Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Integrated energy technologies'

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2009.
Thesis Advisor(s): Nussbaum, Dan. "September 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on November 5, 2009. Author(s) subject terms: Net Zero Plus, Expeditionary Force Provider Kit, Fully Burdened Cost of Fuel, National Training Center, U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center Natick, Joint Capability Technology Demonstration. Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-72). Also available in print.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited
An investigation of how fuel cells, an integrated power system, and directed energy weapons will affect the shipboard command and control process. The focus is on the implementation of the new technologies onboard near-term and far-term destroyer variants and the resulting changes to the command and control process.
Ensign, United States Naval Reserve

Availability of and access to water and energy are key ingredients for economic and social development. Predictions show that pressure on already limited water and energy resources is expected to increase in many parts of the world as a result of growing populations, rapid urbanization, increasing pollution and climate change impacts. The water and energy systems are highly interdependent and these interlinks provide important opportunities to improve resource security and prevent inefficient decisions which could exacerbate problems even further. This thesis explores the benefits to be gained from and the drawbacks of ignoring the various interlinks. A review of several existing water-energy integration modeling methodologies shows that the different physical, temporal and spatial characteristics of the water and energy systems present several hurdles in analyzing the two resources simultaneously. This thesis overcomes many of these issues by developing a fully integrated hard-linked water-energy linear optimization model. A case study from Spain is used to demonstrate the applications of the model for simultaneous analysis of water, energy and climate change adaptation strategies. An integrated approach is shown to have several benefits including lower total costs, better resource efficiency and improved robustness for a wide range of variations in several uncertain parameters.

QC 20171106

Cette thèse propose des apports méthodologiques, techniques et macroéconomiques sur la transition énergétique pour atténuer les changements climatiques. La première partie apporte un éclairage théorique sur modèles empiriques du système énergie-économie-environnement. Ces modèles présentent des incertitudes autour des valeurs de paramètres, des mécanismes structurels et de la pertinence des échelles du modèle. L'étude du rôle de l'analyse prospective et de ses outils montre un traitement insuffisant de l'incertitude structurelle contenue dans les modèles. Par conséquent, nous étudions en profondeur les outils appliqués d'analyse prospective pour révéler la vision prospective qu'ils incarnent à travers trois axes: les interdépendances qu'ils incorporent, les mécanismes de transformation et la représentation de la transition. Tout d'abord, les interdépendances qu'ils comprennent se manifestent en termes de schémas comptables, boucle de rétroaction entre énergie et croissance économique, et la représentation de la valeur ajoutée et des niveaux d'activité par rapport aux technologies. Puis, les forces de transformation sont discutées: le moteur de la croissance économique ainsi que la source de l'évolution des tendances de la demande et le progrès technique. Enfin, nous commentons la manière habituelle dont la transition est représentée, c'est-à-dire comme une trajectoire à l'équilibre pour la dynamique technologique, les choix économiques ainsi que la représentation des marchés. Nous concluons que cette spécification de la transition est inhérente à la fonction de production traditionnelle pour représenter les choix à la fois techniques et économiques. Cela entraîne une discussion sur le statut de l'équilibre macro-économique dans l'outil Imaclim, qui est un modèle walrasien d'équilibre général avec une transition en déséquilibre. Suite à cette analyse méthodologique, nous donnons des exemples de travaux empiriques menés avec le modèle Imaclim-R. Premièrement, nous examinons à l'échelle mondiale l'inclusion de technologies dans le modèle Imaclim-R Monde pour évaluer le potentiel, les limites et l'impact sur le calendrier de l'action des options pour la bioénergie et des politiques d'efficacité énergétique. Nous expliquons techniquement comment les technologies de la bioénergie sont inclus dans le modèle pour faire la lumière sur la complémentarité entre bioénergie et CCS et évaluer les impacts macroéconomiques temporels de l'atténuation du changement climatique. En outre, nous analysons la représentation de l'efficacité énergétique avec une analyse détaillée des mécanismes par lesquels elle influe sur la croissance et interagit avec le calendrier de l'atténuation climatique. Nous présentons ensuite le rôle du modèle Imaclim-R France pour impliquer les parties prenantes autour de la création de scénarios participatifs. Ensuite, nous discutons des impacts technologiques et macroéconomiques de ces scénarios. En particulier, nous examinons les conséquences pour les besoins d'investissement et de montrer que la taxe carbone peut être réduite avec un signal politique fort
This dissertation discusses methodological, technical and macroeconomic insights on the energy transition for climate mitigation. The first part deals with the theoretical analysis of empirical models of the energy-economy-environment system. Model present uncertainties in terms of parameter values, structural mechanisms and the pertinence of the model scales. The study of the role of forward-looking analysis and its tools show an insufficient treatment of the structural uncertainty contained within the models. Therefore, we study in depth the applied tools of forward-looking analysis to elicit the forward-looking vision they embody through three axes. the interdependences they include, the transformation mechanisms and the transition representation. First, the interdependences they include manifest in terms of accounting schemes, feedback loop between energy and economic growth, value added, and the representation of activity levels in relation to technologies. Then, the transformation drivers are discussed: the economic growth engine as well as the source of the evolution of demand patterns and technical progress. Finally, we comment on the widely spread way of the representation the transition as a pathway in equilibrium for the technology dynamics, the economic choices as well as the markets representation. We conclude that this specification of the transition is inherent to traditional production function to represent both technical and economic choices. This brings about a discussion on the status of the macroeconomic equilibrium in the Imaclim tool, which is Walrasian CGE model with a transition in disequilibrium. The second part regroups empirical studies of the macroeconomic impacts of climate change mitigation. First, we examine at the global level the inclusion of technologies in the Imaclim-R World model to assess the potential, limitations and the impact on the timing of action of bioenergy options and energy efficiency policies. We explain technically how bioenergy technologies are included within the model to shed light on the complementarity of bioenergy and CCS and assess their impact of the temporal macroeconomic impacts of climate mitigation. Also, we present the representation of energy efficiency with a detailed analysis of the mechanisms through which it impacts growth and assess the interplay with the timing of climate mitigation. Second, we present a study to design energy transition scenarios at the French level with stakeholder involvement and discuss the macroeconomic impacts, in particular on investment. We present the role of the Imaclim-R France model to involve stakeholders around participative scenario creation. Then, we discuss the technological and macroeconomic impacts of these scenarios. In particular, we examine the consequences for investment needs and show that the carbon tax can be reduced with a strong political signal

