Assessment of Portuguese thermal building legislation in an energetic and environmental perspective

The aim of this study is to assess the consistency of Portuguese thermal building legislation in terms of energy and environmental performance.To illustrate this, a case study has been carried out for different scenarios of a dwelling home located in an extreme climate zone (I3, V1 north) in Portugal with a T3 typology: four occupants and net floor area of 150 m², modelled according to Regulation Thermal Performance Characteristics of Buildings and a Life Cycle Assessment approach.The results show that the Portuguese thermal building legislation can be considered consistent in terms of energy efficiency and environmental performance if we take the damage categories into account - “human health” or “ecosystem quality” or the impact category - “emission into air”. It cannot be considered consistent if we take the damage category into account - “resources” or the impact category - “CO₂ eq” (equivalent carbon dioxide emissions)/“climate change”/“global warming”.     

建筑业前沿效率研究——以安徽为例

根据C-D生产函数,采用随机前沿分析法(SFA),以安徽省为例测算建筑业的前沿效率值,并对其决定因素进行多元回归分析。结果表明,建筑业前沿效率的提高归因于施工技术改进和设备更新、管理创新、员工素质提高以及资产投入增加等。     

The role of experience curves for setting MEPS for appliances

Minimum efficiency performance standards (MEPS) are an important policy instrument to raise the efficiency of products. In most schemes the concept of life cycle costs (LCC) is used to guide setting the MEPS levels. Although a large body of literature shows that product cost is decreasing with increasing cumulative production, the experience curve, this is currently not used for setting MEPS. This article shows how to integrate the concept of the experience curve into LCC calculations for setting MEPS in the European Union and applies this to household laundry driers, refrigerator-freezers and televisions. The results indicate that for driers and refrigerator-freezers at least twice the energy savings compared to the current approach can be achieved. These products also show that energy label classes can successfully be used for setting MEPS. For televisions an experience curve is provided, showing a learning rate of 29%. However, television prices do not show a relation with energy efficiency but are to a large extent determined by the time the product is placed on the market. This suggests to policy makers that for televisions and other products with a short (re)design and market cycle timing is more important than the MEPS levels itself.     

Market efficiency in the European carbon markets

In this paper, we study the relationship between futures and spot prices in the European carbon markets from the cost-of-carry hypothesis. The aim is to investigate the extent of efficiency market. The three main European markets (BlueNext, EEX and ECX) are analyzed during Phase II, covering the period from March 13, 2009 to January, 17, 2012. Futures contracts are found to be cointegrated with spot prices and interest rates for several maturities in the three CO₂ markets. Results are similar when structural breaks are taken into account. According to individual and joint tests, the cost-of-carry model is rejected for all maturities and CO₂ markets, implying that neither contract is priced according to the cost-of-carry model. The absence of the cost-of-carry relationship can be interpreted as an indicator of market inefficiency and may bring arbitrage opportunities in the CO₂ market.     

Dedicating new real estate transfer taxes for energy efficiency: A revenue option for scaling up Green Retrofit Programs

As the labor market in the U.S. remains weak, with high unemployment and sluggish job growth, policymakers at various levels of government are looking for new ways to support job growth and investment during an increasingly tight fiscal climate. Policies that promote the “Green Economy” in general and energy efficiency in particular remain politically popular as potential win–win solutions that will create jobs and curb greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, efforts to promote energy efficiency in the residential sector through rebates and incentives alone have yet to reach critical mass. This paper outlines a policy option for state and local governments to use real estate transfer taxes to generate stronger incentives for home buyers to undertake significant retrofit projects at the time of sale. The economic impact of the proposed energy efficiency transfer tax (EETT) is then modeled for the State of North Carolina, using standard input–output techniques. Ultimately, based on housing sales figures from 2010, a new EETT of 2.5 percent on home purchases would generate a net positive increase of approximately 3485 direct construction jobs and 5900 annually total jobs for the state.     

绿色建筑的生态效率评价方法探讨

由于建筑生态效率核算具有跨度时间长、数据信息大、市场价值多变等特殊性,至今还是研究的多,实际应用的少。本文就对建筑生态效率评价的主要指标、主流方案进行了综合性的探讨,以期推动该问题的深入研究,尽快把生态效率评估应用到绿色建筑设计和建设之中。     

Energy efficiency and renewables policies: Promoting efficiency or facilitating monopsony?

The cliché in the electricity sector, the “cheapest power plant is the one we don’t build,” neglects the benefits of the energy that plant would generate. That economy-wide perspective need not apply in considering benefits to only consumers if not building that plant was the exercise of monopsony power. A regulator maximizing consumer welfare may need to avoid rationing demand at monopsony prices. Subsidizing energy efficiency to reduce electricity demand at the margin can solve that problem, if energy efficiency and electricity use are substitutes. Renewable energy subsidies, percentage use standards, or feed in tariffs may also serve monopsony as well with sufficient inelasticity in fossil fuel electricity supply. We may not observe these effects if the regulator can set price as well as quantity, lacks buyer-side market power, or is legally precluded from denying generators a reasonable return on capital. Nevertheless, the possibility of monopsony remains significant in light of the debate as to whether antitrust enforcement should maximize consumer welfare or total welfare.     

Electrochemical dissolution and passivation of laser additive manufactured Ti6Al4V controlled by elements segregation and phases distribution

The electrochemical dissolution and passivation of laser additive manufactured Ti6Al4V were investigated through Tafel polarization, potentiostatic polarization and AC impedance measurements. The results show that the solution treatment−aging (STA) process aggravates the element micro-segregation compared to the annealing process, leading to varied Al and V contents of the phases from different samples. It is proven that either Al-rich or V-rich condition can highly affect the electrochemical dissolution behaviors due to thermodynamical instability caused by element segregation. The dissolution rate in the metastable passivation process is controlled by the stability of the produced film that is affected by phases distribution, especially the difficult-to-dissolve phase. And then, the dissolution rate of the phases in the transpassivation region is consistent with the rank in the activation process because the dense film is not capable of being produced. Compared to the annealed sample, the higher dissolution rate of the STA sample is beneficial to the electrochemical machining (ECM) of Ti6Al4V.     

InGaN基高压LED和传统大功率LED的发光效率比较

主要从三个不同角度探究并分析了基于In Ga N材料的高压LED的发光效率优于传统大功率LED的原因。为了保证实验结论的可靠性,文中所采用的实验样品具有相同的芯片尺寸和材料以及相同的封装结构。经过大量的实验证明,更均匀的电流分布和小芯片间隙的出光,使得高压LED的发光效率优于传统大功率LED。结果显示,在相同的1 W输入功率下,高压LED的发光效率比传统大功率LED高大约4.5%。     

两点源诱偏ARM的效能评估模型研究

两点源诱偏是对抗反辐射导弹(ARM)的一种有效的手段。首先采用数学方法研究了两点源诱偏反辐射导弹的原理,讨论了两点源诱偏作用下被动雷达导引头的瞄准方向,给出了两点源诱骗反辐射导弹的脱靶距离模型和案例分析,为研究靶场诱偏系统的试验方法和使用原则奠定了基础。