China and the changing landscape of the world economy

The rapid development of emerging markets is changing the landscape of the world economy and may have profound implications for international relations. China is often regarded as the most influential emerging market economy because, during the last three decades, it has become increasingly integrated into the world economic system and its success and failure now affect the well-being of other nations in the world. As the financial crisis in the US and EU intensifies, the economic prosperity of the world depends to a large extent on the sustained development of the Chinese economy and other emerging markets, and vice versa.

Bio-fuelling the Hummer? Transdisciplinary Thoughts on Techno-Optimism and Innovation in the Transition from Unsustainability

An overarching aim of this chapter is to offer an informed and critical analysis of ‘techno-optimism’, informed by an explicitly transdisciplinary approach. A transdisciplinary perspective is one in which knowledge production goes beyond the academy to include end non-academic stakeholders and users. In effect it seeks to ‘upstream’ the involvement of non-academic interests in research design and knowledge production, as opposed to limiting those non-academic interests to the dissemination end point stage of research, which is the dominant research model. Techno-optimism is understood as an exaggerated and unwarranted belief in human technological abilities to solve problems of unsustainability while minimising or denying the need for large-scale social, economic and political transformation. More specifically, techno-optimism is the belief that the negative environmental and social costs of high-consumption, affluent, consumer societies and associated ways of life within capitalist orthodox economic growth orientated socio-economic systems, can be solved or eradicated through technological innovation and breakthroughs. Business as usual can be ‘greened’; a capitalist, growth-based economy can be made more ‘resource efficient’, consumerism less ‘resource intensive’ (and maybe a little bit more ethical). Techno-optimism, to be deliberately provocative for a moment, can therefore be described as a ‘biofuel the hummer’ response to the challenges (and opportunities) of the crisis of unsustainability. What I mean by that analogy is the seductive promise and premise of techno-optimism of not questioning or doubting the status quo (the hummer), hence it’s putative (but entirely false) non-political character. The capitalist, consumerist, growth-based socio-economic system is thus removed from critical analysis (usually on the implicit or explicit assumption of either the normative rightness of this system, or on strategic political grounds that it is naive or utopian to envisage widespread support for a non or post-capitalist consumer system). Techno-optimism simply enables a different means (biofuel) to the same ends.

Reserve from wind power potential in system economic loading

The growth of wind power in some power systems is hampered by the system requirement for emergency reserve to cover loss of the biggest infeed. The study demonstrates that reserve provision from the wind sector itself has economic and operational benefits. A heuristic algorithm has been developed that can model the relevant aspects of emergency reserve provision in a system with both thermal and wind generations. The proposed algorithm is first validated by comparing its performance with established economic scheduling methods applied to a representative power system. The algorithm is then used to demonstrate the economic benefit of reserve provision from the wind sector. It is shown that such provision reduces wind energy curtailment and thermal unit ramping. Finally, it is shown that a wind sector capable of providing emergency reserve can expand economically beyond the capacity limit that would otherwise apply.

Long-Term Economic Model for Allocation of FACTS Devices in Restructured Power System Integrated Wind Generation

This study proposes an approach to optimally allocate multiple types of flexible AC transmission system (FACTS) devices in market-based power systems with wind generation. The main objective is to maximise profit by minimising device investment cost, and the system's operating cost considering both normal conditions and possible contingencies. The proposed method accurately evaluates the long-term costs and benefits gained by FACTS devices (FDs) installation to solve a large-scale optimisation problem. The objective implies maximising social welfare as well as minimising compensations paid for generation re-scheduling and load shedding. Many technical operation constraints and uncertainties are included in problem formulation. The overall problem is solved using both particle swarm optimisations for attaining optimal FDs allocation as main problem and optimal power flow as sub-optimisation problem. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated on modified IEEE 14-bus test system and IEEE 118-bus test system.

Regulatory Planning for Economic Development in the Countryside

This article examines the interaction between development control and economic development in the countryside within the context of contemporary debates on shifts in the agricultural sector from productivism to multi-functionality. Using planning application decisions from the case of Northern Ireland for the period 1994–95 to 2005–06, together with insights from high-level key informants with planning, economic development and environmental management expertise, the article critiques a perception that regulatory planning is in line with rural development ambitions to foster a multi-functional countryside. While the quantitative data indicate a high approval rate for economic development projects, the qualitative evidence points to limitations within the policy content and operational practices of the planning system. The article argues that regulatory planning must engage more deeply with rural development objectives.

