What Ukraine Taught NATO about Hybrid Warfare

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 forced the United States and its NATO partners to be confronted with the impact of hybrid warfare far beyond the battlefield. Targeting Europe’s energy security, Russia’s malign influence campaigns and malicious cyber intrusions are affecting global gas prices, driving up food costs, disrupting supply chains and grids, and testing US and Allied military mobility. This study examines how hybrid warfare is being used by NATO’s adversaries, what vulnerabilities in energy security exist across the Alliance, and what mitigation strategies are available to the member states. Cyberattacks targeting the renewable energy landscape during Europe’s green transition are increasing, making it urgent that new tools are developed to protect these emerging technologies. No less significant are the cyber and information operations targeting energy security in Eastern Europe as it seeks to become independent from Russia. Economic coercion is being used against Western and Central Europe to stop gas from flowing. China’s malign investments in Southern and Mediterranean Europe are enabling Beijing to control several NATO member states’ critical energy infrastructure at a critical moment in the global balance of power. What Ukraine Taught NATO about Hybrid Warfare will be an important reference for NATO officials and US installations operating in the European theater.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1952/thumbnail.jp

Exploring the governance of private finance for the electricity sector in sub-Saharan Africa

My dissertation is a paper style thesis, which contains the following chapters: an introduction; a research design; three chapters, each derived from a different successful peer reviewed policy paper (there were corrections applied to each of the original papers); and a discussion and conclusions section. My thesis aims to answer the following research question: ‘What aspects of governance deter private investors from financing large-scale electricity network infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa?’ My methodology utilises a Hypothetico-deductive approach: which focuses on the impact of risk surrounding the private financing process, when applied to electricity infrastructure development in the sub-Saharan region. My sources for evidence are mixed and multidisciplinary; and my analysis principally applies a governance lens. This is an important topic, as it is over 20 years since the multilateral development community re-focused its policy surrounding the improvement of electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), to one that places private sector financing at the centre of its strategy (which transpired during the leadership of the World Bank by James Wolfensohn in the 1990s). Yet according to a recently published report by the IEA: ‘despite being home to 17% of the world’s population, Africa currently accounts for just 4% of global power supply investment’ – suggesting a significant policy failure for over twenty years. With SSA’s population forecast to double by the UN by 2050, it is imperative that the development community understands why such a policy is gaining so little traction. Affordable and reliable energy access is crucial for the economic growth that such a rapid population increase will require. If it is not delivered, excessive environmental damage will otherwise occur, as the enlarging population will have to continue to rely on unsustainably biofuel sources for its energy needs (mostly wood – causing deforestation); and ever increasing social problems will ensue, due to accelerating competition for scarce resources by this ever-growing population. My first paper has two functions: firstly, to reformulate the relevance of risk within the academic research community as an obstruction to the private financing of new SSA electricity infrastructure development. Secondly, to confirm and classify those risks that can be found in the greater interdisciplinary literature, which would negatively influence a private, financier’s willingness to invest in this type of infrastructure. To do this, I firstly analysed a manageable five-year sample of literature surrounding three African countries with a notable body of academic literature: Kenya, Mozambique, and Tanzania. To create my sample, I systematically interrogated the two principle academic libraries of Scopus and the Web of Science, using key terms. My secondary analysis then digs deeper, by including further interdisciplinary literature not specific to the first sample, drawing from the Project Management, Finance, and Innovation academic disciplines – to identify and classify all relevant and likely risks. My second paper is theoretical and utilises three separate perspectives to deliver a holistic and inclusive governance picture, to answer the following research question: ‘What aspects of governance deter private investors from financing large-scale electricity network infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa?’ These perspectives comprise: 1) Financial Investment Governance, the private sector investor’s perspective, which focuses on the rules and institutions (or lack of) that directly influence the financial investment environment in SSA. 2) Political Governance, the political economy perspective, which relate to the negative, indirect investment consequences resulting from the way that SSA governments govern; and 3) Technical System Governance, a ‘systems’ perspective, which encompasses how the standard structure and organisation of the wider electricity delivery system in each country in SSA, negatively impacts such investment. My third paper focuses on the impact of governance surrounding large-scale electricity infrastructure development (megaprojects), by empirically analysing six case studies located in South Africa. My guide for my fieldwork was the following research question: ‘What aspects of project governance are important, to prevent time delays and cost overruns, when building large scale electricity infrastructure in South Africa?’ This research question is relevant to my thesis’ primary interrogation theme, as the adherence to schedules and budgets are of central importance to successful private financing of such infrastructure. My discussion and conclusions section commences with an explanation for why the multilateral development community should persevere with their policy of promoting private financing of electricity infrastructure development, in SSA. I do this by first explaining why access to affordable and reliable electricity services in Africa is crucial for promoting the meaningful economic growth in the region. I then discuss why the alternatives to this policy, are less inclusive and more exploitive. I then use this positioning to frame my key findings from my research, which I then clarify. Finally, I discuss policy implications surrounding my findings and possible policy solutions

