Digital Commons Network^™

This article demonstrates that interdisciplinary alliances on environmental education projects can effectively address the gap between complex environmental problems in the real world and disciplinary curricula in a university. We describe an alliance between an advanced communication course and a general science course wherein we addressed interconnections of energy efficiency, economics, and global climate change with respect to their impact on individuals, local businesses, and society. This project established that an interdisciplinary environmental project focused on local solutions to global problems is both a valuable learning tool for students and an effective method of accelerating the application of appropriate technologies.

As the economic costs of energy and the negative externalities associated with the combustion of fossil fuels threaten the economic viability of greenhouses in northern climates there is a renewed interest in the use of waste heat. This paper presents a technical and economic methodology to determine the viability of establishing waste heat greenhouses using the waste heat from industrial processes in northern climates. A case study is presented of an exchange between a tomato greenhouse and a flat glass manufacturing plant, which found the waste heat system is significantly more economic to operate than a purely natural gas system.

Nuclear power and solar photovoltaic energy conversion often compete for policy support that governs economic viability. This paper compares current subsidization of the nuclear industry with providing equivalent support to manufacturing photovoltaic modules. Current U.S. indirect nuclear insurance subsidies are reviewed and the power, energy and financial outcomes of this indirect subsidy are compared to equivalent amounts for indirect subsidies (loan guarantees) for photovoltaic manufacturing using a model that holds economic values constant for clarity. The preliminary analysis indicates that if only this one relatively ignored indirect subsidy for nuclear power was diverted to photovoltaic manufacturing, it would result in …

The advent of small scale combined heat and power (CHP) systems has provided the opportunity for in-house power backup of residential-scale photovoltaic (PV) arrays. These hybrid systems enjoy a symbiotic relationship between components, but have large thermal energy wastes when operated to provide 100% of the electric load. In a novel hybrid system is proposed here of PV-trigeneration. In order to reduce waste from excess heat, an absorption chiller has been proposed to utilize the CHP-produced thermal energy for cooling of PV-CHP system. This complexity has brought forth entirely new levels of system dynamics and interaction that require numerical simulation …

Drinking arsenic-contaminated water leads to a series of health problems that has limited development for the largely poor rural people of Pakistan who are unable to afford bottled water, centralized treatment plants or expensive water filter systems. This paper reviews the available appropriate technologies for the removal of arsenic from drinking water to assist in just sustainable development in Pakistan. Several technologies were found to be both technically and economically viable, supporting the large-scale deployment of these small-scale, appropriate technologies. The economic viability determined in this study was based on both first costs and operating costs. The cost of implementing …

Due to the negative environmental effects of fossil fuel combustion, there is a growing interest in both improved efficiency in energy management and a large-scale transition to renewable energy systems. Using both of these strategies, a large institutional-scale hybrid energy system is proposed here, which incorporates both solar photovoltaic energy conversion to supply renewable energy and cogeneration to improve efficiency. In this case, the photovoltaic reduces the run time for the cogeneration to meet load, particularly in peaking air conditioning times. In turn, however, the cogeneration system is used to provide power back up for the photovoltaic during the night …