Mobilizing Cities towards a Low Carbon Future: Tambourines, Carrots and Sticks

In the transition towards a decarbonized energy system, we need city authorities to lead by example as public actors, to govern the actions of the private urban actors as local policy makers, and to conceive and manage the implementation of an integrated approach as coordinators, which we introduce in this paper as three levels of city smartness. Local governments however have institutional disincentives to act, and if they do act, they are confronted with urban actors that are reluctant to follow. This paper analyzes how city pioneers in Europe have been able to overcome these disincentives thanks to a combination of local circumstances and interventions by higher levels of government. We categorize the state of the art instruments that have been used by higher levels of government into “tambourines”, “carrots”, and “sticks”, and reflect on how the state of the art could be improved.cities; climate change; governance

A Novel Business Model for Aggregating the Values of Electricity Storage

Electricity storage is considered a valuable source of flexibility whose applications cover the whole electricity value chain. However, most of the existing evaluation methods for electricity storage are conceived for only one specific use of the storage, which often leads to the conclusion that the investment on storage does not pay off. We think that the value of storage cannot be properly estimated without taking into account the possibility of aggregating the services that storage can offer to different actors. In this paper, we propose a new business model that allows aggregating multiple revenue streams of electricity storage in a systematic way. The main idea of the business model is to coordinate a series of auctions in which the right to utilize the storage unit is auctioned in different time horizons. The model consists of an optimization module and a coordination mechanism. The former simulates the optimal strategy of a certain actor using the available storage capacities in a certain auction, while the latter ensures non-conflicting uses of storage by actors in different auctions. The functioning of the model is demonstrated by a case study. The results show that a storage unit can achieve a higher return on investment in the manner proposed in the business model.electricity storage; business model; optimization

CO2 Abatement from Renewable Energy Injections in the German Electricity Sector: Does a CO2 Price Help?

http://web.mit.edu/ceepr/www/publications/workingpapers.htmlThe overlapping impact of the Emission Trading System (ETS) and renewable energy (RE) deployment targets creates a classic case of interaction effects. Whereas the price interaction is widely recognized and has been thoroughly discussed, the effect of an overlapping instrument on the abatement attributable to an instrument has gained little attention. This paper estimates the actual reduction in demand for European Union Allowances that has occurred due to RE deployment focusing on the German electricity sector, for the five years 2006 through 2010. Based on a unit commitment model we estimate that CO2 emissions from the electricity sector are reduced by 33 to 57 Mtons, or 10% to 16% of what estimated emissions would have been without any RE policy. Furthermore, we find that the abatement attributable to RE injections is greater in the presence of an allowance price than otherwise. The same holds for the ETS effect in presence of RE injection. This interaction effect is consistently positive for the German electricity system, at least for these years, and on the order of 0.5% to 1.5% of emissions

Decarbonizing the European Electric Power Sector by 2050: A tale of three studies

If Europe is serious about climate change, it has to reduce its overall greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, thereby effectively going to a (near-) zero carbon energy and thus, electricity system. The European Climate Foundation, Eurelectric, and the International Energy Agency have consequently published a study elaborating on the final goal of this transition. The studies project scenarios of how such a (near-) zero electricity system would look like and provide recommendations on the policies needed to guide the transition. In this paper, we observe that these studies tell a tale with many similarities. In spite of increased energy efficiency, the electricity demand is projected to increase substantially, with up to 50% from today towards 2050, due to shifts from other sectors towards electricity. This demand will be supplied by a minimum of 40% electricity generation by RES, with the remainder being filled up with nuclear and fossils with CCS. The importance of grid reinforcement, expansion, and planning in this context is emphasized in all three studies. While all three studies further recommend relying on the EU ETS for the transition, the European Climate Foundation and the International Energy Agency consider continuing with targets for RES in combination with a more harmonized EU RES support scheme.European Energy Policy; Electric power generation; decarbonization

Smart Cities Initiative: How to Foster a Quick Transition Towards Local Sustainable Energy Systems

QM-AI-11-002-EN-C (print)/QM-AI-11-002-EN-N (online)THINK Policy Briefs are abbreviated versions of THINK Reports.The EU is subscribing to the international trend of local governments becoming more involved in climate change policy-making and higher levels of government encouraging this trend. With the Covenant of Mayors, the EU has already been successful in voluntarily committing city authorities to reduce their CO2 emissions by at least 20% by 2020. The ambition of the Smart Cities Initiative is to speed up the transition towards local sustainable energy systems. A portfolio of smart cities that represents the population of European cities should be selected, consisting of cities with different energy fundamentals, a different political economy, and different institutional capacities. The cities in this portfolio need to be given the institutional flexibility (human and financial resources) to conceive and manage the implementation of concepts of city smartness, i.e. to lead by example (first level of city smartness: city as a public actor), to govern the actions by the private urban actors (second level of city smartness: city as a local policy maker), and to promote an integrated approach (third level of city smartness: city as a coordinator). To have an impact, the initiative needs to establish a strict performance reporting methodology (currently, city pioneer experiences are difficult to compare or replicate because of a lack of reporting, and pioneers that do report, use very different reporting methodologies), which would allow the creation of a good-practice forum or register. An EU level legislative initiative to require all cities to report about their progress or lack of progress is also recommended to further improve the impact of the initiative.The THINK project (2010-2013) is funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme, Strategic Energy Technology Plan. (Call FP7-ENERGY-2009-2, Grant Agreement no: 249736). Coordinator: Prof. Jean-Michel Glachant and Dr. Leonardo Meeus, Florence School of Regulation, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institut