An autonomous wave-powered desalination system

The potential for an autonomous wave-powered desalination system is considered and it is identified that the most promising configuration is a reverse osmosis (RO) plant utilising a pressure exchanger-intensifier for energy recovery. A numerical model of the RO plant with a pressure exchanger-intensifier is developed that shows that a specific energy consumption of less than 2.0 kW h/m3 over a wide range of sea-water feed conditions, making it particularly suitable for use with a variable power source such as wave energy. A numerical model of the combined wave-power and desalination plant is also developed that shows that it is possible to supply the desalination plant with sea-water directly pressurised by the wave energy converter, eliminating the cost and energy losses associated with converting the energy into electricity and back to pressurised water. For a typical sea-state the specific hydraulic energy consumption of the desalination plant is estimated to be 1.85 kW h/m3 whilst maintaining a recovery-ratio of less than 25 to 35% to avoid the need for chemical pre-treatment to eliminate scaling problems. It is suggested that the economic potential for wave-powered desalination depends on these energy and cost savings more than compensating for the reduction in membrane life that occurs with variable feed conditions.

Voodoo Institution or Entrepreneurial University? Spin-off Companies, the Entrepreneurial System and Regional Development in the UK

University spin-off companies occupy a prominent position in both government and university policies and aspirations for the commercialization of university research for economic benefit at regional and national levels. However, most university spin-off companies start small and remain small, reflecting founder aspirations, capabilities, and resource endowments. Based on detailed analysis of university spin-offs in Northern Ireland, it is concluded that these companies are technology lifestyle businesses not dynamic high-growth potential start-ups, and it is suggested that the prominence given to spin-offs in the analysis of technology transfer and in discussions of the economic impacts of universities is misplaced.

Individual employment rights and the renewal of economic citizenship: lessons from the Rights Commissioners in Ireland

Using a large-scale data set, this article considers the role and growing importance of the Rights Commissioners in Ireland. The Rights Commissioners’ service, which has no parallel in any other anglophone industrial relations system, provides an informal and accessible method for the resolution of disputes and the vindication of employment rights. In recent years, the number of cases handled by the Rights Commissioners has grown hugely. A close examination of the cases handled by the service suggests that the Rights Commissioners allow vulnerable workers to pursue cases of alleged breaches of employment rights. The service is seen as holding lessons for other economies in terms of developing a model of economic citizenship that has as a dimension the enforcement of employment rights.

Modelling gas storage with compressed air energy storage in a system with large wind penetrations

Installed wind capacity in the European Union is expected to continue to increase due to renewable energy targets and obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy sources such as wind power are variable sources of power. Energy storage technologies are useful to manage the issues associated with variable renewable energy sources and align non-dispatchable renewable energy generation with load demands. Energy storage technologies can play different roles in electric power systems and can be used in each of the steps of the electric power supply chain. Moreover, large scale energy storage systems can act as renewable energy integrators by smoothening the variability of large penetrations of wind power. Compress Air Energy Storage is one such technology. The aim of this paper is to examine the technical and economic feasibility of a combined gas storage and compressed air energy storage facility in the all-island Single Electricity Market of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in order to optimise power generation and wind power integration. This analysis is undertaken using the electricity market software PLEXOS ® for power systems by developing a model of a combined facility in 2020.

Committing to Economic Openness in Ireland: The Importance of Domestic Institutional Capabilities

This chapter sets out to explain the factors behind Ireland's exceptional period of economic growth from the early 1990s to the mid 2000s. It suggests that an unbending commitment to economic openness and an on-going effort to establish quality domestic institutions were the main drivers of the so-called ‘Celtic tiger’ phenomenon. The commitment to economic openness manifested itself in the relentless search for inward investment and a willingness to accept deep forms of European integration. Building domestic institutional capabilities involved adopting new-classical macroeconomic policies, creating a robust system of social partnership and reforming the educational system. The two factors positively interacted with each other to create dynamic effects.

Development of a Polymer-carbon Nanotubes based Economic Solar Collector

A low cost solar collector was developed by using polymeric components as opposed to metal and glass components of traditional solar collectors. In order to utilize polymers for the absorber of the solar collector, Carbon Nanotubes (CNT) has been added as a filler to improve the thermal conductivity and the solar absorptivity of polymers. The solar collector was designed as a multi-layer construction with considering the economic manufacturing. Through the mathematical heat transfer analysis, the performance and characteristics of the designed solar collector have been estimated. Furthermore, the prototypes of the proposed system were built and tested at a state-of-the-art solar simulator facility to evaluate the actual performance of the developed solar collector. The cost-effective polymer-CNT solar collector, which achieved efficiency as much as that of a conventional glazed flat plate solar panel, has been successfully developed.