Africa-EU Renewable Energy Research and Innovation Symposium 2018 (RERIS 2018)

This open access book presents the proceedings of the 2nd Africa-EU Renewable Energy Research and Innovation Symposium (RERIS 18), held in Maseru, Lesotho in January 2018. The symposium aimed to foster research cooperation on renewable energy between Africa and Europe – in academia, as well as the private and public sectors. Addressing thematic areas such as • Grid-connected renewable energy; • Decentralised renewable and household energy solutions; • Energy socioeconomics; and • Promotion of energy research, innovation, education and entrepreneurship, the book brings together contributions from academics and practitioners from the EU and Africa to enable mutual learning and knowledge transfer – a key factor in boosting sustainable development in the African renewable energy market. It also plays a significant role in promoting African renewable energy research, which helps to secure energy supply in both rural and urban areas and to increase generation capacities and energy system resilience. This book is an invaluable resource for academics and professionals across the renewable energy spectrum

China's Long-Term Low-Carbon Development Strategies and Pathways

This open access book introduces a multi-disciplinary and comprehensive research on China's long-term low-carbon emission strategies and pathways. After comprehensively considering China’s own socioeconomic conditions, policy design, energy mix, and other macro-development trends and needs, the research team has proposed suggestions on China’s low-carbon development strategies and pathways until 2050, with required technologies and policies in order to realize the goals of building a great modern socialist country and a beautiful China. These achievements are in conjunction with the climate goals set in the Paris Agreement alongside Global Sustainable Development. The authors hope that the research findings can serve as a reference for all sectors of Chinese society in their climate research efforts, offer support for the formulation and implementation of china’s national low-carbon development strategies and policies, and help the world to better understand China’s story in the general trend of global green and low-carbon development

Design and development of adaptive EV charging management for urban traffic environments

Due to the world’s shortage of fossil fuels, increasing energy demand, oil prices, environmental concerns such as climate change and air pollution, seeking for alternative energy has emerged as a critical study area. Transportation systems is one of the main contributors to air pollution and consumers of energy. Electric Vehicles (EVs) is considered as a highly desirable solution for a new sustainable transportation for many powerful advantages, such as energy efficient, environmentally friendly and may benefit from increased renewable energy technologies in the future. Despite all the acknowledged advantages and recent developments in terms of reducing the environmental impact, noise reduction and energy efficiency, the electric mobility market is still below the expectations. Among the most challenges that limit the market penetration of EVs as well as achieving a sustainable mobility system are the efficient distribution of adequate Charging Stations (CSs) and also determining the best CSs for EVs in metropolitan environments. This thesis is concerned in determining the optimal placement of EVCSs and the efficient assignment of EVs to CSs. To accomplish this, we thoroughly examine the interactions between EVs, CSs, and Electrical Grids (EGs). First, a novel energy efficient scheme to find the optimal placement of EVCSs are presented, based on minimizing the energy consumption of EVs to reach CSs. We then propose a comprehensive approach to find the optimal assignment of EVs to CSs based on optimization of EV users’ QoE. Finally, we proposed a reinforcement learning-based assignment scheme for EVs to CSs in urban areas, aiming at minimizing the total cost of charging EVs and reduce the overload on EGs. By comparing the obtained results of the proposed approaches with different scenarios and algorithms, it was concluded that the presented approaches in this thesis are effective in solving the problems of EVCS placement and EVs assignment

Automation, Electrification, and Shared Mobility in Freight

Caltrans 65A0674 Task Order 009USDOT Grant 69A3551747109Understanding the potential benefits and unintended consequences of automation and electrification revolutions in freight is challenging for academics, practitioners, and decision-makers. On one hand, these revolutions could help mitigate the disproportionate impacts of freight transportation on externalities and improve efficiency; on the other hand, they could generate additional issues such as right-of-way conflicts, crashes, and traffic incidents. To shed light on these issues, this report conducts an extensive review of the state-of-the-practice of such innovations for both long-haul and last-mile freight distribution. The study concentrates on the potential barriers, challenges, and opportunities of the different innovations, and discusses the market readiness of some of the technologies. Finally, the authors discuss planning considerations for the advent and widespread use of these innovations, and provide research and policy considerations