Large Scale Deployment of Renewables for Electricity Generation

Comparisons of resource assessments suggest resource constraints are not an obstacle to the large-scale deployment of renewable energy technologies. Economic analysis identifies barriers to the adoption of renewable energy sources resulting from market structure, competition in an uneven playing field and various non-market place barriers. However, even if these barriers are removed, the problem of ‘technology lock-out’ remains. The key policy response is strategic deployment coupled with increased R&D support to accelerate the pace of improvement through market experience. The paper suggests significant contributions from various technologies, but does not assess their optimal or maximal market share

Modelling Wind in the Electricity Sector

We represent hourly, regional an wind data and transmission constraints in an investment planning model calibrated to the UK and test sensitivities of least cost expansions to fuel and technology prices. Thus we can calculate the value of transmission expansions to the system. We represent limited public acceptance of wind and regional network constraints by maximum built rates per region and year. Thus we calculate the marginal value of improved planning and grid connection regimes. It is likely that some constraints will remain. Market designs that do not allow for regional differentiation to reflect transmission and planning constraints can increase overall costs to consumers

Optimal congestion treatment for bilateral electricity trading

How to treat transmission constraints in electricity markets that are not based on a pool but on bilateral trading? Three approaches are currently discussed: First, the system operator resolves constraints and socialises costs; second, physical transmission contracts; third, locational charging with the option of financial hedging. Socialisation of costs for constraint resolution results in inefficient dispatch and incorrect incentives for investment in generation. Physical contracts and locational charging designs have identical properties in a very simplified model world, but differ if transaction costs, illiquid markets and uncertainty about demand are considered. Physical transmission contracts are best designed as zonal access rights, but have to be centrally administered to be efficient. Only locational charging can cope with uncertainty and volatility of electricity demand efficiently and non-discriminatory

A Zador-Like Formula for Quantizers Based on Periodic Tilings

We consider Zador's asymptotic formula for the distortion-rate function for a variable-rate vector quantizer in the high-rate case. This formula involves the differential entropy of the source, the rate of the quantizer in bits per sample, and a coefficient G which depends on the geometry of the quantizer but is independent of the source. We give an explicit formula for G in the case when the quantizing regions form a periodic tiling of n-dimensional space, in terms of the volumes and second moments of the Voronoi cells. As an application we show, extending earlier work of Kashyap and Neuhoff, that even a variable-rate three-dimensional quantizer based on the ``A15'' structure is still inferior to a quantizer based on the body-centered cubic lattice. We also determine the smallest covering radius of such a structure.Comment: 8 page

How EU trade policy can enhance climate action Options to boost low-carbon investment and address carbon leakage. CEPS Policy Priorities for 2019-2024, 23 September 2019

In her Political Guidelines, Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen sets climate neutrality as one of the central objectives of a proposed European Green Deal. EU member states are now discussing whether to formally agree on an objective for climate neutrality in 2050. Some have already set deadlines – Finland as early as 2035. This has triggered reflection on the adequate policy mix, notably with a view to making a business case for low-carbon innovation and investment while addressing carbon leakage. The Commission President-elect thinks that this will require a carbon border tax. To address the strategic need for a robust EU framework for low-carbon investment, we recommend that the European Commission i) investigates the economic, legal, and administrative viability and implementation timeline of carbon price adjustments at the border, ii) examines the possibility to extend the EU Emissions Trading System to include consumption of carbon intensive materials and iii) explores the potential of product standards to achieve the same aim. All these approaches have different advantages and shortcomings in terms of political acceptability, effectiveness and implications for the world trade system. To support partner countries in advancing climate action, both bilateral and multilateral measures should be prepared

Researching Sustainable Systems. Proceedings of the First Scientific Conference of the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR), Held in Cooperation with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Australia (NASAA), 21 – 23 September 2005, Adelaide Convention Centre, Adelaide, South Australia.

This volume of proceedings contains the papers and posters presented at the Scientific Conference of the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR), held in Adelaide, Australia, September 21 – 23, 2005. The conference was organised as part of the 15th IFOAM Organic World Congress in cooperation with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Australia (NASAA). The papers cover the following aspects of organic farming research: 1. Arable crop rotations 2. Nutrient managment of arable crops in closed cycles 3. Quality aspects of composts 4. Soil communities 5. Managing weeds 6. Pests and Diseases 7. Vegetable Growing and vegetables under glass 8. Food Quality 9. Long Term Field Experiments 10. Animal husbandry and welfare – ruminants 11. Animal husbandry and welfare – Non-ruminants 12. Economics and farmers’ perspectives 13. Land use, conversion and rural development 14. Political instruments for organic farming 15. Market analysis: Improving knowledge about markets and their actors 16. Supply chain management – Improving cooperation between market actors 17. Knowing how conumers think and act to improve marketing 18. Sociology 19. Sustainability of farms 20. Environment, Biodiversity & Landscape 21. Research Structures and Method

