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Enhancing the energy efficiency of structures has been a staple of energy policies. The key goal is to slash electricity usage in order to minimize the footprint of houses. This goal is sought by putting restrictions on the design specifications with respect to the properties of the raw materials and components as well as the exploitation of sustainable sources of energy. These facts for the basis for zero-energy building (ZEB) being established. This novel technology has faced several obstacles impeding its commercialization and future advancement. This investigation therefore holistically explored and evaluated the state of zero energy building and factors impeding their commercialization. The review further proposed some suggestion in terms of technology that can be considered by the sector to augment existing technologies. Similarly, the investigation touched on the effect of occupant's character in zero energy structures. Policies in terms of government subsidies and tax rebates were recommended to encourage more investors into the sector. Finally, the perception of zero energy building being more expensive compared to the traditional structures can equally be curbed via efficient and effective public sensitization.

Over the past few years, the wind turbine industry has expanded widely and is increasingly taking production into account. There are various reasons why wind energy in electricity networks can be accumulated. In the event of a wind production, it not only remains safe and sustainable, but has low operating costs. DFIG's numerous advantages in the production of power electronic converters and the growth of double feeding induction generators, and their benefits of low conversion capacities, high energy and flexible power control were extensively used in large-scale wind power applications. DFIG as a wind turbine linked to a grid which is subjected to various forms of faults in this innovation. Crowbar is used and is a kind of a safety mechanism for wind turbine generators. Fuzzy Logic is also used to safeguard DFIG for defects presented in this paper.

In today’s time, photovoltaic systems are continuously gaining popularity and emerging due to their high sustainability, autonomy, and viability. It is necessary to assess the performance of these systems to understand various aspects related to their operation. The study analyses the usefulness of a PV system installation that supplies electricity to an academic institution. This paper aims to evaluate the performance of a grid-connected silicon-poly PV system with a peak power of 20.0 kW and voltage of 17v. The software used for analysis is PVsyst (7.1.7 version). PVsyst is a widely used simulation software for estimating the energy yield and for optimizing the system design. The PVsyst software has been used to design a grid-connected PV system for the Karunya Institute of technology. The simulated system has silicon-poly PV modules assembled in it. Each module consists of numerous photovoltaic cells interconnected. Each module has a power rating of 180wP and voltage sizing of Vmpp (60-degree Celsius) 17.5v Voc (−10degree) 28.9v. The photovoltaic modules are assembled in a total of 13 strings. Modules in a string are series-connected. Each string in the system consists of 10 PV modules connected in series with a power rating of 20.8 kW. The arrangement is grid-connected with a utility meter. The weather dataset used for evaluation is extracted from PVsyst’s database and has the attributes, solar radiation, and ambient temperature.

Sun-oriented solar power production with sunlight-based vitality plays an important role. In reality, untimely or innovative countries gracefully take a move forward. When oil is used for power era, it contributes to a rise in poisoning and greenhouse gases. This creates natural complications. Another human need for existence can be filled by using numerous sun- oriented developments in vitality, the planet can still prevent worldwide problems which can also serve to decrease pollution at the same time. In far-off areas where communities of citizens do not approach electricity photovoltaic frameworks are added many any administration offices have taken the amounts of action to allow creativity in sun-driven vitality to be used for power production. Single axis monitoring devices are discussed in this article. This analysis supports the findings. In comparison with the static systems, the single axis monitoring system is more accurate. In either scenario, a single axis monitoring system is simpler to accomplish in cost and adaptability viewpoints than a static one.

Water scarcity is a major issue that arises in current world. So there is an alarming condition trend towards the Asia's drinking water crisis. Thus this issue could quickly be reached to a global crisis. It is therefore extremely important for humans to maintain a specific level of water in worldwide. In many houses unnecessary water wastage is caused by overflow in water tanks. The proposed system utilizes an indicator for water level detection and a controller for solving this particular issue. Different circuits installed in the system for delivering messages as the increment and decrement of water level in the tank. Water shortage is one of the major challenges confronting big cities around the World, and pollution was established by utilizing computational models that build a barrier not only to improve financial benefits and conserve electricity but also to benefit the climate and water cycle as one of the key triggers of this work water scarcity is one of the major problems.

When agricultural goods begin to be transported by those temperatures where value added products can be transported, cold room assessments in industrial applications must be validated. Computational feedback can improve the process consistency. Data on coolant and boundary dynamics can be evaluated by means of computer fluid dynamics (CFD). Air speed and air temperature are the distribution parameters in this analysis. When the vegetable temperature is preserved with less variations in the storage room, as well as the required air distribution, the best effects of proper preservations are achieved. With proper air circulation, temperature difference is minimised. Air speed is necessary to protect the cold storage of agricultural products. This project's main objective was to observe the decrease in temperature when PCMs are used within the cold storage space. Most of the experimental results demonstrated that in the event of regular openings of doors, also in the context of electricity failures using PCM, the temperature retained inside the cool space was 1–4.5 °C lower than without PCM, even in the cases of electrical failures using PCM. The present study focuses on applying guidelines to enhance cold room technology for improved outcomes in cold storage. Present work discussed about the reference methods and the techniques used in previous literature with future recommendations.

Due to rapid movement of rural population to new regions and countries in order to find work and for better living conditions, population growth and economic development, there is gradual increase in production of waste and demand of electricity worldwide. According to World Bank statistics, the global Municipal Solid Waste generated was 1.3 billion tons in year 2012 and this is expected to increase above 2.2 billion tons per year by 2025. Due to lack of sites for waste disposal, it has become a serious environmental as well as health issue. Now various methods have been adopted for waste disposal. Among this, energy accessed from municipal solid waste is the most common practice adopted by developing countries. In addition, Waste to Energy and Energy from Waste technologies are used which include thermal and biological technologies. Gasification, pyrolysis and incineration are thermal technologies used in conversion of waste to energy. During these processes, syngas is produced which is used in combustion engine or turbines to generate electricity. Apart from this, biomethanation is also used in which biogas is produced. In this review article, we have discussed all the environmental and green methods used for the generation of energy from Municipal Solid Waste their advantages and drawbacks.

