Economic benefits of combining clean energy technologies: the case of solar photovoltaics and battery electric vehicles

The combined use of clean technologies can lead amongst other benefits to reduced environmental impacts, improved system efficiencies, better management of land scarcity, and diminishment of the effect of power variability of intermittent clean energy sources. Nonetheless, private investors facing budgetary constraints will only opt to invest in the combination of technologies if the latter is more profitable than the investment in a single technology. The aim of the paper is to provide a systematic model for decision makers that allows them to evaluate the profitability of any random combination of technologies under budgetary constraints, and to compare this profitability with that of the individual projects in isolation. This research goes beyond the state of art in the field of financial management and more specifically in the field of the rationing of capital amongst interdependent projects, by developing a method to calculate the payoff of interdependent projects undertaken together. Moreover, this paper develops a computational model from the investor's point of view, of which the purpose is threefold: First, the model allows to directly compare the economic payoff of individual complementary technologies with the economic payoff of their integrated combination, under budgetary constraints. Second, the model calculates economic synergies labeled ‘benefits of combined technologies’ (BOCT) when combining complementary technologies. Third, the model explains the rationalization behind the presence of BOCT. The model exemplifies an ex ante cost benefit analysis developed for business and non‐governmental use. A four step methodology is proposed and illustrated by means of a case study of PV solar power and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) for a small Belgian enterprise. Results show that at low electricity prices (<€0.112/kWh) it is most profitable to invest in BEVs. When the price of electricity rises (>€0.134/kWh), investment in exclusively PV becomes most attractive. In all other cases, it is more profitable to invest in the combination of both technologies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parallel extraction and simplification of large isosurfaces using an extended tandem algorithm

In order to deal with the common trend in size increase of volumetric datasets, in the past few years research in isosurface extraction has focused on related aspects such as surface simplification and load-balanced parallel algorithms.We present a parallel, block-wise extension of the tandem algorithm [Attali D, Cohen-Steiner D, Edelsbrunner H. Extraction and simplification of iso-surfaces in tandem. In: SGP ’05: Proceedings of the third Eurographics symposium on Geometry processing. Aire-la-Ville, Switzerland: Eurographics Association; 2005. p. 139-148], which simplifies on the fly an isosurface being extracted. Our approach minimizes the overall memory consumption using an adequate block splitting and merging strategy along with the introduction of a component dumping mechanism that drastically reduces the amount of memory needed for particular datasets such as those encountered in geophysics. As soon as detected, surface components are migrated to the disk along with a meta-data index (oriented bounding box, volume, etc.) that permits further improved exploration scenarios (small component removal or particularly oriented component selection for instance).For ease of implementation, we carefully describe a master and worker algorithm architecture that clearly separates the four required basic tasks. We show several results of our parallel algorithm applied on a geophysical dataset of size 7000×1600×2000.     

MEMS packaging process by film transfer using an anti-adhesive layer

A low cost and low temperature thin film packaging process based on the transfer of an electroplated Nickel 3D cap is proposed. This process is based on adhesion control of a thick molded cap Ni film on the carrier wafer by using a plasma deposited fluorocarbon film, on mechanical debonding and on adhesive bonding of the microcaps on the host wafer with BCB sealing rings. Mechanical characterizations show that the transferred microcaps have a high stiffness, a low stress and a high adhesion. Because this process is simple and only involves a low temperature (250°C) heating of the host wafer, it is highly versatile and suitable for the encapsulation of micro and nano devices, circuits and systems elaborated on a large range of substrate materials.     

Shear mechanical behavior of model materials samples by experimental triaxial tests: case study of 4 mm diameter glass beads

Granular Matter - The prediction quality of discrete element method (DEM) models for railway ballast can be expected to depend on three points: the geometry representation of the single particles,...     

Radiation and chemical resistance of synthetic ceramics based on ferritic garnet

Critical dose of X-ray amorphization of the garnet phase Ca_1.5Gd_0.908Cm_0.092Th_0.5ZrFe₄O₁₂, which is the base of the synthetic ceramics doped with ²⁴¹Cm (～2 wt %), was determined. Amorphization occurs at a dose of 1.6 × 10¹⁸ α-decay g^?1 or 0.17 dpa (displacements per atom). The chemical resistance of the amorphized ceramics to leaching (MCC-1 test) is comparable to that of the initial ceramics. The rates of Cm leaching from the freshly prepared and amorphized ceramics decrease with time and after storage for two weeks amount to 1.4 × 10^?3 and 5.8 × 10^?3 g m^?2 day^?1, respectively. Data on thermal restoration of the crystal structure of the ceramics are also presented.     

