Alternatives and implication in process of environmental impact assessment

EIA is an interactive, rule-based expert system for the environmental impact assessment. It is designed for a screening level assessment of development projects at a pre-feasibility stage. Typical problems for the evaluation include: resettlement; watershed degradation; encroachment upon precious ecosystems; encroachment on historical/cultural values; watershed erosion; reservoir siltation; impairment of navigation; changes in groundwater hydrology, waterlogging; seepage and evaporation losses; migration of valuable fish species; inundation of mineral resources/forests; other inundation losses and adverse effects. It is important to prevent environmental pollution when carrying out large-scale development projects, such as artificial change of landscapes and building of certain structures that may cause a tremendous impact on the environment. In accordance with Cities Environmental Impact Assessment Departments it is necessary to provide project organisers with a necessary advice and instructions concerning the environmental impact assessment a survey to predict and evaluate environmental impact to be conducted by project organisers. Prior to offering the advice and instructions, cities need to hear the opinions of residents of the areas concerned, mayors of related municipalities and other opinion leaders, including specialists, to reflect their views in the environmental preservation. The first aspect in any quality assessment is to determine the representativeness of data both in terms of physical siting and data collected. It must be recognised the environment is a dynamic fluid; quality therefore varies over space and time. There will be locations in any community that experience poorer quality than recorded at a monitoring station. Likewise other sites will have a better quality. Most communities have only a single monitoring site. Therefore, the air quality monitors are sited to provide a representative estimate of the community exposure to contaminants

Mining Engineer Competencies for an Innovative Economy

One of the features of modern mining is its focus on the development of human resources. The high level of labor productivity, as the main factor in the efficiency of mining enterprises in the context of heightened competition in the mineral resources market, brings to the fore the assessment of the state of human potential and its use with maximum efficiency. Consequently, the successful operations of a mining enterprise largely depend on how effectively its human potential is used. To achieve high results of work, a competently built personnel policy is required, one of the key tasks of which is the selection and placement of personnel. As practice shows, the shortage of qualified mining engineers and the growth of their cost in the labor market can become one of the key factors hindering the development of business in the field of mining

Economical analysis of FV power plants according installed performance

According prognosis of future development of power capacities in Slovakia till 2030 there is assumed increasing of the electricalenergy volume, produced from renewable energy sources from present 260 MW approximately to 2100 MW (Petrovič, 2008), thatpresents almost 800 % increasing! In Slovakia position of photovoltaic in this sector was due to the high investment cost and on the lastplace due to the low system efficiency. Only possible way for implementation of the photovoltaic to the energetic system of the stateis 0donation. Slovakia will go this way also

Evaluation of the Hydropower Potential of the Torysa River and Its Energy Use in the Process of Reducing Energy Poverty of Local Communities

The presented paper deals with the evaluation of hydropower potential in a selected section of the Torysa river in the eastern part of the Slovak Republic. This part of the country was chosen based on the existence of a significant risk of increasing energy poverty in local marginalized communities. Small hydropower plants in the form of mini and micro installations are an ecological and economical way to secure electricity and suppress indicators of energy poverty. The essential part of work focuses on the quantification of the gross (theoretical), technical, and economic hydropower potential of the Torysa river using elevation data obtained by GIS tools and hydrological data provided by The Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute. The next step identified concrete locations with a suitable head and volumetric flow rate. In the last part, the assessed section of the Torysa river was analyzed in terms of geographical collisions with NATURA 2000 areas, historical heritage elements in the country, and natural water bodies without hydropower potential (i.e., lakes, ponds, etc.). The resulting technical hydropower potential of selected part of Torysa river is 5425 kW and the economic potential is 1533 kW

Utilization of photovoltaic panels in urban build-up areas grid on

Photovoltaic systems belong to the most perspective alternative sources of energy. We expect that during a relatively short period of time, the photovoltaic systems will slowly cover 5 to 10 % of the whole consumption of the electricity. One of the conditions of integration to European Community is the rising of the part of alternative sources in the production of energy. Besides another technologies, its also possible to reach it with an installation of the photovoltaic systems in already-existed building-up area. The photovoltaic systems Grid on are used especially in places with the advanced net of electric lines in big cities. The invertors developed especially for the photovoltaic systems "Grid on" have the effeciency higher than 90 % and they are absolute safe against the bias voltage.From the entire number of days of an year in Slovakia the sun shines from 1300 to 2200 hours, in Koice its 2100 hours. An average amount of energy falling down by one day is 3,3 kW.h.m-2. An average effective power of one m2 of the photovoltaic panels is 110 W.m-2 of the standard illuminance 1000 W.m-2 and the solar spectrum AM 1,5. Annually its possible to make from the photovoltaic panel (1 m2) 120,45 kW.h. Average amount of the solar energy shape to the south-orient area in Koice is 101,5 kW.h.m-2. In Koice is an ideal inclination of the absorption area of the photovoltaic panels from horizontal plains from 58° to 65° for the year-around operation. At optimal conditions its possible by integrating photovoltaic panels with the construction of the balcony barrier from one block of flats about 10 MW.h per year. If we utilise the all areas applicable for the installation of photovoltaic panels (building exteriors, roofs, shady component,..), we able to cast about a few multiple of these value just for one block of flat.Today, the cost of the photovoltaic systems is many times higher than the cost of the electric energy. But the cost consequently a new technology of production of the primary materials is allways falling