At operational level, fossil fuel phase-out and high shares of non-dispatchable renewable energy resources (RES) will challenge the system operator's (SO) ability to balance generation, and the demand at any time. The variability of RES output ranges from one hour to a season, and critical events such as low supply and high demand might occur more frequently and for more extended periods. When evaluating the role of Energy Storage Systems (ESSs) in this context, the need for a long time scope to capture the different RES variabilities must be reconciled with the need for modeling the hourly chronology. This paper presents a medium-term operation planning model, addressing both the energy dispatch and the balancing services. This study shows that representing the combined chronological variability of demand and RES production is essential to properly assess the roles of different kinds of ESSs in the future 2030 electricity mix. Otherwise, it would not be possible to appropriately capture the frequency, depth, and length of events for which ESSs are activated. The analysis also highlights the importance of considering balancing services, given the significant contribution of batteries to the reserve market. Finally, the results show that batteries and Pumped Storage Hydro (PSH) have different roles in the Spanish electricity system with a high renewable penetration. While PSH is mainly used to provide energy during critical periods, batteries mostly provide balancing services. © 2022 The Author(s) This research has been carried out thanks to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MINECO through BC3 Mar?a de Maeztu excellence accreditation MDM-2017-0714 Maria de Maeztu Grant. The research has also benefited from the funding of the RETOS COLABORACI?N program of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Spanish State Research Agency (project ?Platform of innovative models to accelerate the energy decarbonization of the economy (MODESC)?, with reference number RTC2019- 007315-3). The authors would also like to acknowledge the Iberdrola Chair of Energy and Innovation for their helpful comments.

Decarbonizing the energy sector in order to reduce the consequences of climate change is possible through a comprehensive set of new measures in this sector: integration of a higher share of electricity from renewables and reduction in the share of fossil fuels in the energy mix, improvements in energy efficiency across the board, but also the development of a new, functioning model of the electricity market. As the electricity market is a complex and dynamic environment, this paper highlights that the new vision for the sector outlined here requires a holistic approach with multiple perspectives. The paper focuses on possible challenges in achieving these goals. Having in mind a common vision, it has been up to each country to reshape its domestic energy sector, as well as to use the opportunity to benefit from such a transition to the suggested framework. The contribution of this paper are detailed suggestions for that transition process in the case of the Republic of Serbia. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to systematically explore the evolution of the electricity market design in the Republic of Serbia to ensure a feasible decarbonization process.

Distributed electricity generation technologies, like solar photovoltaic (PV), have achieved rapid development in recent years, but are constrained by some problems such as low marketization and lag in public services. The peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity trading, which allows direct electricity transactions between local consumers and prosumers, has the potential to efficiently distribute the profits coming from self-consumption of PV electricity among all participants. This study proposes a three-layer P2P electricity trading system for communities with high penetration of household distributed PV. The trading system includes a physical layer based on the power grid, an information layer based on a virtual agent network, and a market layer based on a continuous double auction (CDA) mechanism combined with market clearing. By using simulation of trading experiments, a community with 60 houses and 50% PV occupancy is studied as a case. Results show that in one day, 62.5% of the surplus PV electricity of all prosumers actually can be consumed within the community. Through P2P electricity trading of this part of electricity, total incomes of prosumers can increase by 11.5%, and total expense of all users decrease by 7.5%, resulting in that the net expenses of the whole community decrease by 13.8%. It is concluded that P2P electricity trading can unite the whole PV community as a bigger prosumer, and make every residential house in the community share the profits from local PV consumption, which could promote the subsidy-free development and grid parity of household distributed PV in the future.

In this work we study the electro-orientation (through electric birefringence experiments) of silver nanowires in polymer solutions eventually capable of forming gel networks. Information on the structure of the polymer solution is obtained by evaluating the electro-orientation of the nanowires. It is found that in presence of poly(ethylene oxide), Kerr’s law (birefringence proportional to the square of the field) is fulfilled, and the randomization process after switching off the external field is purely diffusive, controlled by the viscosity of the Newtonian polymer solution. In the case of (gelating) sodium alginate solutions, measuring at larger distances from the bottom (where the source of cross-linking Ca2+ ions is deposited) means a smaller degree of cross-linking, and a less stiff gel. In fact, it is found that after a certain time the birefringence signal gets frozen at the bottom, indicating that a gel network is formed which hinders particle orientation. The viscosity deduced up to that point agrees well with rheological determinations, with increasing deviations found at longer times due to the inhomogeneous gel formation. This process has an interesting consequence on birefringence response: Kerr’s law fails to be fulfilled, appearing a ”yield” applied electric field, larger the longer the time after preparation.

The importance of renewable energy compared to fossil fuels is increasing due to growing energy demand and environmental challenges. Multi-generation systems use one or more energy sources and produce several useful outputs. The present study aims at investigating and comparing solar energy based multi-generation systems with and without once -through MSF desalination unit from the thermodynamic point of view. Firstly, hydrogen, electricity, and hot water for space heating and domestic usage are produced using the system, which consists of a parabolic trough collector, an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) and a PEM electrolyzer and heat exchanger as sub-systems. The performance of the entire system is evaluated from the energetic and exergetic points of view. Various parameters affecting hydrogen production rate and efficiency values are also investigated with the thermodynamic model implemented in the Engineering Equation Solver (EES) package. The system can produce hydrogen at a mass flow rate of 20.39 kg/day. The results of the study show that the energy and exergy efficiency values of the ORC are calculated to be 16.80% and 40% while those for the overall system are determined to be 78% and 25.50%, respectively. Secondly, once-through MSF desalination unit is integrated to the system between ORC evaporator and heat exchanger producing domestic hot water in the solar cycle in order not to affect hydrogen production rate while thermodynamic values are compared. Fresh water production capacity of the system is calculated to be at a volumetric flow rate of 5.74 m(3)/day with 10 stages. (C) 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC.

