goal, recent studies have extended ecological footprint (EF) analysis to identify the ecological drivers of various key industry sectors. The role of the phosphorus (P) industry on the EF within the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework for China is the emphasis of this study. Autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) as well as the impulse response function and robustness analysis were used to consider a time from 1985 to 2018. The study verifies the EKC hypothesis for China in both the long and the short run, and indispensable determinants are proposed to be included to assure the model’s fitness and robustness when conducting EF analysis of industry sectors. Energy consumption–based carbon emissions have been verified as the dominant contributor to EF, but P use and urbanization have a significant lagged positive influence on EF in the short run. P exports, in particular, have been highlighted as a critical driver of the EF of China’s P industry. The conducted frequency domain causality test reinforced the above findings and demonstrated bidirectional causality at different frequencies. This work suggests that formulating plausible P export policies to alleviate the conflict between the output of China’s P industry and the environmental sustainability of this industry are necessary. In this context, “multidisciplinary, multidimensional, and practical solutions” are most desirable for sustainable P management.

A key factor in social development and sustainable urban expansion is the establishment of sustainable and affordable transport systems. This study aims to investigate the impact of transport infrastructure investment on environmental degradation and economic growth and to test the validity of the EKC hypothesis in China, India, Russia, and Japan over the period 1995-2020. The results show that GDP has a significant positive effect, and GDP2 and GDP3 have significant adverse effects on environmental degradation, respectively. These results confirm the validity of the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis in selected emerging Asian economies. Rail infrastructure investment has significant adverse effects, while road infrastructure investment and aviation infrastructure investment have significant positive effects on environmental degradation. Likewise, the impact of investment in transport infrastructure system (roads, rail, and aviation) on economic growth is positive and statistically significant. Country-level estimates confirm the validity of the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis in China, India, and Russia, while the N-shaped EKC is only valid in Japan. Investments in rail infrastructure based on modern rail systems that run on electricity are believed to be less polluting in the transport mix, help create sustainable and safe transport systems, and reduce emissions at the urban and intercity levels in emerging Asian countries. In addition, the growing impact of free trade on environmental pollution should be strengthened to harmonize the strict enforcement of environmental conditions dominated by trade agreements.