ABSTRACT
This article proposes the best design for a hybrid system that incorporates wind turbines, solar panels, and fuel cells (FC) to satisfy the load requirement. The design's goal is to reduce the system's energy production costs considering the load supply's reliability. System costs include initial investment costs, operation and maintenance, replacement and replacement costs, and load loss costs. The optimal capacity of the hybrid system's equipment has been calculated with the help of the Coronavirus Optimization Algorithm (COVIDOA). The results obtained from the optimization have been compared and analyzed with those obtained from the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm. The results have shown that the COVIDOA optimization method, like the DE optimization method, has obtained favourable results. In the COVIDOA method, the system's production costs have increased slightly, but the reliability of the load supply has been improved. Therefore, in the suggested approach, in addition to considering the economic aspect of the design, much attention has been paid to the technical aspect of the design, in other words, the reliability level of the system. © 2023 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Due to the close production link between clean energy and non-ferrous metals, their price and market dynamics can easily affect one another through production costs. Furthermore, with the increased financialization of clean energy and non-ferrous metals markets, investment risk can easily spread between them. Therefore, this paper intends to explore the risk contagion between the two markets through the spillover index model and the minimum spanning tree (MST) method. Employing the data collected in China, this paper quantifies the magnitude of risk transfer by the volatility spillovers of eight clean energy stock markets as identified in The Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Clean Industry Statistical Classification 2021 and the eight corresponding non-ferrous metals futures markets, while fully considering the heterogeneity between sub-markets. First, we find that risk is mainly transmitted from clean energy to non-ferrous metals. Second, this paper identifies not only the most influential market but also the shortest path of risk contagion based on the MST topology analysis. Last, the empirical results show that the COVID-19 has increased the scale of risk transmission between the two markets and their connectivity. During the COVID-19 period, the shortest path between the two markets shifted from "hydropower–gold” to "smart grid–zinc”, and the systematically influential markets correspondingly become smart grid and zinc. The results obtained in this paper might have practical implications for policymakers seeking to achieve effective risk management, which could also facilitate investors for diversification benefits. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd
ABSTRACT
The Russia-Ukraine conflict represents a humanitarian crisis and causes several socio-economic consequences, being Russia a key supplier of energy and food commodities. After a few weeks of war, the prices of the essential goods, already increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, have continued to boost. The present research applies the material flow analysis to assess the sustainability of the artisan bread production, comparing a baseline and a war scenario, before and during the aforementioned conflict, and estimates the economic costs associated with natural and energy resources. The analysis is based on primary data collected through semi-structured interviews among nine artisan bakeries and secondary data collected before and during the conflict. The economic assessment, which is applied to enhance the environmental management of sociometabolic systems, is conducted on the entire artisan bread produced in Italy in 2021 and the system boundaries consider a cradle-to-gate approach. The highest upsurge in input costs has been estimated in electricity (+400%), N fertilizer (+233%) and K2O (+152%). The average input cost variation has been evaluated at +232%. Possible opportunities to support production costs include the adoption of an alternative bread recipe, which reduces the supply of impacting resources without affecting the quality of the finished product, as well as the introduction of structural interventions to lower energy costs. The research could help both artisan bakers, to better manage resources, waste and related impacts under the economic and the environmental perspective, and public authorities, to define appropriate strategies to sustain the bread sector. Last, the research provides scholars with an original analysis of the economic costs in the artisan bread production, highlighting its suitability to evaluate the supply chain sustainability from cradle to gate. © 2023 Elsevier Inc.