The role of energy storage for mini-grid stabilization

48 pagesMini-grids may be designed to operate autonomously with or without connection to a central grid. While operating autonomously, they cannot rely on the central grid to provide stabilization to control the line voltage and frequency, balance supply and demand of power and manage real or reactive power. Energy storage can provide stabilization in a mini-grid as follows: when the system works autonomously, storage provides or absorbs power to balance supply and demand, to counteract the moment to moment fluctuations in customer loads and unpredictable fluctuations in generation. When grid connected, energy storage systems also can provide ancillary services to improve power quality such as voltage and frequency regulation, harmonic filtering, and fault clearing (i.e. supply of short circuit current). This is named the power use of energy storage, contrary to the usual energy use of energy storage

An advanced On-line Wind Resource Prediction system for the optimal management of wind park

International audienceThe paper presents an advanced wind forecasting system that uses on-line SCADA measurements, as well as numerical weather predictions as input to predict the power production of wind parks 48 hours ahead. The prediction tool integrates models based on adaptive fuzzy-neural networks configured either for short-term or long-term forecasting. In each case, the model architecture is selected through non-linear optimization techniques. The forecasting system is integrated within the MORE-CARE EMS software developed in the frame of a European research project. Within this on-line platform, the forecasting module provides forecasts and confidence intervals for the wind farms in a power system, which can be directly used by economic dispatch and unit commitment functions. The platform can run also as a stand-alone application destined only for wind forecasting. Detailed results are presented on the performance of the developed models on a real wind farm using HIRLAM numerical weather predictions as input

Solar and Wind resources estimation: an overview

The renewable energies are of tremendous importance for the fight against greenhouse gas effects. They are also of paramount importance for the rural electrification and to open access to energy for all. Before making investment in this domain, there is a need for knowing their potential. This can only be achieved through the evaluation of natural resources of solar and wind energies. This paper presents some of the means and tools for estimation

Environmental Impact of PV Systems: Effects of Energy Sources Used in Production of Solar Panels

http://www.eupvsec-proceedings.com/proceedings?char=E&paper=4860International audienceThe international expansion of the PV industry can affect the range of indirect environmental impacts, and mostly the CO2 equivalent emissions, of the solar electricity produced in any country. We demonstrate a clear trend towards high variation in the global warming potential of solar electricity produced in France by PV installations which use modules produced with different electricity mix. The variation is somewhat less important when looking at the Energy Payback Time (EPBT) of the PV installation. In any studied case, the transportation between countries has a low effect compared to the choice made on the source of electricity used during the different steps involved in the fabrication of modules for any technology

Espace-PV: Key Sensitive Parameters for Environmental Impacts of Grid-Connected PV Systems With LCA

http://www.eupvsec-proceedings.com/proceedings?char=E&paper=2818International audienceThe study of sensitive parameters for the life cycle analysis (LCA) of PV system showed that irradiation intensity will bring the biggest variation on environmental impact when considering regions with large difference in solar irradiation level. For example, in France a system installed in the northern region will produce electricity with more than a 100% of the impact of a southern system. Other important factors are the lifetime of the system and the associated electricity use for the different components needed for the PV system. They can bring up to 35% of variation in the production of CO2 gas and primary non-renewable energy use. This study has been developed within Espace-PV project and results have been analyzed and compared with the EcoInvent database. These results are provided for a 3 kWp multicrystalline grid connected system integrated in a slanted roof with near optimal inclination

An Interaction Network Predicted from Public Data as a Discovery Tool: Application to the Hsp90 Molecular Chaperone Machine

Understanding the functions of proteins requires information about their protein-protein interactions (PPI). The collective effort of the scientific community generates far more data on any given protein than individual experimental approaches. The latter are often too limited to reveal an interactome comprehensively. We developed a workflow for parallel mining of all major PPI databases, containing data from several model organisms, and to integrate data from the literature for a protein of interest. We applied this novel approach to build the PPI network of the human Hsp90 molecular chaperone machine (Hsp90Int) for which previous efforts have yielded limited and poorly overlapping sets of interactors. We demonstrate the power of the Hsp90Int database as a discovery tool by validating the prediction that the Hsp90 co-chaperone Aha1 is involved in nucleocytoplasmic transport. Thus, we both describe how to build a custom database and introduce a powerful new resource for the scientific community

Risk factors for noma disease: a 6-year, prospective, matched case-control study in Niger