Políticas de Copyright de Publicações Científicas em Repositórios Institucionais: O Caso do INESC TEC

A progressiva transformação das práticas científicas, impulsionada pelo desenvolvimento das novas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC), têm possibilitado aumentar o acesso à informação, caminhando gradualmente para uma abertura do ciclo de pesquisa. Isto permitirá resolver a longo prazo uma adversidade que se tem colocado aos investigadores, que passa pela existência de barreiras que limitam as condições de acesso, sejam estas geográficas ou financeiras. Apesar da produção científica ser dominada, maioritariamente, por grandes editoras comerciais, estando sujeita às regras por estas impostas, o Movimento do Acesso Aberto cuja primeira declaração pública, a Declaração de Budapeste (BOAI), é de 2002, vem propor alterações significativas que beneficiam os autores e os leitores. Este Movimento vem a ganhar importância em Portugal desde 2003, com a constituição do primeiro repositório institucional a nível nacional. Os repositórios institucionais surgiram como uma ferramenta de divulgação da produção científica de uma instituição, com o intuito de permitir abrir aos resultados da investigação, quer antes da publicação e do próprio processo de arbitragem (preprint), quer depois (postprint), e, consequentemente, aumentar a visibilidade do trabalho desenvolvido por um investigador e a respetiva instituição. O estudo apresentado, que passou por uma análise das políticas de copyright das publicações científicas mais relevantes do INESC TEC, permitiu não só perceber que as editoras adotam cada vez mais políticas que possibilitam o auto-arquivo das publicações em repositórios institucionais, como também que existe todo um trabalho de sensibilização a percorrer, não só para os investigadores, como para a instituição e toda a sociedade. A produção de um conjunto de recomendações, que passam pela implementação de uma política institucional que incentive o auto-arquivo das publicações desenvolvidas no âmbito institucional no repositório, serve como mote para uma maior valorização da produção científica do INESC TEC.The progressive transformation of scientific practices, driven by the development of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), which made it possible to increase access to information, gradually moving towards an opening of the research cycle. This opening makes it possible to resolve, in the long term, the adversity that has been placed on researchers, which involves the existence of barriers that limit access conditions, whether geographical or financial. Although large commercial publishers predominantly dominate scientific production and subject it to the rules imposed by them, the Open Access movement whose first public declaration, the Budapest Declaration (BOAI), was in 2002, proposes significant changes that benefit the authors and the readers. This Movement has gained importance in Portugal since 2003, with the constitution of the first institutional repository at the national level. Institutional repositories have emerged as a tool for disseminating the scientific production of an institution to open the results of the research, both before publication and the preprint process and postprint, increase the visibility of work done by an investigator and his or her institution. The present study, which underwent an analysis of the copyright policies of INESC TEC most relevant scientific publications, allowed not only to realize that publishers are increasingly adopting policies that make it possible to self-archive publications in institutional repositories, all the work of raising awareness, not only for researchers but also for the institution and the whole society. The production of a set of recommendations, which go through the implementation of an institutional policy that encourages the self-archiving of the publications developed in the institutional scope in the repository, serves as a motto for a greater appreciation of the scientific production of INESC TEC

Друга міжнародна конференція зі сталого майбутнього: екологічні, технологічні, соціальні та економічні питання (ICSF 2021). Кривий Ріг, Україна, 19-21 травня 2021 року

Second International Conference on Sustainable Futures: Environmental, Technological, Social and Economic Matters (ICSF 2021). Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, May 19-21, 2021.Друга міжнародна конференція зі сталого майбутнього: екологічні, технологічні, соціальні та економічні питання (ICSF 2021). Кривий Ріг, Україна, 19-21 травня 2021 року

Economics of Electricity Battery Storage

This chapter deals with the challenges and opportunities of energy storage, with a specific focus on the economics of batteries for storing electricity in the framework of the current energy transition. Storage technologies include a variety of solutions that have been used for different grid services, including frequency control, load following, and uninterrupted power supply. A recent interest is being triggered by the increasing grid balance requirements to integrate variable renewable sources and distributed generation. In parallel, lithium-ion batteries are experiencing a strong market expansion driven by an uptake of electric vehicles worldwide, which is leading to a strong decrease of production costs, making Li-ion batteries an attractive solution also for stationary storage applications

