The Determinants of Energy Efficiency Investments in the U.S.

31 p.

Energy Audit for an Old Industrial Building in Gävle

(English)The Swedish industrial sector has overcome the oil crisis and has maintained the energy use constant even though the production has grown. This has been achieved thanks to the development of several energy policies, by the Swedish government, towards the 2020 goals. This thesis carries on this path and performs an energy audit for an old industrial building in Gävle (Sweden) in order to propose different energy efficiency measures to use less energy while maintaining the thermal comfort. The building is in quite a bad shape and some of the areas are unused making them a waste of money. By means of the invoices provided by different companies, the information from the staff and some measures that have been carried out in-situ, the energy balance has been calculated from where conclusions have been drawn. Although it is an industrial building, the study is not going to be focused in the industrial process but in the building’s envelope and support processes, since the unit combines both production and office areas. Therefore, the energy balance is divided in energy supplies (district heating, free heating and sun irradiation) and energy losses (transmission, ventilation hot tap water and infiltrations). The results show that the most important supply is that of the DH whereas the most important losses are the transmission and infiltration. Thus, the measures proposed are focused on the reduction of this relevant parameters. The most important measures are the renovation of the windows, heating systems valves and the ventilation. The glazing of the dwelling is old and some of it is broken accounting for quite a large amount of the losses. The radiator valves are not properly working and there does not exist any temperature control. Therefore the installation of thermostatic valves turns out to be a must. Moreover, some part of the building has no mechanical ventilation but conserves the ducts. These could be utilized if they are connected to the workshop’s ventilation which is capable of generating sufficient flow for the entire building. Finally, although other measures could also be carried out, the ones proposed appear to be the essential ones. A further analysis should be carried out in order to analyze the payback time or investment capability of the company so as to decide between one measure or another. A market study for possible new tenants for the unused parts of the building is also advisable.

Sensitivity analysis of the efficiency of a parabolic-trough solar collector

The text presented below analyses the variation of the performance of a parabolic trough solar collector, when some of the parameters that govern its operation vary due to dirty mirror, degradation etc. In order to reach that point, it will be seen how the human has made use of solar energy with different purposes, through history until it has been reached the point where solar technology has the widespread use and in such a variety of technologies as it has today. As in this project, the technology analysed is the solar collectors, it is going to make more emphasis on solar thermal technology. They will be explained in detail how the parabolic trough collectors are, analysing from its different components, to its thermal performance. Once acquainted with this technology, it will be seen which tests will be carried out. Finally it is going to be explained how the model, used for the simulation and implementation of the relevant tests, has been developed. It will also be explained how the model has been validated, for once validated, proceed to the sensitivity analysis of the collectors.

How much efficiency gains and price reductions for an efficiency defense? 'Quanto Basta'

Potential efficiency gains due to a merger can be used by competition authorities to judge upon proposed mergers. In a world where agents’ efforts, observable or unobservable, affect the success of a production cost reducing project that may be conducted as a stand-alone firm or in a merger, we characterize the merger decision and the type of errors a competition authority may make when it relies on an efficiency defense. In addition, we show that the occurrence of either type of errors is always smaller under the unobservable efforts assumption, than under the observable efforts one.

Rumbo al Gran Banco: una etnohistoria de la pesca industrial del bacalao en los Bancos de Terranova

[ES]Rumbo al Gran Banco parte de los comienzos de la pesca industrial del bacalao española en el primer tercio del siglo XX, la situación que allí encontraron, los avatares humanos y los avances tecnológicos que se van incorporando, la Guerra Civil y la guerra mundial, la bonanza pesquera, la incorporación de las parejas, la concurrencia, así como la exploración de todo el Gran Banco. La gestión por parte de Canadá de las doscientas millas marinas y la moratoria del bacalao. También se presenta la historia de la pesca en Galicia y Terranova a lo largo de todo el siglo XX, dos territorios que comparten el mismo océano y una mirada puesta en la mar.

Políticas de suelo industrial en Álava

(ES) En este artículo son analizadas las políticas de suelo industrial en Álava, uno de los tres territorios históricos o provincias), junto con Vizcaya y Guipúzcoa, que integra la Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco (CAPV en adelante). En un primer apartado exponemos los planteamientos teóricos actuales que inspiran el diseño de las políticas en materia de suelo industrial y posteriormente valoramos las actuaciones y los resultados de los diferentes organismos que gestionan este tipo de suelo en Álava. Finalmente, avanzamos los resultados preliminares obtenidos mediante el SIG Alavamap.