Background Noma is a poorly studied disease that leads to severe facial tissue destruction in children in developing countries, but the cause remains unknown. We aimed to identify the epidemiological and microbiological risk factors associated with noma disease. Methods We did a prospective, matched, case-control study in Niger between Aug 1, 2001, and Oct 31, 2006, in children younger than 12 years to assess risk factors for acute noma. All acute noma cases were included and four controls for each case were matched by age and home village. Epidemiological and clinical data were obtained at study inclusion. We undertook matched-paired analyses with conditional logistic regression models. Findings We included 82 cases and 327 controls. Independent risk factors associated with noma were: severe stunting (odds ratio [OR] 4·87, 95% CI 2·35–10·09) or wasting (2·45, 1·25–4·83); a high number of previous pregnancies in the mother (1·16, 1·04–1·31); the presence of respiratory disease, diarrhoea, or fever in the past 3 months (2·70, 1·35–5·40); and the absence of chickens at home (1·90, 0·93–3·88). After inclusion of microbiological data, a reduced proportion of Fusobacterium (4·63, 1·61–13·35), Capnocytophaga (3·69, 1·48–9·17), Neisseria (3·24, 1·10–9·55), and Spirochaeta in the mouth (7·77, 2·12–28·42), and an increased proportion of Prevotella (2·53, 1·07–5·98), were associated with noma. We identifi ed no specifi c single bacterial or viral pathogen in cases. Interpretation Noma is associated with indicators of severe poverty and altered oral microbiota. The predominance of specifi c bacterial commensals is indicative of a modifi cation of the oral microbiota associated with reduced bacterial diversity.Funding Gertrude Hirzel Foundation

The TREAT-NMD advisory committee for therapeutics (TACT): an innovative de-risking model to foster orphan drug development

Despite multiple publications on potential therapies for neuromuscular diseases (NMD) in cell and animal models only a handful reach clinical trials. The ability to prioritise drug development according to objective criteria is particularly critical in rare diseases with large unmet needs and a limited numbers of patients who can be enrolled into clinical trials. TREAT-NMD Advisory Committee for Therapeutics (TACT) was established to provide independent and objective guidance on the preclinical and development pathway of potential therapies (whether novel or repurposed) for NMD. We present our experience in the establishment and operation of the TACT. TACT provides a unique resource of recognized experts from multiple disciplines. The goal of each TACT review is to help the sponsor to position the candidate compound along a realistic and well-informed plan to clinical trials, and eventual registration. The reviews and subsequent recommendations are focused on generating meaningful and rigorous data that can enable clear go/no-go decisions and facilitate longer term funding or partnering opportunities. The review process thereby acts to comment on viability, de-risking the process of proceeding on a development programme. To date TACT has held 10 review meeting and reviewed 29 program applications in several rare neuromuscular diseases: Of the 29 programs reviewed, 19 were from industry and 10 were from academia; 15 were for novel compounds and 14 were for repurposed drugs; 16 were small molecules and 13 were biologics; 14 were preclinical stage applications and 15 were clinical stage applications. 3 had received Orphan drug designation from European Medicines Agency and 3 from Food and Drug Administration. A number of recurrent themes emerged over the course of the reviews and we found that applicants frequently require advice and education on issues concerned with preclinical standard operating procedures, interactions with regulatory agencies, formulation, repurposing, clinical trial design, manufacturing and ethics. Over the 5 years since its establishment TACT has amassed a body of experience that can be extrapolated to other groups of rare diseases to improve the community's chances of successfully bringing new rare disease drugs to registration and ultimately to marke

MORE CARE Overview

International audienceThis paper provides an overview of MORE CARE, a European R&D project financed within the 5th Framework Energy Programme. This project has as main objective the development of an advanced control software system, aiming to optimize the overall performance of isolated and weakly interconnected systems in liberalized market environments by increasing the share of wind energy and other renewable forms, including advanced on-line security functions. The main features of the control system comprise advanced software modules for load and wind power forecasting, unit commitment and economic dispatch of the conventional and renewable units and on-line security assessment capabilities integrated in a friendly Man-Machine environment. Pilot installations of advanced control functions are foreseen on the islands of Crete, Ireland and Madeira

Comparison of measured and modelled uv indices for the assessment of health risks

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) have jointly recommended that the UV Index (UVI) should be used to inform the public about possible health risks due to overexposure to solar radiation, especially skin damage. To test the current operational status of measuring and modelling techniques used in providing the public with UVI information, this article compares cloudless sky UVIs (measured using five instruments at four locations with different latitudes and climate) with the results of 13 models used in UVI forecasting schemes. For the models, only location, total ozone and solar zenith angle were provided as input parameters. In many cases the agreement is acceptable, i.e. less than 0.5 UVI. Larger differences may originate from instrumental errors and shortcomings in the models and their input parameters. A possible explanation for the differences between models is the treatment of the unknown input parameters, especially aerosols