scholarly journals Contested Development Paths and Rural communities: Sustainable Energy or Sustainable Tourism in Iceland?

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 3642 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Dóra Sæþórsdóttir ◽  
C. Michael Hall

The Icelandic economy has transitioned from being dependent on fishing and agriculture to having tourism and refined aluminum as its main exports. Nevertheless, the new main industries still rely on the country’s natural resources, as the power intensive industry uses energy from rivers and geothermal areas whereas tourism uses the natural landscape, where geysers, waterfalls and thermal pools are part of the attraction to visitors. Although both industries claim to contribute to sustainability they utilize the same resources, and land-use conflicts can be expected, illustrating the contestation that can occur between different visions and understandings of sustainability. This paper focuses on the attitudes of Icelandic tourism operators towards power production and proposed power plants using data from questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. Results show that the majority of Icelandic tourism operators assume further power utilization would be in conflict with nature-based tourism, and they are generally negative towards all types of renewable energy development and power plant infrastructure. Respondents are most negative towards transmission lines, reservoirs and hydro power plants in the country’s interior Highlands. About 40% of the respondents perceive that existing power plants have negatively affected tourism, while a similar proportion think they had no impact. According to the respondents, the two industries could co-exist with improved spatial planning, management and inter-sectoral cooperation.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 3201
Author(s):  
Henry Bory ◽  
Jose L. Martin ◽  
Iñigo Martinez de Alegria ◽  
Luis Vazquez

Micro-hydro power plants (μHPPs) are a major energy source in grid-isolated zones because they do not require reservoirs and dams to be built. μHPPs operate in a standalone mode, but a continuously varying load generates voltage unbalances and frequency fluctuations which can cause long-term damage to plant components. One method of frequency regulation is the use of alternating current-alternating current (AC-AC) converters as an electronic load controller (ELC). The disadvantage of AC-AC converters is reactive power consumption with the associated decrease in both the power factor and the capacity of the alternator to deliver current. To avoid this disadvantage, we proposed two rectifier topologies combined with symmetrical switching. However, the performance of the frequency regulation loop with each topology remains unknown. Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate the performance of the frequency regulation loop when each topology, with a symmetrical switching form, was inserted. A MATLAB® model was implemented to simulate the frequency loop. The results from a μHPP case study in a small Cuban rural community called ‘Los Gallegos’ showed that the performance of the frequency regulation loop using the proposed topologies satisfied the standard frequency regulation and increased both the power factor and current delivery capabilities of the alternator.


2018 ◽  
Vol 73 ◽  
pp. 01017
Author(s):  
Ignatius Sriyana

Land degradation on the upstream of watershed will affect hydrology condition in a way that it will disrupt the sustainability of its existing micro hydro. The purpose of this study is to evaluate micro hydro power plant in central Java toward sustainability against hydrology condition of watershed. This study is using River Regime Coefficient (RRC) approach where hydrology of watershed with coefficient value less than 50 is classified as non-critical, between 50 and 120 is moderate and more than 120 is critical. Result of the study that was done on 33 micro hydro power plants scattered on 9 watersheds is showing that there are 2 power plants on 2 watersheds have hydrology condition in non-critical status (9.09%), 1 power plant on 1 watershed is in between critical and non-critical status (3.03%), 21 power plants on 3 watersheds are in between critical and moderate status (63.64%), 8 power plants on 6 watersheds are in critical status (21.21%) and 1 power plant on 1 watershed is in between moderate and critical status (3.03%).


2015 ◽  
Vol 806 ◽  
pp. 64-73
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Vujović ◽  
Zdravko Krivokapić ◽  
Jelena Jovanović

The paper is a result of research at the Mechanical Engineering Faculty in Podgorica and represents the aspiration of authors to combine scientific and technical experience in order to achieve improvement in a real system. It is a complex system of lock chambers in a hydroelectric power plant. Based on a detailed analysis of the initial state, through the process modeling of complex real system, the authors identify possible areas where the intervening and applying modern systems with greater flexibility is necessary to achieve higher levels of automation. Also, proposed in the paper are measures for ensuring the security of information that rise system performance to a higher level compared to the competition and create an advantage in the global market.


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