This paper sheds the light on the future of green hydrogen in Tunisia. So, a detailed economic assessment and evaluation of the Levelized Hydrogen Cost (LHC) and the Net Profit (NP) of a Photovoltaic (PV) Hydrogen Refueling Station (HRS) are presented and discussed. Tunisia is characterized by its high PV potential which makes the production of electricity from solar energy an effective alternative source. However, due to the regulations and issues related to the connection of medium PV scale to the power grid, the energy produced from renewable sources (RS) is still less than 3% of the total produced electricity. On the other hand, the price of hydrocarbon fuels is still increasing. The gap between production and total demand in hydrocarbons has created a deficit in the primary energy balance. Therefore, the production of hydrogen from solar energy for refueling Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCV)s consists of a promising solution to boost the development of the country, reduce hydrocarbon fuels consumption, and protect the environment. The sizing of a small PV-HRS to produce 150 kg of hydrogen per day shows the necessity to install PV systems with a total Direct Current (DC) capacity of 1.89 MWp. The Initial Cost (IC) analysis shows that while the PV system cost represents 48.5% of the total IC, the IC of electrolysers represents 41%. The storage system cost is approximately equal to 3.2% of the total IC. The LHC is equal to 3.32€/kg with a total IC of 2.34 million €.

This study examines how well producing hydrogen via electrolysis from curtailed electricity from renewables could fulfil environmental benefits against the cost of producing hydrogen via electrolysis in the context of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the East Asia Summit (EAS). The cost of producing hydrogen via electrolysis ranges from less than USD2 per kgH2 when the electrolyser load factor is 1500 h or above to USD10 per kgH2 or even higher when the electrolyser load factor is 500 h or lower. The amount of CO2 emissions abated by hydrogen produced from curtailed electricity from renewables ranges from about 130 million tonnes to about 150 million tonnes for ASEAN and from about 18,000 million tonnes to about 19,000 million tonnes for EAS. Applying prevailing carbon prices to the CO2 emissions abated, the possible monetised benefits of hydrogen produced via electrolysis from curtailed electricity from renewables range from about USD0.25 per kgH2 to about USD9.00 per kg H2 for ASEAN and from about USD0.50 per kgH2 to about USD15.00 per kg H2 for EAS. The results of the cost-benefit analysis suggest that the price of carbon needs to be about USD15 per tonne of CO2 to justify hydrogen produced via electrolysis from curtailed electricity from renewables for both ASEAN and EAS. The results also suggest that high electrolyser load factors make hydrogen produced via electrolysis from curtailed electricity from renewables cost-competitive even under low carbon prices.

We study the day-ahead electricity market clearing problem under the prevailing market design in the European electricity markets. We revisit the Benders decomposition algorithm that has been used to solve this problem. We develop new valid inequalities that substantially improve the performance of the algorithm. We generate instances that mimic the characteristics of past bids of the Turkish day-ahead electricity market and conduct experiments. We use two leading mixed-integer programming solvers, IBM ILOG Cplex and Gurobi, in order to assess the impact of employed solver on the algorithm performance. We compare the performances of our algorithm, the primal-dual algorithm, and the Benders decomposition algorithm using the existing cuts from the literature. The extensive experiments we conduct demonstrate that the price-based cuts we develop improve the performance of the Benders decomposition algorithm and outperform the primal-dual algorithm.

Implementing a proper clustering algorithm and a high accuracy classifier for applying on electricity smart meter data is the first stage in analyzing and managing electricity consumption. In this paper, Random Forest (RF) classifier optimized by Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) which is called Artificial Bee Colony-based Random Forest (ABC-RF) is proposed. Also, in order to determine the representative load curves, the Convex Clustering (CC) is used. The solution paths generated by convex clustering show relationships among clusters that were hidden by static methods such as k-means clustering. To validate the proposed method, a case study that includes a real dataset of residential smart meters is implemented. The results evidence that the proposed ABC-RF method provides a higher accuracy if compared to other classification methods.

Accurate electric energy metering in micro-grid is one of the most urgent problems in the field of electric energy metering. In order to solve the problem that the lackness of electric energy metering can't be accurately calculated with the existing electric energy compensation algorithm when the electric energy metering device is completely faulty, this paper proposes an electric energy compensation algorithm that is limited in micro-grid and is based on standard particle swarm to optimize the deep belief network. Taking the historical electric energy data of each micro source metering point in micro-grid as an example, it is divided into the training set and the test set, the standard particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to determine the optimal learning layers and learning rate of deep belief network, and the electric energy algorithm model is established. The model verification results show that the proposed algorithm is nearly five times lower than the algorithm based on deep belief network solely. Further engineering case comparison shows that lackness of electric energy metering compensated by the algorithm studied in the paper is closer to the theoretical value, and the error is also less than the traditional average electricity algorithm. The real-time power curve is closer to the theoretical value, and has the higher accuracy.

From a sustainability perspective, the performance of a company's supply chain will be satisfactory when it has reached in all aspects a desirable eco-environmentally friendly level. Assessing the sustainability performance in the closed-loop e-waste supply chain becomes vital because its activities are primarily targeted towards sustainability goals related to the process of production, supply, recycling, and disposal of electrical components. This study evaluates the performance of e-waste supply chain sustainability and identifies its performance indicators as a framework for evaluating supply chain performance using the Best-Worst Method (BWM), which is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach. For this, the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model is considered the basic performance evaluation reference. Moreover, through reviewing the literature, the complementary indicators of this model, especially in terms of sustainability, are added to the performance evaluation indices using the Nominal Group Technique (NGT). After specifying and forming a performance evaluation hierarchy, the BWM method is used to determine the criteria score. The results of implementing the framework on some well-known supply chains in New Zealand indicate that the attributes of "Costs," "Quality," and "GreenScor" are crucial for achieving high performance, while in this developed country, there is less concern about social issues.

