It's the Society, Stupid! Communicating Emergent Climate Technologies in the Internet Age

Emergent or unproven technologies occupy a central role in post-Paris debates about climate change goals and their feasibility. New technologies have often faced major political and social challenges and the way they are communicated is changing as technical experts and scientists play a greater role in communicating directly online. We review the scope and key characteristics of communications on carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technologies presenting data from a comprehensive survey of websites compiled to assess the state of global CCS communications. Our key empirical finding is that existing communications are techno-centric in their framing, overlooking economic, political and institutional aspects of CCS as a societal arrangement. We also find an overrepresentation of traditionally less trusted actors from business and government (resulting in a pro-CCS bias), rather than by independent academic researchers or NGOs. We offer some recommendations for how CCS and similarly emergent climate technologies might be better communicated in the age of the Internet, not just in terms of their technical features but also in terms of their societal impacts and the role they might play in a wider social and political context

Energy subsidies at times of economic crisis: A comparative study and scenario analysis of Italy and Spain

From 2005-2012, Spain and Italy saw significant investment in renewable energy, most notably in onshore wind and solar, driven by generous subsidies, the expectation of rising carbon prices and falling renewables (especially solar panel) costs. As a result of the Global Financial Crisis, both countries were faced with massive fiscal deficits and were forced to curtail their renewable support schemes, although these efforts took several years to take effect after the onset of the initial crisis. Ironically, both Spain and Italy incurred the lion's share of their liability for renewables support after the onset of the crisis particularly because of the rapid drop in costs of solar PV panels, while subsidy levels remained high. In spite of changes to their support regimes, Italy is likely to meet its 2020 climate and renewable targets, whereas Spain is unlikely to meet its 2020 renewables target based on current trajectories. Following a comparative historical survey of the two large EU member states, we present a scenario analysis that contrasts alternative futures of 2030 where renewable support remain at current levels (essentially zero) or is revived and where carbon prices stay at current low levels (€5/t CO2) or rises to levels needed to accomplish the proposed 40% EU 2030 reduction target. We find that, by 2030, in large parts of Spain, solar PV will be cost-competitive even under low-carbon price and low renewable support regimes, whereas concentrated solar power (CSP) and onshore wind, will require at least either a sustained renewable support regime or a high carbon price to become cost competitive. In Italy, solar PV becomes cost competitive in the low-carbon, low-renewable support scenario except when fossil fuel prices are unusually low. By 2030, there would be large-scale penetration of onshore wind and geothermal in Italy if there is either a high-carbon price or a high renewable support regime or both. In general, if the current levels of carbon price were to exist post-2020, both Italy and Spain would find it rather difficult to increase the penetration of renewables in their electricity mix. A high subsidy world, on the other hand, would be result in the most favourable outcome, particularly for Spain, although it may incur additional costs in comparison to a high carbon price world.Spai

Single-Molecule Analysis of i-motif Within Self-Assembled DNA Duplexes and Nanocircles

The cytosine (C)-rich sequences that can fold into tetraplex structures known as i-motif are prevalent in genomic DNA. Recent studies of i-motif–forming sequences have shown increasing evidence of their roles in gene regulation. However, most of these studies have been performed in short single-stranded oligonucleotides, far from the intracellular environment. In cells, i-motif–forming sequences are flanked by DNA duplexes and packed in the genome. Therefore, exploring the conformational dynamics and kinetics of i-motif under such topologically constrained environments is highly relevant in predicting their biological roles. Using single-molecule fluorescence analysis of self-assembled DNA duplexes and nanocircles, we show that the topological environments play a key role on i-motif stability and dynamics. While the human telomere sequence (C3TAA)3C3 assumes i-motif structure at pH 5.5 regardless of topological constraint, it undergoes conformational dynamics among unfolded, partially folded and fully folded states at pH 6.5. The lifetimes of i-motif and the partially folded state at pH 6.5 were determined to be 6 ± 2 and 31 ± 11 s, respectively. Consistent with the partially folded state observed in fluorescence analysis, interrogation of current versus time traces obtained from nanopore analysis at pH 6.5 shows long-lived shallow blockades with a mean lifetime of 25 ± 6 s. Such lifetimes are sufficient for the i-motif and partially folded states to interact with proteins to modulate cellular processes

Constructions for cyclic sieving phenomena

We show how to derive new instances of the cyclic sieving phenomenon from old ones via elementary representation theory. Examples are given involving objects such as words, parking functions, finite fields, and graphs.Comment: 18 pages, typos fixed, to appear in SIAM J. Discrete Mat

Strategies for Financing Large-scale Carbon Capture and Storage Power Plants in China

Building on previous stakeholder consultations from 2006 to 2010, we conduct a financial analysis for a generic CCS power plant in China. In comparison with conventional thermal generation technologies, a coal-fired power plant with CCS requires either a 70% higher on-grid electricity tariff or carbon price support of approximately US$50/tonne CO2 in the absence of any other incentive mechanisms or financing strategies. Given the difficulties of relying on any one single measure to finance a large-scale CCS power plant in China, we explore a combination of possible financing mechanisms. Potential measures available for increasing the return on the CCS investment include: enhanced oil recovery (EOR), a premium electricity tariff, and operational investment flexibility (e.g. solvent storage, upgradability). A simulation found that combining several financing options could not only provide private investors with a 12% to 18% return on equity (ROE), but also significantly reduce the required on-grid tariff to a level that is very close to the tariff level of existing coal-fired power plants and much lower than the tariffs for natural gas combined cycle and nuclear power plants. Therefore, we suggest that a combination of existing financing measures could trigger private investment in a large-scale CCS power plant in China

