Modelling Long-Term Transition from Coal-Reliant to Low-Emission Power Grid and District Heating Systems in Poland

Energy systems require technological changes towards climate neutrality. In Poland, where the power system is dominated by outdated coal-fired power plants, efforts to minimize the environmental impact are associated with high costs. Therefore, optimal paths for the development of the energy sector should be sought in order to achieve ambitious long-term strategic goals, while minimizing the negative impact on the consumers’ home budget. A methodology and a model for the development of the electricity and heat generation structure were developed and implemented in market allocation (MARKAL) modelling framework. Two scenarios were presented, i.e., business as usual (BAU) and withdrawal from coal (WFC) scenarios. The calculations showed a significant role of nuclear energy and offshore wind power in the pursuit of climate neutrality of electricity generation. In the BAU scenario, the model proposes to stay with coal technologies using carbon capture and storage systems. Withdrawal from coal (WFC scenario) makes it necessary to replace them by gas-fired power plants with CO2 sequestration. Solar energy can be used both in electricity and district heating. In order to build on the latter technological option, appropriate energy storage techniques must be developed. Geothermal energy is expected to be the key option for district heat generation in the long-term horizon. The proposed development paths guarantee a significant reduction in greenhouse gases and industrial emissions. However, complete climate neutrality is uncertain, given the current degree and dynamics of technological development.

Climate change impacts on solar power generation and its spatial variability in Europe based on CMIP6

Solar photovoltaics (PV) plays an essential role in decarbonizing the European energy system. However, climate change affects surface solar radiation and will therefore directly influence future PV power generation. We use scenarios from Phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) for a mitigation (SSP1-2.6) and a fossil-fuel-dependent (SSP5-8.5) pathway in order to quantify climate risk for solar PV in Europe as simulated by the Global Solar Energy Estimator (GSEE). We find that PV potential increases by around 5 % in the mitigation scenario, suggesting a positive feedback loop between climate change mitigation and PV potential. While increased clear-sky radiation and reduced cloud cover go hand in hand in SSP1-2.6, the effect of a decrease in clear-sky radiation is outweighed by a decrease in cloud cover in SSP5-8.5, resulting in an increase in all-sky radiation. Moreover, we find that the seasonal cycle of PV generation changes in most places, as generation grows more strongly in winter than in summer (SSP1-2.6) or increases in summer and declines in winter (SSP5-8.5). We further analyze climate change impacts on the spatial variability of PV power generation. Similar to the effects anticipated for wind energy, we report an increase in the spatial correlations of daily PV production with large inter-model agreement yet relatively small amplitude, implying that PV power balancing between different regions in continental Europe will become more difficult in the future. Thus, based on the most recent climate simulations, this research supports the notion that climate change will only marginally impact renewable energy potential, while changes in the spatiotemporal generation structure are to be expected and should be included in power system design.

Multi-Attribute Rating METHOD for Selecting a CLEAN COAL Energy Generation Technology

The process of technology management contains various stages, such as the identification, selection, acquisition, implementation, and maintenance of technologies. In the case of power generation companies, a key aspect of the selection stage is the choice of generation technologies for newly commissioned units. The investment decision depends on many factors, primarily economic, environmental, social, technological, and legal, and represents a complex multi-criteria problem. Currently, the decision is further complicated by the often unpredictable tightening of environmental standards, forcing the closure of conventional sources, on which many countries have so far based their energy security. The paper analyzes the problem of choosing one of the so-called clean coal technologies to be implemented in conditions of transformation of the power sector. In this paper, five selected clean coal technologies are characterized, and the SMART method is adopted to technology selection. The following technologies were considered: supercritical coal-fired power plant (with and without CCS), IGCC power plant (with and without CCS), and IGCC power plant with CCS and integrated hydrogen production. Nine practical criteria (in three main groups: environmental, technological, economic) for comparing technologies are defined, computational experiments performed, and conclusions from the research presented. The work was based on the literature study of multi-criteria decision support and an analysis of power sector needs based on the example of the Polish power sector. The conducted research, apart from the technology recommendation, led to the conclusion that the chosen method may be applied to decision-making in the field of power generation technology management. The study also indicated the potential direction of the development of a power generation structure in a situation where a component of ensuring energy security is the use of available coal fuels.

Prospective Smart Distribution Substation in Bangladesh: Modeling and Analysis

Being one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, Bangladesh needs to upgrade its electrical network and aim to reduce dependency on fossil fuel-based energy. For the aging and ever-expanding power network, it is necessary to have a smart substation in order to provide reliable, affordable, and sustainable electrical power. As Bangladesh is looking to integrate Distributed Generation (DG) in the power system, it is high time to think about integrating a smart distribution substation into its power network. In this paper, an investigation of the current power generation structure of Bangladesh was conducted and is described. The major focus was given to the upgradation of the existing substation and distribution setup of Bangladesh by providing suitable architectures, technologies, and communication protocols. Detailed studies of Bangladesh’s prospects to incorporate the new technology and renewable energy into its power network are discussed. ETAP was used to simulate the prospective system to show the feasibility of the prospective smart distribution substation in Bangladesh’s power network.

The Impact of Electricity Price on Power-Generation Structure: Evidence From China

Being affected by a variety of factors, power-generation structure plays an essential role in a high-quality and sustainable development. The focus of this paper is to evaluate the influence of electricity price on it. First, we provide a microeconomic framework to understand the impact mechanism. We discuss two effects through which price level can affect power generation, and then the power-generation structure. After that, an empirical test is conducted using provincial panel data, and the results of it are robust. We also test the above-mentioned mechanism empirically. There are two main conclusions. First, the electricity price has a positive effect on the share of thermal power in electricity generation. Second, the mechanism test shows that an increase of electricity price can not only improve efficiency of power plants but also propel firms to invest in more renewable energy plants.

Modality-aware Style Adaptation for RGB-Infrared Person Re-Identification

RGB-infrared (IR) person re-identification is a challenging task due to the large modality gap between RGB and IR images. Many existing methods bridge the modality gap by style conversion, requiring high-similarity images exchanged by complex CNN structures, like GAN. In this paper, we propose a highly compact modality-aware style adaptation (MSA) framework, which aims to explore more potential relations between RGB and IR modalities by introducing new related modalities. Therefore, the attention is shifted from bridging to filling the modality gap with no requirement on high-quality generated images. To this end, we firstly propose a concise feature-free image generation structure to adapt the original modalities to two new styles that are compatible with both inputs by patch-based pixel redistribution. Secondly, we devise two image style quantification metrics to discriminate styles in image space using luminance and contrast. Thirdly, we design two image-level losses based on the quantified results to guide the style adaptation during an end-to-end four-modality collaborative learning process. Experimental results on two datasets SYSU-MM01 and RegDB show that MSA achieves significant improvements with little extra computation cost and outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.

God will reward you: Muslim practices of caring for precarious migrants in the context of secular suspicion

In recent years, Muslims have become more visibly invested in humanitarian work in France. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Marseille, this article examines local initiatives to care for precarious others whose lives are neither materially supported nor socially recognized within the current French political regime. Engaging with critical French scholarship on humanitarianism as care for others associated with emergency, suffering and the politics of compassion, I show how food-distribution (maraudes) by Muslim-run humanitarian associations also draw from Islamic ethics of care. While social dynamics related to gender, class, race and generation structure the maraudes, the foregrounding of shared precarity, and of religious duty and piety over pity, challenges the ‘hierarchies of deservingness’ established by humanitarian border regimes. In caring for precarious others, Muslims must navigate both the secular suspicion directed towards Islam and the securitization of migration. Carrying out the religious duty of helping those in need, they are ‘laying claim to public space’ for both Muslims and precarious migrants.

Analysis of Surface Plasmon Polariton Conversion Coefficient In Slit-Groove Structure

A method for the analysis of finding the conversion efficiency of the surface plasmon polariton in slit-groove structures is proposed and studied. The conversion efficiency of the surface plasmon polariton can be determined by measuring the intensities of light scattered at the slit and groove positions. To verify the usefulness of the proposed method, two rigorous simulations based on the finite-difference time-domain method were executed and the simulation results compared with previously reported data. One was to mimic the far-field imaging experiment in slit-groove structure and the other was to calculate the conversion coefficient directly in a single scattering structure. The SPP conversion efficiencies obtained from the two simulations were approximately 0.232 and 0.220 respectively, and these agreed with the reported data. The suggested method can be used regardless of the shape of the plasmon-generation structure; therefore, it is expected to be useful in a wide range of experiments with different scattering structures.

Generation Structure, Prices, and Tariffs in the Russian Electric Power Industry in 2009-2018

The paper aims to summarize and analyze the statistical data on the generation structure and price behavior in the Russian electric power industry and, based on the analysis, make a statistical contribution to the discussion on the outcomes of the electricity reform in Russia. A brief review of this topic is provided. The study states that the electric power industry should be regarded as a combination of four sub-industries when regulation, market design, and industrial organization problems are discussed. These four sub-industries are generation, transmission, distribution, and sales because of different regulations applied to these businesses. The main trends in the retail price index and some other indexes in the four sub-industries are observed from 2009 to 2018. The trends in electricity consumption and generation structure are discussed as essential components of economic processes in the industry. The findings suggest that the four sub-industries make different contributions to the overall growth of the electricity supply costs for end consumers. Most growth was determined by regulated government-granted monopolies in network businesses (transmission and distribution companies). The sales business is represented in the research by suppliers of last resort.