The interaction of active particles with walls can explain discrepancies between experiments and theory derived for particles in the bulk. For an electric field driven metallodielectric Janus particle (JP) adjacent to an electrode, interaction between the asymmetric particle and the partially screened electrode yields a net electrostatic force - termed self-dielectrophoresis (sDEP) - that competes with induced-charge electrophoresis (ICEP) to reverse particle direction.The potential contribution of hydrodynamic flow to the reversal is evaluated by visualizing flow around a translating particle via micro-particle image velocimetry and chemically suppressing ICEP with poly(l-lysine)-g-poly(ethylene glycol) (PLL-PEG). Mobility of Polystyrene-Gold JPs is measured in KCl electrolytes of varying concentration and with a capacitive SiOPLL-PEG predominantly suppresses low-frequency mobility where propulsive electro-hydrodynamic jetting is observed; supporting the hypothesis of an electrostatic driving force at high frequencies. Simulations and theory show the magnitude, direction and frequency dispersion of JP mobility are obtained by superposition of ICEP and sDEP using the JP height and capacitance as fitting parameters. Wall proximity enhances ICEP and sDEP and manifests a secondary ICEP charge relaxation time dominating in the contact limit.

This paper takes an industrial extraction heating unit as the research object, introduces a heat storage device into the steam bypass and proposes two schemes for discharging, one for electricity users and the other for heat users. The unit’s original peak shaving plan, bypass peak shaving plan, and bypass heat storage combined peak shaving plan were analyzed in this paper by building a unit analysis model in Ebsilon software. The results show that the bypass heat storage combined peak shaving scheme for power users has the largest peak shaving range, it has increased by 163.87MW compared with the original unit when the heat supply get to the largest. In one storage and discharge cycle, the scheme of bypass heat storage combined peak shaving discharging to electricity users has the highest cycle thermal efficiency and the highest operating profit, compared with the bypass peak shaving scheme, the operating revenue of the scheme has increased by 16.85%.

The treatment of barley-shochu waste combined with electricity generation was examined using stacked microbial fuel cells (SMFCs). The maximum chemical oxygen demand (COD

The current study develops a hydrogen map concept where renewable energy sources are considered for green hydrogen production and specifically investigates the solar energy-based hydrogen production potential in Turkey. For all cities in the country, the available onshore and offshore potentials for solar energy are considered for green hydrogen production. The vacant areas are calculated after deducting the occupied areas based on the available governmental data. Abundant solar energy as a key renewable energy source is exploited by photovoltaic cells. To obtain the hydrogen generation potential, monocrystalline and polycrystalline type solar cells are considered, and the generated renewable electricity is directed to electrolysers. For this purpose, alkaline, proton exchange membrane (PEM), and solid oxide electrolysers (SOEs) are considered to obtain the green hydrogen. The total hydrogen production potential for Turkey is estimated to be between 415.48 and 427.22 Million tons (Mt) depending on the type of electrolyser. The results show that Erzurum, Konya, Sivas, and Van are found to be the highest hydrogen production potentials. The main idea is to prepare hydrogen map in detail for each city in Turkey, based on the solar energy potential. This, in turn, can be considered in the context of the current policies of the local communities and policy-makers to supply the required energy of each country. 2-s2.0-85120339595

International audience; Optimizing nuclear unit outages is of significant economic importance for the French electricity company EDF, as these outages induce a substitute production by other more expensive means to fulfill electricity demand. This problem is quite challenging given the specific operating constraints of nuclear units, the stochasticity of both the demand and non-nuclear units availability, and the scale of the instances. To tackle these difficulties we use a combined decomposition approach. The operating constraints of the nuclear units are built into a Dantzig-Wolfe pricing subproblem whose solutions define the columns of a demand covering formulation. The scenarios of demand and non-nuclear units availability are handled in a Benders decomposition. Our approach is shown to scale up to the real-life instances of the French nuclear fleet.

At the same time of economic development, the increasing scarcity of energy has had a great impact on people's development. People's production and life demand for electricity is also increasing rapidly, and solar power technology has received more and more attention. As a new energy source, solar energy has the advantages of environmental protection and sustainability, and it has no regional restrictions, can be used on-site, and designed to scale. Solar power generation is an important way to use solar energy. As the main component of the grid-connected power generation system, solar grid-connected inverters complete the tracking problem of the maximum power point in the photovoltaic array and transmit electrical energy to the grid through a set of control algorithms. The electrical energy is transmitted to the grid through the inverter, consistent with solar energy. In order to solve the problems of low integration, low energy efficiency, low reliability, high power consumption and lack of effective monitoring measures for solar energy devices. This article starts with the design of the solar cell integrated system, and through detailed analysis of the solar production system and building integrated planning, establishes the shadow radiant energy model of the solar cell system building electrical and solar cell system based on the Internet of Things, and designs an object-based Networked comprehensive auxiliary platform. The use of the Internet of Things and ZigBee wireless sensor network to study distributed solar energy devices and realize the joint design of solar energy devices and buildings is of great significance to the development of photovoltaic construction industry.

Masses of user-side smart meter data provide a foundation for utilities to acquire users’ electricity consumption patterns and promote refined energy management. Therefore, the charging load of electric vehicles can be identified non-intrusively through the smart meter data of residential users, which provides flexible resources for the demand side response of power grid enterprises and is beneficial to the power dispatching decision making. Meanwhile, revealing residential energy consumption behavior from smart meter data is treated as energy privacy leakage. Extensive data collection from smart meters has raised privacy risk, which could lead to the reduction of trust in utilities from households. Aiming at this problem, the paper proposes a non-intrusive method to extract residential electric vehicles, and on this basis, discusses the privacy protection. In this paper, DWT method is used to decompose the total power of smart meter to extract the charging load of electric vehicle, and similar charging load patterns are added to smart meter data to preserve the residential EV charging behavior privacy. Practical households with EVs are used to test the proposed method and the result shows its feasibility for the performance of privacy-preserving.

