Stand-alone Areas Research Articles

Net-zero multi-energy systems for Siberian rural communities: A methodology to size thermal and electric storage units

About 15 million people live in rural communities in the Russian Federation. Most of them are not energetically supplied from the main national infrastructures (electric and gas). People living in such isolated communities use diesel engines for generating electricity and heat. In many cases, diesel is supplied using rail tracks, boats or even helicopters. Consequently, the generation of electricity has very high costs and very low reliability. For this reason, more and more rural isolated communities are using renewable energy sources to decrease their dependency on diesel sources. This study deals with the concept of net-zero multi-energy systems in rural and stand-alone areas. A methodology, based on economical, ecological, technical and social criteria, has been developed for planning the generation capacity and sizing the energy storage units. In addition, controlling algorithms have been developed to deal with the volatility of renewable energy sources (wind and sun) and integrate heat/electricity energy systems. The proposed methodology has been applied to the design of a net-zero energy system for a Siberian rural energy community.

Performance Estimation of Modified Savonius Wind Turbine Blade Profile

Nowadays most wind turbines installed today are of large size, small wind turbines are also getting attention day by day because they can be installed easily and supply the electricity in standalone areas and for domestic use. The major challenges associated with small wind turbine are the noise from the wind turbine due to turbulence and power production. An effort has been made to modify the blade profile of the vertical axis Savonius wind turbine using an end plate. And the performance has been estimated. Like horizontal axis wind turbine airfoil shape has been given to the S type blade. The results are supported by validating it with the simulation results.

A New Photovoltaic Energy Sharing System between Homes in Standalone Areas

Today, global energy consumption is dominated by fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas. The intensive consumption of these energy sources gives rise to greenhouse gas emissions and therefore an increase in CO2 emissions. Photovoltaic energy has persistently been considered as a green and pollution-free renewable energy source to overcome greenhouse effect and energy crisis. This paper describes a new method of photovoltaic energy sharing in standalone micro-grids using photovoltaic panels. This approach is based on automatic electrical energy sharing depending on the state of charge (SOC) of the electrical storage unit using by each home and on the electrical power consumption of each home.The monitoring system is connected to each home in micro-grid, it manage each home’s energy use, and assigns more energy to a large energy-consuming home. This architecture contributes to reducing total energy lost.

Is catch-and-release shore angling compatible with the conservation goals of marine protected areas? A case study from the iSimangaliso Wetland Park in South Africa

Area management in the form of no-take marine protected areas (MPAs) has been criticised as a fisheries management tool because of its limited capacity to provide short-term benefits to local fisheries. This study used data from a long-term fish monitoring and tagging project to assess whether catch-and-release (C&R) shore angling could be compatible with the management objectives of a large, multiple-use, zoned MPA in South Africa. Tag-recapture rates, trends in relative abundance and mean size of target species, sub-lethal effects and other potential environmental impacts suggested that C&R research angling, using best practise fish handling techniques, did not have an overall negative impact on protected fish populations. While positive from a scientific monitoring perspective, more sensitive species did show evidence of increased post-release mortality that would be exacerbated by higher intensity C&R angling conducted by members of the angling public. It is thus concluded that C&R shore angling by members of the angling public is not compatible with MPAs zoned for no-take. However, because C&R angling does have substantially lower negative impacts compared to recreational harvest fisheries, areas zoned for C&R offer good potential as buffer areas adjacent to no-take areas or as stand-alone areas where fish conservation can be improved. This concept is proposed for the improved conservation of surf-zone angling fish species within the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and further afield.

A New Photovoltaic Blocks Mutualization System For Micro-Grids Using An Arduino Board And Labview

The photovoltaic systems are often employed into micro-grids; Micro-grids are small power grids designed to provide a reliable and better power supply to a small number of consumers using renewable energy sources. This paper deals with DC micro-grids and present a new system of monitoring and sharing electricity between homes equipped with photovoltaic panels (PV) in the goal to reduce the electrical energy waste. The system is based on dynamic sharing of photovoltaic blocks through homes in stand-alone areas, using an arduino board for controlling the switching matrix. The LABVIEW program is used to further process and display collected data from the system in the PC screen. A small-scale prototype has been developed in a laboratory to proof the concept. This prototype demonstrates the feasibility and functionality of the system.

Distribution generation by photovoltaic and diesel generator systems: Energy management and size optimization by a new approach for a stand-alone application

Hybrid energy systems have attracted significant attention to supply the power requirements of stand-alone areas. Among different configurations, photovoltaic-diesel (PV/diesel) power generation systems are one of the most promising ones for their good performance. Owing to the complexity of the hybrid PV/diesel system, optimal balance between these two sources needs particular attention to find a good engineering solution. This paper focuses on optimal sizing of a PV/diesel power generation system by harmony search (HS) algorithm. Three new pitch adjustment mechanisms are introduced to enhance the diversification and intensification capabilities of HS. The results are compared with the results obtained by original HS, particle swarm optimization (PSO) and genetic algorithm (GA). Simulation results show that HS-II which focuses on intensification, finds more promising results than the other investigated methods. Moreover, hybridization of PV and diesel generator reduces the system costs and pollutant emissions.

Connecting to Community: What Do We Want in Our Special Education Graduates?

AbstractWith a commitment to establishing collaborative relationships with a local special education community, a consultation process was undertaken to ascertain what practising educators considered essential special education graduate characteristics. This consultation occurred against the backdrop of broad-scale university organisational restructure, faculty level program redesign, and the reported lack of an empirical basis for special education teacher attributes as distinct from general teacher education attributes. Special education professionals in a regional Australian city were invited to participate in two workshops to generate and analyse the qualities they considered essential for graduates of special education teacher preparation programs. The attributes identified by participants as essential were in agreement with many of those identified in the literature, yet behaviour support and resilience, which are typically subsumed within other categories in the literature, featured as stand-alone areas in this study. The processes and outcomes described in this article are discussed in relation to the potential value of special education teacher attributes for the field, and establishing a bridge across the perceived gap between the field and universities.