Energy Efficiency through Thermal Energy Storage : Possibilities for the Swedish Building Stock

The need for heating and cooling in buildings constitutes a considerable part of the total energy use in a country and reducing this need is of outmost importance in order to reach national and international goals for reducing energy use and emissions. One important way of reaching these goals is to increase the proportion of renewable energy used for heating and cooling of buildings. Perhaps the largest obstacle with this is the often occurring mismatch between the availability of renewable energy and the need for heating or cooling, hindering this energy to be used directly. This is one of the problems that can be solved by using thermal energy storage (TES) in order to save the heat or cold from when it is available to when it is needed. This thesis is focusing on the combination of TES techniques and buildings to achieve increased energy efficiency for heating and cooling. Various techniques used for TES as well as the combination of TES in buildings have been investigated and summarized through an extensive literature review. A survey of the Swedish building stock was also performed in order to define building types common in Sweden. Within the scope of this thesis, the survey resulted in the selection of three building types, two single family houses and one office building, out of which the two residential buildings were used in a simulation case study of passive TES with increased thermal mass (both sensible and latent). The second case study presented in the thesis is an evaluation of an existing seasonal borehole storage of solar heat for a residential community. In this case, real measurement data was used in the evaluation and in comparisons with earlier evaluations. The literature reviews showed that using TES opens up potential for reduced energy demand and reduced peak heating and cooling loads as well as possibilities for an increased share of renewable energy to cover the energy demand. By using passive storage through increased thermal mass of a building it is also possible to reduce variations in the indoor temperature and especially reduce excess temperatures during warm periods, which could result in avoiding active cooling in a building that would otherwise need it. The analysis of the combination of TES and building types confirmed that TES has a significant potential for increased energy efficiency in buildings but also highlighted the fact that there is still much research required before some of the technologies can become commercially available. In the simulation case study it was concluded that only a small reduction in heating demand is possible with increased thermal mass, but that the time with indoor temperatures above 24 °C can be reduced by up to 20%. The case study of the borehole storage system showed that although the storage system worked as planned, heat losses in the rest of the system as well as some problems with the system operation resulted in a lower solar fraction than projected. The work presented within this thesis has shown that TES is already used successfully for many building applications (e.g. domestic hot water stores and water tanks for storing solar heat) but that there still is much potential in further use of TES. There are, however, barriers such as a need for more research for some storage technologies as well as storage materials, especially phase change material storage and thermochemical storage.

Simple Question, Complex Answer : Pathways Towards a 50% Decrease in Building Energy Use

Addressing building energy use is a pressing issue for building sector decision makers across Europe. In Sweden, some regions have adopted a target of reducing energy use in buildings by 50% until 2050. However, building codes currently do not support as ambitious objectives as these, and novel approaches to addressing energy use in buildings from a regional perspective are called for. The purpose of this licentiate thesis was to provide a deeper understanding of most relevant issues with regard to energy use in buildings from a broad perspective and to suggest pathways towards reaching the long-term savings objective. Current trends in building sector structure and energy use point to detached houses constructed before 1981 playing a key role in the energy transition, especially in the rural areas of Sweden. In the Swedish county of Dalarna, which was used as a study area in this thesis, these houses account for almost 70% of the residential heating demand. Building energy simulations of eight sample houses from county show that there is considerable techno-economic potential for energy savings in these houses, but not quite enough to reach the 50% savings objective. Two case studies from rural Sweden show that savings well beyond 50% are achievable, both when access to capital and use of high technology are granted and when they are not. However, on a broader scale both direct and indirect rebound effects will have to be expected, which calls for more refined approaches to energy savings. Furthermore, research has shown that the techno-economic potential is in fact never realised, not even in the most well-designed intervention programmes, due to the inherent complexity of human behaviour with respect to energy use. This is not taken account of in neither current nor previous Swedish energy use legislation. Therefore an approach that considers the technical prerequisites, economic aspects and the perspective of the many home owners, based on Community-Based Social Marketing methodology, is suggested as a way forward towards reaching the energy savings target.

Policy instruments to improve energy efficiency in buildings

The newly adopted energy efficiency directive (2012/27/EU) highlights the importance of energy efficiency in reaching the Union’s 2020 targets. The directive commits member states to defining national energy efficiency targets (art. 3), achieving yearly energy savings of 1.5% of the annual energy sales through the energy efficiency obligation scheme (art. 7), and providing a long-term strategy for the building sector that aims at a 3% refurbishment rate for public buildings (art. 4+5). Buildings currently account for 40% of energy use in most countries, putting them among the largest end-use sectors. This report takes a closer look at the best practices for implementing increasing energy efficiency in different regions and countries in Europe. The final aim is to identify some policy tools to be suggested to the region of Dalarna (Dalarna having been chosen as the pilot county in Sweden) as a means of implementing energy efficiency in the building sector. The final objective is to give analysts and decision-makers a better analytical foundation to explore future policy development in the area of buildings to be proposed and tested at the regional level in Dalarna and later at the national level in Sweden.

