Electricity

Market and Economic Modelling of the Intelligent Grid: End of Year Report 2011

by William Paul Bell

John Foster
Liam Wagner
Phil Wild
William Paul Bell
Junhua Zhao
Craig Froome

Market and Economic Modelling of the Intelligent Grid: Interim Report 2011

by William Paul Bell

John Foster
Liam Wagner
Phil Wild
William Paul Bell
Junhua Zhao
Craig Froome

Comentários do Acadêmico Prof. Philip M. Fearnside sobre o trabalho: "Decisões sobre hidrelétricas na problemática energêtica brasileira."

by Philip Fearnside

Fearnside, P.M. 1997. Comentários do Acadêmico Prof. Philip M. Fearnside sobre o trabalho: "Decisões sobre hidrelétricas na problemática energêtica brasileira." pp. 209-213 In: C.E. Rocha-Miranda (ed.) Anais do Simpósio Sobre a Importância da Ciência para o Desenvolvimento Nacional. Academia Brasileira de Ciências, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 323 pp

Why hydropower is not clean energy

by Philip Fearnside

Fearnside, P.M. 2007. Why hydropower is not clean energy. Scitizen, Paris, France (peer-reviewed website). http://www.scitizen.com/screens/blogPage/viewBlog/sw_viewBlog.php?idTheme=14&idContribution=298

See Amazon Controversies:
http://philip.inpa.gov.br/publ_livres/AMAZONIAN CONTROVERSIES.htm

Versão em Português:
Fearnside, P.M. 2008. Controvérsias sobre o efeito estufa. Por que a energia hidrelétrica não é limpa. pp. 270-271 In: I. S. Gorayeb (ed.). Amazônia. Jornal "O Liberal"/VALE, Belém, Pará. 384 pp. ISBN 978-85-61628-00-0 [também publicado no jornal O Liberal 30 Jan. 2008].
http://philip.inpa.gov.br/publ_livres/2008/Hidro nao eneergia limpa-livro Amazônia 1.pdf

Controvérsias sobre o efeito estufa. Por que a energia hidrelétrica não é limpa.

by Philip Fearnside

Fearnside, P.M. 2008. Controvérsias sobre o efeito estufa. Por que a energia hidrelétrica não é limpa. pp. 270-271 In: I. S. Gorayeb (ed.). Amazônia. Jornal "O Liberal"/VALE, Belém, Pará. 384 pp. ISBN 978-85-61628-00-0 [também publicado no jornal O Liberal 30 Jan. 2008].

See Amazon Controversies:
http://philip.inpa.gov.br/publ_livres/AMAZONIAN CONTROVERSIES.htm

English version:
Fearnside, P.M. 2007. Why hydropower is not clean energy. Scitizen, Paris, France (peer-reviewed website). http://www.scitizen.com/screens/blogPage/viewBlog/sw_viewBlog.php?idTheme=14&idContribution=298
http://philip.inpa.gov.br/publ_livres/2007/Why hydro not clean energy-Article as posted.pdf

Methane emissions from hydroelectric dams

by Philip Fearnside

Fearnside, P.M. 2011. Methane emissions from hydroelectric dams. Science (E-Letter 28 July 2011), http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6013/50.short/reply#sci_el_14254

Divide and conquer? Assessing k-means clustering of demand data in simulations of the British electricity system.

by Iain Staffell

co-authored with R.J. Green and N. Vasilakos

We apply a k-means clustering algorithm to partition national electricity demand data for Great Britain and obtain a... more We apply a k-means clustering algorithm to partition national electricity demand data for Great Britain and obtain a set of representative demand profiles for each year over the period 1994-2005. We then use a simulated dispatch model to assess the accuracy of these daily profiles against the complete dataset on a year to year basis. We find that the use of data partitioning does not compromise the accuracy of the simulations for most of the main variables considered, even with significant intermittent wind generation. This technique yields significant gains in terms of computational speed, allowing more complex Monte Carlo simulations to be performed.

The Economic Potential of Future Nuclear Build in the UK

by Iain Staffell

MSc dissertation for 'The Physics and Technology of Nuclear Reactors' course at the University of Birmingham.