Metabolic efficiency with fast spiking in the squid axon

Fundamentally, action potentials in the squid axon are consequence of the entrance of sodium ions during the depolarization of the rising phase of the spike mediated by the outflow of potassium ions during the hyperpolarization of the falling phase. Perfect metabolic efficiency with a minimum charge needed for the change in voltage during the action potential would confine sodium entry to the rising phase and potassium efflux to the falling phase. However, because sodium channels remain open to a significant extent during the falling phase, a certain overlap of inward and outward currents is observed. In this work we investigate the impact of ion overlap on the number of the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules and energy cost required per action potential as a function of the temperature in a Hodgkin–Huxley model. Based on a recent approach to computing the energy cost of neuronal action potential generation not based on ion counting, we show that increased firing frequencies induced by higher temperatures imply more efficient use of sodium entry, and then a decrease in the metabolic energy cost required to restore the concentration gradients after an action potential. Also, we determine values of sodium conductance at which the hydrolysis efficiency presents a clear minimum.

Comunicaciones integradas feriales o como planificar con éxito una feria industrial

En este artículo se explica que la feria es una herramienta comercial utilizada habitualmente en el área de Marketing Industrial y que, a pesar de las ventajas que ofrece, recibe diversas críticas. Los frenos a su utilización están muy relacionados con la inversión que suponen tanto en recursos económicos como humanos. En definitiva, la feria es una herramienta con una gran potencialidad pero que requiere de un proceso de planificación riguroso y sistemático, con unos objetivos claros y definidos a partir de la estrategia de marketing global de la empresa. La aplicación del concepto de Comunicaciones Integradas Feriales pretende garantizar al expositor la optimización del esfuerzo realizado, maximizando el valor que las distintas herramientas de Marketing pueden aportar al programa ferial.

Analytical efficiency evaluation of a network mobility management protocol for Intelligent Transportation Systems

One of the major concerns in an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) scenario, such as that which may be found on a long-distance train service, is the provision of efficient communication services, satisfying users' expectations, and fulfilling even highly demanding application requirements, such as safety-oriented services. In an ITS scenario, it is common to have a significant amount of onboard devices that comprise a cluster of nodes (a mobile network) that demand connectivity to the outside networks. This demand has to be satisfied without service disruption. Consequently, the mobility of the mobile network has to be managed. Due to the nature of mobile networks, efficient and lightweight protocols are desired in the ITS context to ensure adequate service performance. However, the security is also a key factor in this scenario. Since the management of the mobility is essential for providing communications, the protocol for managing this mobility has to be protected. Furthermore, there are safety-oriented services in this scenario, so user application data should also be protected. Nevertheless, providing security is expensive in terms of efficiency. Based on this considerations, we have developed a solution for managing the network mobility for ITS scenarios: the NeMHIP protocol. This approach provides a secure management of network mobility in an efficient manner. In this article, we present this protocol and the strategy developed to maintain its security and efficiency in satisfactory levels. We also present the developed analytical models to analyze quantitatively the efficiency of the protocol. More specifically, we have developed models for assessing it in terms of signaling cost, which demonstrates that NeMHIP generates up to 73.47% less signaling compared to other relevant approaches. Therefore, the results obtained demonstrate that NeMHIP is the most efficient and secure solution for providing communications in mobile network scenarios such as in an ITS context.

Failure detectors and communication efficiency in the crash and general omisión failure models

122 p.

Cálculo y diseño de una nave industrial con puente grúa

Cálculo y dimensionamiento de una nave industrial para la producción y almacenaje de bombas hidráulicas de pequeño y gran tamaño, con grúa puente de capacidad 6,3 Tn y una zona de oficinas donde se ubican los distintos departamentos de la empresa. Redactado en castellano.

Diseño y cálculo de una nave industrial para instalación de cogeneración

Diseño y cálculo de una nave industrial para la posterior instalación de una planta de cogeneración.

Nave industrial para troquelería

Diseño y cálculo de una nave industrial destinada a ser una troquelería.

Evaluating the role of energy efficiency labels in the prices of household appliances: the case of refrigerators

4 p.

Long Run Trends in the Price of Energy and Energy Services

4 p.