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This paper analyzes different policies that may promote the transition to sustainability, with a particular focus on the energy sector. We present a dynamic simulation model where three different strategies for sustainability are identified: reduction in GHG emissions, improvements in energy efficiency and the development of the renewable energy sector. Our aim is to evaluate the dynamics that those strategies may produce in the economy, looking at different performance indicators: rate of growth, unemployment, fiscal position, GHG emission, and transition to renewable energy sources.

Artículos en revistas Liberalization policies, the challenges of integrating distributed generation resources, and the recent flattening of electricity demand due to the economic crisis and technological change have led to lower returns for European electricity suppliers. Innovative and sustainable business models are needed to serve electricity customers while reflecting the operational needs of the system and maintaining supplier financial viability. This paper describes a novel model of Integrated Energy Services that encompasses distributed generation (DG) and demand response (DR) resources for industrial customers. We further reflect on some of the market opportunities and regulatory drivers for the development of similar schemes across Europe. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Abstract The aerodynamic design of small wind turbines for the urban setting attracts increasing interest within the scientific community, but the adoption of a proper control strategy may be just as important, especially in high turbulent winds, where such energy conversion devices should ideally operate. As a matter of fact, the mere rotor efficiency is meaningless unless the system has also the capability of rapidly changing its angular speed in case of a sudden variation of the wind velocity, to reach a new optimal operating condition. This work will attempt neither to develop dynamic simulation models nor to examine possible turbine control strategies, being the focus much broader, namely, the investigation of operational contexts where the peculiar inertial characteristics of wind turbines would compromise any form of robust control. Inertial and operational data of commercially available turbines (characterized by both horizontal and vertical-axis architectures), as well as the results disseminated in various literature sources, operational experiences and design best practices, are here collected under one cover and compared, thus deriving some basic and fundamental relations between rotor inertia and angular acceleration, highlighting how, in several cases, a control strategy based on the continuous tracking of the optimal operating condition is most unlikely. Such considerations raise the question of whether the problem of inertia renders futile many prevailing theories about small wind turbine operation and plans for implementing new control strategies, especially as far as vertical axis architectures are concerned. On the other hand, some constructive advice is also presented, in the form of a means to compare the effective performances of different turbines, in a given installation site, with respect to their nominal (i.e. steady state, or wind tunnel) behaviour. As a final result, a new bound for a reliable estimation of the amount of energy a wind turbine will generate in a specific site is suggested, based on the comparison between a representative time scale of the installation site and the response time of the candidate wind turbine.

This chapter discusses the present scenario and market trend of regenerated cellulosic fibers, and the properties of principal fibers existing in the market as well as some new fibers recently developed and yet to be explored. Production technologies of these fibers are discussed and their potential applications are presented. Various sustainability issues related to the production of regenerated cellulosic fibers are dealt within this chapter. The last section discusses the results of research studies conducted to assess the environmental impacts and sustainability aspects of regenerated cellulose fibers. Serie: Textile science and clothing technology, ISSN 2197-9863

The development of heat transfer fluids (HTF) and heat storage materials (HSM) is crucial to design concentrating solar plant (CSP). Binary alkaline nitrate mixtures are currently used as sensible thermal energy storage materials. However, multi-component nitrate/nitrite systems were proposed as possible better candidates. In particular, ternaries mixtures containing sodium, potassium, and calcium are extremely promising as thermal fluids, given their reduced toxicity and greater cost-effectiveness. Nevertheless, very few data are present in the scientific literature regarding the correspondent phase diagram, and only the properties of specific compositions are reported. For this reason, a regular solution model was developed and employed in this work, and validated by comparing the simulation results with experimentally obtained phase change values. In particular, given that the common calorimetric techniques are impracticable for detecting the transition temperatures of calcium containing nitrate mixtur...

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with focus on carbon footprint, followed by Life Cycle Costing (LCC) of municipal solid waste (MSW) management were conducted in a residential area of a medium-sized European city of 80,000 inhabitants. The initial results showed high environmental impacts and lack of economic sustainability, due to the high amounts of waste landfilled, the low extent of separate collection, low performance of mechanical-biological treatment as well as absence from alternatives to landfilling of non-recyclable materials. Taking this result as a baseline scenario, three improvement.s were tested with the aim of turning the carbon footprint of the local MSW management system into a neutral value: (i) increased separate collection of recyclables, (ii) enhanced biogas production and (iii) refuse-derived fuel (RDF) production. Successively adding the improvements, three alternative improved scenarios were defined, until reaching a negative carbon footprint, meaning that an optimised system would avoid GHG emissions. The proposed changes were sufficient to achieve carbon neutrality, as well as reduce overall environmental impacts, but were not enough for achieving economic sustainability due to the great influence of collection costs, especially for separate collection. It was concluded that by using an adequate combination of several treatment options and increasing the separate collection of recyclable materials it is possible to turn MSW management into a carbon neutral activity as well as improve its economic balance.

Abstract For the option of “carbon capture and storage”, an integrated assessment in the form of a life cycle analysis and a cost assessment combined with a systematic comparison with renewable energies regarding future conditions in the power plant market for the situation in Germany is done. The calculations along the whole process chain show that CCS technologies emit per kWh more than generally assumed in clean-coal concepts (total CO2 reduction by 72–90% and total greenhouse gas reduction by 65–79%) and considerable more if compared with renewable electricity. Nevertheless, CCS could lead to a significant absolute reduction of GHG-emissions within the electricity supply system. Furthermore, depending on the growth rates and the market development, renewables could develop faster and could be in the long term cheaper than CCS based plants. Especially, in Germany, CCS as a climate protection option is phasing a specific problem as a huge amount of fossil power plant has to be substituted in the next 15 years where CCS technologies might be not yet available. For a considerable contribution of CCS to climate protection, the energy structure in Germany requires the integration of capture ready plants into the current renewal programs. If CCS retrofit technologies could be applied at least from 2020, this would strongly decrease the expected CO2 emissions and would give a chance to reach the climate protection goal of minus 80% including the renewed fossil-fired power plants.

Plant-soil feedback (PSF) describes the process whereby plant species modify the soil environment, which subsequently impacts the growth of the same or another plant species. Our aim was to explore PSF by two maize varieties (a landrace and a hybrid variety) and three arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) species (Funneliformis mosseae, Claroideoglomus etunicatum, Gigaspora margarita, and the mixture). We carried out a pot experiment with a conditioning and a feedback phase to determine PSF with different species of AMF and with a non-mycorrhizal control. Sterilized soil was conditioned separately by each variety, with or without AMF; in the feedback phase, each soil community was used to grow each in its "home" soil and in the "away" soil. Plant performance was assessed as shoot biomass, phosphorus (P) concentration and P content, and fungal performance was assessed as mycorrhizal colonization and hyphal length density. Both maize varieties were differentially influenced by AMF in the conditioning phase. In the feedback phase, PSF was generally negative for non-mycorrhizal plants or when plants were colonized by G. margarita, whereas PSF was positive in the other three AMF treatments. When plants were grown on home soil, hyphal length density was larger than on away soil. We conclude that different maize varieties can strengthen positive plant-soil feedback for themselves through beneficial mutualists for themselves, but not across the maize varieties.