Unique Opportunities of Island States to Transition to a Low-Carbon Mobility System

Small islands developing states (SIDS) contribute minuscule proportions to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy consumption, but are highly exposed to climate change impacts, in particular to extreme weather events and sea-level rise. However, there is little research on potential decarbonization trajectories unique to SIDS. Here, we argue that insular topology, scale, and economy are distinctive characteristics of SIDS that facilitate overcoming carbon lock-in. We investigate these dimensions for the three islands of Barbados, Fiji, and Mauritius. We find that insular topologies and small scale offer an opportunity for both public transit corridors and rapid electrification of car fleets. The tourism sector enables local decision-makers and investors to experiment with shared mobility and to induce spillover effects by educating tourists about new mobility options. Limited network effects, and the particular economy thus enables to overcome carbon lock-in. We call for targeted investments into SIDS to transition insular mobility systems towards zero carbon in 2040. The decarbonization of SIDS is not only needed as a mitigation effort, but also as a strong signal to the global community underlining that a zero-carbon future is possible.DFG, 414044773, Open Access Publizieren 2019 - 2020 / Technische Universität Berli

Review of Land in Libraries: Toward a Materialist Conception of Education

Review of Zyagintseva, L, & Greenshields, M. (Eds). (2023). Land in libraries: Toward a materialist conception of education. Library Juice Press

The impact of innovation on employment in Europe: An analysis using CIS data

Technological progress in western economies has contributed to an immense rise in productivity, incomes and goods available over the last hundred years. Though not to the same extent as productivity and wages, population and employment have risen as well. Nevertheless, innovations are often blamed for job destruction and unemployment, with workers historically fighting against technological progress. The impact of innovation on employment today is not as clearcut as it used to be in times of the first factory or the first railroad. The pace of technological progress in an open world economy has accelerated compared to former times, resulting in a greater number of product and process innovations as well as processes related to these product and process innovations. The evolutionary nature of a dynamic, growing market economy results in the perpetual birth and death of firms and the perpetual creation and destruction of jobs -all within a single industry all at the same time. … --

Barriers to the development of renewable energy technologies in the Caribbean

Despite large amounts of readily available renewable energy (RE), island states in the Caribbean are still heavily dependent on mostly imported fossil fuels for their energy production. Making use of empirical analyses, this paper explores the barriers to the development of RE for power generation in the Caribbean, and outlines a strategy of how to overcome these barriers. Semi-structured interviews with three "super-experts" serve to supplement the findings of a preceding literature review. Approximately 30 experts are consulted to confirm and rank the identified barriers to RE according to their importance. The end-product of this study is a ranking matrix that will serve as a strategy instrument for decision-maker, who are then able to prioritize barriers and initiate their removal

Barriers and Solutions to the Development of Renewable Energy Technologies in the Caribbean

Despite large amounts of readily available renewable energy, most island states in the Caribbean are still heavily dependent on mostly imported fossil fuels for their energy production. Making use of empirical analyses, this paper explores the barriers to the development of RE for power generation in the Caribbean, and outlines a strategy of how to overcome these barriers. Semi-structured interviews with three “super-experts” serve to supplement the findings of a preceding literature review. Approximately 30 experts are consulted to confirm and rank the identified barriers to RE according to their importance. The end-product of this study is a ranking matrix that will serve as a strategy instrument for decision-makers, who are then able to prioritise barriers and initiate their removal

Electrification Modelling for Nigeria

AbstractReliable access to electricity still remains a challenge in many regions of Nigeria. For achieving a rapid electricity access for large geographic regions alternative electrification pathways apart from grid connection need to be taken into account. Therefore, sophisticated planning tools to determine techno-economic optimized electrification pathways are necessary. Here, an approach for such a tool is presented and combines GIS and energy system simulation tools. The approach is based on the identification of consumer clusters, determination of status of electrification and assignment of a suitable electricity supply option. Three options are taken into account: Grid extension, PV-hybrid mini-grids and solar-home systems (SHS). Within this study we have identified 47,489 consumer clusters for entire Nigeria and found that 46% of the people living in these clusters are currently not supplied with electricity. A connection of all customers within a 20km zone around the existing grid would have the largest impact with delivering electricity to 57.1 million people. Outside this grid zone, a population of 12.8 million is most suitably supplied by PV-hybrid mini-grids and 2.8 million by SHS. Therefore, a PV capacity in a range of 671 to 1,790 MW for mini-grids and 84 MW for SHS would be required

Supporting the Production of High-Quality Data in Concurrent Plant Engineering Using a MetaDataRepository

In recent years, several process models for data quality management have been proposed. As data quality problems are highly application-specific, these models have to remain abstract. This leaves the question of what to do exactly in a given situation unanswered. The task of implementing a data quality process is usually delegated to data quality experts. To do so, they rely heavily on input from domain experts, especially regarding data quality rules. However, in large engineering projects, the number of rules is very large and different domain experts might have different data quality needs. This considerably complicates the task of the data quality experts. Nevertheless, the domain experts need quality measures to support their decision-making process what data quality problems to solve most urgently. In this paper, we propose a MetaDataRepository architecture which allows domain experts to model their quality expectations without the help from technical experts. It balances three conflicting goals: non-intrusiveness, simple and easy usage for domain experts and sufficient expressive power to handle most common data quality problems in a large concurrent engineering environment

Qualifikation, Beschäftigung und technischer Fortschritt - Weitere empirische Evidenz mit den Daten des Mannheimer Innovationspanels

Für die Bundesrepublik und insbesondere für Baden-Württemberg mit seiner hohen Industriedichte und dem großen Anteil innovativer Unternehmen ist das Verständnis der wirtschaftlichen Zusammenhänge zwischen Beschäftigung, Qualifikation und technischem Fortschritt von zentraler Bedeutung. Zur Quantifizierung der Beschäftigungseffekte des technischen Fortschritts wird für das Produzierende Gewerbe in Westdeutschland und in Baden-Württemberg das Wachstum der Arbeitsnachfrage zwischen 1992/94, 1993/95 und 1992/95 in kleinen und großen Unternehmen getrennt geschätzt. Prozeßinnovationen wirken tendenziell negativ, Produktinnovationen in der Regel positiv, wobei der Gesamteffekt von Prozeß- und Produktinnovationen vom Untersuchungszeitraum und von der Unternehmensgröße abhängig, tendenziell aber eher negativ ausgefallen ist. Die Qualifikationsstruktur der Beschäftigten in innovativen und nicht-innovativen Unternehmen wird mit einer Rangkorrelationsanalyse untersucht. Technischer Fortschritt setzt geringqualifizierte Arbeit frei. In innovativen Unternehmen ist die Höherqualifizierung der Arbeitskräfte stärker ausgeprägt. ; The paper analyses the relationship between technological change, employment and its skill structure in an empirical context using survey data from the West German manufacturing sector between 1993 and 1996 (Mannheim Innovation Panel). The results are compared to those of Baden- Württemberg, the federal state with the highest share of employment in German manufacturing. The most important factors determining employment growth are sales growth and growth of labour costs. Process innovations have a negative effect on labour demand. Product innovations show a positive impact on labour demand. The rank correlation analysis suggests that upskilling is higher in innovative firms. --

Seawater desalination in micro grids: an integrated planning approach

Background: Islands often depend on the import of fossil fuels for power generation. Due to the combined effect of high oil prices and transportation costs, energy supply systems based on renewable energies are already able to compete successfully with fossil fuel systems for a number of these islands. Depending on local and regional conditions, not only energy supply is a challenge, but also the finding of a reliable supply of water. A promising alternative to freshwater shipments is seawater desalination. Desalination processes can act as a flexible load whenever excess electricity generated by renewable sources is present. Methods: Numerical simulations of combined energy and water supply systems for the Caribbean island Petite Martinique, Grenada, are accomplished. Considering renewable energy sources like wind and solar radiation, energy storage technologies, and desalination processes, various scenarios are introduced and simulated, and the results are compared. Results: An extension of the current energy supply system with renewable energy technologies reduces power generation costs by approximately 40%. The excess energy generated by renewables can supply a significant share of a desalination plant’s energy demand. The levelized costs of electricity and water show that the integration of desalination as a deferrable load is beneficial to the considered micro grid. Conclusions: The implementation of renewable energy generation and desalination as deferrable load is recommendable in Petite Martinique. Possible refinancing strategies depending on the combination of different electricity and water tariffs can be derived and applied to similar business cases in remote regions