The authors used the INFRASTRATEGO simulation game to examine strategic behavior in a liberalizing electricity market and the effectiveness of different regulatory regimes in dealing with this strategic behavior. The game simulates the Dutch electricity market in the years 2002 to 2006. The game was played eight times with about 400 players, both professionals and students. Two regulatory regimes defined by (a) the policy-making model and (b) the regulation by negotiation model were evaluated. The authors found several patterns of strategic behavior such as regulatory capture, sometimes with rather disturbing effects with regard to the settlement of rates and long-term capacity planning.
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In this report, the details of an investigation into the e ect of the low induction wind turbines on the Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCoE) in a 1GW o shore wind farm is outlined. The 10 MW INNWIND.EU conventional wind turbine and its low induction variant, the 10 MW AVATAR wind turbine, are considered in a variety of 10x10 layout configurations. The Annual Energy Production (AEP) and cost of electrical infrastructure were determined using two in-house ECN software tools, namely FarmFlow and EEFarm II. Combining this information with a generalised cost model, the LCoE from these layouts were determined. The optimum LCoE for the AVATAR wind farm was determined to be 92.15 e/MWh while for the INNWIND.EU wind farm it was 93.85 e/MWh. Although the low induction wind farm o ered a marginally lower LCoE, it should not be considered as definitive due to simple nature of the cost model used. The results do indicate that the AVATAR wind farms require less space to achieve this similar cost performace, with a higher optimal wind farm power density (WFPD) of 3.7 MW/km2 compared to 3 MW/km2 for the INNWIND.EU based wind farm.
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In recent years, a step change has been seen in the rate of adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies by manufacturers and industrial organizations alike. This article discusses the current state of the art in the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies within the construction industry. Increasing complexity in onsite construction projects coupled with the need for higher productivity is leading to increased interest in the potential use of Industry 4.0 technologies. This article discusses the relevance of the following key Industry 4.0 technologies to construction: data analytics and artificial intelligence, robotics and automation, building information management, sensors and wearables, digital twin, and industrial connectivity. Industrial connectivity is a key aspect as it ensures that all Industry 4.0 technologies are interconnected allowing the full benefits to be realized. This article also presents a research agenda for the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies within the construction sector, a three-phase use of intelligent assets from the point of manufacture up to after build, and a four-staged R&D process for the implementation of smart wearables in a digital enhanced construction site.
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The Dutch greenhouse horticulture industry is characterized by world leadership in high-tech innovation. The dynamics of this playing field are innovation in production systems and automation, reduction in energy consumption and sharing limited space. However, international competitive advantage of the industry is under pressure and sustainable growth of individual enterprises is no longer a certainty. The sector's ambition is to innovate better and grow faster than the competition in the rest of the world. Realizing this ambition requires strengthening the knowledge base, stimulating entrepreneurship, innovation (not just technological, but especially business process innovation). It also requires educating and professionalizing people. However, knowledge transfer in this industry is often fragmented and innovation through horizontal and vertical collaboration throughout the value chain is limited. This paper focuses on the question: how can the grower and the supplier in the greenhouse horticulture chain gain competitive advantage through radical product and process innovation. The challenge lies in time- to-market, in customer relationship, in developing new product/market combinations and in innovative entrepreneurship. In this paper an innovation and entrepreneurial educational and research programme is introduced. The programme aims at strengthening multidisciplinary collaboration between enterprise, education and research. Using best practice examples, the paper illustrates how companies can realize growth and improve the innovative capacity of the organization as well as the individual by linking economic and social sustainability. The paper continues to show how participants of the program develop competencies by means of going through a learning cycle of single-loop, double-loop and triple loop learning: reduction of mistakes, change towards new concepts and improvement of the ability to learn. Finally, the paper illustrates the importance of combining enterprise, education and research in regional networks, with examples from the greenhouse horticulture sector. These networks generate economic growth and international competitiveness by acting as business accelerators.