The cornerstone of our production system is based on the concept “take, make, waste”. Moreover, the manufacture of a product requires the input of energy and raw materials which produce waste and products. The latter ultimately end up becoming wastes. In other words, the root problem of this production system is that is designed on a linear, one-way cradle-to grave model (McDonough, W. and Braungart, M., 2002). This approach coupled with the population explosion and our thirst for growth has led to an unprecedented pressure to the environment. The consequences are multiple; climate change, dwindling energy resources and waste generation. This study lies in two pillars: the concept of sustainable development and the waste management hierarchy. The idea was how these two fundamental concerns (energy generation and waste production) could be tackled. This study assesses the availability of biomass residues and wastes in the off-grid island of Crete with the aim to ‘close the loop’ by converting waste to an energy resource. In addition, the exploration of the most sustainable energy generation solutions was attempted in order to drive forward the synergies between biomass waste production and energy generation. The collected information was extracted from the literature about agricultural, livestock, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and Industrial & Commercial (I&C) waste. It is also based on numerous interviews to waste management associations, the Greek Ministry of Rural Development & Food and all the Waste Water Treatment Plants in the island were analysed in order to shed light on the potential energy generation from all the aforementioned biomass sources and its contribution to the electric energy production system of Crete. It is considered that the biomass potential in Crete is a sleeping giant. There is considerable potential for biomass-to-energy technologies in Crete providing improved rural energy services based on agricultural residues. From the findings of this study it appears that the biomass potential is more than estimated in previous papers. Based on the findings it is concluded that the largest portion of Crete’s biomass potential is agricultural residues and animal wastes. The utilisation of low-cost biomass power in Crete could help provide cleaner, more efficient energy services and to reduce the island’s economic and environmental vulnerability. Biomass can provide both base load power and turn into liquid transportation fuels and contributes to reducing energy dependence due to import fuel from the mainland. In terms of the study’s goal to select the most sustainably viable biomass-to-energy technologies, that was based on the multi-criteria methodology. A number of integrated biomass-to-energy alternatives were assessed against technical, environmental, financial and social criteria with the aim to assist the regional authority’s decision making process of energy generation planning. From the final screening of the integrated biomass-to-energy alternatives it was concluded that the best in a descending order technologies from the regional authority’s standpoint are: F - Anaerobic digestion & Fuel cell; E – Anaerobic digestion & Gas engine; C - Gasification & Gas engine; A – Combustion & Steam turbine; and B – Gasification & Steam turbine.

