Cleantech : Prospects and Challenges

The issue of climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, global warming, and their effect on nature and the ecosystem has raised serious concerns. The desire to sustain economic growth and development while keeping a check on the environmental footprints is one of the leading challenges the contemporary world is currently facing. To ensure sustained growth, there is a need for technologies and solutions that has the potential to meet industrial needs without compromising the environment. Cleantech offers a possibility to address these needs in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. Cleantech, being an umbrella term, is often confused and misunderstood, in terms of its definition and scope. This study seeks to explore what cleantech actually is, how this sector came into prominence, what are the driving factors behind its surge, and what kind of socio-economic, technical, and regulatory prerequisites are necessary for the advancement of this sector.©2021 the Authors. Published by Associação Journal of Innovation Management. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0fi=vertaisarvioimaton|en=nonPeerReviewed

A Visual Analytic Environment to Co-locate Peoples' Tweets with City Factual Data

Social Media platforms (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, etc.) are used heavily by public to provide news, opinions, and reactions towards events or topics. Integrating such data with the event or topic factual data could provide a more comprehensive understanding of the underlying event or topic. Targeting this, we present our visual analytics tool, called VC-FaT, that integrates peoples' tweet data regarding crimes in San Francisco city with the city factual crime data. VC-FaT provides a number of interactive visualizations using both data sources for better understanding and exploration of crime activities happened in the city during a period of five years.Comment: 2 page

Transforming Energy Marketing Practices for Enhanced Solar PV Adoption

The adoption and use of solar PV systems is a complex and multifarious process influenced by personal, social, economic, technical and regulatory factors. Solar PV companies involved in the sales and interaction with the customers can play an important role in facilitating adoption. Companies’ ability to effectively market the product, disseminate information, frame value offerings and address consumers concerns can play an important role in this regard. The small size of the domestic market, an amplified competition and limited resources highlight the need to alter the way companies have been carrying out their operations. The qualitative study explores how solar PV companies can transform their marketing operations by integrating through the use of advanced digital technologies to facilitate the process.© 2022. Published by AHFE Open Access. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

The role of venture capital in the commercialization of cleantech companies

Venture Capital (VC) plays an important role in the success of their portfolio companies. Small- and medium-sized companies often struggle with the resources required to succeed in the market. vc not only helps companies with the required financing but also provides the knowledge, understanding and expertise required to excel in the market. The study explores vc non-financial value-added contributions in the commercialization of clean technologies. Cleantech is a term associated with the companies involved with technologies, products, processes or services that seek to lower the negative environmental impact by improving efficiencies, reducing waste, encouraging the use of sustainable sources and environmental protection. However, the success of companies operating in this sector, at times, becomes challenging since these technologies are often disruptive in nature, contest business-as-usual practices by inducing efficiencies in the current processes or radically transforming the existing infrastructures. This qualitative case study is based on five companies operating in the Finnish clean technology sector. Data is collected in the form of semi-structured interviews whereas within the case and cross-case analysis approach is adopted to gain a comprehensive understanding of the studied phenomena. This study delineated vc’s contribution to technology development, corporate governance, mentoring & industry expertise, recruitment, collaboration & internationalization, acquiring additional financing and certification effect. The findings of this research provide important insights for the industry specialists, managers as well as the scientists involved in this field of research.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Uusiutuvien energiateknologioiden kaupallistaminen : Tutkimus sosioekonomisista, teknisistä ja sääntelytekijöistä Suomessa ja Pakistanissa

