Renewable electricity in Western Balkans: Support policies and current state

The use of renewable energy sources for electricity generation in the Western Balkan countries is analyzed in this review paper. Since those countries are part of EU or intend to be, data for Western Balkan are also compared with data for EU-28. The first part of the paper presents a brief overview of main promotion mechanism for electricity generation from renewable energy sources. As a dominant support policy, the feed-in tariff is more elaborated as an incentive measure and a de¬tailed overview of the amount of tariffs and quotas for dominant technologies in the Western Balkan countries is presented. Furthermore, the current state of installed capacities and annual productions of three particular renewable electricity technologies (small hydro power, wind power, and solar photovoltaic) are analyzed in detailes. Based on presented data, there is a discussion and consideration of the impact of incentive measures on the electricity market and power production from renewable sources. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. III 42013

Energy auditing and energy saving measures in 'Zastava Automobili' factory

This paper deals with energy audit procedure implemented on only Serbian car manufacturer 'Zastava Automobili'. Based on the results of energy auditing and performed technological and economical feasibility studies several energy saving measures were proposed. The measures are related to different energy sources: steam, hot water, compressed air, electricity, and water. Such energy efficiency programs reduce energy costs and increase production profitability of the factory

Creep-recovery behavior of bituminous binders and its relation to asphalt mixture rutting

Rutting is one of the main distress modes of asphalt pavements, especially after prolonged warm periods, and thus a great deal of research has been focused on the development of a rheological parameter that would address the rutting susceptibility of both unmodified and modified bituminous binders. In this study the Multiple Stress Creep Recovery (MSCR) test method is used to investigate the creep-recovery behavior of various bituminous binders and its relation to asphalt mixture rutting. Frequency sweep and MSCR tests were conducted on three unmodified and six elastomer and/or wax modified binders, and the resulting data were used to calculate the values of various binder rutting parameters. These binders were also used to manufacture asphalt slabs for mixture rutting simulations in the LPC wheel tracking device. It was found that the non-recoverable creep compliance parameter (Jnr3200) and the accumulated strain at the end of the MSCR test (γacc) correlate very strongly with each other and that they both have a superior capability of predicting asphalt mixture rutting compared to other rheological binder rutting indicators. An effort was made to explain the manifested nonlinear viscoelastic properties of the modified binders with their expected microstructural characteristics. The use of the MSCR test in the rutting characterization of bituminous binders is highly recommended based on the results of this research.</p