Electricty

In this interview with the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies  (LCPS),  Ziad Abu-Rish discusses the history of electricity service provisioning in Beirut in the context of state institutions, economic development, decolonization, and early independence.

The electricity grid that is used today mostly uses old systems and methods, and often consumes fossil fuels. Using high rate of fossil fuels causes both the danger of depletion of fossil fuels and the harm to the environment and the atmosphere. There is also a risk of not being able to meet the rising energy demand because of the increasing of the world population and urbanization life. All these reasons lead to the necessity of a new system. Smart grid concepts are being developed aiming to use more renewable energy resources and meet energy demand more efficiently in response to these needs. Smart grid concept covers a very wide area and each country focus on the different areas of smart grid depending on their primary needs. Therefore, it is quite difficult to compare smart grid status of countries.

This study aims to realize this comparison in the most comprehensive way possible for Turkish electricity grid by using the data obtained. The key indicators for smart grid presented in the literature are expanded and then used for the comparison. Despite the difficulty of finding data on many criteria, as a result of the comparisons, it was observed that Turkish electricity grid is far behind the leading countries in the area. However, in certain areas, studies and investments are promising. This study generally presents analyzes of these comparisons.

Keywords: Smart Grid, Electricity Grid, Comparison, Renewable Energy

The escalating imperative of climate change mitigation implies a substantial change in the technologies of electricity generation and supply in industrialised and industrialising countries alike. Understanding how to effect this technological change is therefore imperative if the challenge of climate change is to be addressed. The literature is replete with technology and policy studies investigating technologies, policy instruments and processes of technological change, however, surprisingly little research has addressed the broader political economy context within which any technological change will need to be realised.  This research investigates linkages between the sort of systematic environmental technological change implied by the imperative of climate change mitigation and the broader political economy context.

Firstly, considering evolutionary economics approaches to understanding technological change, we argue that evolutionary micro-foundations lend themselves to an analysis of political economy processes. Moreover, it is a direct consequence of evolutionary micro-foundations that technological change, and particularly that linked with structural change in an economy, is likely to have important political economy implications. Secondly, we show how heterodox approaches to understanding structural change and development in economic systems are consistent with evolutionary micro-foundations and allow the development of an analytical framework based upon an understanding of the process of economic rent creation and preservation. Thirdly, we apply these insights to a critical reconstruction of the evidence on the development of the electricity services industry (ESI), illustrating the importance of political economy considerations in understanding technological and institutional change in that sector. Finally, we apply these insights to a detailed case study of the ESI in Vietnam, investigating the ways in which political economy factors have influenced the broader development of the sector, and examining how the choice of specific technologies is likely to be affected by political economy of the sector.

The Rise of Superconductors: Race to the Future of Technology provides a detailed look at superconductors; materials capable of achieving zero electrical resistance and expulsion of magnetic fields. They have been described as the “future of technology” and have a wide variety of applications from transportation to quantum computing. The chapters delve into the history and discovery of superconductors, their applications, future trajectory and impact on society.