Large scale data centers (DC) and high performance computing (HPC) systems require more and more computing power at higher energy efficiency. They are already consuming megawatts of power, and a linear extrapolation of trends reveals that they may eventually lead to unrealistic power consumption scenarios in order to satisfy future requirements (e.g., Exascale computing). Conventional complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-based electronic interconnects are not expected to keep up with the envisioned future board-to-board and chip-to-chip (within multi-chip-modules) interconnect requirements because of bandwidth-density and power-consumption limitations. However, low-power and high-speed optics-based interconnects are emerging as alternatives for DC and HPC communications; they offer unique opportunities for continued energy-efficiency and bandwidth-density improvements, although cost is a challenge at the shortest length scales. Plasmonics-based interconnects on the other hand, due to their extremely small size, offer another interesting solution for further scaling operational speed and energy efficiency. At the device-level, CMOS compatibility is also an important issue, since ultimately photonics or plasmonics will have to be co-integrated with electronics. In this paper, we survey the available literature and compare the aforementioned interconnect technologies, with respect to their suitability for high-speed and energy-efficient on-chip and offchip communications. This paper refers to relatively short links with potential applications in the following interconnect distance hierarchy: local group of racks, board to board, module to module, chip to chip, and on chip connections. We compare different interconnect device modules, including low-energy output devices (such as lasers, modulators, and LEDs), photodetectors, passive devices (i.e., waveguides and couplers) and electrical circuitry (such as laserdiode drivers, modulator drivers, transimpedance, and limiting amplifiers). We show that photonic technologies have the potential to meet the requirements for selected HPC and DC applications in a shorter term. We also present that plasmonic interconnect modules could offer ultra-compact active areas, leading to high integration bandwidth densities, and low device capacitances allowing for ultra-high bandwidth operation that would satisfy the application requirements further into the future.

Waste can be considered as an urban burden or as a valuable resource depending on how it ismanaged. Different waste treatment technologies are available at present to manage municipal solidwaste (MSW). Various actors are involved to develop waste treatment technology for certain area.The aim of this study is to analyze the driving forces in technical development in waste sector inSweden. The study is also done to identify emerging waste management technology in Sweden.Moreover, a comparative study of existing and emerging technologies is done by Life CycleAssessment (LCA) model. An extensive literature review and pilot questionnaire survey among thewaste management professionals’ is done for the study. LCA model is developed by SimaProsoftware CML2 baseline method is used for identifying environmental burden from the wastetechnologies.Dry composting, Pyrolysis-Gasification (P-G), Plasma-Arc are identified as potential emergingtechnologies for waste management system in Sweden. Technical developments of thesetechnologies are influenced by indigenous people’s behavior, waste characteristics, regulations, healthor environmental impact and global climate change. Comparative LCA model of P-G andIncineration shows that, P-G is a favorable waste treatment technology than Incineration for MSW,especially in acidification, global warming and aquatic eco-toxicity impact categories.

Розглянуто деякі особливості використання ТПВ на комплексному підприємстві, яке може забезпечувати всі свої енергетичні потреби самостійно. Дослідження спрямовані на вивчення таких питань, як розробка моделей утилізації-модифікації полімерної частини ТПВ або тари та пакування. При цьому враховувалися фактори вибору науково-обґрунтованих методів переробки та утилізації полімерів; розробку необхідних технологічних схем і устаткування для переробки полімерних відходів; вибір підприємств для реалізації утилізації полімерів і виду енергетичних ресурсів для реалізації цих проектних рішень.
Some features of the possibilities of solving evidence-based problems of improving the use of wastes of different industries on a complex enterprise that can provide all its energy needs alone. The problem of wastes utilization and recycling is present as complex research and analysis of energy- and resource saving processes for treatment of polymer wastes of various origin. The research focused on the study of issues such as the development of models of waste-modifying polymer. The investigation are focused in researching such problems as selection of scientific based methods of wastes to be utilized or recycled; the development of appropriated process flow sheets and choice of modifications additives and equipment for polymers waste recycling. The choice of appropriate plants with selected energy resources is very important for projects realization.