Commercialization plays an important role in technologies’ success and failure. The successful transformation of an idea into a product or service is a complex and multifarious process. Commercialization deals with bringing science and technology competencies from the laboratory to market acceptance and use. It ensures that technologies not only meet performance and reliability requirements, but also addresses market needs. Commercialization of renewable energy technologies (RETs) becomes important as there are a number of additional barriers that RETs must surpass to become widely adopted. Success often depends on a number of actors operating at various levels, including government, local bodies, investors, entrepreneurs, society and other stakeholders involved in the process. The literature is replete with evidence indicating the enormous potential of energy generation from renewables. However, their actual contribution to the world’s primary energy supplies remains limited. There is widespread consensus that the low penetration of some renewable energy technologies is no longer because of their technical potential but their commercialization. The objective of this study is to explore how renewable energy technologies can be effectively commercialized. This doctoral dissertation examines cases from Finland and Pakistan to study factors influencing commercialization and causing hindrances to widespread diffusion. This study particularly explores the effect of socio-economic landscape, effect of energy policies, university–industry collaboration, the role of venture capital and factors influencing adoption and establishment of RETs’ market. By employing a mixed methods approach, the findings of this dissertation highlight the role of supportive energy policies, the need to develop a coherent approach, strengthening collaboration between stakeholders, and increase the level of environmental awareness. Based on the findings, this dissertation presents frameworks and mechanisms necessary to address some of these barriers to foster the process of commercialization.Kaupallistamisella on tärkeä rooli uuden tekniikan liiketoiminnan käynnistymisessä. Idean onnistunut kehittäminen tuotteeksi tai palveluksi voi olla vaativa ja monitahoinen prosessi. Kaupallistaminen liittyy tiede- ja teknologiaosaamisen tuomiseen laboratoriosta aina markkinoille hyväksymiseen ja käyttöön saakka. Se varmistaa, että tekniikat eivät vain täytä suorituskyky- ja luotettavuusvaatimuksia, vaan myös vastaavat markkinoiden tarpeisiin. Uusiutuvien energialähteiden tekniikoiden (RET) kaupallistaminen tulee tärkeäksi, koska RET:ien on ylitettävä lukuisia esteitä, jotta niitä voitaisiin soveltaa laajasti. Menestys riippuu usein useista eri tasojen toimijoista, mukaan lukien valtiovalta, paikalliset toimijat, sijoittajat, yrittäjät, yhteiskunta ja muut prosessissa mukana olevat sidosryhmät. Kirjallisuus on täynnä todisteita, jotka osoittavat uusiutuvien energialähteiden energiantuotannon valtavan potentiaalin. Niiden tosiasiallinen vaikutus maailman primaarienergian hankintoihin on kuitenkin edelleen rajallinen. On laajaa yksimielisyyttä siitä, että joidenkin uusiutuvien energialähteiden tekniikoiden alhainen levinneisyys ei johdu enää niiden teknisistä mahdollisuuksista, vaan niiden kaupallisuudesta. Tämän työn tavoitteena on tutkia, miten uusiutuvan energian tekniikoita voidaan tehokkaasti kaupallistaa. Tässä väitöskirjassa tutkitaan Suomen ja Pakistanin tapaustutkimusten avulla tekijöitä, jotka vaikuttavat kaupallistamiseen ja ovat esteitä laajaan leviämiseen. Tässä työssä tutkitaan erityisesti sosioekonomisten asioiden, energiapolitiikan, yliopistojen ja teollisuuden yhteistyön ja riskipääoman merkitystä RET-markkinoiden perustamiseen. Sovellettaessa kvalitatiivisen ja kvantitatiivisen menettelemän yhdistelmää, tämän tutkielman tulokset korostavat tukevan energiapolitiikan merkitystä, johdonmukaisen lähestymistavan kehittämisen tarvetta, sidosryhmien välisen yhteistyön vahvistamista ja ympäristötietoisuuden lisäämistä. Tulosten perusteella tämä väitöskirja tarjoaa kehykset ja mekanismit, joita tarvitaan esteiden poistamiseen kaupallistamisprosessin tieltä.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Multi-particle reconstruction with dynamic graph neural networks

