The EU is confident it will reach its target of 20% renewable energy by 2020. But according to Martien Visser, professor at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen (The Netherlands), this 20% is in reality more like 14%. This is because a large part of our energy consumption is simply ignored in the calculations for renewable energy. “Even with 100% renewables, we would still need a lot of fossil fuels”, Visser notes.
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With the effects of climate change linked to the use of fossil fuels, as well as the prospect of their eventual depletion, becoming more noticeable, political establishment and society appear ready to switch towards using renewable energy. Solar power and wind power are considered to be the most significant source of global low-carbon energy supply. Wind energy continues to expand as it becomes cheaper and more technologically advanced. Yet, despite these expectations and developments, fossil fuels still comprise nine-tenths of the global commercial energy supply. In this article, the history, technology, and politics involved in the production and barriers to acceptance of wind energy will be explored. The central question is why, despite the problems associated with the use of fossil fuels, carbon dependency has not yet given way to the more ecologically benign forms of energy. Having briefly surveyed some literature on the role of political and corporate stakeholders, as well as theories relating to sociological and psychological factors responsible for the grassroots’ resistance (“not in my backyard” or NIMBYs) to renewable energy, the findings indicate that motivation for opposition to wind power varies. While the grassroots resistance is often fueled by the mistrust of the government, the governments’ reason for resisting renewable energy can be explained by their history of a close relationship with the industrial partners. This article develops an argument that understanding of various motivations for resistance at different stakeholder levels opens up space for better strategies for a successful energy transition. https://doi.org/10.30560/sdr.v1n1p11 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/
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Dit project richt zich op de ontwikkeling van de biotechnologische en chemische procesvoering om op basis van mycelium een alternatief voor leer te produceren. In vergelijking met leer is het voordeel van mycelium dat geen runderen nodig zijn, de productie kan plaatsvinden onder industriële condities en met gebruik van reststromen, de CO2 uitstoot alsook hoeveelheid afval verlaagd wordt, en het gebruik van toxische stoffen zoals chroom wordt vervangen door biobased alternatieven. In het project zullen de procescondities worden bepaald die leiden tot de vorming van optimaal mycelium. Daartoe zullen twee verschillende schimmels worden gekweekt in bioreactoren bij de Hogeschool Arnhem Nijmegen (HAN), waarbij specifiek de effecten van de procescondities (temperatuur, pH, shear, beluchting) en de samenstelling van het kweekmedium op groei van het mycelium en materiaal eigenschappen zullen worden onderzocht. De meest optimale condities zullen vervolgens worden opgeschaald. Op het op deze wijze verkregen materiaal zal Mylium BV een aantal nabehandelingsstappen uitvoeren om de sterkte, elasticiteit, en duurzaamheid van het product te vergroten. Daartoe worden biobased plasticizers, cross-linkers en/of flexibility agents gebruikt. Het resulterende eindproduct zal middels specifiek fysieke testen vergeleken worden met leer alsook worden voorgelegd aan mogelijke klanten. Indien beide resultaten positief zijn kan het betreffende proces na het project verder worden opgeschaald voor toepassing naar de markt.
The climate change and depletion of the world’s raw materials are commonly acknowledged as the biggest societal challenges. Decreasing the energy use and the related use of fossil fuels and fossil based materials is imperative for the future. Currently 40% of the total European energy consumption and about 45% of the CO2 emissions are related to building construction and utilization (EC, 2015). Almost half of this energy is embodied in materials. Developing sustainable materials to find replacement for traditional building materials is therefore an increasingly important issue. Mycelium biocomposites have a high potential to replace the traditional fossil based building materials. Mycelium is the ‘root network’ of mushrooms, which acts as a natural glue to bind biomass. Mycelium grows through the biomass, which functions simultaneously as a growth substrate and a biocomposite matrix. Different organic residual streams such as straw, sawdust or other agricultural waste can be used as substrate, therefore mycelium biocomposites are totally natural, non-toxic, biological materials which can be grown locally and can be composted after usage (Jones et al., 2018). In the “Building On Mycelium” project Avans University of Applied Sciences, HZ University of Applied Sciences, University of Utrecht and the industrial partners will investigate how the locally available organic waste streams can be used to produce mycelium biocomposites with properties, which make them suitable for the building industry. In this project the focus will be on studying the use of the biocomposite as raw materials for the manufacturing of furniture or interior panels (insulation or acoustic).
To reach the European Green Deal by 2050, the target for the road transport sector is set at 30% less CO2 emissions by 2030. Given the fact that heavy-duty commercial vehicles throughout Europe are driven nowadays almost exclusively on fossil fuels it is obvious that transition towards reduced emission targets needs to happen seamlessly by hybridization of the existing fleet, with a continuously increasing share of Zero Emission vehicle units. At present, trailing units such as semitrailers do not possess any form of powertrain, being a missed opportunity. By introduction of electrically driven axles into these units the fuel consumption as well as amount of emissions may be reduced substantially while part of the propulsion forces is being supplied on emission-free basis. Furthermore, the electrification of trailing units enables partial recuperation of kinetic energy while braking. Nevertheless, a number of challenges still exist preventing swift integration of these vehicles to daily operation. One of the dominating ones is the intelligent control of the e-axle so it delivers right amount of propulsion/braking power at the right time without receiving detailed information from the towing vehicle (such as e.g. driver control, engine speed, engine torque, or brake pressure, …etc.). This is required mainly to ensure interoperability of e-Trailers in the fleets, which is a must in the logistics nowadays. Therefore the main mission of CHANGE is to generate a chain of knowledge in developing and implementing data driven AI-based applications enabling SMEs of the Dutch trailer industry to contribute to seamless energetic transition towards zero emission road freight transport. In specific, CHANGE will employ e-Trailers (trailers with electrically driven axle(s) enabling energy recuperation) connected to conventional hauling units as well as trailers for high volume and extreme payload as focal platforms (demonstrators) for deployment of these applications.
