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Abstract Thermal energy storage (TES) will improve the efficiency and output of solar power plants. TES based on thermochemical cycles is an interesting option as thermochemical cycles can provide high energy storage densities and allow longer heat storage time. The use of multivalent solid oxide reduction–oxidation (REDOX) reactions for thermochemical heat storage is a promising option. Several concepts are feasible for coupling solar energy to the redox reaction. Among those a directly irradiated rotary kiln is one of the most interesting because it is able to provide high mass flow rates and high amounts of active material. A solar-heated rotary kiln was set-up and operated in the solar furnace of DLR for thermal reduction and oxidation of cobalt oxide. The redox material was fed into the reactor batch wise and reduced on-sun at temperatures of about 900 °C and re-oxidized off-sun in the same rotary kiln. Both steps were carried out in an air atmosphere. Thirty cycles were performed with one batch showing no evident degradation of the material. The results confirm that the rotary kiln is a feasible reactor set-up for the solar reduction of metal oxides and, hence, for thermochemical energy storage.

The potential for global forest cover The restoration of forested land at a global scale could help capture atmospheric carbon and mitigate climate change. Bastin et al. used direct measurements of forest cover to generate a model of forest restoration potential across the globe (see the Perspective by Chazdon and Brancalion). Their spatially explicit maps show how much additional tree cover could exist outside of existing forests and agricultural and urban land. Ecosystems could support an additional 0.9 billion hectares of continuous forest. This would represent a greater than 25% increase in forested area, including more than 200 gigatonnes of additional carbon at maturity.Such a change has the potential to store an equivalent of 25% of the current atmospheric carbon pool. Science , this issue p. 76 ; see also p. 24

Artículos en revistas Numerical models of transmission-constrained electricity markets are used to inform regulatory decisions. How robust are their results? Three research groups used the same data set for the northwest Europe power market as input for their models. Under competitive conditions, the results coincide, but in the Cournot case, the predicted prices differed significantly. The Cournot equilibria are highly sensitive to assumptions about market design (whether timing of generation and transmission decisions is sequential or integrated) and expectations of generators regarding how their decisions affect transmission prices and fringe generation. These sensitivities are qualitatively similar to those predicted by a simple two-node model. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Abstract Both steady-state AC and DC power flow models are commonly used for techno-economic studies of power systems. The DC-based approach limits the computational burden by assuming small-angle approximation, ignoring power losses, reactive power flows, and voltage variations. It, therefore, matters to understand if this approach affects system vulnerability, reliability, and contingency assessments. To this aim, we use the time-sequential Monte Carlo simulation and an N-k′-1 scenario for reliability and contingency analyses, respectively. Further, we introduce a new index for vulnerability assessment. The IEEE reliability test system (RTS) and the modified RTS are modeled. The results show that the DC model underestimates the reliability indices by about 20% and more than 90% in a stressed network. We also show a small error of 5%, owing to the assumptions of the DC model, which can lead to inaccurate simulations concerning the cascading failures. Finally, the sources of the inaccuracy in the DC-based model are investigated. The results prove that AC power flow model should be privileged for the line capacity-based assessments.

AbstractAlthough canopy height has long been a focus of interest in ecology, it has remained difficult to study at large spatial scales. Recently, satellite‐borne LiDAR equipment produced the first systematic high resolution maps of vegetation height worldwide. Here we show that this new resource reveals three marked modes in tropical canopy height ~40, ~12, and ~2 m corresponding to forest, savanna, and treeless landscapes. The distribution of these modes is consistent with the often hypothesized forest‐savanna bistability and suggests that both states can be stable in areas with a mean annual precipitation between ~1,500 and ~2,000 mm. Although the canopy height states correspond largely to the much discussed tree cover states, there are differences, too. For instance, there are places with savanna‐like sparse tree cover that have a forest‐like high canopy, suggesting that rather than true savanna, those are thinned relicts of forest. This illustrates how complementary sets of remotely sensed indicators may provide increasingly sophisticated ways to study ecological phenomena at a global scale.

The chapter gives an introduction to the book "Environmental planning and management : tools for a sustainable development".

The paper presents a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of a 33 MW straw-fired grate boiler. Combustion on the grate plays akey-role in the analysis of these boilers and in this work a stand-alone code was used to provide inlet conditions for the CFD analysis. Modelpredictions were compared with available gas temperature and species concentration measurements showing good agreement. Combustionof biomass in grate-based boilers is often associated with high emission levels and relatively high amounts of unburnt carbon in the fly ash.Based on the CFD analysis, it is suggested that poor mixing in the furnace is a key issue leading to these problems. q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Udgivelsesdato: JUN

The potential of offshore wind energy has been commonly recognized and explored globally. Many countries have implemented and planned offshore wind farms to meet their increasing electricity demands and public environmental appeals, especially in Europe. With relatively less space limitation, an offshore wind farm could have a capacity rating to hundreds of MWs or even GWs that is large enough to compete with conventional power plants. Thus the impacts of a large offshore wind farm on power system operation and security should be thoroughly studied and understood. This paper investigates the impacts of integrating a large-scale offshore wind farm into the transmission system of a power grid through VSC-HVDC connection. The concerns are focused on steady-state voltage stability, dynamic voltage stability and transient angle stability. Simulation results based on an exemplary power system are presented and analyzed.