This presents an economic analysis of next generation nuclear reactors under consideration in the UK, starting with a... more This presents an economic analysis of next generation nuclear reactors under consideration in the UK, starting with a review of cost estimates for typical Generation II reactors, the Westinghouse AP1000 and Advanced CANDU ACR-700 designs. From these, the levelised cost of electricity from each reactor is estimated for UK conditions during 2004-06. A financial appraisal is presented for each design, along with a discussion of their commercial potential in the UK electricity market.

It also considers the operation of an electrolysis and hydrogen storage plant, suitable as a replacement petrol pump for refuelling hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). The capital cost of a refuelling plant is estimated with varied storage and electrolyser capacity. The optimal capacity is considered with strategic purchase of electricity on the spot market to minimise operating costs. The optimal capacity and potential profit is calculated under 2005/06 market conditions, and under two future scenarios, with heavy fossil fuel dependance and increased nuclear capacity.

Popularising electricity in Finland, 1870 – 1960

by Timo Myllyntaus

Reference

Timo Myllyntaus, “’As soon as there are sockets in the walls, electricity will take care of everything,’ Popularising electricity in Finland, 1870 – 1960,” Technik zwischen Artes und Arts / Technology between Artes and Arts in History, Festschrift für Hans-Joachim Braun, hrsg./eds. Reinhold Bauer, James Williams and Wolfhard Weber, Cottbusser Studien zur Geschichte von Technik, Arbeit und Umwelt, Band 31, Münster: Waxmann Verlag 2008, pp. 87-102.

'The Poetic Science of Nineteenth-century Electricity'

by Stella Pratt-Smith

Nineteenth-Century Contexts: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 34: 1 (January, 2012)

The opposition of literature and science is as battered as it is tired. However, literary practices are still... more The opposition of literature and science is as battered as it is tired. However, literary practices are still frequently viewed solely as vehicles for the dissemination of science, rather than indispensable parts of scientific understanding. In nineteenth-century scientists’ explorations of electricity, epistemological features more often associated with literature, are employed to interpret, model and understand the natural world. This paper considers writings by Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell, nineteenth-century scientific luminaries on a par with Darwin and Lyell, to whom metaphor, analogy and poetics were central in describing scientific propositions and abstract physical concepts. I ask what the two men’s use of fictionality and poetry can tell us about shared creative and reasoning strategies in literature and science, and about the conflicts of science “speaking Nature”.

The Guanajuato Power and Electric Company. Un conflicto estatal-empresarial por los derechos de propiedad del agua y la electricidad (1897 - 1925)

by Jesus Mendez Reyes

Edited by: Ma. Eugenia Romero Ibarra & José M. Contreras & J. Méndez Reyes, Del Poder Público al Poder Privado: gobierno, empresarios y empresas en México, 1880-1980, México, DGAPA – Facultad de Economía UNAM, 2006

Los derechos de propiedad del agua y el subsuelo en México generaron problemas a finales del siglo XIX, entre otros la... more Los derechos de propiedad del agua y el subsuelo en México generaron problemas a finales del siglo XIX, entre otros la generación de energía para usos industriales y comerciales. El objetivo del trabajo es reconstruir un conflicto entre empresarios y una agencia pública estatal en la región centro del país. El estudio de The Guanajuato Power & Electric Co., es una muestra de aquel problema.

« L’image globale : la pensée électrique de Marshall McLuhan »

by Jean-François Vallée

Published in "L’ère électrique/Electric Age", éd. Silvestra Mariniello, Andrea Oberhuber et Olivier Asselin, Ottawa, Presses de l’université d’Ottawa, 2011, p. 85-112.

Was Marshall McLuhan the first truly "electric" intellectual? (Article in French) Was Marshall McLuhan the first truly "electric" intellectual? (Article in French)

« L’image globale : la pensée électrique de Marshall McLuhan »

by Jean-François Vallée

Published in "L’ère électrique/Electric Age", éd. Silvestra Mariniello, Andrea Oberhuber et Olivier Asselin, Ottawa, Presses de l’université d’Ottawa, 2011, p. 85-112.

