2,021 research outputs found
Renewable Energies to Promote Local Development
No full textThis book is intended as a contribution towards a more inclusive sustainable future. It conceptualizes energy as a central element of development and renewable as a key condition for sustainable development. By describing the technical, economic and policy conditions that are necessary for the successful deployment of renewable energy, it provides recommendations for unleashing, in developing regions, a sustainable development based on more equitable distribution of resources. The need to provide universal energy access to reduce poverty while preserving the environment and limiting climate change requires a new paradigm in the way energy is produced, distributed and used. Decentralized renewable energy systems based on sound technical solutions, solid business models and enabling policies, need to be deployed. Energy is needed to satisfy basic living needs and to give access to public services that are relevant to human and social development. Energy also represents also an income opportunity for people as it enables new
productive activities and thus triggers socio-economic development. Distributed renewable energy can and should become the first option for achieving universal energy access since it has proven to be in several cases the most cost-effective and affordable option.
Energy is a cross cutting enabler that should be integrated into wider social, economic and environmental policies. From this perspective, the book provides a comprehensive multi objective and multi criteria analysis that goes beyond the often shortsighted and simplistic financial analysis, with the aim to represent a step towards the achievement of innovative solutions. A wide panorama of the contribution of renewable energy to sustainable development is presented in four of the five parts of the book, that readers might read separately, as each one stands on its own and tells a distinctive part of the story. The fifth part gives space to specific experiences coming from different
stakeholders quite active in the field of access to energy. The book brings together several authors from different parts of the world and
professional backgrounds ranging from private sector to academia, international organizations, NGOs and governments to give a comprehensive view of the role of renewable energy in ensuring sustainable development. It is also builts on the long experience of the three editors in education and in the promotion and implementation of renewable energy projects in developing countries
VLSI implementation of a multi-mode turbo/LDPC decoder architecture
No full textFlexible and reconfigurable architectures have gained wide popularity in the communications field. In particular, reconfigurable architectures for the physical layer are an attractive solution not only to switch among different coding modes but also to achieve interoperability. This work concentrates on the design of a reconfigurable architecture for both turbo and LDPC codes decoding. The novel contributions of this paper are: i) tackling the reconfiguration issue introducing a formal and systematic treatment that, to the best of our knowledge, was not previously addressed; ii) proposing a reconfigurable NoCbased turbo/LDPC decoder architecture and showing that wide flexibility can be achieved with a small complexity overhead. Obtained results show that dynamic switching between most of considered communication standards is possible without pausing the decoding activity. Moreover, post-layout results show that tailoring the proposed architecture to the WiMAX standard leads to an area occupation of 2.75 mm2 and a power consumption of 101.5 mW in the worst case
RISK ASSESSMENT OF MALICIOUS ATTACKS AGAINST POWER SYSTEMS
No full textThe new scenarios of malicious attack prompt for their deeper consideration and mainly when critical systems are at stake. In this framework, infrastructural systems, including power systems, represent a possible target due to the huge impact they can have on society. Malicious attacks are different in their nature from other more traditional cause of threats to power system, since they embed a strategic interaction between the attacker and the defender (characteristics that cannot be found in natural events or systemic failures). This difference has not been systematically analyzed by the existent literature. In this respect, new approaches and tools are needed. This paper presents a mixed-strategy game-theory model able to capture the strategic interactions between malicious agents that may be willing to attack power systems and the system operators, with its related bodies, that are in charge of defending them. At the game equilibrium, the different strategies of the two players, in terms of attacking/protecting the critical elements of the systems, can be obtained. The information about the attack probability to various elements can be used to assess the risk associated with each of them, and the efficiency of defense resource allocation is evidenced in terms of the corresponding risk. Reference defense plans related to the online defense action and the defense action with a time delay can be obtained according to their respective various time constraints. Moreover, risk sensitivity to the defense/attack-resource variation is also analyzed. The model is applied to a standard IEEE RTS-96 test system for illustrative purpose and, on the basis of that system, some peculiar aspects of the malicious attacks are pointed ou
Il controllo della sostenibilità ambientale: i regolamenti 3E per l’efficienza energetica degli edifici
No full textThe issues of sustainability and energy efficiency in buildings are slowly entering the construction sector also in Italy, where they have been lagging be- hind if compared to other European countries. The introduction of national and local regulations implemented Directive 2002/91/CE on energy efficiency of buildings, with specific differences due to the local character of the legislation.
In this field, Regione Lombardia (Lombardy) is one of the most active re- gions in Italy, being the second one (after the province of Bolzano) to define the rules for energy certification. A law that is specific to Lombardia allows cities and towns to increase building ratios if the building has characteristics of sus- tainability behind standard requirements. The performance requirements allow- ing the increase in building ratios need to be defined by the local authorities, who thanks to these incentives are able to drive the “business as usual” con- struction market towards better quality buildings.
This paper discusses the experience of the author, together with a variable research team, in drafting local energy efficiency and sustainability standards. Different works will be presented, ranging from regulations for small towns to integrations to the building code of Milan, each with its own specific issues to be tackled
- …