The immobilization of Kluyveromyces fragilis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in polyacrylamide gel : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology in Biotechnology at Massey University

The search for new energy sources has indicated that biomass, in the form of green plant materials and biological wastes, can provide a perpetual energy source if converted to a useful form. This study investigated the production of ethanol by the fermentation of sugars using immobilized cells. The experimental procedure involved the immobilization of two yeast species, Kluyveromyces fragilis NRRL Y 1109 and Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCYC 240, in polyacrylamide gel for the fermentation of lactose and glucose respectively. The gel methodology of two previous authors, Chibata et al. (1974) and Neuhoff (1973) was used. The former author's gel was used as a basis for batch experiments to determine the gel composition for maximum ethanol producing activity by both cell species as initial trials with this gel yielded encouraging results. Variations in monomer, BIS and cell concentration revealed that a gel containing 15% (w/v) acrylamide, 1.5% (w/v) BIS and 25% (w/v) cells in addition to 0.6% (w/v) BDMAP and 0.25% (w/v) ammonium persulfate in tris-HCl buffer pH 7.1 polymerised at 0°C produced the greatest activity in immobilized K. fragilis cells with an activity retention for immobilization of 80%. The gel composition for greatest activity in immobilized S. cerevisiae cells differed only slightly from that above containing 20% (w/v) acrylamide, 1.6% (w/v) BIS and 40% (w/v) cells and resulted in a 46% activity retention for immobilization. Further experiments at various substrate concentrations indicated that the gel imposed small or negligible limitations on the diffusion of substrate and product. Experiments to increase the cell activity retention for the immobilization of S. cerevisiae using the Neuhoff (1973) gel were unsuccessful but produced some important results. It was found that exposure to gel components, especially to the acrylamide monomer, reduced the ethanol producing ability and the viability of the cells. The general protective agents Tween 80, glycerol, gelatin and dithiothreitol proved ineffective. To minimize this damage to the cells the gels were polymerised at 0°C with rapid polymerisation being induced by high initiator and accelerant concentrations. Repeated use of the immobilized cells indicated that the simple substrate medium, of the suqar in distilled water used previously, was not sufficient to maintain stable ethanol producing activity. Although trials involving supplementation with a salt solution were unsuccessful, the incorporation 0.5% (w/v) peptone in the medium and the use of protein-containing media, such as whey, was found to stabilize activity. Experiments in continuous processing revealed that immobilized K. fragilis cells produced ethanol from deproteinised whey at an efficiency of 70 to 80% over extended periods with complete substrate utilization of full strength whey being achieved at flowrates of 0.15 SV. The half life of the activity of the immobilized cells was estimated to be at least 50 days. The experimental results suggest that this approach to fermentation may be industrially acceptable for the production of ethanol. However, a costing exercise on the production of ethanol from whey indicates that unless the product is a highly priced commodity, such as a pharmaceutical, the process is unlikely to be economically feasible due to the high cost of the immobilization support monomer

4th Congress of the European Project Quality Low Input Food

The fourth annual scientific congress of the QLIF project took place during 19-20 June 2008 at the occassion of the 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress in Modena, Italy, where ISOFAR also organized their 2nd Scientific Conference. During the Organic World Congress QLIF offered a series of five outstanding workshops where central organic themes were highlighted during a synthesis paper written by a team of QLIF authors. Subseqently, the workshops made room for an exhaustive, moderated discussions

Entropy of Highly Correlated Quantized Data

This paper considers the entropy of highly correlated quantized samples. Two results are shown. The first concerns sampling and identically scalar quantizing a stationary continuous-time random process over a finite interval. It is shown that if the process crosses a quantization threshold with positive probability, then the joint entropy of the quantized samples tends to infinity as the sampling rate goes to infinity. The second result provides an upper bound to the rate at which the joint entropy tends to infinity, in the case of an infinite-level uniform threshold scalar quantizer and a stationary Gaussian random process. Specifically, an asymptotic formula for the conditional entropy of one quantized sample conditioned on the previous quantized sample is derived. At high sampling rates, these results indicate a sharp contrast between the large encoding rate (in bits/sec) required by a lossy source code consisting of a fixed scalar quantizer and an ideal, sampling-rate-adapted lossless code, and the bounded encoding rate required by an ideal lossy source code operating at the same distortion