Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading has been recognized as an important technology to increase the local self-consumption of photovoltaics in the local energy system. Different auction mechanisms and bidding strategies haven been investigated in previous studies. However, there has been no comparatively analysis on how different market structures influence the local energy system’s overall performance. This paper presents and compares two market structures, namely a centralized market and a decentralized market. Two pricing mechanisms in the centralized market and two bidding strategies in the decentralized market are developed. The results show that the centralized market leads to higher overall system self-consumption and profits. In the decentralized market, some electricity is directly sold to the grid due to unmatchable bids and asks. Bidding strategies based on the learning algorithm can achieve better performance compared to the random method.
This paper explores how so-called ‘Web3’ blockchain projects are materially and socially constituted. A blockchain is an append-only distributed database. The technology is being hyped as applicable for a whole range of industries, social service provisions, and as a fix for economic disparities in communities left behind by mainstream financial systems. Drawing on case studies from our ongoing research we explain how, despite being virtual, Web3 projects are dependent on clearly defined spaces of production from which they derive their speculative value. We conceptualise this relationship as Crypto/Space, where space and blockchain software are mutually constituted. We consider how Crypto/Spaces are produced in three ways: 1) how project developers are adopting a parasitic relationship with host locations to appropriate energy, infrastructure, and local resources; 2) how projects enable ‘virtual land grabs’ where developers are engaging in land acquisitions, and associated displacement of local people, with no real intention to use the land for the declared purpose; and 3) how blockchain technology and speculative finance imaginaries are inspiring new anarcho-capitalist crypto-utopian ‘Exit zones’, often in the Global South. Far from being a zero-sum virtual game world, we argue that cryptocurrency projects are parasitic, often requiring predation on poor and otherwise marginalised communities to appropriate resources, onboard new users and enable favourable regulation.
Growing volumes of wood are being used in construction, interior architecture, and product design, resulting in increasing amounts of wood waste. Using this waste is challenging, because it is too labor-intensive to process large volumes of uneven wood pieces that vary in geometry, quality, and origin. The project “Circular Wood for the Neighborhood” researches how advanced computational design and robotic production approaches can be used to create meaningful applications from waste wood. shifting the perception of circular wood as a simply harvested stream, towards a material with unique aesthetics of its own right. The complexity of the material is suggested to be tackled by switching from the object-oriented design towards designing soft systems. The system developed uses a bottom-up approach where each piece of wood aggregates according to certain parameters and the designed medium is mainly rule-sets and connections. The system is able to produce many options and bring the end-user for a meaningful co-design instead of choosing from the pre-designed options. Material-driven design algorithms were developed, which can be used by designers and end-users to design bespoke products from waste wood. In the first of three case studies, a small furniture item (“coffee table”) was designed from an old door, harvested from a renovation project. For its production, two principle approaches were developed: with or without preprocessing the wood. The principles were tested with an industrial robotic arm and available waste wood. A first prototype was made using the generated aggregation from the system, parametric production processes and robotic fabrication.
The missing link in diagnostic testing for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an agglutination assay, easy to perform and dedicated to decentralized testing. Approximately 75% of RA patients produce autoantibodies to citrullinated proteins (ACPA), which can be detected using an agglutination-based diagnostic test. Such a diagnostic test will be cheaper, less laborious and faster than current tests and does not require sophisticated equipment. Novio Catalpa is developing this alternative test for ACPA in collaboration with Radboud University. To develop this test, specifically tagged and citrullinated nanobodies are needed, but the production is still challenging. Current methods for the production of ACPA diagnostics involve chemical synthesis, in which a variety of toxic chemicals are used in each step. The alternative assay involves nanobodies fused with RA-biomarker target entities, which can be completely produced by ‘green synthesis’ in the yeast Pichia pastoris using the expertise of HAN BioCentre. The yeast P. pastoris has proven to be able to produce nanobodies and is a fast and cost-effective platform that often results in high protein yields. Goal of the project is therefore to determine the feasibility and best green route to produce purified nanobodies tagged with citrullinated ACPA targets that can be used for developing an agglutination assay for RA. P. pastoris does not produce endogenous PAD enzymes which are needed for citrullination of the nanobodies in order to be able to use it in a RA agglutination test. Therefore, PAD enzymes from other sources need to be tested and applied. The project results will be directly used by Novio Catalpa to further develop the innovative test for RA. This project will contribute to and finally result in a single-step agglutination assay suitable for both point-of-care testing and automation in clinical laboratories.