Sacrifice and efficiency of the income tax schedule

We investigate the efficiency of equal sacrifice tax schedules in an economy which primitives are exactly those in Mirrlees (1971): a continuum of individuals with identical preferences defined over consumption and leisure who differ with respect to their labor market productivity. Using a separable specification for preferences we derive the minimum equal sacrifice allocation and recover the tax schedule that implements it. The separable specification allows us to use the methodology developed by Werning (2007b) to check whether the schedule is efficient, that is, whether there is no alternative tax schedule that raises more revenue while delivering less utility to no one. We find that inefficiency does not arise for most parametrizations we use to approximate the US economy. For the few cases for which inefficiency does arise, it does so only for very high levels of income and marginal tax rates.

On the efficiency of equal sacrifice income tax schedules

In an economy which primitives are exactly those in Mirrlees (1971), we investigate the efficiency of labor income tax schedules derived under the equal sacrifice principle. Starting from a given government revenue level, we use Werning’s (2007b) approach to assess whether there is an alternative tax schedule to the one derived under the equal sacrifice principle that raises more revenue while delivering less utility to no one. For our preferred parametrizations of the problem we find that inefficiency only arises at very high levels of income. We also show how the multipliers of the Pareto problem may be extracted from the data and used to find the implicit marginal social weights associated with each level of income.

On the efficiency of the Argentinean electricity wholesale market

This paper discusses two key aspects regarding the efficiency of the Argentinean Electricity Market. Using hourly data on prices, marginal costs, and operational status of generators, it will be argued that, unlike the former British and Californian electricity spot markets, this market is not subject to the conventional forms of exercise of market power by generators. We then use Chao's (1983) model of optimal configuation of electricity supply to evaluate the social desirability of the change in the supply pattern of the Argentinean electricity industry, which took place throughout the last ten years.

Eficiência, gestão e meio ambiente na carcinicultura do Rio Grande do Norte

SILVA, J. L. M. da; SAMPAIO, L. M. . Eficiência, Gestão e Meio Ambiente na Carcinicultura do Rio Grande do Norte. In: Congresso da Sociendade Brasileira de Economia, Administração e Sociologia Rural - SOBER, 40., 2007, Londrina. Conhecimentos para a Agricultura do Futuro, 2007.

The use of stable isotopes for authentication of gadoid fish species

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Sewage sludge as nitrogen and phosphorus source for cane-plant and first ratoon crops

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Use of saprophytic leptospira strains in the serodiagnosis of experimental leptospirosis in guinea-pigs (Cavia sp)

No presente estudo foi avaliada, através da reação de soroaglutinação microscópica, a eficiência de quatro estirpes apatogênicas de Leptospira biflexa (Buenos Aires, Patoc 1, Rufino e São Paulo) como antígeno único para o diagnóstico sorológico em cobaias experimentalmente infectadas com sete diferentes sorotipos de Leptospira interrogans (canicola, grippotyphosa, hardjo, icterohaemorrhagiae, pomona, tarassovi e wolffi). As estirpes Buenos Aires, Patoc 1, Rufino e São Paulo não foram eficientes em revelar títulos de anticorpos nos soros das cobaias infectadas com Leptospira interrogans. Durante o experimento, foi observada a ocorrên cia de reações sorológicas cruzadas entre as estirpes Patoc 1 e São Paulo e também entre os sorotipos wolffi e hardjo.

Carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus mineralization in two soils amended with distillery yeast

The possibility of using yeast from alcohol distilleries as a source of nutrients in soil was investigated. The following treatments were used: no fertilization (control), 0.5% (w/w) yeast, 1% (w/w) yeast, and NPK. The decomposition of yeast was monitored for 90 days in two soils. The CO, production and the microbial biomass were increased by art average of 1- to 3-fold by yeast incorporation compared to control. Protease activity also was enhanced 3- to 8-fold in the soils supplemented with yeast compared to control. The phosphatase activities were higher than control only during the first days. While nitrate contents increased in all treatments compared to control, available P only increased in the soils amended with 1%, yeast or NPK by 45-119% and 309-489%, respectively. These results indicate that there exists an excellent potential for the use of yeast in the soil as a source of nitrate and available P for plant nutrition. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nutrient contents and production of rocket as affected by nitrogen concentrations in the nutritive solution

