Scotland, Renewable Energy and the Independence Debate: Will Head or Heart Rule the Roost?

Political support for renewable energy development, especially offshore renewables, is particularly conspicuous in Scotland and is a centrepiece of SNP policy. However, this is built on something of a paradox because, put simply, without the subsidies paid by electricity consumers in the rest of the UK, the Scottish Government's ambitious targets for renewable energy would be politically unachievable. We argue in this paper that if Scotland does move towards independence, then there could be little reason for the UK to continue paying (much) of the subsidies since the resulting renewable generation would no longer contribute towards UK renewable energy targets. We suggest that the potential scenarios, and their implications, needs to be far better considered in the arguments around the Scottish constitutional position and the broader aims of UK energy policy.

Biogas reforming using renewable wind energy and induction heating

While the benefits of renewable energy are well known and used to influence government policy there are a number of problems which arise from having significant quantities of renewable energies on an electricity grid. The most notable problem stems from their intermittent nature which is often out of phase with the demands of the end users. This requires the development of either efficient energy storage systems, e.g. battery technology, compressed air storage etc. or through the creation of demand side management units which can utilise power quickly for manufacturing operations. Herein a system performing the conversion of synthetic biogas to synthesis gas using wind power and an induction heating system is shown. This approach demonstrates the feasibility of such techniques for stabilising the electricity grid while also providing a robust means of energy storage. This exemplar is also applicable to the production of hydrogen from the steam reforming of natural gas.

Complexity of concern: Social acceptance of wind energy and the inevitability of dissensus

This presentation will explore the  role that social acceptance of onshore wind can play in understanding and progressing the low carbon transition in Europe. Although this is commonly perceived as arising simply from the overall level of renewable energy generated (and ‘dirty’ energy displaced), its significance goes well beyond this as it helps us understand some of the key issues facing the electricity sector as a social-technical system.  As such it is not only a matter of delivering the necessary infrastructure, but requires the long term mediation of complex multi-governmental arrangements involving a very wide range of actors. The interests of these actors engage hugely different timescales, geographic scales of concern and rationalities that make the arena of social acceptance a cauldron of complexity, mediating between overlapping and incompatible concerns. The presentation will briefly review the nature of some of these relationships and discuss what this means for how we conceive and act on the social acceptance of wind, and what this means for the long term low carbon transition

Intelligent Computing for Sustainable Energy and Environment (ICSEE 2012)

No Abstract available

Energy and energy flux in axisymmetric slow and fast waves

Aims: We aim to calculate the kinetic, magnetic, thermal, and total energy densities and the flux of energy in axisymmetric sausage modes. The resulting equations should contain as few parameters as possible to facilitate applicability for different observations. 

Methods: The background equilibrium is a one-dimensional cylindrical flux tube model with a piecewise constant radial density profile. This enables us to use linearised magnetohydrodynamic equations to calculate the energy densities and the flux of energy for axisymmetric sausage modes. 

Results: The equations used to calculate the energy densities and the flux of energy in axisymmetric sausage modes depend on the radius of the flux tube, the equilibrium sound and Alfvén speeds, the density of the plasma, the period and phase speed of the wave, and the radial or longitudinal components of the Lagrangian displacement at the flux tube boundary. Approximate relations for limiting cases of propagating slow and fast sausage modes are also obtained. We also obtained the dispersive first-order correction term to the phase speed for both the fundamental slow body mode under coronal conditions and the slow surface mode under photospheric conditions.

Energy and environmental forensic analysis for public buildings.

This paper outlines a forensic method for analysing the energy, environmental and comfort performance of a building. The method has been applied to a recently developed event space in an Irish public building, which was evaluated using on-site field studies, data analysis, building simulation and occupant surveying. The method allows for consideration of both the technological and anthropological aspects of the building in use and for the identification of unsustainable operational practice and emerging problems. The forensic analysis identified energy savings of up to 50%, enabling a more sustainable, lower-energy operational future for the building. The building forensic analysis method presented in this paper is now planned for use in other public and commercial buildings.

Laser-driven proton scaling laws and new paths towards energy increase

The past few years have seen remarkable progress in the development of laser-based particle accelerators. The ability to produce ultrabright beams of multi-megaelectronvolt protons routinely has many potential uses from engineering to medicine, but for this potential to be realized substantial improvements in the performances of these devices must be made. Here we show that in the laser-driven accelerator that has been demonstrated experimentally to produce the highest energy protons, scaling laws derived from fluid models and supported by numerical simulations can be used to accurately describe the acceleration of proton beams for a large range of laser and target parameters. This enables us to evaluate the laser parameters needed to produce high-energy and high-quality proton beams of interest for radiography of dense objects or proton therapy of deep-seated tumours.

Variability in thermal and UV-B energy fluxes through time and their influence on plant diversity and speciation

Throughout Earth's history there have been temporal and spatial variations in the amount of visible and ultraviolet radiation received by ecosystems. This paper examines if temporal changes in these forms of energy receipt could have influenced the tempo and mode of plant diversity and speciation, focusing in particular upon Cenozoic time-scales. Evidence for changing patterns of plant diversity and speciation apparent in various fossil records and molecular phylogenies are considered alongside calculated changes in thermal and solar ultraviolet energy (specifically UV-B) over the past 50 Myr. We suggest that changes in thermal energy influx (amount and variability) affected the tempo of evolution through its influence upon community dynamics (e.g. population size, diversity, turnover, extinctions). It was not only the amount of thermal energy but also variability in its flux that may have influenced these processes, and ultimately the rate of diversification. We suggest that variations in UV-B would have influenced the mode and tempo of speciation through changes to genome stability during intervals of elevated UV-B. We argue, therefore, that although variability in thermal energy and UV-B fluxes through time may lead to the same end-point (changing the rate of diversification), the processes responsible are very different and both need to be considered when linking evolutionary processes to energy flux.

Increases in energy, protein and fat intake following the addition of sauce to an older person's meal

Energy intake in 15-20% of the UK older population is currently thought to be inadequate for health. Based on the suggestion that increases in food pleasantness and familiarity can increase intake, this study investigated the impact of the addition of sauce to an older person's meal on subsequent intake. Twenty-eight older people consumed two meals with sauce and the same two meals without sauce on different occasions, and amount consumed in terms of weight, energy and energy consumed from carbohydrate, fat and protein were compared. Pre-meal hunger and desire to eat, post-meal pleasantness and familiarity and participants' expectations of the effects of sauces were also measured. Compared to meals without sauce, meals with sauce were found to result in greater intakes of energy, energy consumed from protein and energy consumed from fat (smallest t(27)=2.13, p=0.04). No differences between conditions were found in measures of pre-meal hunger and desire to eat, or post-meal pleasantness and familiarity (largest t(27) = 1.47, p = 0.15). Similar effects were also found when participant expectations were taken into account, and no differences between participants who expected sauces to affect intake vs. those who did not expect sauces to affect intake were found (largest F(1, 26) = 1.70, p=0.20). These findings suggest that the addition of sauce to an older person's meal can result in increases in intake and may be beneficial for preventing or treating under-nutrition in these individuals, although the mechanisms by which sauces can increase intake are unlikely to be related to pleasantness and familiarity. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.