Due to the highly flexible reconfiguration of swarms, collective behaviors have provided various natural organisms with a powerful adaptivity to the complex environment. To mimic these natural systems and construct artificial intelligent soft materials, self-propelled colloidal motors that can convert diverse forms of energy into swimming-like movement in fluids afford an ideal model system at the micro-/nanoscales. Through the coupling of local gradient fields, colloidal motors driven by chemical reactions or externally physical fields can assembly into swarms with adaptivity. Here, we summarize the progress on reconfigurable assembly of colloidal motors which is driven and modulated by chemical reactions and external fields (e.g., light, ultrasonic, electric, and magnetic fields). The adaptive reconfiguration behaviors and the corresponding mechanisms are discussed in detail. The future directions and challenges are also addressed for developing colloidal motor-based interactive soft matter materials and systems with adaptation and interactive functions comparable to that of natural systems.

The difference between load demand in the off-peak and peak period is usually high in the context of Nepal, and the high peak load for a short time is the main reason for insufficiency in electricity, frequent electricity outage, and poor power quality. This paper investigates the effectiveness of the time of use (TOU) strategy to reduce peak demand and to improve power quality. TOU electricity price is one of the electric demand response (DR) strategies, which may motivate the customers to reduce their consumption in peak periods and shift load in the off-peak period, which propel the electricity industry towards a higher efficiency compared to that of common flat prices. In this paper, a process based on an equal step length iteration algorithm is used to obtain an optimal period partition. Using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, a TOU-based optimization model is proposed to find the optimal electricity price. Then, its impact on peak demand reduction and voltage fluctuation is analyzed. The impact of TOU price on peak demand reduction is investigated in the hourly load profile of Nepal, which indicates the significant reduction in peak demand. Similarly, the impact on voltage fluctuation is analyzed through a case study of the IEEE 33-bus radial distribution test system, which shows voltage profile is improved.

The objective of this study is to identify cost-optimal efficiency packages at several levels of building energy savings. A two-story residential building located in Jordan is selected as a case study. DesignBuilder software is used to predict the annual energy usage of a two-story residence in Irbid, Jordan. Real-time experimental data from a single isolated controlled room was used to verify the proposed model. In addition to energy analysis, the economic, environmental, and social benefits of the proposed design have been investigated. The sequential search optimization approach is used to estimate the minimum cost of the building while considering various design scenarios. In addition, the impact of various energy conservation techniques on residential buildings is assessed, and the payback period for each program is calculated. Ultimately, the optimal combination of design to achieve energy efficiency measures has been identified in several climate regions. The simulations results predict that the annual electricity consumption can be reduced up to 50% if the proper combinations of energy conservation measures are selected at the lowest cost. The payback period is 9.3 years. Finally, energy efficiency measures can lead to a total of 9470 jobs/year job opportunities. The study provide practical framework to link between energy performance criteria and economic goals of building. Linking the energy performance requirements to economic targets provides guidelines for homeowners, contractors, and policymakers for making a suitable decision regarding the retrofitting of existing residential buildings. The study focuses on developing new methodologies that support minimizing costs during a building's lifecycle while maximizing environmental benefits which can not be identified by a series of parametric analyses using individual energy-efficient measures.

We first comprehensively analyze determining the generating capacities of each type, then discuss the heat distribution across interconnected district-level heat energy systems (“the hubs”) containing both low-scale and centralized heat plants; discussion is presented from the standpoint of primary energy consumption and costs. The applied tool includes a flexible heat generation model and an accurate objective function. The set of constraints and the Jacobian matrix are configured manually. We apply the fixed-point iteration approach to solve an equation system. In order to evaluate the consequences of all possible scenarios, we analyze a novel district heating (DH) system with low-scale solar collectors and heat pumps against central combined heat-and-power (CHP) plant fueled with fossil fuels and biomass. The proposed system is evaluated from the standpoint of the state-of-the-art, future prospects, and environmental impact. For each specific type of capacities, we herein present maximum achievable net generation of heat. System layout sketch is based on the data on the actual districts of Canberra, Australia. All the hubs are studied as a whole with due account of heat redistribution. The configuration made implies construction renewable energy facilities with a heat generation of 6.5+ MW, which will suffice to cover about a fifth of the peak load. This approach is quite novel for Australia. With greater electricity and heat supplies, renewable resources can cover an even greater share of such supplies. To sum up, a significant difference between the costs of a natural gas-based DHS and a coal-fired DH one lies in the fixed costs of operating the CHPPs and in the fuel costs. The self-generation of a hub may be inconsistent with the total energy balance, which is the total of eigen-production, energy inflows and outflows. The total system performance is considerably better when coal-fired CHPPs account for the bulk of net production.

Along with a water-soluble fraction rich in pectin, the hydrodynamic cavitation of citrus processing waste carried out in water demonstrated directly on semi-industrial scale affords an insoluble fraction consisting of micronized cellulose of low crystallinity ("CytroCell"). Lemon and grapefruit CytroCell respectively consist of 100-500 nm wide cellulose nanorods, and of 500-1000 nm wide ramified microfibrils extending for several μm. These findings establish a technically viable route to low crystallinity micronized cellulose laying in between nano- and microcellulose, using water and electricity only.

To tailor the properties and enhance the applicability of starch, various ways of starch modification have been practiced. Among them, physical modification methods (micronization, nonthermal plasma, high-pressure, ultrasonication, pulsed electric field, and γ-irradiation) are highly potential for starch modification considering its safety, environmentally friendliness, and cost-effectiveness, without generating chemical wastes. Thus, this article provides an overview of the recent advances in nonthermal physical modification of starch and summarizes the resulting changes in the multi-level structures and physicochemical properties. While the effect of these techniques highly depends on starch type and treatment condition, they generally lead to the destruction of starch granules, the degradation of molecules, decreases in crystallinity, gelatinization temperatures, and viscosity, increases in solubility and swelling power, and an increase or decrease in digestibility, to different extents. The advantages and shortcomings of these techniques in starch processing are compared, and the knowledge gap in this area is commented on.