Sustainable Development According to Resource Productivity in the EU Environmental Policy Context

The constant rise in the consumption of resources puts the environment under pressure. Most resources are non-renewable in nature, which is why they must be utilized with great care. For this reason, the European Union devotes increasingly more attention to their efficient use. It deals with these aspects, making an effort to maintain the long-term competitiveness and to secure sustainable development in line with all of the related environmental impacts. In this context, several goals have been set out, to which the individual EU member states are bound. A method for monitoring resource efficiency was developed, consisting of indicators, the aim of which is to assess the efficiency of the use of soil, water, energy, with the most fundamental one being resource productivity. The results of the efficiency of use of the individual resources in the member states greatly differ, even without further investigating the links and correlations between the indicators. Research on the interrelationships of the individual indicators in terms of mutual influence has not yet been completed. The aim of our study was to define the correlation between the main indicator, resource productivity, and the other indicators at the level of the EU and its member states. For this purpose, we prepared a database with data which, for the sake of uniformity, were obtained from the publicly available Eurostat database. Subsequently, the data were analyzed and evaluated using the statistical software JMP 15 by a regression and correlation analysis. By using the multiple regression analysis, we created a model describing the significance of the impact of the observed variables on the resulting resource productivity of the EU member states. Generally, there is a positive correlation between the resource productivity and the Eco-Innovation index, as well as the utilization rate of recycled materials. For the sake of comparison, we developed a regression model at the level of the V4 countries, with the aim of evaluating the impact of the historical background of the countries on their contemporary ability to reach the goals set out by the environmental policy. The V4 countries are lagging far behind in meeting all of the environmental policy objectives, not only in tracking the main indicator (resource productivity) on which the multiple regression analysis is based. It was interesting to find that the multiple regression model at the V4 level does not include the indicators defined by the EU level model, the key ones, in this case, being water productivity, energy dependence, energy productivity, and environmental tax. This finding may also, after further analyses, be the key for other countries joining the EU in the future, in defining the weaknesses of the newly acceding states in terms of the EU’s move towards a circular economy

Vývoj a testovanie prototypu solárneho vzduchového kolektora na báze recyklovaných plastov

The paper presents the initial results of research aimed to developing of prototypes of solar air collectors made mostly from recycled plastic. In research conducted by the Centre of Renewable Energy in Košice were analyzed and subsequently selected the suitable materials for various structural elements of collectors based on recycled materials. The first prototypes of modular solar air collectors have been tested under operating conditions. An overall analysis of the duration of the project will be include the technical and economic parameters of the proposed prototypes, for example cheap of production, prototypes modularity, maximizing performance, stability of structural elements, cheap of operation and more. The first results of the research suggest the benefits of solar collector, but also some difficulties in their production and use.Príspevok je zameraný na prezentáciu úvodných výsledkov výskumu zameraného na vývoj prototypov solárnych vzduchových kolektorov (v ďalšom len SVK) vyrobených predovšetkým z recyklovaných plastov. V rámci výskumu realizovaného v Centre obnoviteľných zdrojov energií pri TU v Košiciach boli analyzované a následne vyselektované vhodné materiály pre jednotlivé konštrukčné prvky kolektorov na báze recyklovaných materiálov. Prvé prototypy solárnych vzduchových modulových kolektorov boli testované v prevádzkových podmienkach. Celková analýza počas trvania projektu bude zahŕňať technické i ekonomické parametre navrhovaných prototypov, ako nízkonákladovosť výroby, modulárnosť prototypov, maximalizácia výkonu, tvarová stálosť konštrukčných prvkov, bezobslužnosť prevádzky a ďalšie. Prvé výsledky výskumu poukazujú na zaujímavé výhody slnečných kolektorov uvedenej konštrukcie, ale aj na isté problémy pri ich výrobe i prevádzke. Článok také nadväzuje na problematiku publikovanú na konferencii NZEE 2012

Designing of nomographs for determination of solar air collector's absorber size

Solar systems are able to save an important part of costs for heating, mainly in large objects. During the decision about the possibility to install a solar system to a building, the investor will be interested mainly in the estimation of the costs for the system. One of the main investments is to the absorber a basic part of the solar system.The proper size of the absorber indicates a performance of the whole system but also a significant part of the input investment costs. Nomographs, presented in this project, that were created according the detailed calculation, will significantly speed up stating of the size of the absorber of the solar system

Design of solar drying-plant for bulk material drying

A generally well-known high energy requirement for technological processes of drying and the fact that the world’s supplyof the conventional energy sources has considerably decreased are the decisive factors forcing us to look for some new, if possible,renewable energy sources for this process by emphasising their environmental reliability. One of the possibilities how to replace, atleast partly, the conventional energy sources – heat in a drying process is solar energy.Air-drying of bulk materials usually has a series of disadvantages such as time expenditure, drying defects in the bulk materialand inadequate final moisture content. A method that obviates or reduces the disadvantages of air-drying and, at the same time, reducesthe costs of kiln drying, is drying with solar heat. Solar energy can replace a large part of this depletable energy since solar energy cansupply heat at the temperatures most often used to dry bulk material. Solar drying-plant offer an attractive solution