Exploiting solar energy technology for both heating and cooling purposes has the potential of meeting an appreciable portion of the energy demand in buildings throughout the year. By developing an integrated, multi-purpose solar energy system, that can operate all twelve months of the year, a high utilisation factor can be achieved which translates to more economical systems. However, there are still some techno-economic barriers to the general commercialisation and market penetration of such technologies. These are associated with high system and installation costs, significant system complexity, and lack of knowledge of system implementation and expected performance. A sorption heat pump module that can be integrated directly into a solar thermal collector has thus been developed in order to tackle the aforementioned market barriers. This has been designed for the development of cost-effective pre-engineered solar energy system kits that can provide both heating and cooling. This thesis summarises the characterisation studies of the operation of individual sorption modules, sorption module integrated solar collectors and a full solar heating and cooling system employing sorption module integrated collectors. Key performance indicators for the individual sorption modules showed cooling delivery for 6 hours at an average power of 40 W and a temperature lift of 21°C. Upon integration of the sorption modules into a solar collector, measured solar radiation energy to cooling energy conversion efficiencies (solar cooling COP) were between 0.10 and 0.25 with average cooling powers between 90 and 200 W/m2 collector aperture area. Further investigations of the sorption module integrated collectors implementation in a full solar heating and cooling system yielded electrical cooling COP ranging from 1.7 to 12.6 with an average of 10.6 for the test period. Additionally, simulations were performed to determine system energy and cost saving potential for various system sizes over a full year of operation for a 140 m2 single-family dwelling located in Madrid, Spain. Simulations yielded an annual solar fraction of 42% and potential cost savings of €386 per annum for a solar heating and cooling installation employing 20m2 of sorption integrated collectors.

The process of allocating necessary resources like clean water, fuel/energy and food have resulted in an unsustainable use of natural resources causing problems with Soil erosion, soil fertility, desertification, deforestation, eutrophication and global warming. The purpose of this study was to gain information on the functional design of a waste management system enabling the organic components of domestic waste to be processed as useful resources while at the same time allow them to be re-circulated. The main part of this study was carried out at the Kendu SDA Hospital in the Rachyonyo district in western Kenya. For the case of this study two main objectives where chosen. The first was to develop a principal technological solution using three classed “appropriate technologies” found suitable for the purpose namely biogas, ecological water treatment systems and slow sand filtration. The second was to further analyse each included technology to further develop their potential to fit the concept. Results from the pilot facilities where then to be retrieved from the actual component selection and construction process itself, with performance analysis left for future studies.

The main purpose of the biogas system study has been to evaluate the original ideas of overall concept, details, materials and construction methods. The 1 m3 biogas system has improved significantly during the development process and is today not far from an implementation, i.e. construction on a slightly larger scale. The biogas system developed during the project has proven to have potential for digestion of both latrine and kitchen waste. Using the two as fuel for the process does not only remove a problem – it grants several benefits.

The ecological waste water treatment system main objective was to design and construct a pilot SSF-wetland. Results show that the construction process for smaller scaled SSF systems is simple and does not require trained personnel or specialized equipment and that significant cost reduction can be made by using locally available materials.

The slow sand filtration sub system concept is called PT SCX and though still in the stage of development proved to have great potential concerning both efficiency and sustainability. The PT SCX comprises the advantages of slow sand filtration with further development of individual system solutions. It was adapted to enable both integration to the IWESS solution and stand alone installations purifying even highly turbid surface water sources to drinking water quality.

The result from the study confirms the suitability of the three included technologies, ecological waste water treatment, biogas and slow sand filtration to work in an integrated system called IWESS- Integrated Water Energy and Sanitation Solution. The combined subsystems can together with source separated sewage offer full resource recovery enabling recirculation of both nutrients and water. In addition the system can be designed as a net producer of renewable and emission free energy.