Even though PV rooftop technology is popular, currently the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is more expensive than the grid electricity price, especially in developing countries. However, the solar panel price is decreasing, which make the LCOE of PV rooftop in the near future would decrease to the same level as grid electricity price. This condition is defined as grid parity. In this research, the grid parity condition in Jakarta and Surabaya (Indonesia) is calculated and compared to the willingness to pay (WTP) data. Then, the effect of the PV rooftop installation on the generation cost is investigated under various sizes of PV rooftop aggregation. The grid parity analysis is evaluated by calculating LCOE at different capacities then comparing it to electricity tariff. After that, grid generation cost is investigated using unit commitment procedure. The result shows that the larger the installed capacity, the faster the grid parity condition is achieved. In addition, the PV rooftop system in Surabaya has a lower LCOE value than Jakarta due to the greater potential for solar energy. Furthermore, the PV rooftop installation effect on the power system would reduce the energy production from the conventional generating unit. On contrary, the average generation cost for Java Bali electric system would increase to 6.4% because of the inefficiency of the existing generating unit operation.

Electricity demand is increasing mainly due to population expansion and the continuous supply of electricity in the residential, industrial, and service sectors. This energy is a critical factor of economic growth, and clean energy resources must be utilized and substituted to reduce the effects of climate change and move toward sustainable development. Site selection and construction of renewable power plants help to diversify the country's energy basket. This study aims to locate and evaluate a photovoltaic solar power plant's potential in Khuzestan province, using Fuzzy-Boolean logic and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) decision analysis based on GIS. The main criteria for selecting the optimal locations include climatic (annual horizontal solar irradiance, sunshine hours, air temperature, relative humidity, windspeed), economic (the proximity to roads, transmission lines, substations, urban areas, and villages), orography (slope, orientation, and altitude) and the environment. According to the results, 0.12% of the province's area has excellent suitability, 25.66% has suitable suitability, and 59.46% lacks any suitability for installing a photovoltaic system. The annual electric power generation potential using single-crystalline silicon panels and polycrystalline silicon panels is calculated as 3189.54 and 2453.49TWh, respectively. Izeh, Bandar-e-Mahshahr, and Bagh-eMalek cities are the most suitable areas for photovoltaic solar farms in province.

The demand for electricity increases rapidly along with the advancement of the industrial age. To ensure efficient distribution of the electricity, maintain low losses and high level of quality, and the security of electricity supply, the smart grid concept was proposed. The concept enables a small, individual scale to generate electricity and sell it to the grid. However, the concept adds complexity to the existing system, such as how a transaction between these generators and consumers are conducted, verified and recorded. This paper proposes the blockchain as a tool to manage transactions in the smart grid. Transactions are performed with smart contracts, and the network acts as a transaction verifier. The blockchain provides immutability of the transactions, which ensure every transaction between generators and consumers will always be executed. It also provides immutability to transaction history, which can be used for audit or solving a transaction dispute.

Flexible hydrogels with integration of excellent mechanical and electrical properties are well suited for applications as wearable electronic sensors, and others. Self-adhesion is an important feature of wearable sensors. However, the usual isotropic- adhesion hydrogels have the drawback of poor anti-interference, which negatively affects their applications. In this study, we developed asymmetric-adhesion and tough lignin reinforced hydrogels in a facile two-step process: 1) PAA hydrogels, with lignin as the binder and conductive filler, were first prepared; 2) the asymmetric-adhesion property was imparted to lignin reinforced hydrogel by simple soaking of the top portion of the hydrogel in CaCl

In the current study, we tested a possible mechanism of low-and high-contrast image component discrimination by the vertebrate eye-brain system. Apparently the eye-brain system has to discriminate between the low-contrast image component formed by light scattered within the retina, due to interaction of photons with cells and their parts, and the high-contrast image component transmitted by excitons via the quantum mechanism. Presently, effects of pulsed electric fields applied to Muller cell (MC) intermediate filaments (IFs) on the efficiency of exciton propagation were explored. The effects of both pulse duration and amplitude were recorded. These experimental results show that the eye-brain system may be using signal modulation to discriminate between high-and low-contrast image components, improving our understanding of high-contrast vision in vertebrates. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The fulcrum of economic development is a sustainable supply of electricity. Nigeria is plagued with blackouts, with one of the lowest per capita electricity consumption in the world (circa. 120 kWh per capita). Hence, policies have been instigated to integrate electricity generation from nuclear power plants (NPP) on or before 2027. However, a critical requirement for NPP generation is the implementation of robust human resource development (HRD) programs. This paper presents the perspective of Nigeria in assessing human resources needs over the entire NPP lifecycle following the milestone approach and employing the IAEA's Nuclear Power Human Resource (NPHR) modeling tool. Three workforce organizations are in focus including the owner/operator, regulators, and construction workers following three decades timeframe (2015–2045). The results indicate that for the study period, a maximum of approximately 9045 personnel (73% construction workers, 24% owner/operator, and 3% regulators) should be directly involved in the NPP program just before the commissioning of the third NPP in 2033. However, this number decreases by about 73% (2465 personnel including 94% operator and 6% regulator) at the end of the study timeframe. The results can potentially provide clarity and guidance in HRD decision-making programs.

Summary With healthcare systems rapidly becoming overwhelmed and occupied by patients during a pandemic, effective and safe care for patients is easily compromised. During the course of the current pandemic, numerous treatment guidelines have been developed and published that have improved care for patients with COVID-19. Certain lessons have only been learned during the course of the outbreak, from which we can learn for future pandemics. This editorial aims to raise awareness about the importance of timely stockpiling of sufficient amounts of personal protection equipment and medications, adequate oxygen supplies, uninterrupted electricity, and fair locally adapted triage strategies.

