Assessing the Status of Electricity Generation in the Non-Interconnected Islands of the Aegean Sea Region

Assessment of the electricity generation status for Non-Interconnected Islands (NIIs) of the Aegean Sea region, excluding the electricity systems of Crete and Rhodes, is undertaken in the current study. The authors focus on the long-term analysis of thermal power generation characteristics and also on the challenges so far limiting the contribution of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in covering the electricity needs of the specific area. According to the present analysis, due to the existing technical limitations, the annual RES shares in the electricity balance of NIIs of the Aegean Sea have since 2010 stagnated in the range of 15% to 18%. Moreover, the performance of thermal power stations for all 30 NII systems is evaluated on the basis of their utilization factor, associated fuel consumption and electricity production costs. The vast majority of these stations is characterized by low capacity factors in combination with high specific fuel consumption and high operational expenses that in the case of smaller scale island regions could even exceed 600€/MWh. At the same time, the authors discuss on the alternatives and encourage further investigation of novel, intelligent energy solutions, such as the smart microgrid and battery-based hybrid power station that are currently developed on the island of Tilos under the implementation of the TILOS Horizon 2020 program

Έκθεση αξιολόγησης κινδύνου υπερφθοροαλκυλιωμένων ουσιών μέσω του προσδιορισμού της συγκέντρωσής τους σε δείγματα τροφίμων

The presence of emerging environmental pollutants, like perfluoroalkylatedsubstances (PFASs) in food products is one of the main issues for food safety.As the scientific interest on this topic has risen during the last decades, manystudies have focused on the determination of PFASs in food. However, riskassessment of the dietary exposure to PFASs is hampered by the insufficientavailable information and thus further investigation is needed.Thus, the main objective of this study is the risk assessment of PFASs throughtheir detection in different food matrices, drinking water and food packagingmaterials. In the present study, both direct and indirect ways of foodcontamination were examined and evaluated. Human exposure to PFASs via theconsumption of certain food items was also estimated. In order to detect very lowlevels of PFASs in all the aforementioned matrices, sensitive and selectiveanalytical methods were developed.The current thesis, apart from the development of novel analytical methodscomprises of five distinct parts: (1) Determination of perfluorinated compounds(PFCs) in various foodstuff packaging materials used in the Greek market, (2)Levels of perfluorinated compounds in raw and cooked Mediterranean finfish andshellfish, (3) Perfluoroalkylated substances (PFASs) in home and commerciallyproduced chicken eggs from the Netherlands and Greece, (4) Determination ofperfluoroalkylated substances (PFASs) in drinking water from the Netherlandsand Greece, (5) Perfluoralkylated substances in edible livers of farm animals,including accumulation kinetics in young sheep fed with contaminated feed.Hopefully this work will be an important contribution to the particular scientific field being explored, and also the trigger for further investigation of issues thathave been addressed

Medium and short term prognosis of load demand for the Greek Island of Tilos using artificial neural networks and human thermal comfort-discomfort biometeorological data

The objective of the present work is the medium and short term forecasting of load demand (LD) in Tilos Island, Greece. For this purpose, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models were developed to predict the LD in Tilos Island 24 hours ahead in hourly intervals (medium-term prognosis) and 24 hours ahead in 10 minutes intervals (short-term prognosis). For training the ANNs, meteorological data covering the 2015-2017 period, were used. These data have been recorded in 1 minute intervals by a meteorological mast which has been installed in a specific location in Tilos Island. Furthermore, a biometeorological human thermal comfortdiscomfort index was calculated and used also during the training procedure. For the validation of the developed ANN forecasting models well established statistical evaluation indices were applied. Results show that in all cases, for both medium and short-term LD prognoses, the developed ANN forecasting models present a remarkable ability to predict LD with high accuracy. The proposed load demand forecasting models enable the design of an energy demand information tool for end-users and transmission system operators

Perfluoroalkylated substances (PFASs) in home and commercially produced chicken eggs from the Netherlands and Greece

