Structural health monitoring for wind turbine foundations

The construction of onshore wind turbines has rapidly been increasing as the UK attempts to meet its renewable energy targets. As the UK’s future energy depends more on wind farms, safety and security are critical to the success of this renewable energy source. Structural integrity of the tower and its components is a critical element of this security of supply. With the stochastic nature of the load regime a bespoke low cost structural health monitoring system is required to monitor integrity of the concrete foundation supporting the tower. This paper presents an assessment of ‘embedded can’ style foundation failure modes in large onshore wind turbines and proposes a novel condition based monitoring solution to aid in early warning of failure. The most common failure modes are discussed and a low-cost remote monitoring system is presented

The status of river water quality in some rural areas, in state of Johor and its effects to life

Water is a basic requirement of human and other life. Water resources stems from rivers, streams, drains, ponds and so forth. The river is the natural water resources are very important for a human habitat. Malaysian water quality assessment is determined by the water quality Index (IKA) issued by the Department of environment (DOE) based on class I, II, III and IV. Now a water pollution also occurs in rural areas has affected the water quality and marine life. The objective of this writing is to determine river water quality in rural areas based on IKA. Kajian telah dijalankan di beberapa batang sungai di kawasan luar bandar di negeri Johor bermula dari bulan Februari sehingga April 2015. Water quality sampling was done three times in four different study locations. Determination of water quality involves measurement parameters pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammoniacal nitrogen (AN) and suspended solids (SS). The Measurements are made IKA the total calculated and used to classify the river either as untainted, slightly polluted moderately polluted, contaminated and polluted. The study found the status of three rivers polluted level contaminated (class IV) and a river are classified at the level of medium-polluted (class III). Deterioration of the status of IKA for all rivers surveyed not only affects marine life, even limiting water use to humans, for example, to daily activities

Domestic UK retrofit challenge: Barriers, incentives and current performance leading into the green deal

Copyright @ 2012 Elsevier - The official published version can be accessed from the link below.This paper reviews the thermal performance of the existing UK housing stock, the main fabric efficiency incentive schemes and the barriers to obtaining deep energy and CO2 savings throughout the stock. The UK faces a major challenge to improve the thermal performance of its existing housing stock. Millions of dwellings possess ‘hard-to-treat’ solid walls and have glazing which is not cost effective to improve. A range of fabric efficiency incentive schemes exist, but many do not target the full range of private and social housing. From now on, the Green Deal will be the UK's key energy efficiency policy. However, the scheme is forecasted to have low consumer appeal and low incentives for investors. Moreover, calculated Green Deal loan repayments will be reliant upon estimated energy savings, yet it is claimed that retrofit measures may only be half as effective as anticipated due to a lack of monitoring, poor quality installation and the increased use of heating following refurbishment. Looking to Germany, there has been success through the Passivhaus standard, but the UK currently lacks appropriate skills and cost effective components to replicate this approach. In addition, the embodied energy in retrofit products and materials threatens to counter operational savings.This study is funded by the EPSRC, Brunel University and Buro Happold Ltd

Examining the uptake of low-carbon approaches within the healthcare sector: case studies from the National Health Service in England

The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, is one of the largest organisations in Europe and indeed the world. It therefore has a significant ecological footprint. As a result there are key corporate, financial and environmental targets that the organisation is expected to meet as a means of reducing resource consumption. Using a case study approach, this manuscript examines best practice examples for the uptake of low-carbon strategies for energy conservation. These strategies included sustainable procurement, use of renewable energy technologies, supply chain management, use of building management systems, renegotiating energy contracts, undertaking energy audits, and behaviour change, to realise significant financial, as well as energy and carbon savings. A key focus was management of water resources, including the use of recycling and recovery of heat. The implications of the findings for building ecological and financial resilience within the organisation are also discussed

Time valued life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from buildings

The UK has adopted legally binding carbon reduction targets of 34% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 (measured against the 1990 baseline). Buildings are estimated to be responsible for more than 50% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the UK. These consist of both operational, produced during use, and embodied, produced during manufacture of materials and components, and during construction, refurbishments and demolition. A brief assessment suggests that it is unlikely that UK emission reduction targets can be met without substantial reductions in both Oc and Ec. Oc occurs over the lifetime of a building whereas the bulk of Ec occurs at the start of a building’s life. A time value for emissions could influence the decision making process when it comes to comparing mitigation measures which have benefits that occur at different times. An example might be the choice between building construction using low Ec construction materials versus building construction using high Ec construction materials but with lower Oc, although the use of high Ec materials does not necessarily imply a lower Oc. Particular time related issues examined here are: the urgency of the need to achieve large emissions reductions during the next 10 to 20 years; the earlier effective action is taken, the less costly it will be; future reduction in carbon intensity of energy supply; the carbon cycle and relationship between the release of GHG’s and their subsequent concentrations in the atmosphere. An equation is proposed, which weights emissions according to when they occur during the building life cycle, and which effectively increases Ec as a proportion of the total, suggesting that reducing Ec is likely to be more beneficial, in terms of climate change, for most new buildings. Thus, giving higher priority to Ec reductions is likely to result in a bigger positive impact on climate change and mitigation costs

The duties of the president of the polish energy regulatory office in the context of implementing the third energy package

This article presents the duties and powers of the President of the Energy Regulatory Office as the national regulatory authority of Poland within the scope of implementing the Third Energy Package. The article closely examines the changes and omissions connected with implementing the regulations of the Third Liberalization Package. Such implementation has not been fully executed. The biggest shortages are visible in two fields: the realization of the aims of Articles 35 and 37 of Directive 2009/72/EC. Concerning Article 35 of the Directive, the changes to the legal position of the President of URE (i.e., loosening his ties with the sphere of governmental administration, something strongly advocated by negative developments which have taken place in the legal and constitutional status of the authority over the last six years) have not been implemented.energy law, national regulatory authority, energy market, EU law, Third Energy Package, President of the Energy Regulatory Office

Energia come community asset e orizzonte di sviluppo per le imprese di comunità

Le nuove tecnologie per le produzioni distribuite di energia stanno raggiungendo un livello di maturità che lascia presagire un diffuso sviluppo di iniziative dal basso nella costituzione di “sistemi energetici locali”. Queste formule hanno un ruolo cruciale per la ridiscussione dell'intero sistema infrastrutturale e del mercato dell'energia. Se questo tema è ampiamente discusso dal punto di vista tecnologico e ingegneristico, il dibattito sulle caratteristiche delle organizzazioni che dovranno guidare le iniziative locali è appena iniziato. L'obiettivo del paper è di verificare a che punto è il dibattito nella diffusione dei sistemi energetici locali, gli approcci sperimentati e quale possibile ruolo per le imprese di comunità. Il key-issue evidenziato è rappresentato dagli aspetti normativi e regolatori relativi al “grande” mercato energetico. Un “ecosistema normativo” basato su operatori, produzioni e reti “centralizzate”che poco si presta alle particolari esigenze delle iniziative locali. L'analisi intende aprire un nuovo orizzonte di diffusione delle “Imprese di Comunità Energetiche”, concludendo con una riflessione sul ruolo nel dibattito generale sul tema e nello sviluppo di città e territori policentrici