NOMAD-Ref: visualization, deformation and refinement of macromolecular structures based on all-atom normal mode analysis

Normal mode analysis (NMA) is an efficient way to study collective motions in biomolecules that bypasses the computational costs and many limitations associated with full dynamics simulations. The NOMAD-Ref web server presented here provides tools for online calculation of the normal modes of large molecules (up to 100 000 atoms) maintaining a full all-atom representation of their structures, as well as access to a number of programs that utilize these collective motions for deformation and refinement of biomolecular structures. Applications include the generation of sets of decoys with correct stereochemistry but arbitrary large amplitude movements, the quantification of the overlap between alternative conformations of a molecule, refinement of structures against experimental data, such as X-ray diffraction structure factors or Cryo-EM maps and optimization of docked complexes by modeling receptor/ligand flexibility through normal mode motions. The server can be accessed at the URL

Short-term CO₂ abatement in the European power sector

This paper focuses on the possibilities for short term abatement in response to a CO2 price through fuel switching in the European power sector. The model E-Simulate is used to simulate the electricity generation in Europe as a means of both gaining insight into the process of fuel switching and estimating the abatement in the power sector during the first trading period of the European Union Emission Trading Scheme. Abatement is shown to depend not only on the price of allowances, but also and more importantly on the load level of the system and the ratio between natural gas and coal prices. Estimates of the amount of abatement through fuel switching are provided with a lower limit of 35 million metric tons in 2005 and 19 Mtons in 2006

Чому слід припинити проскрибування латиномовної сторінки в українській літературі

Шляхом аналізу програми, за якою відбувалося вивчення української літератури у 5–9 класах загальноосвітніх навчальних закладів протягом 2009–2010 н.р., низки документів, що в той чи інший спосіб тлумачать програму, та шкільних підручників, рекомендованих МОН України, визначається глибина та межі знань, які може отримати український школяр про давній період розвитку української літератури. Стаття містить конкретні рекомендації щодо розширення програми у частині, яка стосується латиномовного періоду української літератури, та доповнення програми творами, що були написані латинською мовою протягом XV–XIX ст. та належать до української літератури.Путем анализа программы, согласно которой осуществлялось изучение украинской литературыу в 5–9 классах общеобразовательных учебных заведений на протяжении 2009–2010 уч.г., а также ряда документов, которые определенным образом толкуют программу, школьных учебников, рекоммендованых МОН Украины, определяется глубина и границы знаний, которые может получить українский школьник о давнем периоде развития украинской литературы. Статья содержит конкретные рекоммендации по расширению программы в части, касающейся латиноязычного периода украинской литературы, а также дополнения программы произведениями, написанными на латинском языке в XV–XIX ст. и относящимися к украинской литературе.The depth and scope of knowledge that can acquire Ukrainian pupil about the ancient period of Ukrainian literature development is defined through analysis of Ukrainian literature study program for 5–9 forms of general education institutions for 2009–2010, a number of documents that somehow or other interpret the program as well as schoolbooks recommended by Ministry of education and science of Ukraine. The article presents specific recommendations regarding extension of the program in the part that pertains to Ukrainian literature Latin speaking period and addition of works created in Latin during XV–XIX centuries that belonged to Ukrainian literature

Smart Cities Initiative: how to foster a quick transition towards local sustainable energy systems

The European Commission has recently launched the Smart Cities Initiative to demonstrate and disseminate how to foster a quick transition towards local sustainable energy systems. Within this initiative, the three main challenges faced by pioneering cities, are to reduce or modify the demand for energy services, to improve the uptake of energy efficient technologies and to improve the uptake of renewables in the urban environment. We find that enough resources will need to be provided to a significant number of pioneering cities, and propose that the initiative would allocate these resources through project competition, rewarding innovation, ambition and performance, which have been ingredients of success at Member State level.Smart Cities; sustainable local energy systems; city authority incentives; EU energy policy

Molecular Identification of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis in the Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Cemetery

The possibility of identifying Mycobacterium tuberculosis in skeletal remains has been a debated topic for many years. This study utilizes the remains from the 1991 and 1992 excavations of the Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Cemetery, a collection of human skeletons ranging from 1882 to 1925, of various ages and sexes, to address that possibility. To test the utility of previously used methods of osteological identification of tuberculosis, the collection has been analyzed for the IS6110 repetitive element marker using molecular biological techniques, such as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Eighty-six skeletons from the collection have been analyzed, with nine of them showing evidence of skeletal tuberculosis. PCR has also been carried out with the oxyR marker to rule out Mycobacterium bovis contamination on all positive IS6110 samples. The goal of the study was to evaluate whether or not osteological identification of M. tuberculosis is possible and whether it can be confirmed using molecular biological techniques