Low Carbon

Around the world there is an increase demand on renewable energies. The care for the environment and quality of life has highlighted the concerns for the world that our children inheritance. On the other side, there is still the inertia of keeping the BAU on energy consumption to maintain our level of life. Along the past decades, the transport has been identified has the major pollution sector. Petrol based engines are fully optimized and the electronics associated don't have a role on the system efficiency anymore. Thereby, other solutions such as electrification and fuel cells are on the table to phase out petrol based engines. Isolated islands of energy consumption where the electricity is not available (such as rural areas) or where they were very expensive (such as low energy intensive, welling and irrigation), used to be feed by diesel. With decentralized generation at affordable prices and better efficiencies, the paradigm is changing for a cleaner and low noise alternative. District heating using fuel, coal and diesel are being substituted by solar, geothermal and electric heat pumps systems. The present paper presents, discusses and reflects on the alternatives of the petrol and fossil fuel consumption paradigm.

The Wales Spatial Plan (WSP), as one of the Welsh Assembly Government’s ‘high-level strategic building blocks’, supporting the delivery of the ‘One Wales’ agreement and the sustainable development scheme and action plan, has a key role to play in the transition to a low carbon Wales. Successfully utilising the cross boundary / cross sector forum provided by the WSP and its Area Groups will be key to the ability of each region of Wales to play its part in meeting government targets for emission reductions. In recognition of this, the Wales Spatial Plan Update 2008 set out that each Area Group will ‘develop practical plans to move towards becoming a low-carbon region.’

This report serves two functions – it sets out the process through which the WSP and its Groups can serve as a vehicle for transition; and it provides background information and suggestions to enable each region to select carbon reduction priorities for action.

The report describes the importance of the Wales Spatial Plan in enabling the ‘low carbon transition’ in Wales. The existing Spatial Plan framework and delivery structure present significant opportunities for action on emission reductions. The framework has five operational functions which have been used to inform the recommendations for action within this report to ensure WSP Groups centrally and regionally are well placed to deliver.

For industrial applications, warm working is very attractive due to certain advantages offered by this plastic deformation process. Heat treating of warm worked steels can lead to a significant improvement of their mechanical properties. The paper presents the influence of the heat-treating regime applied to warm rolled AISI 1015 carbon steel. The rolling was performed in the following conditions: temperature 670 oC – 550oC, rolling speed 1.39 s-1 and deformation ratio 36.4 %. After rolling, the samples were reheated to 550o, 600o and 650oC for a duration varying from a few minutes to 10 hours. The microstructural changes were assessed by light and electron microscopy and the possible heat treatments were considered.

This research addresses the interrelation between the culinary supply chain and low carbon menus to support sustainable culinary tourism in Koh Samui with particular consideration being given to the uses of coconut in the supply chain. The research is being undertaken utilising participatory action research (PAR) and is currently work in progress.

Denne artikkelen diskuterer hva som må gjøres når pandemien gradvis forsvinner, og livet går tilbake til en mer normal tilstand. Det er er spesifikt fokus på Agder fylkeskommune. Her sitter folk og venter, og det er ingen som tar opp hva som bør eller vil hende etter pandemien. Når dette skjer er det sannsynlig gjøres i offentlig og privat sektor. Organisasjoner i det sivile samfunn vil ikke bli invitert, og vil sannsynligvis heller ikke være interessert i å delta.
Dette er uheldig, siden det offisielle scenariet om å komme tilbake til situasjonen før pandemien er bare et scenarie. Ifølge et alternativt scenarie bør vi forstå dette som en unik situasjon, og heller fokusere på det grønne skiftet og realisere en lavkarbonøkonomi.

This article addresses what to do as the pandemic wears down, and life gradually returns to at least a semblance of normality. There is a specific focus on Agder County in southern Norway. Here, everybody is waiting it out, and no work on what will or should happen after the pandemic is taking place. Once this work begins, it will likely be between stakeholders in public sector and private sector. Civil society stakeholders will not be invited, and may also not want to be involved.
This is unfortunate, as the official economic thinking on how to return to the situation prior to the pandemic is but one scenario. According to an alternative scenario, we should instead see this as a unique situation, and focus on the so-called "green shift" and realize a low carbon economy.

Note: A revised and enlarged version of this newspaper article is available on my blog, Devblog, as follows:
English - https://www.devblog.no/en/article/agder-after-pandemic
Norwegian - https://www.devblog.no/no/article/agder-etter-pandemien

An electrogasdynamic (EGD) power converter, a device that converts mechanical energy into electric energy without moving parts, is described. A mathematical model that describes the complex two-phase fluid flow and electric field interaction was developed using a ...

This research addresses the interrelation between the culinary supply chain and low carbon menus to support sustainable culinary tourism in Koh Samui with particular consideration being given to the uses of coconut in the supply chain. The research is being undertaken utilising participatory action research (PAR) and is currently work in progress.