The novel coronavirus disease has spread uncontrollably all over the world within a short span of time and has affected the development of the world in many ways. All the nations have directed their technical, financial and political resources towards controlling COVID-19 pandemic across the world. It is predicted that the impact of this crisis will remain for longer period of time, affecting the livelihood of people and all those activities that were contributing to the development of the nations across the globe. In fact, the most promising and significant seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were adopted in the year 2015 by the United Nations (UN) Member States addressing various global issues, now seem difficult to be achieved by 2030 due to coronavirus pandemic. However, even though the COVID-19 pandemic might have turmoil effect on the existing growth of the world, still few positive developments may be observed in the long run due to this pandemic. Therefore, this study focuses on identifying and quantifying the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in achieving the UN SDGs. This study brings out both negative as well as positive influences of the pandemic on the environment and energy related SDGs. The study uses Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to calculate the weights of the identified positive and negative influences for each environment and energy related goals. Further, 4–1 ratings are used to identify the severity of the influences on the SDGs. Finally, a score is calculated using weights and ratings that indicates the overall impact of the pandemic on environment and energy related SDGs. The result obtained in the study shows that the pandemic offers an opportunity to develop action plans that can build more environmentally sustainable future.

Nowadays, Afghanistan is facing a challenging energy situation; the electricity consumption to the national Grid is imported from neighboring countries, such as Iran, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. This country is annually paying 280 million dollars to the neighboring countries for importing 670 MW. Nevertheless, the country is still facing a shortage of electricity in the rural area. To overcome these issues, the government of Afghanistan is planning to generate 5,000 MW of renewable energy by 2032; among them the share of solar projects should be 1,500 MW. According to the Afghanistan Renewable Energy Union (AREU), solar projects would cover 30% of electricity demand in 2032. The Daykundi province is located in the center of Afghanistan, which is having great sunlight to generate solar energy. The designing of 700KWp has been tested on Pvsyst software in which the system production is 1266MWh/yr. The performance ratio is 0.797. Therefore when the power factor is between (0.7–0.9) the system is working in good condition, solar energy technology is increasingly being recommended for electricity production. In this paper the simulation of a 700KWp Grid-connected solar power plant in Daikundi province of Afghanistan is presented with the use of Pvsyst software and all their performances have been evaluated.

Al-Marj is located about 100 km from Benghazi, and it has a rugged mountainous terrain. The grid extensionmakesit impractical in some places, and off-grid electricity the best option. In this study, the feasibility of a small hybrid electrical Micro-hydro/Photovoltaic/battery supply system for road lighting was analyzed. The reservoir's water potential is analyzed as well as meteorological data collected from NASA. The initial reservoir flow data was taken for accurate hydropower modeling located at the start of the slope by measuring the total height with the help of GPS (Geographical Positioning System) and flow data obtained from the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. The average flow rate is 0.46 m3/s. HOMER software was used to model and analyze data for a hybrid power generation system. The study included the electrical load for lighting the road with 100 poles powered by solar energy with a LED lamp. From the HOMER program result, 30 KW PV and 0.9 KW Hydro was selected. It has an initial energy cost of $0.032 per kilowatt-hour, much lower than the network system capital cost for such particular site. For a distance of more than three kilometers, the government network can use no lighting.

Solar energy conversion to electricity is gaining popularity as the cost of solar energy continues to decline as a result of government policy choices supporting green energy. However, the panel's efficiency is noteworthy, consistently hovering around 15%. Due to the direct sun rays, the surface temperature of the photovoltaic panel varies substantially during the day, which has a major effect on its performance. Thus, effective thermal management of the photovoltaic panel is essential to maximize the panel's efficiency. The purpose of this work was to increase the efficiency of solar photovoltaic panels by appropriately controlling the absorbed thermal radiation through the use of a Nano-Phase Change Material (nano-PCM). Nano-PCM was produced by diffusing nano-CuO particles at a minimum volume percent inside a paraffin matrix (1.0 vol%). During the experimentation, two PV panels with a similar capacity (30 Watts) and design were employed. The first panel was employed without alteration, while the second panel was combined with the nano-PCM for thermal management. Both PV panels were examined between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00p.m. on clear sun days. The results indicated that the integration of nano-PCM resulted in a considerable reduction in panel surface temperature and an increase in electrical efficiency.

Similar to the carbon transfer among regions and countries, the embodied carbon emissions among industries also have serious carbon leakage problems. It is important to determine the embodied carbon flow relationships among industrial sectors, to clarify the responsibilities of each sector, and to adjust the sectoral structure accordingly. Given that, an embodied carbon emission flow relationships network among industrial sectors (ECEFRN) is developed in this paper. In detail, an environmentally extended input-output (EEIO) model is applied to quantitatively estimate the embodied carbon emission flow relationships among industrial sectors in China. The roles and functions of each industrial sector in the network and the evolution characteristics of the embodied carbon emission flow relationships are determined by the social network analysis (SNA) method. Results show that ECEFRN has the small-world characteristics, and key industrial sectors in the network are identified based on the analysis of degree centrality and betweenness centrality. During the study period, in the ECEFRN, “Processing of petroleum, coking, and nuclear fuel”, “Smelting and pressing of metals”, “Production and supply of electricity and heat” are important “suppliers”. “Construction”, “Other service” and “Manufacture of transport equipment” are important “importers”. “Manufacture of foods and tobacco”, “Manufacture of transport equipment”, “Manufacture of computers, communication and other electronic equipment” are important “intermediaries”. Based on the aforementioned research results, this paper proposes corresponding policy suggestions. Network-based research has contributed more insights to the understanding of carbon emission reduction responsibilities among industrial sectors. These findings will provide certain theoretical support and policy references for policymakers when formulating policies for carbon emission reduction and industrial structure adjustment.