This project is a bachelor thesis and aims to study the integration of concentrator photovoltaics (CPV), reverse osmosis (RO) and membrane distillation (MD) for water desalination and purification. In this report, an introduction of the need for efficient water desalination is presented. Following the introduction, relevant literature has been reviewed to build up the fundamental understanding of CPV, RO and MD. A general classification of CPV subsequently introduced. In order to acquire a more comprehensive understanding of CPVs, two case studies were performed with two different types of CPV/T. The cost efficiency of each type of CPV was analysed when integrated with RO and MD systems. The result turns out to be that it was not economically beneficial to have MD in the integrated system. The reason behind is the extensive thermal energy demand of MD. Other affecting parameters, such as location and system types were also discussed. Lastly, improvements and suggestions for further studies were considered.
Detta projekt är en kandidatuppsats och syftar till att studera ett integrerande system bestående av koncentrerade solceller (CPV), omvänd osmos (RO) och membrandestillation (MD) för vattenavsaltning och rening. Rapporten börjar med en introduktion om behovet av effektiv avsaltning av vatten. Relevant litteratur har granskats för att bygga upp den grundläggande förståelsen för CPV, RO och MD. Därefter gjordes en klassificering av CPV. För att få en mer omfattande förståelse av CPV valdes två olika typer av CPV /T för en djupare undersökning. Kostnadseffektiviteten för varje CPV analyserades, när dessa var integrerade med RO- och MD-system. Resultatet visar sig att det tyvärr inte var ekonomiskt fördelaktigt att ha med MD i det integrerade systemet. Anledningen bakom detta var det omfattande termiska energibehovet för MD. Andra avgörande faktorer, såsom plats och systemtyp diskuterades tillika. Slutligen avslutades rapporten med förslag på förbättringar och områden för vidare studier.

This master thesis deals with the integration of new devices from the manufacturers Revogi, Tabu Lumen, Sonoff and HomeMatic into the BeeeOn Gateway software. The theoretical part deals with the architecture of the BeeeOn Gateway software and describes the characteristics, behavior and way of communication with devices from the above mentioned manufacturers. This part of thesis also contains a description of the communication technologies used by these devices. They include Bluetooth Low Energy, the WiFi and the 868 MHz radio. The practical part mentions the way of extension of BeeeOn Gateway software to modules that implement support for smart devices. This section also describes how the correctness of implementation was verified and testing of the entire BeeeOn Gateway software. The testing of gateway is performed by unit and integration tests, which verify the behavior of individual gateway components as well as the whole gateway.

In New Zealand, the development of wind energy is occurring predominantly at a large scale level with very little opportunity for local people to become involved, either financially or conceptually. These conditions are creating situations of conflict between communities and wind energy developers – and are limiting the potential of the New Zealand wind energy industry. The inception of community ownership in small scale wind farms, developed in Europe in the late 20th Century, has helped to make a vital connection between wind energy and end users. Arguably, community wind farms are able to alleviate public concerns of wind energy’s impact on landscapes, amongst a wide range of other advantages. In Austria, community wind farms have offered significant development opportunities to local people, ushered in distributed generation, and all the while increasing the amount of renewable energy in the electricity mix. This thesis investigates whether community small scale wind (SSW) farms, such as those developed in Austria, are a viable and feasible option for the New Zealand context. The approach of this thesis examines the history of the Austrian wind industry and explores several community wind farm developments. In addition, interviews with stakeholders from Austria and New Zealand were conducted to develop an understanding of impressions and processes in developing community wind energy (CWE) in the New Zealand context. From this research an assessment of the transfer of the Austrian framework to the New Zealand situation is offered, with analysis of the differences between the wind energy industries in the two countries. Furthermore, future strategies are suggested for CWE development in New Zealand with recommendations for an integrated governmental approach. This research determines that the feasibility for the transfer of the Austrian framework development of ‘grassroots’ community wind farms in the next 10 years is relatively unlikely without greater support assistance from the New Zealand Government. This is principally due to the restricted economic viability of community wind farms and also significant regulatory and policy limitations. In the mid to long term, the New Zealand government should take an integrated approach to assist the development of community wind farms which includes: a collaborative government planning approach on the issue; detailed assessment of the introduction of feed-in tariff mechanisms and controlled activity status (RMA) for community wind farms; and development of limited liability company law for community energy companies. In the short term, however, the most feasible option available for the formation of community wind farms lies in quasi community developments with corporate partnerships.

