Search results for "renewable"

The Spanish Turn against Renewable Energy Development

2018

[EN] In this study, we focus on the case of Spanish energy policy and its implications for sustainable energy development. In recent years, Spanish legislation has changed dramatically in its approach to sustainable energy sources. This change is despite EU and international efforts to increase energy efficiency, and to accelerate the transition to renewable energy sources (RES) in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Based on the socio-technical transitions literature, this paper assesses the role of the new legislation in this altered scenario, and analyzes the evolution of energy production in Spain in the EU context. The results are triangulated with two expert assessments. We find…

Unwanted effects of European Union environmental policy to promote a post-carbon industry. The case of energy in the European ceramic tile sector

2016

Global warming combined with low carbon transition plans is threatening the future of high energy consumption industry sectors in the European Union (EU). The need to respond to environmental challenges is demonstrated by support for international level energy policies and legal requirements, such as the Kyoto Protocol which the EU supports, and increased EU-level environmental legislation and energy policies. The effect of these initiatives is gradually transforming industrial activities in the EU. However, since not all countries have adopted these policies, evaluation of their net effect needs to take account also of side-effects such as delocalization of industry activity and the legal …

Non-family employees in small family business succession: the case of psychological ownership

2013

This study is analysing non-family employees' perceptions on psychological ownership during the family business succession process. Three small family companies were chosen for the multiple case studies. The results of this study show that non-family employees are participating on the small family business succession and they do possess a strong psychological ownership towards the family business, their own work, and the founder generation. Non-family employees recognise the changing management and leadership in successions. Non-family employees' psychological ownership increases in succession. This has got influence on commitment and well being in unique way according to personal character…

Stakeholder perceptions of alternative food entrepreneurs

2009

This paper focuses on rural entrepreneurs' perceptions of their stakeholders with respect to their influence towards the economic success of farms and environmental issues, as well as their trustworthiness. There is special emphasis on the comparison of perceptions between suppliers of alternative food supply chains and suppliers of conventional supply chains. Survey research, with a final sample size of 522 rural entrepreneurs in Central Finland, was used as a research method. The results showed that 28% of the respondents could be defined as alternative food entrepreneurs. Significant differences between alternative and conventional food entrepreneurs were related to perceptions towards c…

The Go2School project for promoting cycling to school: A case study in Palermo

2021

Abstract The identification of transport policy measures able to reduce the use of private cars for home-to-school travel is very relevant to reduce congestion during peak hours and to ensure that the areas around schools have livable environments. An action that policymakers could apply is promoting cycling to school through the introduction of bikesharing programs and creating safe routes to school through the construction of new cycle infrastructure. The aim of the paper has been, therefore, to assess if these policies could lead the high-school students to cycle to school, considering the city of Palermo as a case study. The goal is reached through the calibration of a modal choice mode…

Stability analysis of load frequency control for power systems with interval time-varying delays

2023

This study investigates the stability problem of load frequency control (LFC) for power systems with interval time-varying delays. The two categories of time delays, the lower bound being zero and non-zero, are considered. The systems can be described as time delay systems of load disturbances. First, an augmented Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional (LKF) is constructed. Some delay-dependent nonintegral terms and single integral terms are additionally introduced to make full use of the information on the system state variables and the time-varying delays. Second, to overcome the problem of nonlinear inequalities caused by the augmented LKF, the nonlinear inequalities are converted into linear ma…

Renewable electricity producing technologies and metal depletion: A sensitivity analysis using the EROI

2015

International audience; More and more attention is being paid to renewable technologies because they are seen as a great opportunity to disengage our society from its dependence on fossil fuels. Such flow-based energy resources that rely on solarenergy are supposed to lead us toward a sustainable energy future. However, because of their high capitalintensity, renewable technologies require large amounts of matter, including both common and rare metals.These metals require energy for their production, and more specifically for their extraction. The energy costassociated with metal extraction is linked to mineral ore grade, meaning that as depletion progresses, energycost increases. In additi…

Family firm prerequisites for international business operations: a production and marketing capabilities approach

2014

The purpose of this study is to compare SME family firms’ and non-family firms’ organisational prerequisites for international business operations. The main focus lies in the production and marketing capabilities needed for conducting international business. A quantitative study was conducted in Finland. A random sampling was done by utilising the database of the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK). A sample of 2,000 firms was gathered from the target population, EK database, which consisted of 16,000 firms. The answer rate for the study was 28%. All together, 555 firms answered the mail survey. Three hundred thirty three respondents were coming from family firms and 222 replies repres…

Renewable energy and security for Ukraine: challenge or smart way?

2016

The dark side of the sun: How solar power production affects the market value of solar and gas sources

2015

Abstract Using daily data for the Italian wholesale day-ahead power market over the period 2008–2013, we assess the impact of solar production on the market value of solar and gas sources, defined using the concepts of value factor and unit revenues. We find that, on average, solar generation negatively affects the solar source market value, causing a departure from the grid parity condition and mining their competitiveness once public incentives are removed. This negative relation is not constant over time and becomes stronger for increasing solar penetration in the energy mix. Interestingly, the opposite is found when looking at gas. While the relation between solar production and the gas…