Suchergebnisse

Systemic nature of global environmental problems, and factors promoting international cooperation.

Climate change and depletion of the ozone layer are two examples of dramatic changes in the Earth's natural environment which raise new questions in international relations. The nine chapters in this book explore some of the theoretical and policy problems that are posed by global environmental change. The variety of perspectives employed - international relations theory, international political economy, international law, strategic studies, North-South issues and Eastern Europe - illustrates the complexity of the issues involved

The final publication is available at Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.05.030. © 2018. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ; 'Energy storage' comprises a range of technologies of varying maturity and cost-effectiveness, which are increasingly considered to be an important part in building the electricity system of the future. As with any potentially transformative technology, there remain questions of how, and under what context, electricity system stakeholders (new and old) will perceive the technology. Our interest in this paper is to identify and assess the political and sociotechnical system factors that stand to shape the extent to which energy storage can be considered transformational. To do so, we investigate the transformative potential of storage in Ontario, Canada, based on interviews with key electricity system stakeholders. We find that the transformative potential of energy storage is by no means preordained, and is instead intimately intertwined with the complex interactions between actors and institutional factors in each and across three electricity system subsectors. ; Research made possible by the financial support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) as part of the NSERC Energy Storage Technology (NEST) Network.

The purpose of this article is to investigate wind turbine production, the variability of that production, and the relationship between output and system-wide demand. A review of the literature reveals that a variety of measures (and methods) to explore the variability of wind power production exist. Attention then turns to the province of Ontario (Canada), and the performances of four wind farms are examined for 2006 and 2007. Key conclusions include that the wind farms' capacity factors vary from 27.6% to 35.6%, with higher values in winter as compared to summer; wind power performs better than the seasonal average during peak periods; wind is a better "partner" for the Ontario electricity system in the winter as opposed to the summer; and the increased geographic distribution of wind farms decreases their collective variability.

AbstractWith many electricity markets around the world now open to retail competition, it is increasingly valuable to understand the attitudes, motivations and behaviour of residential electricity purchasers. Drawing upon two sets of survey results from an Ontario (Canada) community, this paper answers two questions. First, what 'kinds' of people are more or less likely to switch electricity supplier? Secondly, what motivates those who are more or less likely to switch electricity supplier? After answering these questions, the paper advances marketing strategies for new retail electricity suppliers and proposes business plans for established municipal electric utilities. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications Ltd.