Synergies and trade-offs between renewable energy expansion and biodiversity conservation - a cross-national multifactor analysis

Increased deployment of renewable energy can contribute towards mitigating climate change and improving air quality, wealth and development. However, renewable energy technologies are not free of environmental impacts; thus, it is important to identify opportunities and potential threats from the expansion of renewable energy deployment. Currently, there is no cross-national comprehensive analysis linking renewable energy potential simultaneously to socio-economic and political factors and biodiversity priority locations. Here, we quantify the relationship between the fraction of land-based renewable energy (including solar photovoltaic, wind and bioenergy) potential available outside the top biodiversity areas (i.e. outside the highest ranked 30% priority areas for biodiversity conservation) within each country, with selected socio-economic and geopolitical factors as well as biodiversity assets. We do so for two scenarios that identify priority areas for biodiversity conservation alternatively in a globally coordinated manner vs. separately for individual countries. We show that very different opportunities and challenges emerge if the priority areas for biodiversity protection are identified globally or designated nationally. In the former scenario, potential for solar, wind and bioenergy outside the top biodiversity areas is highest in developing countries, in sparsely populated countries and in countries of low biodiversity potential but with high air pollution mortality. Conversely, when priority areas for biodiversity protection are designated nationally, renewable energy potential outside the top biodiversity areas is highest in countries with good governance but also in countries with high biodiversity potential and population density. Overall, these results identify both clear opportunities but also risks that should be considered carefully when making decisions about renewable energy policies.Peer reviewe

A new integral management model and evaluation method to enhance sustainability of renewable energy projects for energy and sanitation services

Autonomous systems based on the use of renewable energy (RE) have proven suitable for providing energy and sanitation services to isolated communities. However, most of these projects fail due to managerial weaknesses. Designing an appropriate management model is a key issue for sustainability and it is especially complex when includes different RE technologies. This paper is aimed at developing a novel management model for RE projects to provide energy and sanitation services with any kind of technology. Moreover, a new method to evaluate the sustainability is proposed regarding technical, economic, social/ethical, environmental and institutional/organisational dimensions. The case study of Pucara (Peru) is presented, in which a RE project with six different technologies was implemented and the integral community management model was designed in 2011. The project sustainability was evaluated in 2013 and results showed that the management model has succeeded to strengthen sustainability, especially in the institutional/organisational aspects.The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, which have helped to enhance this paper. The authors are grateful for all the assistance and support provided by Practical Action-ITDG from Peru.Lillo Rodrigo, P.; Ferrer-Martí, L.; Fernández-Baldor, Á.; Ramírez, B. (2015). A new integral management model and evaluation method to enhance sustainability of renewable energy projects for energy and sanitation services. Energy for Sustainable Development. 29:1-12. doi:10.1016/j.esd.2015.08.003S1122

Mediating Solidarity

With the apparent increase in the number of alternative political media, political pluralists are again faced with the question: does the proliferation of subaltern counter-publics lead to a multiplication of forces? Fragmentation in political culture is fuelled by the rise of identity politics that focuses on consumption not production. Party allegiances and class alliances give way to more fluid and informal networks of action. Postmodern theorists celebrate fragmentation because it allows the recognition of diversity in political desires, acknowledges difference between individuals and debunks the myth of homogenous political units leading ultimately to liberation. But for political efficacy there must be more than the apparent freedom that comes with embracing difference and diversity. This article argues that if we accept the description of society as fragmented, in order to create a viable political community then solidarity is crucial. In a global economy, solidarity can be mediated through new communication technologies but the challenge is to articulate the politics online with actual movements and struggles on the ground

Dull or bright you still get electric delight: A new approach to the design of all-weather panels

Modern renewable energy sources have a great disadvantage of being intermittent. Harvesting solar energy directly using photovoltaic panels is one of the most promising renewable energy technologies. While this allows electricity generation during daytime when the sky is clear, at night there is no production at all and it is greatly diminished in cloudy or rainy conditions. Recently a concept of all-weather solar cells was proposed by Q. Tang et al. (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 55(17) (2016) 5243-5246) in which a solar panel was covered with a layer of graphene. This allows collecting energy from falling raindrops containing dissolved salts through charging and discharging of an electrical double layer at the water-graphene interface, which acts as a pseudocapacitor. Although this setup allows harvesting both direct solar radiation and some of the kinetic energy of falling rain drops, the output is low for realistic salt concentrations while the graphene layer diminishes the solar-to-electric conversion rate. In this work, we propose a different approach to the same problem. Instead of relying on a sufficient concentration of salts in rain water, we propose to convert the mechanical energy delivered by drop impacts directly into electrical energy by supporting a thin-layer solar panel with an array of piezo crystals. The advantage of this setup is that the solar-to-electric performance of such a panel is not affected by the added piezoelectric support. However, only a fraction of the kinetic energy of the falling rain drops can be converted due to the energy dissipation within the material of the thin-layer panel. We have conducted detailed modelling of kinetic energy harvesting process from the drop impact and spreading to the dissipation of mechanical strain through the panel to the generation of piezoelectric potential. The results illustrate the viability of this concept, but they are still to be confirmed experimentally and require an economic feasibility analysis to be performed