Was Marshall McLuhan the first truly "electric" intellectual? (Article in French) Was Marshall McLuhan the first truly "electric" intellectual? (Article in French)

‘Creative Sparks: Literary Responses to Electricity, 1830-1880’

by Stella Pratt-Smith

Doctoral thesis (completed September 2011, viva January 2012)

My thesis examines accounts of electricity in journalism, short stories, novels, poetry and instructional writings,... more My thesis examines accounts of electricity in journalism, short stories, novels, poetry and instructional writings, composed between 1830 and 1880 by scientific investigators, popular practitioners and fiction authors. The writings are approached as diverse and often incongruous impressions of electricity, in which the use of figurative and narrative techniques brings into question distinctions between science and literature. The thesis contends that electricity’s anomalous and protean nature produced distinctively hybrid responses that enhance our understanding of contemporary popular writing, its contexts and how it was read.

A socio-technical inquiry into semiotics and ethnology in South Africa, with special reference to electricity

by Byron Qually

The Problem of the Competitiveness of Nuclear Energy: A Biophysical Explanation

by François Diaz Maurin

This Working Paper intends to provide a sound explanation for the systemic problem of low competitiveness of nuclear energy.

Parts of this working paper are under process for publication in different international peer reviewed journals soon.

Refer to as:
F. Diaz Maurin: The Problem of the Competitiveness of Nuclear Energy: A Biophysical Explanation, Working Papers on Environmental Sciences
http://www.recercat.net/handle/2072/169668
Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Edifici Cn, Campus UAB
08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
Tel: (+34) 935812974
http://icta.uab.cat
icta@uab.cat

This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/)

In this study I try to explain the systemic problem of the low economic competitiveness of nuclear energy for the... more In this study I try to explain the systemic problem of the low economic competitiveness of nuclear energy for the production of electricity by carrying out a biophysical analysis of its production process. Given the fact that neither econometric approaches nor onedimensional methods of energy analyses are effective, I introduce the concept of biophysical explanation as a quantitative analysis capable of handling the inherent ambiguity associated with the concept of energy. In particular, the quantities of energy, considered as relevant for the assessment, can only be measured and aggregated after having agreed on a pre-analytical definition of a grammar characterizing a given set of finite transformations. Using this grammar it becomes possible to provide a biophysical explanation for the low economic competitiveness of nuclear energy in the production of electricity. When comparing the various unit operations of the process of production of electricity with nuclear energy to the analogous unit operations of the process of production of fossil energy, we see that the various phases of the process are the same. The only difference is related to characteristics of the process associated with the generation of heat which are completely different in the two systems. Since the cost of production of fossil energy provides the base line of economic competitiveness of electricity, the (lack of) economic competitiveness of the production of electricity from nuclear energy can be studied, by comparing the biophysical costs associated with the different unit operations taking place in nuclear and fossil power plants when generating process heat or net electricity. In particular, the analysis focuses on fossil-fuel requirements and labor requirements for those phases that both nuclear plants and fossil energy plants have in common: (i) mining; (ii) refining/enriching; (iii) generating heat/electricity; (iv) handling the pollution/radioactive wastes. By adopting this approach, it becomes possible to explain the systemic low economic competitiveness of nuclear energy in the production of electricity, because of: (i) its dependence on oil, limiting its possible role as a carbon-free alternative; (ii) the choices made in relation to its fuel cycle, especially whether it includes reprocessing operations or not; (iii) the unavoidable uncertainty in the definition of the characteristics of its process; (iv) its large inertia (lack of flexibility) due to issues of time scale; and (v) its low power level.

WB-Orissa Model of Power Sector Reform: Cure Worse than Disease

by Subodh Wagle

Developing a Low Impact Sea Scallop Dredge

by Michael Pol

NOAA/NMFS Saltonstall-Kennedy Program NA96FD0072, 99-NER-045 Final Report

Loureiro, Mª João & Depover, C. (2005). Impact of WLABEL exploitation on electricity learning: analysis of the students’ conceptual evolution

by Maria João Loureiro

published in Interactive Educational Multimedia, Number 11 (October 2005), pp. 190-203

From studies whose objectives were the diagnostic of students’ conceptions and the development of teaching strategies... more From studies whose objectives were the diagnostic of students’ conceptions and the development of teaching strategies to promote conceptual change, we designed a
learning environment (WLABEL – Windows Electricity Laboratory) that aims the promotion of conceptual change in electricity. In this contribution, we briefly present the learning environment. The main purpose of the paper is to describe the qualitative studies carried out to evaluate the impact of WLABEL in students’ conceptual development. Since we have used several instruments, special attention is dedicated to the data triangulation carried out and to the analysis processes. In the last section a synthesis of the results is also presented.