Dietary intake is a major route of human exposure to perfluoroalkylated substances (PFASs). However, the available information on PFAS levels in food, including chicken eggs, is limited. In the present study, home produced and commercially produced eggs (organic, battery and free range eggs) were collected from the Netherlands (n = 95) and Greece (n = 76). The egg yolks were analysed for 11 PFASs by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry using isotope dilution. PFAS levels in yolk were higher in home produced eggs from the Netherlands (median 3.1, range <LOQ - 31.2 ng g-1) and Greece (median 1.1, range <LOQ - 15.0 ng g-1) compared to the eggs collected from supermarkets. In these eggs, all PFAS levels were below the LOQ of 0.5 ng g-1, except for a small amount of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in 1 sample in each country (1.1 ng g-1 and 0.9 ng g-1 for the Netherlands and Greece respectively).PFOS was the predominant PFAS, making up on average 85% of ∑PFASs. The highest PFOS concentration was detected in a Dutch home produced egg sample (24.8 ng g-1). The contamination pattern was similar in both countries with the long-chain PFASs (C ≥ 8) being most frequently detected, while short-chain PFASs were rarely found. The most likely cause of the contamination of home produced eggs is ingestion of soil through pecking. Although regular consumption of home produced eggs will lead to an increased PFOS exposure, it is not expected that it will lead to exceedance of the tolerable daily intake established by EFSA

Occurrence of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in a large number of wild and farmed aquatic animals collected in the Netherlands

A range of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) was analysed in marine fish, farmed fish, crustaceans, bivalves and European eel caught in (mostly) Dutch waters, or purchased at Dutch markets (approximately 250 samples, collected between 2012 and 2018). ΣPFAS levels were highest in eels collected from rivers and lakes (average 43.6 ng/g and max 172 ng/g), followed by shrimps collected near the Dutch coast (average 6.7 and max. 33 ng/g ww), and seabass (average 4.5 and max. 9.4 ng/g ww). Most of the farmed fish (e.g. trout, catfish, turbot, salmon, tilapia, pangasius) were among the lowest contaminated samples in this study (averages ranged from 0.06 to 1.5 ng/g ww). Geographically, levels in marine fish from the northern North Sea (e.g. haddock, whiting, herring) were lower than in the central and southern North Sea (e.g. cod and flatfish). Concerning eel, no substantial geographical differences were found (apart from two distinct locations). The contamination pattern was similar in all species, where PFOS mostly dominated the profile, and other long-chain PFASs being frequently detected. Short-chain PFASs were rarely found. PFOS concentrations in eel varied from 3.3 ng/g (close to the North Sea) to 67 ng/g ww in eel caught from Ghent-Terneuzen canal. The majority of detected PFOS levels in eels (93%) and 1 shrimp sample from Eems-Dollard exceeded the EU Environmental Quality Standard (EQS) for surface water of 9.1 μg/kg ww. Other samples (e.g. shrimps, bivalves, flounder), subject to the EQS, did not exceed this level

Bio-Monitoring of environmental pollution using the citizen science approach

Honeybee colonies are excellent bio-samplers of biological material such as nectar, pollen, and plant pathogens, as well as non-biological material such as pesticides or airborne contamination. The INSIGNIA-EU project aims to design and test an innovative, non-invasive, scientifically proven citizen science environmental monitoring protocol for the detection of pesticides, microplastics, heavy metals, and air pollutants by honey bee colonies http://insignia-eu.eu. In the pilot INSIGNIA project (2018-2021), a protocol was developed and tested for citizen-science-based monitoring of pesticides using honeybees. As part of the project, biweekly pollen was obtained from sentinel apiaries over a range of European countries and landscapes and analysed for botanical origin, using state-of-theart molecular techniques such as metabarcoding. An innovative non-biological matrix, the “APIStrip”, was also proved to be very efficient for detecting the residues of 273 agricultural pesticides and veterinary products, both authorized and unauthorized. The data collected are used to develop and test a spatial modelling system aimed at predicting the spatiallyexplicit environmental fate of pesticides and honeybee landscape-scale pollen foraging, with a common underlying geo-database containing European land-use and land-cover data (CORINE), the LUCAS database (landcover) supplemented with national data sets on agricultural and (semi-) natural habitats. After a call by the European Commission, a new 2 years project was granted aiming to present a comprehensive pan-European environmental pollution monitoring study with honey bees. Although pesticides used in agriculture, are a known hazard due to their biological activity, other pollutants, have even been recognized as such, for which we have not been aware of their impact for many years. An example is air pollution which increased while our societies industrialized and is currently regarded as the single largest environmental health risk in Europe (https://www.eea.europa.eu/). Unfortunately, other pollutants such as heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, airborne particulate matter, and microplastics have also reached our environment. The outcome of this project will provide the first standardized EU-wide monitoring of all types of environmental pollutants with honey bee colonies. The project is funded by the EU, under the N° 09.200200/2021/864096/SER/ ENV.D.2 contract.EU, under the N° 09.200200/2021/864096/SER/ ENV.D.2 contractinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio