Decision Support System for Wind Farm Installation Using Bipolar Analysis

The necessity to control and reduce the negative impact of human activities on environment and life quality along with technology progress in renewable energy in general and wind energy in particular render it possible today to consider wind energy projects on a large scale. Developing wind energy on a large scale however raises other problems such as choosing an adequate site to settle a wind farm where many other issues such technical feasibility and performance levels, visual pollution, economic and social concerns, etc. must be addressed. Such decisions usually involve many parameters and necessitate the collaboration of many stakeholders. In this context, this chapter proposes an approach based on the concept of bipolar analysis through Benefit Opportunity Cost and Risk (BOCR) analysis, which permits one to address correctly a Group Decision-Making Problem (GDMP) to build a decision support system in order to assist the wind farm installation process.

Low Carbon Footprint

Malaysia has committed to a 40% reduction of carbon emissions by 2020. The government has encouraged industry, society, and non-government organizations to work together to achieve this objective. The government has provided incentives through several energy programmes such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, green technology, and green building. One key area that has been targeted is logistics and supply chain, which has been contributing to high carbon emissions in manufacturing industries. Scholars and practitioners have only recently begun to pay attention to creating a low carbon supply chain. Furthermore, Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have faced several challenges in adopting low carbon activities. SMEs are unable to take the advantage of energy initiatives because of a lack of knowledge, a shortage of funds, and inadequate facilities. Almost 90% of firms are in the service industry working with large manufacturing firms and some SMEs working in manufacturing industry are working closely with their supply chain networks; achieving low carbon targets is hampered by the readiness of the manufacturing itself. This chapter discusses the challenges and future agenda of creating low carbon supply chains in manufacturing in Malaysia. Possible solutions are provided at the end of the chapter.

Retrospection of Globalisation Process and the Sustainability of Natural Environment in Developing Countries

Globalization is an inevitable integrating process and vital to the world economy but it generates many challenges towards the integration of “economic independence” of the nation states like (a) economic integration through investment/trade and capital flow, (b) initiating multilateral political interaction between the countries, and (c) diffusion of dominant cultural values and beliefs over other cultures. globalization accelerates structural change, which alters the industrial structure of host countries, for instance the excessive use of natural resources and contributes to the physical environmental deterioration. Further, globalization transmits and magnifies market failures and policy distortions if not properly addressed. The chapter attempts to (a) identify the key links between globalization and environment deterioration, (b) identify some issues in multilateral economic agreements in trade, finance, investments, and intellectual property rights that affect environmental sustainability, (c) identify and review priority policy issues affecting multilateral economic agreements on environment issues.

A Reliability Test Installation for Water Heating Solar Systems

This chapter analyzes the requirements that a test installation design must comply with in order to carry out the test procedures of prefabricated systems mentioned in a previous chapter and based on the norm EN 12976. In other words, the authors consider for the test installation design, firstly, the requirements that the hydraulic circuit of such an installation must meet, followed by the specifications required by the custom-built systems; all of this has the aim of certifying that the characteristics of the prefabricated system are the applicable ones. Subsequently, the chapter then directly proceeds to design a test installation, which is to be later compared to a real installation.

Review of Supply Chain Integration on Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM)

The world economy operates on a capitalist market system where more and more natural resources are strained to produce maximum profits on the basis of achieving the efficiency of the economies of scale. As corporations' awareness increases on the jeopardizing impact they have caused to the deteriorating environment, more corporations have established a more eco-friendly operation. Greening the supply chain is one significant example of such moves. Realizing the green supply chain tendency in the industry, this proposed chapter focuses on highlighting the supply chain integration with business partners (suppliers, shippers, distributors, and customers) on Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) practices. The chapter shows the literature supporting the important integration of GSCM as it enables corporations to gather collective strength, skills, and capabilities in achieving its ecological as well as business objectives. Both practitioners in companies and corporations might find this review useful, as it outlines major lines of research in the field.

Challenges in Building a Green Supply Chain

Consumers today are focusing on products that are manufactured using sustainable, environmentally friendly methods. Profitability or even existence of an industry can be impacted by public opinion. Governments all over the world are also coming up with stricter regulations for industries to comply with on items like pollution, hazardous content, conflict minerals, child labor, exploitation, etc. A number of requirements have been set up by the semiconductor industry, and Intel worldwide is working on some of the current issues: (1) conflict-free minerals sourcing; (2) using green/sustainable energy; (3) reduction of water consumption/recycling of water; and (4) migrating to unleaded parts and halogen free parts. This chapter presents the Intel experiences and challenges in building a green supply chain at both the corporate and regional levels.

Predictive Maintenance for Quality Control in High Precision Processes

In external grinding processes, vibrations induced by the process itself can lead to defects that affect the quality of the parts. The literature offers models that cannot include all process variables in the analysis. This research applies theoretical models and experimental analysis to determine their suitability for predicting the chatter profile of parts in a plunge grinding process. The application of variance analysis to overall vibration value induced by grinding wheel-workpiece contact allows us to show that high frequency displacements vibration are sensitive to the process setup as well as to the quality of the products manufactured. The final statistical analysis has provided a determination of the spectral bands of the process in which the vibrations causes by grinding wheel-workpiece contact influence the existence of flaws in the workpieces. The methodology described can contribute to increasing the environmental sustainability of an industrial organization.

Electricity Production from Small-Scale Photovoltaics in Urban Areas

The interest in solar photovoltaic energy is growing worldwide. Today, more than 40GW of photovoltaics have been installed all over the world. Since the 1970s, the PV system price is continuously dropping. This price drop and the adaptation of feed-in tariffs at governmental or utility scale have encouraged worldwide application of small-scale photovoltaic systems. The objective of this chapter is to present the potential for electricity production focusing mainly on the benefits of small-scale installations in urban areas, along with the growth of the global photovoltaics market. The types of installation alternatives are described but the focus is on the rooftop installations due to their simplicity and relatively low cost for urban areas. Electricity production data are presented together with their technical characteristics. Furthermore, analysis of the cost reduction is attempted and the benefits gained from the implementation of small-scale systems are also presented, demonstrating the sustainability role they will play.

An Overview to Thermal Solar Systems for Low Temperature

This chapter deals with those prefabricated systems with a steady state of operation (state in which the temporal variation of the thermodynamic properties is null), describing, in a brief manner, a methodology for testing the characterization of the thermal performance in accordance with the European normative. All of the previously mentioned form the justification for a foundation or base from which a testing installation is proposed in a later chapter that, at the same time, is compared to a real installation. Lastly, this chapter attempts to outline a simple mathematical methodology to analyze the future behavior of the reliability of a system (solar in this case), when it is still in an extremely early stage of its life cycle, such as the design phase.

Assessing the Profitability of Changing a Turbine for a Hydroelectric Power Plant Based on Long-Period Water Gauge Readings

The chapter focuses on explaining the construction of author's own engineering-level model which calculates energy production based on historical water level and flow rate readings as well as economic factors such as net present value of the proposed investment on the example of a HPP on the Wkra River. The model methodology assumes the identification of location's hydrological features and translates them into a set of contingency scenarios. Various internal costs, such as maintenance or labor costs, related to normal HPP activity and taxation are discussed and incorporated into the economic part of the model. Test case results indicate that for a series of good years in terms of water flow and electricity production, full repayment of initial investment costs is possible after less than three years. Results for the chosen modernization parameters indicate that within 10 years of installing a new turbine, even the most pessimistic case would bring added value to the real estate valuation.