Electricity Demand and Basic Needs: Empirical Evidence from China's Households

An increasing block tariff (IBT) has been implemented nationwide in the residential sector in China since July 2012 as part of a process towards liberalizing electricity prices. However, knowledge about IBT design is still limited, particularly how to determine the electricity volume for the first block of an IBT scheme. Assuming the first block should be set based on some measure of electricity poverty, we attempt to model household electricity demand such that the range of basic needs can be established. We find that in Chinese households there exists a threshold for electricity consumption with respect to income, which might be considered a measure of electricity poverty, and the threshold differs between rural and urban areas. For rural (urban) families, electricity consumption at the level of 7th (5th) income decile households can be considered the threshold for basic needs or a measure of electricity poverty since household electricity demand in rural (urban) areas does not respond to income changes until after the 7th (5th) income decile. Further, for the case of China's electricity consumption, we find that if there is a saturation point, after which household energy needs would not rise further proportionately with increasing income, it is far from having been reached. Whereas the first IBT block was set at 240 kWh per household for Beijing, we estimate basic needs to be roughly 90 kWh per month for rural households and 150 kWh for urban households. The first IBT block therefore appears to have been set at a level that is too high, roughly equivalent to the average consumption of the top decile of urban residents. Over time however, given continued rapid growth, the IBT will begin to better reflect actual basic needs

Why Do More British Consumers Not Switch Energy Suppliers? The Role of Individual Attitudes

Consumers' activities play an important role in determining the extent to which any market may become competitive. Although energy prices and switching tariffs and suppliers become very salient politically over 2013-14 in the UK and the number and share of small suppliers increased dramatically over that period, relatively fewer customers switched suppliers in UK electricity and gas markets despite the potential for financial gains, suggesting that non-price factors may affect switching decisions. Using a unique nation-wide British survey, we investigate the determinants of consumers' switching behavior in electricity and gas markets, by emphasizing the effects of individual attitudes towards energy issues as well as perception of switching cost and benefit. We find that the complexity of household energy tariffs, consumers' lack of attention to issue of energy prices, expectation on the costs of switching process and lack of switching experience discourage switching. Political allegiance also appears to play a role as Labour Party voters are more likely to switch. Few demographic factors are found to affect the likelihood of switching. Higher education qualifications are related to increased activity in energy markets. Households paying by direct debit are more likely to switch than those paying by other ways. Financial hardship a household suffers does not matter for switching decisions, suggesting there is no clear relationship between switching and income. We conclude that policies which emphasize simplification of energy tariffs, increasing convenience of switching, improving consumers' concerns about energy issues, improving consumers' confidence to exercise switch are likely to increase consumer activity

Reflection factorizations of Singer cycles

Abstract. The number of shortest factorizations into reflections for a Singer cycle inGLn(Fq) is shown to be (q n − 1) n−1. Formulas counting factorizations of any length, and counting those with reflections of fixed conjugacy classes are also given. Résumé. Nous prouvons que le nombre de factorisations de longueur minimale d’un cycle de Singer dans GLn(Fq) comme un produit de réflexions est (q n −1) n−1. Nous présentons aussi des formules donnant le nombre de factorisations de toutes les longueurs ainsi que des formules pour le nombre de factorisations comme produit de réflexions ayant des classes de conjugaison fixes

Dynamics of Evolution in the Global Fuel-Ethanol Industry

We employ a value chain analysis approach to examine the forces shaping the industry structure, entry and inter-firm governance modes. Forty largest global and regional companies in the ethanol manufacturing stage have been classified according to their pre-entry industry of origin. Firms with pre-entry history in feedstock supply have shown higher resilient to market shock especially compared to de novo firms. In addition, we observe a trend of dual-directional vertical integration. Firms backward integrate to secure feedstock supply; firms forward integrate to gain access to the retail market. Security of feedstock has been identified as a critical success factor of the manufacturer in this resource intensive industry. Another critical success factor is gaining control over the end user market via forward integration. We propose that critical success factor is the important determinants of inter-firm governance mode

Electricity demand and basic needs: empirical evidence from China's households

An increasing block tariff (IBT) has been implemented nationwide in the residential sector in China since 2012. However, knowledge about IBT design is still limited, particularly how to determine the electricity volume for the first block of an IBT scheme. Assuming the first block should be set based on some measure of electricity poverty; we attempt to model household electricity demand such that the range of basic needs can be established. We show that in Chinese households there exists a threshold for electricity consumption with respect to income, which could be considered a measure of electricity poverty, and the threshold differs between rural and urban areas. For rural (urban) families, electricity consumption at the level of 7th (5th) income decile households can be considered the threshold for basic needs or a measure of electricity poverty since household electricity demand in rural (urban) areas does not respond to income changes until after 7th (5th) income decile. Accordingly, the first IBT block for some provinces (e.g., Beijing) appears to have been set at a level that is too high. Over time however, given continued rapid growth, the IBT will begin to better reflect actual basic needs.XH gratefully acknowledges supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 71203187 and 71573217) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. 20720151028 and 20720151039)