Search results for "Renewable Energy Sources"
showing 10 items of 432 documents
Composite Building Materials: Thermal and Mechanical Performances of Samples Realized with Hay and Natural Resins
2017
Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552 Recent years have seen an increasing public interest in issues related to energy saving and environmental pollution reduction in the building sector. As a result, many directives have been issued, the most important being the Directive 2010/31/EU (EPBD Recast) on the energy performance of buildings, which requires that "Member States shall ensure that by 31 December 2020 all new buildings are nearly zero-energy buildings". This goal can be obtained not only by reducing energy demand for heating and cooling, but also, for example, by improving building envelope performances. In this work, a first analysis of the thermal and structural behavi…
Strategic Vision of a Euro-Mediterranean Port City: A Case Study of Palermo
2013
Italian harbours assume a decisive role in order to develop a Euro-Mediterranean web for maritime transportation. The geostrategic position of the Italian peninsula can be seen as a logistic platform at the centre of the maritime trades in the Mediterranean area, giving to its port cities the role of gateway of economic flows. The port poles, meant as hubs, are able to attract investments and create economic growth and territorial development through new operative models of urban usage and management. The management policies have to consider the environmental characteristics and distinctive features, respecting the identity of the places as concrete evidence of history, a source of intellec…
Decoupled control scheme of the grid-connected split-source inverter for renewable energy sources
2016
Grid-connected power conversion systems for renewable energy sources must fulfill several requirements, including high efficiency, reduced cost and complexity, and, quite often, also boost capabilities from the dc sources to the ac power grid. For such applications, single-stage power converters with boost capabilities offer some potential advantages. Among several proposed options, split-source inverter (SSI) has been recently investigated. This paper proposes a decoupled control scheme for the SSIs, where the common mode term of the ac modulation signals is used to control the dc input current. Thus, the dc input current and ac output current can be controlled independently. The proposed …
An interpretive framework for assessing and monitoring the sustainability of school gardens
2016
School gardens are, increasingly, an integral part of projects aiming to promote nutritional education and environmental sustainability in many countries throughout the world. In the late 1950s, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) had already developed projects to improve the dietary intake and behavior through school and community gardens. However, notwithstanding decades of experience, real proof of how these programs contribute to improving sustainability has not been well-documented, and reported findings have mostly been anecdotal. Therefore, it is important to begin a process of collecting and monitoring data to quantify the results and …
Evaluating the Sustainability in Complex Agri-Food Systems: The SAEMETH Framework
2015
During the last few years, the definition of sustainability and the translation of its general principles into practical and operative tasks have come into the foreground of scientific research and political agendas throughout the world. The understanding and the evaluation of the environmental, social and economic performances of complex agricultural food systems is probably the real challenge, and the design of more sustainable alternatives has been recognized as necessary for a correct territorial management. This study’s primary goal is the proposition of an interpretive structure “Sustainable Agri-Food Evaluation Methodology” (SAEMETH), able to guide the evaluation of the sustainabilit…
Design and control of a novel multi-source renewable energy system
2014
In this paper, a novel multi-input, single-inductor architecture is proposed. An innovative hysteretic control strategy of both the output voltage and the sources operating point control is designed and tested. Benefits brought by the proposed architecture over existing solutions are widely investigated. As an example, the design of a 48 V dual input system which is fed by photovoltaic and thermo-electric generators is proposed. Design guidelines are given and simulation results are presented to test the efficiency of the proposed architecture.
Improving the sustainability of transportation: environmental and functional benefits of right-turn by pass lanes at roundabouts
2015
The functional performances of conventional roundabouts (single-lane and multi-lane) and innovative roundabouts (spiral, flower, C and turbo) can be improved through right-turn bypass lanes controlled by stop, yield or free-flow signs. The article presents evaluations of the emissions of air pollutants (carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particle pollution (PM10 and PM2.5)), fuel consumption and construction, management, energetic and environmental costs in roundabouts without or with bypass lanes (controlled by stop, yield or free-flow). The suggested methodology has a general character and can be applied as a multi-parametric criterion for choosing road intersections, although, in the prese…
Small Wind Technology Diffusion in Suburban Areas of Sicily
2015
Among renewable energy resources, wind energy became more attractive in the last decade. Wind farm installations dramatically increased in areas where climatic conditions, topography, and environment have allowed their development. The installation of wind turbines, usually carried out in remote areas, recently began to cover areas identified by a complex terrain such as urban and suburban zones. Although these new plant choices are characterized by lower productivity, there is increasing interest in wind energy production in both urban and suburban areas. In this work the authors have carried out an energy analysis developed from a sample of small wind turbines available on the market. Thi…
Studies Energy Efficiency of the Renewable Sources use Considering Climate in Latvia
2015
AbstractThe paper discusses problems of energy supply of buildings using renewable sources given the local climatic conditions. The meteorological conditions in Latvia and Riga for last year were analyzed. In paper shows examples of energy efficient buildings allowing that to provide comfort temperature and indoor air quality. The structure and composition of local building materials, providing good thermal insulation are described. The heating systems for test buildings using renewable energy sources were investigated. The assessment of the energy efficiency of the “air-air” and “air-water” heat pumps is studied.
A circuit model of a 5kW fuel cell
2013
In the last few years, industrial research has been focused on renewable energy sources. Owing to combined heat-power generation option, fuel cells have attracted much interest for a wide variety of research areas. Household appliances are still the most promising applications. Fuel cell modeling is still a critical topic to focus on, affecting each stage of power system design. This paper describes an empirical method to model a proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The modeling approach is applied to a 5kW Nuvera PowerFlow fuel cell. A circuit model is proposed for further applications. PSPICE implementation is described and the parameters tuning procedure is discussed. Simulation and exper…