Energy Policies at Crossroads − Will Europe's 2030 targets and framework be in line with the Paris Climate Agreement?

In November 2016, the European Commission presented the Clean-Energy-for-all-Europeans Package. It consists of eight legislative proposals which should define targets and policy and regulatory frameworks for the EU's climate and energy policies up to 2030 and beyond. Recasts of the existing Renewable Energies Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive, as well as proposals for a new energy market design, which should be fit for renewables, are among the key elements of the package, which aims at replacing the existing 2020-framework. The package includes 2030-targets for Greenhouse Gas Reduction (at least 40%), Energy Efficiency (at least 27/30%), and the share of Renewables in Gross Final Energy Consumption (at least 27%). In contrast to the 2020-framework, the EU-wide renewables-target would no longer be underpinned by binding national targets but should be reached in a joint effort with a new governance system. Since the proposal was submitted to the European Parliament and the European Council for the legislative procedures which must end in an agreement before the next elections for the European Parliament in 2019, controversial debates are taking place. The intention is to finalise the legal procedures before the end of 2018. Parliament and Council had planned to decide about their respective opinions about the various pieces by February 2018. Afterwards, probably not finished before the end of 2018, compromise negations will take place, before the whole package will eventually be accepted by both bodies. Among the most controversially discussed topics is the ambition level of the proposals and whether or not it is in line with the commitments signed by the EU and all its Member States in the context of the Paris Agreement. Industry stakeholders not only from the renewable energy sector and environmental NGOs have proposed significantly higher targets in order to stay “well below 2 °C” of global warming before the end of the century. They also suggested continuing binding national targets or − as a compromise − enacting a very strict governance system. I shall present and evaluate the state of play of the 2030-framework decision process. And I shall end with some policy recommendation still to be considered in the ongoing debate

Bacterial Competition Reveals Differential Regulation of the pks Genes by Bacillus subtilis

Bacillus subtilis is adaptable to many environments in part due to its ability to produce a broad range of bioactive compounds. One such compound, bacillaene, is a linear polyketide/nonribosomal peptide. The pks genes encode the enzymatic megacomplex that synthesizes bacillaene. The majority of pks genes appear to be organized as a giant operon (>74 kb from pksC-pksR). In previous work (P. D. Straight, M. A. Fischbach, C. T. Walsh, D. Z. Rudner, and R. Kolter, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 104:305–310, 2007, doi:10.1073/pnas.0609073103), a deletion of the pks operon in B. subtilis was found to induce prodiginine production by Streptomyces coelicolor. Here, colonies of wild-type B. subtilis formed a spreading population that induced prodiginine production from Streptomyces lividans, suggesting differential regulation of pks genes and, as a result, bacillaene. While the parent colony showed widespread induction of pks expression among cells in the population, we found the spreading cells uniformly and transiently repressed the expression of the pks genes. To identify regulators that control pks genes, we first determined the pattern of pks gene expression in liquid culture. We next identified mutations in regulatory genes that disrupted the wild-type pattern of pks gene expression. We found that expression of the pks genes requires the master regulator of development, Spo0A, through its repression of AbrB and the stationary-phase regulator, CodY. Deletions of degU, comA, and scoC had moderate effects, disrupting the timing and level of pks gene expression. The observed patterns of expression suggest that complex regulation of bacillaene and other antibiotics optimizes competitive fitness for B. subtilis

Cost-reliability analysis of hybrid pumped-battery storage for solar and wind energy integration in an island community

This paper presents a mathematical model for estimating the optimal sizing and assessing a standalone hybrid power system's performance entirely based on variable renewable energy sources and coupled with a hybrid energy storage system. This study evaluates how different levels of the main components' capital cost and the loss of power supply probability would affect the cost of energy and the power system's optimal sizing. The case study selected for this study was Ometepe Island in Nicaragua, where the crater lake of an extinct volcano was considered a feasible upper reservoir of a pumped storage hydropower plant, reducing the investments associated with this component. The mathematical formulation considers energy storage losses and gains, and the Pareto efficient solutions of the multi-objective optimization model simultaneously increase reliability, reduce the cost of energy, and minimize curtailment energy. By employing time-series with an hourly resolution, the model allows assessing the impact of the interannual variability of renewable energy sources on the system's performance. As for the case study, the cost of energy obtained from the model results ranges between €0.047/kWh and €0.095/kWh, based on international reference values, and these values match the information available in the literature and other databases

REGULATION OF LIPOMANNAN AND LIPOARABINOMANNAN BIOSYNTHESIS IN MYCOBACTERIA

The integrity of the multilaminate cell envelope surrounding mycobacteria is critical for survival and pathogenesis. The prevalence of phosphatidylinositol mannosides in the cell envelope suggests an important role in the mycobacterial life cycle. Indeed, deletion of the pimE gene (ΔpimE) encoding the first committed step in phosphatidylinositol hexamannoside biosynthesis in Mycobacterium smegmatis results in the formation of smaller colonies than wild-type colonies on Middlebrook 7H10 agar. To further investigate potential contributors to cell-envelope mannan biosynthesis while taking advantage of this colony morphology defect, we isolated spontaneous suppressor mutants of ΔpimE that reverted to wildtype colony size. Of 22 suppressor mutants, six accumulated significantly shorter lipomannan or lipoarabinomannan. Genome sequencing of these mutants revealed mutations in genes involved in the lipomannan/lipoarabinomannan biosynthesis, such as those encoding the arabinosyltransferase EmbC and the mannosyltransferase MptA. Furthermore, we identified three mutants carrying a mutation in a previously uncharacterized gene, MSMEG_5785, that we designated lmeA. Complementation of these suppressor mutants with lmeA restored the original ΔpimEphenotypes, and deletion of lmeA in wildtype M. smegmatis resulted in smaller lipomannan as observed in the suppressor mutants. LmeA carries a predicted N-terminal signal peptide, and density gradient fractionation and detergent extractability experiments indicated that LmeA localizes to the cell envelope. Using a lipid ELISA assay, we found that LmeA binds to plasma membrane phospholipids such as phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylinositol. LmeA is widespread throughout the Corynebacteriales; therefore, we concluded that LmeA is an evolutionarily conserved cell-envelope protein critical for controlling the mannan chain length of lipomannan/lipoarabinomannan

Nachhaltige Emissionsreduzierung durch erneuerbare Eigenstromversorgung

Zum Archiv (et): https://emagazin.et-magazin.de/de/profiles/cb1a7fd451c4/edition

Die Bücher der Bibel /

Mode of access: Internet

Die Lehrdichtung : die Sprüche, Hiob, der Prediger, Ruth, Jona, Esther, Daniel.

Mode of access: Internet.Gift of Constance Harris.In the Jewish Heritage Collection Dedicated to Mark and Dave Harris