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The Dutch greenhouse horticultural industry is characterized by world leadership in high-tech innovation. The dynamics of this playing field are innovation in production systems and automation, reduction in energy consumption and sharing limited space. However, international competitive advantage of the industry is under pressure and sustainable growth of individual enterprises is no longer a certainty. The sector's ambition is to innovate better and grow faster than the competition in the rest of the world. Realizing this ambition requires strengthening the knowledge base, stimulating entrepreneurship, innovation (not just technological, but especially business process innovation). It also requires educating and professionalizing people. However, knowledge transfer in this industry is often fragmented and innovation through collaboration takes up a mere 25-30% of the opportunities. The greenhouse horticulture sector is generally characterized by small scale, often family run businesses. Growers often depend on the Dutch auction system for their revenues and suppliers operate mainly independently. Horizontal and vertical collaboration throughout the value chain is limited. This paper focuses on the question: how can the grower and the supplier in the greenhouse horticulture chain gain competitive advantage through radical product and process innovation. The challenge lies in time- to-market, in customer relationship, in developing new product/market combinations and in innovative entrepreneurship. In this paper an innovation and entrepreneurial educational and research programme is introduced. The programme aims at strengthening multidisciplinary collaboration between enterprise, education and research. Using best practice examples, the paper illustrates how companies can realize growth and improve innovative capabilities of the organization as well as the individual by linking economic and social sustainability. The paper continues to show how participants of the programme develop competencies by means of going through a learning cycle of single-loop, double-loop and triple loop learning: reduction of mistakes, change towards new concepts and improvement of the ability to learn. Furthermore, the paper discusses our four-year programme, whose objectives are trying to eliminate interventions that stimulate the innovative capabilities of SME's in this sector and develop instruments that are beneficial to organizations and individual entrepreneurs and help them make the step from vision to action, and from incremental to radical innovation. Finally, the paper illustrates the importance of combining enterprise, education and research in networks with a regional, national and international scope, with examples from the greenhouse horticulture sector. These networks generate economic regional and national growth and international competitiveness by acting as business accelerators.
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How can the grower and the supplier in the greenhouse horticulture industry gain competitive advantage through radical innovation? The challenge lies in time- to-market, in customer relationship, in developing new product/market combinations and in innovative entrepreneurship. Realizing this ambition requires strengthening the knowledge base, stimulating innovation, entrepreneurship and education. It also requires professionalizing people. In this paper an innovation and entrepreneurial educational and research programme is introduced. This KITE120-programme aims at strengthening multidisciplinary collaboration between enterprise, education and research. It helps making the step from ambition to action, and from incremental to radical innovation. We call this an 'Amazing Jump'.
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The Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Fontys University of Professional Education in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, offers a course which is being developed around the principles of Concurrent Engineering. From research we found that in general students are not completely aware of aspects of cost-effectiveness but they are fully oriented towards technical problem solving. In order to improve on this aspects, we introduced the framework of "design to cost": learn to choose the right tools, concepts and technologies in a way that successful products can be designed and developed. This second edition of the course, based on 'design to cost', showed to be very successful and was strengthening our self-confidence. So in the third edition we started to work together with the regional industry. The companies paid for the development and, this money is used for intensive group coaching by tutors and specialists. It turned out that the contacts with the industry proved to be a very stimulating factor for the students. Working together with industry raises the quality of the education and it proved to be an excellent preparation for the final thesis period of the students.
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Ammonia is heavily used in agriculture as a fertilizer and in industry as a raw material for the production of various organic nitrogen compounds. Its high hydrogen content and its established infrastructure for both storage and distribution makes ammonia a prominent candidate for storing fluctuating renewable energy. The Haber-Bosch heterogenous reaction of hydrogen and nitrogen on an iron-based catalyst is used today at large scale ammonia production sites. The current industrial hydrogen production is dominated by fossil energy sources. The traditional Haber-Bosch process can become green and carbon-free if renewable electricity is used for hydrogen generation. However, a continuous operation of power to ammonia can be challenging with a fluctuating renewable energy source. Techno-economic models show that electrolysis and the hydrogen supply chain is the main dominating cost factor of power to ammonia.
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The traditional energy industry is transitioning from a centralised fossil fuel based industry to a decentralised renewable energy industry for several reasons including climate change, policy, and changing customer needs. Furthermore, renewable sources, such as wind and solar, are intermittent and unpredictable. This has implications for the business models of energy producers, such as increased mismatch between demand and supply, increased price volatility, shift in drivers of value creation. Due to the low marginal cost of production and the intermittent nature of renewables, the price volatility on the electricity markets, in particular the imbalance market, are expected to increase. However, there is potential for market parties operating in the electricity sector to profit from this development by providing flexibility to balance electricity supply and demand. Therefore, new business models are needed that can harness and exploit flexibility in a viable manner. In these business models, flexibility becomes the key driver of value creation.
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One of the claims the OER movement makes is that availability of (open) digital learning materials improves the quality of education. The promise is the ability to offer educational programs that take into account specific demands of the learner. The question is how to reach a situation where a customized demand can be met using OER with acceptable quality against acceptable costs. This situation resembles mass customization as is common in industry for several decades now. Techniques from an industry where an end product is assembled with the demands of the customer as a starting point can be translated to the field of education where courses and learning paths through a curriculum are assembled using a mixture of open and closed learning materials and learning services offered by an institution. Advanced IT support for both the modeling of the learning materials and services and a configurator to be used by a learner are necessary conditions for this approach.
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