The costs of gas transportation and its environmental/security impacts in Iran have led to evaluating geothermal/solar renewable sources instead. Regarding the high potential of geothermal/solar in Sistan/Baluchestan province, Iran, which have still no access to the global gas network, these resources create a desirable plan. This paper attempted to present/compare four possible solar-assisted ground source heat pumps to supply four purposes of electricity demand, heating/cooling, and domestic hot water. First, the energy needed in the region was designed with DesignBuilder. Then, each proposed system was modeled in Polysun software using a photovoltaic-thermal and a vertical geothermal heat exchanger. Afterward, all probable plans were evaluated and compared technically, economically, and environmentally. The results indicated that the maximum/minimum values of the coefficient of heat pump performance for direct heat exchanger and series systems were 4.39/3.87. Also, the optimal plan was introduced with 4957/10667 kWh electricity consumption/production. Besides, an economic analysis was estimated for the optimal strategy with an investment return of 7years. The designed system prevented 5089kgCO2 emissions annually. By means of this integrating hybrid system, Sistan/Baluchestan province would become a significant renewable power plant globally, and a considerable techno-economic and environmental challenge would be dissolved in Iran.

In this study, a combined power supply system consisting of renewable solar and wind energies with backup and storage equipment including a diesel generator and a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) with Demand Response (DR) was integrated and optimized, and optimally enhanced the reliability of the sustainable supply of the load demand. This study aimed at investigating the optimization and evaluation of the cost and advantage of combined systems for off-grid power supply in four regions with different climatic conditions in Iran, including Zahedan, Kerman, Birjand, and Hamedan. The simulation results showed that for Zahedan, the cost per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity with one day of autonomy and a maximum LPSP of 5% is $ 0.312 per kWh in the first year. By optimizing and altering LPSP and the optimal number of days of autonomy under various operating conditions, the capacity of the batteries was decreased from 3870 kWh (38%) to 1860 kWh (22%), which is almost half of the previous value. Furthermore, the cost per kWh of electricity in the first year decreased from $0.312 to $0.256. According to the results, such a hybrid system is cheaper than installing each of the solar, wind, or diesel generators separately. The conditions of the other three regions were then examined and analyzed and the results showed a direct correlation between the cost of electricity and the climatic conditions of each region. However, in general, considering the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) with a RE hybrid energy system for many areas away from the grid in Iran and due to climatic conditions and the trend of reducing the final cost, the utilization of renewable energy sources is economically competitive with the main grid and technically feasible. It also can meaningfully diminish environmental pollutants in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

Remote management is a modular and effective approach that allows for remote control and monitoring of irrigation systems and hydro-mechanical facilities that are spatially separated, while also tracking real-time irrigation data such as flow, pressure, electric pump groups, solar panels, and agro-meteorological data. Control instrumentation and automation equipment indicate the various defects that may occur on the hydro-mechanical equipment, which can upset the normal functioning of the structures of the irrigation system. Identifying the level of operation of the remote management system is an essential step to understand better the functionality of the remote control and monitoring system and define the objectives to be met and the technical specifications necessary for its implementation. This article will present a methodological approach for the implementation of a remote management system for large-scale irrigation. The proposed methodological approach focuses on improving the hydraulic parameters of pumping stations and irrigation hydrants and decreasing pumping station electricity consumption.

Solar thermal systems play a pivotal role in the building sector. However, for the development of sustainable energy systems, different parameters should be taken into account. The present article sets out to present a multidimensional approach. To this end, the first part of the article discusses energy policies, placing emphasis on solar thermal applications. The second part of the article is based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and evaluates the environmental performances of a thermal-energy-storage device and other components appropriate for solar thermal systems for buildings. The analysis has been based on global warming potential, cumulative energy demand, ReCiPe and USEtox. The results show that steel and copper are the materials which are responsible for the major part of the storage-device impact. Based on ReCiPe endpoint/with characterisation, steel and copper present 2.2E-03 DALY (damage to human health) and 5.9E-06 (species.yr) (damage to ecosystems). The results show that the metallic components have the highest environmental impacts. By involving recycling, a remarkable reduction in these impacts can be achieved. Issues related to building-integrated solar systems and future prospects are also discussed. Moreover, the avoided impacts due to the use of a solar thermal system instead of using a conventional electric heater for hot water production have been evaluated, considering multiple environmental indicators. The results based on the Spanish electricity mix have been compared with those based on the Italian electricity mix. In both cases, the findings verify that solar thermal systems offer considerable avoided environmental impacts.

This study analyzes 2050–2051 grid stability in the 50 U S. states and District of Columbia after their all-sector (electricity, transportation, buildings, industry) energy is transitioned to 100% clean, renewable Wind-Water-Solar (WWS) electricity and heat plus storage and demand response (thus to zero air pollution and carbon). Stability is analyzed in five regions; six isolated states (Texas, California, Florida, New York, Alaska, Hawaii); Texas interconnected with the Midwest, and the contiguous U.S. No blackouts occur, including during summer in California or winter in Texas. No batteries with over 4-h storage are needed. Concatenating 4-h batteries provides long-duration storage. Whereas transitioning more than doubles electricity use, it reduces total end-use energy demand by ∼57% versus business-as-usual (BAU), contributing to the 63 (43–79)% and 86 (77–90)% lower annual private and social (private + health + climate) energy costs, respectively, than BAU. Costs per unit energy in California, New York, and Texas are 11%, 21%, and 27% lower, respectively, and in Florida are 1.5% higher, when these states are interconnected regionally than islanded. Transitioning may create ∼4.7 million more permanent jobs than lost and requires only ∼0.29% and 0.55% of new U.S. land for footprint and spacing, respectively, less than the 1.3% occupied by the fossil industry today.

The demand and supply gap of energy is large and the people are pressured to bear increasing hours of load losing, unnecessary intake of energy makes subjects even worse. So, the importance and requirement for energy conservation is increased exponentially. This paper outlines a step towards the conservation of electricity in standard and electricity especially with the aid of employing efficient constructing system with automation and installation of renewable based Micro Distributed Generator (MDG). The Smart Grid (SG) is a technological transformation from conventional electric grid, electro-mechanically controlled system, to smart, intelligent, and electronically controlled system. There are about 20–30% losses present in the conventional electric grid due to substandard operations at generation, transmission and distribution side. MDG play important role to build an efficient and autonomous micro-grid. In this paper importance of microgrid and some renewable energy sources utilized in formation of microgrid are discussed.