Local Politics of Renewable Energy: Project Planning, Siting Conflicts and Citizen Participation

Renewable energy will play an important role in the transition to a sustainable energy system. With an increased maturity of renewable energy technologies, issues concerning implementation are becoming more important. The decisions and actions of municipalities and other local actors have a significant influence on the implementation of renewable energy. In this thesis challenges to implementation at the local level in Sweden are analysed for two types of renewable energy technologies: biogas and wind power. The thesis is based on six case studies where written documents and semi-structured qualitative interviews have been the main sources of material. Two research themes are explored. In the first theme the planning and management of locally based renewable energy projects is studied. It is shown that project planning, concerning biogas projects in particular, can be complex and that the conditions of planning can vary considerably between projects. The results indicate that different planning approaches are appropriate for different projects and flexibility is identified as a key aspect of project planning. The second theme deals with conflicts related to the siting of renewable energy facilities, and how these are handled in land-use planning through citizen participation. It is shown that there are both differences and similarities when comparing traditional siting conflicts with those concerning renewable energy facilities. Different theoretical perspectives on siting conflicts and citizen participation are discussed, which have different, and sometimes opposing views, of the goals of participation. It is argued that the expectations of what can be achieved by citizen participation in the handling of siting conflicts must be realistic. More specifically, the results of the case studies show that public consultation, which is the dominating form of citizen participation in Sweden, has some important limitations that must be acknowledged

A predictive resource allocation algorithm in the LTE uplink for event based M2M applications

Some M2M applications such as event monitoring involve a group of devices in a vicinity that act in a co-ordinated manner. An LTE network can exploit the correlated traffic characteristics of such devices by proactively assigning resources to devices based upon the activity of neighboring devices in the same group. This can reduce latency compared to waiting for each device in the group to request resources reactively per the standard LTE protocol. In this paper, we specify a new low complexity predictive resource allocation algorithm, known as the one way algorithm, for use with delay sensitive event based M2M applications in the LTE uplink. This algorithm requires minimal incremental processing power and memory resources at the eNodeB, yet can reduce the mean uplink latency below the minimum possible value for a non-predictive resource allocation algorithm. We develop mathematical models for the probability of a prediction, the probability of a successful prediction, the probability of an unsuccessful prediction, resource usage/wastage probabilities and mean uplink latency. The validity of these models is demonstrated by comparison with the results from a simulation. The models can be used offline by network operators or online in real time by the eNodeB scheduler to optimize performance

Proximity Coordinated Random Access (PCRA) for M2M applications in LTE-A

A significant amount of research has been conducted on adapting 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) random access to be more efficient for machine-to-machine (M2M) devices because of the huge number of such devices that may reside in each LTE/LTE-A cell. However, there are other attributes of M2M applications that can be used as the basis of independent efficiency improvements. One characteristic which has been overlooked thus far is the spatial and temporal correlations that often exist in the activity of neighboring M2M devices belonging to the same M2M application. In this paper, we illustrate how these correlations can be exploited by coordinating the preambles to be used by neighboring M2M devices to reduce the number of collisions during LTE-A random access, particularly in wireless sensor network (WSN) type applications. The technique is referred to as proximity coordinated random access (PCRA). Through simulation of an example local preamble coordination algorithm that can be executed autonomously by randomly deployed devices of the same M2M application, we demonstrate an increase in the efficiency of the random access process

Biosynthesis of poly-3-hydroxybutyrate by Rhodococcus pyridinivorans using unrelated carbon sources

Background: Polyhydroxyalkanoates are intracellular polymers comparable to synthetic plastic in their thermostable and elastomeric properties. PHAs are produced by bacteria under various nutrient – nitrogen – stress conditions.Methods: Bacteria were isolated from hot water springs of Tatta Pani Kashmir and Karachi Mangrove forest Pakistan. Polyhydroxyalkanoate detection agar was used to isolates PHA producing bacteria and several carbon sources such as glucose, glycerol and palmitic acid were used for relative biomass and biopolymer productions. PHA was extracted by solvent extraction method using sodium hypochlorite and chloroform. Extracted polymer was characterized by Fourier transfer infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).Results: Rhodococcus pyridinivorans NK19 (KY703220) produced up to 60% PHA with glucose, 40% with palmitic acid and 58% with glycerol as carbon sources. FTIR spectrum confirmed the polymer produced as poly -3, hydroxybutyrate. A peak at 1720 cm -1 of FTIR confirmed the presence of PHB monomers in the polymer extracted.Conclusion: Rhodococcus pyridinivorans NK19 produced short chain length PHA interchangeably known as P3HB while utilizing unrelated carbon sources up to 60%.   Keywords: Glycerol; Fatty acids degrading bacteria; FTIR; Palmitic aci

Short-Range Underwater Acoustic Communication Networks

This chapter discusses the development of a short range acoustic communication channel model and its properties for the design and evaluation of MAC (Medium Access Control) and routing protocols, to support network enabled Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV). The growth of underwater operations has required data communication between various heterogeneous underwater and surface based communication nodes. AUVs are one such node, however, in the future, AUV’s will be expected to be deployed in a swarm fashion operating as an ad-hoc sensor network. In this case, the swarm network itself will be developed with homogeneous nodes, that is each being identical, as shown in Figure 1, with the swarm network then interfacing with other fixed underwater communication nodes. The focus of this chapter is on the reliable data communication between AUVs that is essential to exploit the collective behaviour of a swarm network

Impact of War on Terror in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Beyond

Terrorism, in all its shape and manifestation, is intolerable and condemned, not only in local and international laws, but also in all religions. The world is still continuously infested with the virus of terrorism. In this article, an effort has been made to examine terrorism from different aspects and dimensions including the historical perspective of different terrorist organizations. Prior to 1979, a bipolar world witnessed a cold war for a long period of time, which finally resulted in a war against USSR troops in Afghanistan by the United States and its allies, including Pakistan. The United States and its allies, chiefly Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, orchestrated throngs of the so-called of Mujahideen and Jihadees. Politico-Islam was exploited to its maximum, which recruited these Mujahideen and Jihadees from scores of Muslim countries and launched them into the territory of Afghanistan with the help of Pakistan to fight against the Soviet troops. As a result, the Soviet Union was dismembered, reshaping the globe into a unipolar world led by the United States. Post 9/11 Pakistan had to face the brunt of terrorism by the same very Mujahideen and the people of their mindset, which resulted into devastation of its demography, economy, and human capital, and terrorism became an uncontrollable phenomenon in the entire region and beyond. DOI: 10.7176/IAGS/74-05 Publication date:July 31st 201