The task of finding the incident particles from the sensor deposits they leave on particle detectors is called event or particle reconstruction. The sensor deposits can be represented generically as a point cloud, with each point corresponding to three spatial dimensions of the sensor location, the energy deposit, and occasionally, also the time of the deposit. As particle detectors become increasingly more complex, ever-more sophisticated methods are needed to perform particle reconstruction. An example is the ongoing High Luminosity (HL) upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). The HLHLC is the most significant milestone in experimental particle physics and aims to deliver an order of magnitude more data rate compared to the current LHC. As part of the upgrade, the endcap calorimeters of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment – one of the two largest and generalpurpose detectors at the LHC – will be replaced by the radiation-hard High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL). The HGCAL will contain ∼ 6 million sensors to achieve the spatial resolution required for reconstructing individual particles in HL-LHC conditions. It has an irregular geometry due to its hexagonal sensors, with sizes varying across the longitudinal and transverse axes. Further, it generates sparse data as less than 10% of the sensors register positive energy. Reconstruction in this environment, where highly irregular patterns of hits are left by the particles, is an unprecedentedly intractable and compute-intensive pattern recognition problem. This motivates the use of parallelisationfriendly deep learning approaches. More traditional deep learning methods, however, are not feasible for the HGCAL because a regular grid-like structure is assumed in those approaches. In this thesis, a reconstruction algorithm based on a dynamic graph neural network called GravNet is presented. The network is paired with a segmentation technique, Object Condensation, to first perform point-cloud segmentation on the detector hits. The property-prediction capability of the Object Condensation approach is then used for energy regression of the reconstructed particles. A range of experiments are conducted to show that this method works well in conditions expected in the HGCAL i.e., with 200 simultaneous proton-proton collisions. Parallel algorithms based on Nvidia CUDA are also presented to address the computational challenges of the graph neural network discussed in this thesis. With the optimisations, reconstruction can be performed by this method in approximately 2 seconds which is suitable considering the computational constraints at the LHC. The presented method is the first-ever example of deep learning based end-to-end calorimetric reconstruction in high occupancy environments. This sets the stage for the next era of particle reconstruction, which is expected to be end-to-end. While this thesis is focused on the HGCAL, the method discussed is general and can be extended not only to other calorimeters but also to other tasks such as track reconstruction

Business models for enhanced solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption : Transforming customer interaction and engagement practices

Solar energy can play an important role in meeting global energy needs in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner. However, despite solar energy’s accelerated growth in recent years, its level of diffusion is highly uneven when looked at on a global scale. The solar photovoltaic (PV) companies involved in the sales of PV systems are central to fostering diffusion. A company’s ability to devise and deliver value offerings that match customers’ needs is vital in encouraging the adoption of solar PV technology. The extent to which a company can address market needs and deliver value often depends on the business model it has adopted. The extant research has explored business models based on ownership structures, financing options, the effect of regulatory regimes and policies, industry practices, alliances, and business models for distributed generation and large-scale utility companies. However, the research to date, has mostly neglected the business models of solar companies involved in the sales and installation of solar PV. This qualitative study based on twenty semi-structured interviews contributes to the existing knowledge by exploring how sales and installation companies can enhance solar photovoltaic adoption by transforming customer interactions and engagement practices, which is a key element of a company’s business model. Companies’ ability to communicate value offerings and address consumer concerns is important in enhancing diffusion. The study highlights that transforming customer interaction and engagement practices can help companies broaden customer reach, improve the dissemination of information, reduce transaction costs and efficiently utilise market insights and trends.© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Solar Energy Society. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Improvement of Strength and Permeability Attributes of Silty Sand Type of Soils using Enzyme Induced Calcite Precipitation

ABSTRACT Enzyme Induced Calcite Precipitation (EICP) is one of the soil stabilization techniques based on microbiological activity. In this technique, urea decomposes with the aid of urease enzymes in the presence of calcium chloride and produces calcite, which acts as a bio-clogging and bio-cementing material. In this study, test tube experiments are performed to assess the optimal amount of calcium chloride, urea, and urease enzymes to be used for engineering applications. The silty sand type of soil is treated with different proportions namely; P1 (0.1g urease enzymes, 0.375g urea, 0.9g CaCl2), P2 (0.2g urease enzymes, 0.75g urea, 1.8g CaCl2), and P3 (0.4g urease enzymes, 1.5g urea, 3.6g CaCl2), to analyze their effect on strength and permeability attributes of soils after 14 days of curing time. It was observed that an increase in EICP content causes a substantial increase in shear strength particularly cohesion due to the bio-clogging phenomenon induced in soil particles by EICP which eventually leads to a decrease in permeability and inhibits the activity of urease. Overall, P3 yields higher cohesion (48 kPa) than P1(40 kPa), P2 (43kPa), and untreated soil samples (31 kPa). Furthermore, P3 causes a significant decrease in permeability as compared to P2, P1, and untreated soil samples tested after 14 days of the curing period. The findings of the study suggest the successful implementation of EICP for soil stabilization. Key Words: Enzyme Induced Calcite Precipitation (EICP); permeability; shear strength; bio-clogging; bio-cementation