Platinum group element concentrations and osmium isotopic composition in urban airborne particles from Boston, Massachusetts

Platinum, Pd, Rh, and Os were found to occur at elevated concentrations in airborne particles (PM10) collected at urban sites in Boston, MA. Average Pt, Pd, Rh, and Os concentrations were 6.9 +/- 1.9, 8.1 +/- 1.8, 1.50 +/- 0.50, and 0.068 (-0.068 + 0.070) pg m(-3), respectively. Elevated Pt, Pd, and Rh concentrations are attributed to automobile catalysts, which use Pt, Pd, and Rh for the removal of pollutants from engine exhaust gas. An automobile catalyst source is supported by significant correlations between these elements and by a Pt/Rh similar to that in catalysts. Elevated Os concentrations are also believed to be the result of emission from automobile catalysts in which Os occurs as an impurity. The isotopic composition of Os (187Os/ 188Os) ranged from 0.30 to 2.90, indicating large variations in Os sources. Osmium has a predominantly anthropogenic origin at concentrations > 0.1 pg m(-3), whereas natural sources are more important at lower Os concentrations. Osmium isotopic composition also indicates that Pt, Pd, and Rh in Boston air are of almost exclusive anthropogenic origin, with a relatively small natural contribution. Our results indicate that scavenging by rain plays a major role in the atmospheric residence time and environmental fate of PGE.     

From flat sheets to curved geometries: Origami and kirigami approaches

Transforming flat sheets into three-dimensional structures has emerged as an exciting manufacturing paradigm on a broad range of length scales. Among other advantages, this technique permits the use of functionality-inducing planar processes on flat starting materials, which after shape-shifting, result in a unique combination of macro-scale geometry and surface topography. Fabricating arbitrarily complex three-dimensional geometries requires the ability to change the intrinsic curvature of initially flat structures, while simultaneously limiting material distortion to not disturb the surface features. The centuries-old art forms of origami and kirigami could offer elegant solutions, involving only folding and cutting to transform flat papers into complex geometries. Although such techniques are limited by an inherent developability constraint, the rational design of the crease and cut patterns enables the shape-shifting of (nearly) inextensible sheets into geometries with apparent intrinsic curvature. Here, we review recent origami and kirigami techniques that can be used for this purpose, discuss their underlying mechanisms, and create physical models to demonstrate and compare their feasibility. Moreover, we highlight practical aspects that are relevant in the development of advanced materials with these techniques. Finally, we provide an outlook on future applications that could benefit from origami and kirigami to create intrinsically curved surfaces.     

Multiscale geostatistical analysis of AVHRR, SPOT-VGT, and MODIS global NDVI products

Global NDVI data are routinely derived from the AVHRR, SPOT-VGT, and MODIS/Terra earth observation records for a range of applications from terrestrial vegetation monitoring to climate change modeling. This has led to a substantial interest in the harmonization of multisensor records. Most evaluations of the internal consistency and continuity of global multisensor NDVI products have focused on time-series harmonization in the spectral domain, often neglecting the spatial domain. We fill this void by applying variogram modeling (a) to evaluate the differences in spatial variability between 8-km AVHRR, 1-km SPOT-VGT, and 1-km, 500-m, and 250-m MODIS NDVI products over eight EOS (Earth Observing System) validation sites, and (b) to characterize the decay of spatial variability as a function of pixel size (i.e. data regularization) for spatially aggregated Landsat ETM+ NDVI products and a real multisensor dataset. First, we demonstrate that the conjunctive analysis of two variogram properties - the sill and the mean length scale metric - provides a robust assessment of the differences in spatial variability between multiscale NDVI products that are due to spatial (nominal pixel size, point spread function, and view angle) and non-spatial (sensor calibration, cloud clearing, atmospheric corrections, and length of multi-day compositing period) factors. Next, we show that as the nominal pixel size increases, the decay of spatial information content follows a logarithmic relationship with stronger fit value for the spatially aggregated NDVI products (R² = 0.9321) than for the native-resolution AVHRR, SPOT-VGT, and MODIS NDVI products (R² = 0.5064). This relationship serves as a reference for evaluation of the differences in spatial variability and length scales in multiscale datasets at native or aggregated spatial resolutions. The outcomes of this study suggest that multisensor NDVI records cannot be integrated into a long-term data record without proper consideration of all factors affecting their spatial consistency. Hence, we propose an approach for selecting the spatial resolution, at which differences in spatial variability between NDVI products from multiple sensors are minimized. This approach provides practical guidance for the harmonization of long-term multisensor datasets.