Techno-economic comparison of renewable energy systems using multi-pole system analysis (MPSA)

The recently published method of multi-pole system analysis (MPSA) is used to techno-economically compare two wind-energy converters: offshore wind turbines and the energy ship concept. According to the method, both systems are (i) modeled, (ii) energetically and economically analyzed, (iii) technoeconomically optimized and, finally, (iv) expected uncertainties are calculated and assessed. The results of the method are used to derive the necessary cost reduction of the wind-energy converters to be economically competitive to fossil-fuel-based technologies.The authors would like to thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for the financial support in the framework of the Excellence Initiative, Darmstadt Graduate School of Excellence Energy Science and Engineering (GSC 1070)

Speeding up Cylindrical Algebraic Decomposition by Gr\"obner Bases

Gr\"obner Bases and Cylindrical Algebraic Decomposition are generally thought of as two, rather different, methods of looking at systems of equations and, in the case of Cylindrical Algebraic Decomposition, inequalities. However, even for a mixed system of equalities and inequalities, it is possible to apply Gr\"obner bases to the (conjoined) equalities before invoking CAD. We see that this is, quite often but not always, a beneficial preconditioning of the CAD problem. It is also possible to precondition the (conjoined) inequalities with respect to the equalities, and this can also be useful in many cases.Comment: To appear in Proc. CICM 2012, LNCS 736

Transparent yttrium hydride thin films prepared by reactive sputtering

Metal hydrides have earlier been suggested for utilization in solar cells. With this as a motivation we have prepared thin films of yttrium hydride by reactive magnetron sputter deposition. The resulting films are metallic for low partial pressure of hydrogen during the deposition, and black or yellow-transparent for higher partial pressure of hydrogen. Both metallic and semiconducting transparent YHx films have been prepared directly in-situ without the need of capping layers and post-deposition hydrogenation. Optically the films are similar to what is found for YHx films prepared by other techniques, but the crystal structure of the transparent films differ from the well-known YH3 phase, as they have an fcc lattice instead of hcp

Linear Fresnel Collector Receiver: Heat Loss and Temperatures

For design and component specification of a Linear Fresnel Collector (LFC) cavity receiver, the prediction of temperature distribution and heat loss is of great importance. In this paper we present a sensitivity analysis for a range of geometry and material parameters. For the LFC receiver analysis we use two models developed at Fraunhofer ISE. One is a detailed model, combining the spatial distribution of reflected radiation via ray tracing with detailed convective simulations through computational fluid dynamics. The second one is a fast algorithm based on a thermal resistance model. It is applying a similar methodology as the well-known model for vacuum absorber, enhancing an absorber tube model by parameters describing the influence of the secondary mirror and cover glass. The thermal resistance model is described in detail. Obtained results indicate a significant effect of the secondary mirror temperature on heat loss for specific geometries

Verifying the Safety of a Flight-Critical System

This paper describes our work on demonstrating verification technologies on a flight-critical system of realistic functionality, size, and complexity. Our work targeted a commercial aircraft control system named Transport Class Model (TCM), and involved several stages: formalizing and disambiguating requirements in collaboration with do- main experts; processing models for their use by formal verification tools; applying compositional techniques at the architectural and component level to scale verification. Performed in the context of a major NASA milestone, this study of formal verification in practice is one of the most challenging that our group has performed, and it took several person months to complete it. This paper describes the methodology that we followed and the lessons that we learned.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure

Extended Heat Loss and Temperature Analysis of Three Linear Fresnel Receiver Designs

Heat loss prediction models for parabolic trough receivers do not consider the thermal effect of a secondary mirror. As an extension a Thermal Resistance Model (TRM) has been developed at Fraunhofer ISE for the prediction of the heat loss of three different Linear Fresnel Collector (LFC) receiver configurations. In previous investigations we have found the energy balance of a LFC receiver to be strongly influenced by the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the secondary mirror. This absorption provokes an increase of temperature of the secondary mirror and hence a decrease in the total amount of heat loss of a LFC. The size of this effect depends on the receiver geometry and diverse ambient parameters. Investigated parameters are wind velocity, ambient temperature and Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI). This dependency and its effect on heat loss and secondary mirror temperatures are analyzed for three different LFC receiver configurations. As the radiation absorbed by the secondary mirror is affected by the aperture area of the LFC, studies are performed for small-scale and for large-scale collectors

Extending Hybrid CSP with Probability and Stochasticity

Probabilistic and stochastic behavior are omnipresent in computer controlled systems, in particular, so-called safety-critical hybrid systems, because of fundamental properties of nature, uncertain environments, or simplifications to overcome complexity. Tightly intertwining discrete, continuous and stochastic dynamics complicates modelling, analysis and verification of stochastic hybrid systems (SHSs). In the literature, this issue has been extensively investigated, but unfortunately it still remains challenging as no promising general solutions are available yet. In this paper, we give our effort by proposing a general compositional approach for modelling and verification of SHSs. First, we extend Hybrid CSP (HCSP), a very expressive and process algebra-like formal modeling language for hybrid systems, by introducing probability and stochasticity to model SHSs, which is called stochastic HCSP (SHCSP). To this end, ordinary differential equations (ODEs) are generalized by stochastic differential equations (SDEs) and non-deterministic choice is replaced by probabilistic choice. Then, we extend Hybrid Hoare Logic (HHL) to specify and reason about SHCSP processes. We demonstrate our approach by an example from real-world.Comment: The conference version of this paper is accepted by SETTA 201

Labour Market and Social Policy in Italy: Challenges and Changes. Bertelsmann Policy Brief #2016/02

vEight years after the outbreak of the financial crisis, Italy has still to cope with and overcome a plethora of economic and social challenges. On top of this, it faces an unfavourable demographic structure and severe disparities between its northern and southern regions. Some promising reforms have recently been enacted, specifically targeting poverty and social exclusion. However, much more remains to be done on the way towards greater economic stability and widely shared prosperity