O empirismo no uso das soluções nutritivas é freqüente. Muitas vezes a mesma solução nutritiva é usada para diferentes espécies baseando-se apenas em semelhanças morfológicas. No entanto esta situação pode proporcionar desequilíbrio nutricional prejudicando tanto a produção quanto a qualidade do produto face o acúmulo de nitrato. Foi conduzido um trabalho em sistema hidropônico - NFT, com o objetivo de avaliar o efeito da concentração de nitrogênio na solução nutritiva na produção, nos teores de nutrientes e de nitrato em folhas de rúcula (Eruca sativa). O trabalho foi conduzido na primavera de 2003. Foram avaliadas quatro concentrações de nitrogênio na solução nutritiva (60,8; 121,6; 182,5; 243,5 mg L-1) e três cultivares de rúcula (Cultivada, Folha Larga e Selvática), sob delineamento de blocos ao acaso, fatorial 4 x 3, com quatro repetições. A cv. Cultivada apresentou maior estatura e fitomassa fresca de folhas, não diferindo da 'Folha Larga' quanto a número de folhas, teor de nitrato nas folhas e fitomassa seca e fresca da raiz. Houve incremento de NO3-, N, Ca e P e diminuição de Mg, K e S com o aumento da concentração de N na solução nutritiva. O cultivo da cv. Cultivada na concentração de 93 mg L-1 é a mais recomendada em função da maior produtividade e baixo teor de nitrato.

Efficiency of a constructed wetland for wastewaters treatment

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Produtividade, eficiência agronômica, características nutricionais e tecnológicas do feijão adubado com nitrogênio em plantio direto e convencional

Altas produtividades do feijoeiro são obtidas sob condições tecnológicas adequadas, destacando-se o uso de sistemas de manejos de solo e a adubação nitrogenada, porém, há pouco conhecimento sobre tais técnicas culturais interferindo nas características nutricionais e tecnológicas de grãos. Desse modo, o trabalho teve como objetivo verificar a interferência da adubação nitrogenada em cobertura (0, 40, 80, 120 e 160 kg ha-1 de N) no feijoeiro, cultivar Pérola, cultivado no preparo convencional do solo e no plantio direto e suas relações com a produtividade, eficiência agronômica, características nutricionais e tecnológicas do grão. O delineamento experimental empregado foi o de blocos ao acaso em esquema de parcelas subdivididas, com quatro repetições, onde as parcelas foram constituídas pelos sistemas de manejo de solo e as subparcelas pelas doses de N em cobertura. A produtividade do feijoeiro é influenciada positivamente pela adubação nitrogenada em cobertura, com maior necessidade de fertilizante no plantio direto. A eficiência agronômica é superior no sistema de preparo convencional do solo. O aumento do teor de proteína bruta é em função das doses crescentes de N em cobertura nos sistemas de plantio direto e de preparo convencional do solo. O tempo para cozimento dos grãos é diminuido em função das doses de N empregadas no sistema de plantio direto em relação ao preparo convencional. Há aumento no tempo para a máxima hidratação dos grãos até a aplicação de 120 kg ha-1 de N no sistema de plantio direto e no preparo convencional do solo.

Características físico-químicas do grão de cultivares de arroz em função da adubação nitrogenada

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) stands out as a staple food of the world population due to important nutritional properties. However, rice physico-chemical parameters vary according to genotype and management, for example, the use of nitrogen fertilizer. The aim of this work was to evaluate physico-chemical parameters of grains from thirteen cultivars of upland rice under supplemental sprinkler irrigation and fertilized with different nitrogen rates by topdressing (0, 40, 80, 120 and 160 kg ha(-1)). Parameters such as milling efficiency, commercial grade, gelatinization temperature, as well as total nitrogen and crude protein contents of grains were evaluated. Nitrogen fertilization positively influences the whole grain yield, especially IAC 25 and BRS Colosso. BRS Aroma, IAC 202, IAC 500, BEST 2000, Curinga and Baldo have a high percentage of broken grains. The cultivars Baldo and Carnaroli (appropriate for Italian cuisine), IAC 25 and Caiapo are classified as long grain and the others, as long-thin. The cultivars, except CIRAD 141, displayed grain gelatinization temperature between intermediate and low, providing quick cooking. The grain content protein varies among cultivars, and it can be increased with nitrogen fertilization.