A fast growing percentage (currently 75% ) of the EU population lives in urban areas, using 70% of available energy resources. In the global competition for talent, growth and investments, quality of city life and the attractiveness of cities as environments for learning, innovation, doing business and job creation, are now the key parameters for success. Therefore cities need to provide solutions to significantly increase their overall energy and resource efficiency through actions addressing the building stock, energy systems, mobility, and air quality.The European Energy Union of 2015 aims to ensure secure, affordable and climate-friendly energy for EU citizens and businesses among others, by bringing new technologies and renewed infrastructure to cut household bills, create jobs and boost growth, for achieving a sustainable, low carbon and environmentally friendly economy, putting Europe at the forefront of renewable energy production and winning the fight against global warming.However, the retail market is not functioning properly. Many household consumers have too little choices of energy suppliers and too little control over their energy costs. An unacceptably high percentage of European households cannot afford to pay their energy bills. Energy infrastructure is ageing and is not adjusted to the increased production from renewables. As a consequence there is still a need to attract investments, with the current market design and national policies not setting the right incentives and providing insufficient predictability for potential investors. With an increasing share of renewable energy sources in the coming decades, the generation of electricity/energy will change drastically from present-day centralized production by gigawatt fossil-fueled plants towards decentralized generation, in cities mostly by local household and district level RES (e.g PV, wind turbines) systems operating in the level of micro-grids. With the intermittent nature of renewable energy, grid stress is a challenge. Therefore there is a need for more flexibility in the energy system. Technology can be of great help in linking resource efficiency and flexibility in energy supply and demand with innovative, inclusive and more efficient services for citizens and businesses. To realize the European targets for further growth of renewable energy in the energy market, and to exploit both on a European and global level the expected technological opportunities in a sustainable manner, city planners, administrators, universities, entrepreneurs, citizens, and all other relevant stakeholders, need to work together and be the key moving wheel of future EU cities development.Our SolutionIn the light of such a transiting environment, the need for strategies that help cities to smartly integrate technological solutions becomes more and more apparent. Given this condition and the fact that cities can act as large-scale demonstrators of integrated solutions, and want to contribute to the socially inclusive energy and mobility transition, IRIS offers an excellent opportunity to demonstrate and replicate the cities’ great potential. For more information see the HKU Smart Citieswebsite or check out the EU-website.
Living walls are increasingly becoming tools for green climate adaptation in the urban context, but distribution efforts are dampened by high investment and operational costs. Those costs are derived mainly from designing and manufacturing unique equipment for such new projects. A system using wastewater could relieve some of these costs by decreasing their irrigation and fertigation needs. Muuras is developing helophyte filters integrated into living wall systems that can readily be attached to any wall surface, with the ultimate purpose of local water recycling. Additionally, based on the fact that Muuras is a pre-engineered company, their product is modular, which means that a considerable advantage is recognized regarding the decreased capital cost. To realize scalable implementation of such a system, research with regards to the purification capabilities of lightweight substrates and small wetland plant species is imperative. In SoW & FloW, the NHL Stenden Water Technology Professorship proposes a collaboration between two SME’s (Muuras, Greenwave Systems) and a company (DeSaH), to evaluate a selection of substrates and endemic plant species based on their capability to use domestic wastewater as an irrigation source.