The Palgrave Handbook of International Energy Economics

This open access handbook is distinguished by its emphasis on international energy, rather than domestic energy policies or international geopolitic aspects. Addressing key topics such as energy production and distribution, renewables and corporate energy structures, alongside global energy trends, regional case studies and emerging areas such as the digitalization of energy and energy transition, this handbook provides a major new contribution to the field of international energy economics. Written by academics, practitioners and policy-makers, this handbook is a valuable and timely addition to the literature on international energy economics. This book was published open access with the support of Eni

Fuelling the zero-emissions road freight of the future: routing of mobile fuellers

The future of zero-emissions road freight is closely tied to the sufficient availability of new and clean fuel options such as electricity and Hydrogen. In goods distribution using Electric Commercial Vehicles (ECVs) and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles (HFCVs) a major challenge in the transition period would pertain to their limited autonomy and scarce and unevenly distributed refuelling stations. One viable solution to facilitate and speed up the adoption of ECVs/HFCVs by logistics, however, is to get the fuel to the point where it is needed (instead of diverting the route of delivery vehicles to refuelling stations) using "Mobile Fuellers (MFs)". These are mobile battery swapping/recharging vans or mobile Hydrogen fuellers that can travel to a running ECV/HFCV to provide the fuel they require to complete their delivery routes at a rendezvous time and space. In this presentation, new vehicle routing models will be presented for a third party company that provides MF services. In the proposed problem variant, the MF provider company receives routing plans of multiple customer companies and has to design routes for a fleet of capacitated MFs that have to synchronise their routes with the running vehicles to deliver the required amount of fuel on-the-fly. This presentation will discuss and compare several mathematical models based on different business models and collaborative logistics scenarios

Shortest Route at Dynamic Location with Node Combination-Dijkstra Algorithm

Abstract— Online transportation has become a basic requirement of the general public in support of all activities to go to work, school or vacation to the sights. Public transportation services compete to provide the best service so that consumers feel comfortable using the services offered, so that all activities are noticed, one of them is the search for the shortest route in picking the buyer or delivering to the destination. Node Combination method can minimize memory usage and this methode is more optimal when compared to A* and Ant Colony in the shortest route search like Dijkstra algorithm, but can’t store the history node that has been passed. Therefore, using node combination algorithm is very good in searching the shortest distance is not the shortest route. This paper is structured to modify the node combination algorithm to solve the problem of finding the shortest route at the dynamic location obtained from the transport fleet by displaying the nodes that have the shortest distance and will be implemented in the geographic information system in the form of map to facilitate the use of the system. Keywords— Shortest Path, Algorithm Dijkstra, Node Combination, Dynamic Location (key words

Framework for the implementation of community renewable energy projects in the UK

Community Renewable Energy Projects (CREPs) are among the most significant contributors to the UK CO2 emission reduction targets, and therefore have become a key agenda in many UK sustainable Energy reports. Unlike conventional energy projects, CREPs are particularly focused on how community engagement can facilitate Renewable Energy projects delivery process; enhance local ownership through the various Business Models deployed. There is a common believe that business models are central to understanding an organisation’s many approaches to capturing the customer’s needs, how these needs can be met to their satisfaction and how revenue can be generated in the process. The thesis explores the impacts of the UK Community Energy Business Model (CEBMoD) on the success of CREPs in planning, implementation, operational and disposal phases of the project. Drawing on extant literature, factors that describe CEBMoD effectiveness, management structure as well as common influencing factors to overall project success were obtained. To further gauge the opinion of experts on the importance of these factors, questionnaire survey was administered to UK wide CREPs practitioners while some sitting directors in the board of selected CEBMoDs and key personnel from CREPs support organisations in Scotland were interviewed. Based on its open sourced nature, robustness and flexibility in coding, R programming language and the relevant packages were used in the analysis of the questionnaire items, while NVivo was used in analysing the interview data. The factor analysis revealed four principal influencing factors to CREPs planning phase, three for implementation and operational phases respectively, and two for disposal phase. Another eleven principal factors which are focused on testing CREPs impacts and seven most parsimonious set of components for CEBMoD’s management structure were also obtained. A total of twenty-three regression models were tested for relationship between an effective CEBMoD and CREPs success. The principal issues and suggestions which have arisen from the regression models and interview analysis is used in the development of a framework for the selection of appropriate Community Energy Business Model (CEBMoD) for a particular Community Renewable Projects (CREPs) development. Guiding recommendations for improving incumbent/setting up new CEBMoD for implementation of future CREPs have been specified in the framewor