Implications of intermittency and transmission constraints for renewables deployment

We represent hourly, regional 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.Investment planning model, wind power, constraint land, Network constraints.

Meteorological influences on coastal sea levels west of Port Phillip and their engineering significance

This report presents the results of an analysis of three years of tide and meteorological data aimed at delineating the influences of atmospheric pressure, waves, onshore winds and longshore winds on coastal sea levels West of Port Phillip Bay, Victoria« The data was used to develop predictive and hindcasting techniques for meteorological tides on the Otway Coast, using statistical methods, an empirical method and a mathematical model. The nature and magnitude of contributions of the various components of the meteorological tide, and the general variability of monthly and seasonal variations were also studied. It was found that meteorological tides on the Otway Coast can account for significant sea level changes, with the main factors being wind and atmospheric pressure. The wind component of the meteorological tide was found to be approximately twice the pressure component, and longshore winds were found to be more significant than onshore winds for wind setup on the Otway Coast. The meteorological tide models developed enable estimates of wind setup and atmospheric pressure setup on the Otway Coast to be readily computed using data from synoptic charts. The wave setup component could not be separated from the meteorological tide and is included in the wind setup component. The results of the investigation are relevant to the design and maintenance of coastal engineering works, and point to the need for the establishment and operation of coastal management schemes on the Otway Coast

Privacy Harms

Privacy harms have become one of the largest impediments in privacy law enforcement. In most tort and contract cases, plaintiffs must establish that they have been harmed. Even when legislation does not require it, courts have taken it upon themselves to add a harm element. Harm is also a requirement to establish standing in federal court. In Spokeo v. Robins, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that courts can override Congress’s judgments about what harm should be cognizable and dismiss cases brought for privacy statute violations. The caselaw is an inconsistent, incoherent jumble, with no guiding principles. Countless privacy violations are not remedied or addressed on the grounds that there has been no cognizable harm. Courts conclude that many privacy violations, such as thwarted expectations, improper uses of data, and the wrongful transfer of data to other organizations, lack cognizable harm. Courts struggle with privacy harms because they often involve future uses of personal data that vary widely. When privacy violations do result in negative consequences, the effects are often small – frustration, aggravation, and inconvenience – and dispersed among a large number of people. When these minor harms are done at a vast scale by a large number of actors, they aggregate into more significant harms to people and society. But these harms do not fit well with existing judicial understandings of harm. This article makes two central contributions. The first is the construction of a road map for courts to understand harm so that privacy violations can be tackled and remedied in a meaningful way. Privacy harms consist of various different types, which to date have been recognized by courts in inconsistent ways. We set forth a typology of privacy harms that elucidates why certain types of privacy harms should be recognized as cognizable. The second contribution is providing an approach to when privacy harm should be required. In many cases, harm should not be required because it is irrelevant to the purpose of the lawsuit. Currently, much privacy litigations suffers from a misalignment of law enforcement goals and remedies. For example, existing methods of litigating privacy cases, such as class actions, often enrich lawyers but fail to achieve meaningful deterrence. Because the personal data of tens of millions of people could be involved, even small actual damages could put companies out of business without providing much of value to each individual. We contend that the law should be guided by the essential question: When and how should privacy regulation be enforced? We offer an approach that aligns enforcement goals with appropriate remedies

Space and Time: Wind in an Investment Planning Model

Investment planning models inform investment decisions and government policies. Current models do not capture the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources, restricting the applicability of the models for high penetrations of renewables. We provide a methodology to capture spatial variation in wind output in combination with transmission constraints. The representation of wind distributions with stochastic approaches or an extensive historic data set would exceed computational constraints for real world application. Hence we restrict the amount of input data, and use boot-strapping to illustrate the robustness of the results. For the UK power system we model wind deployment and the value of transmission capacity

Country report : scaling up small millet post-harvest and nutritious food products in India

This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and with financial support from the Government of Canada, provided through Global Affairs Canada (GAC).Small Millets (SM) provide superior nutritional content compared to other cereals, as well as medicinal properties. They are grown in diverse cropping systems and, with small-scale dehulling, nutrients are retained. This report covers aims, activities, outputs and outcomes of this successful project in Tamil Nadu region, India. Scaling up Small Millets (SUSM) partnership scores high on sustainability measurements with a team whose dedication to SM extends beyond the Canadian International Food Security Research Fund (CIFSRF) project timeframe. To date the project has been successful in the proposed scale up, helping large numbers of micro- and small enterprises produce (healthier) millet products

Proceedings of the workshop "Standard Model at the LHC" University College London 30 March - 1 April 2009

Proceedings from a 3-day discussion on Standard Model discoveries with the first LHC dataComment: 9 contributions to the proceedings of the LHC Standard Model worksho