La thèse propose d’abord un cadre général pour l’analyse de l’incertain durant les différentes phases du processus de planification énergétique à long terme à base de modèles de villes ou territoires (IEPCT). Il inclut des critères d’évaluation de la qualité d’une démarche IEPCT. Puis deux méthodes d’analyses de l’incertain sont proposées pour les activités de modélisation et de scénarisation du système énergétique : l’une basée sur l’échantillonnage aléatoire (PRSUA) et l’autre sur les scénarios flous (FSUA). Leur implémentation sur des cas a permis de montrer leur faisabilité et leur performance du point de vue des critères de qualité. La méthode PRSUA est plus gourmande en données, elle est plus adaptée à la planification sectorielle court moyen terme et tandis que FSUA convient plus à la planification long terme intersectorielle.Enfin une méthode pour la réalisation de l’ensemble des activités liées à la structuration d’un problème de planification spécifique (IMMA) est proposée
The Phd first proposes a methodological framework for addressing different types of uncertainty within long range ntegrated energy planning for cities and territories (IEPCT) processes which includes requirements and quality factors. Second, two methods for uncertainty analysis of modelling tasks are proposed. One approach is probabilistic random sampling approach (PRSUA) another one is fuzzy scenario approach (FSUA). Compared to FSUA, the PRSUA framework is more data intensive. PRSUA is more suitable for short or midterm sector specific domain analysis, FSUA is more appropriate for long range cross sectoral integrated planning.Third it is proposed an innovative approach (IMMA) for supporting not only uncertainties in IEPCT first phase but also all other tasks relevant to this planning phase. Implementation of IMMA in Singapore shows that it can address all identified tasks and help developing requirements for innovative solutions

Avec les avancées récentes en microélectronique, en traitement numérique et en technologie de communication, les noeuds de réseau de capteurs sans fil (noeud RCSF) deviennent de moins en moins encombrants et coûteux. De ce fait la technologie de RCSF est utilisée dans de larges domaines d’application. Comme les noeuds RCSF sont limités en taille et en coût, ils sont en général équipés d’un petit microcontrôleur de faible puissance de calcul et de mémoire etc. De plus ils sont alimentés par une batterie donc son énergie disponible est limitée. A cause de ces contraintes, la plateforme logicielle d’un RCSF doit consommer peu de mémoire, d’énergie, et doit être efficace en calcul. Toutes ces contraintes rendent les développements de logiciels dédiés au RCSF très compliqués. Aujourd’hui le développement d’un système d’exploitation dédié à la technologie RCSF est un sujet important. En effet avec un système d’exploitation efficient, les ressources matérielles d’une plateforme RCSF peuvent être utilisées efficacement. De plus, un ensemble de services système disponibles permet de simplifier le développement d’une application. Actuellement beaucoup de travaux de recherche ont été menés pour développer des systèmes d’exploitation pour le RCSF tels que TinyOS, Contiki, SOS, openWSN, mantisOS et simpleRTJ. Cependant plusieurs défis restent à relever dans le domaine de système d’exploitation pour le RCSF. Le premier des défis est le développement d’un système d’exploitation temps réel à faible empreinte mémoire dédié au RCSF. Le second défi est de développer un mécanisme permettant d’utiliser efficacement la mémoire et l’énergie disponible d’un RCSF. De plus, comment fournir un développement d’application pour le RCSF reste une question ouverte. Dans cette thèse, un nouveau système d’exploitation hybride, temps réel à énergie efficiente et à faible empreinte mémoire nommé MIROS dédié au RCSF a été développé. Dans MIROS, un ordonnanceur hybride a été adopté ; les deux ordonnanceurs évènementiel et multithread ont été implémentés. Avec cet ordonnanceur hybride, le nombre de threads de MIROS peut être diminué d’une façon importante. En conséquence, les avantages d’un système d’exploitation évènementiel qui consomme peu de ressource mémoire et la performance temps réel d’un système d’exploitation multithread ont été obtenues. De plus, l’allocation dynamique de la mémoire a été aussi réalisée dans MIROS. La technique d’allocation mémoire de MIROS permet l’augmentation de la zone mémoire allouée et le réassemblage des fragments de mémoire. De ce fait, l’allocation de mémoire de MIROS devient plus flexible et la ressource mémoire d’un noeud RCSF peut être utilisée efficacement. Comme l’énergie d’un noeud RCSF est une ressource à forte contrainte, le mécanisme de conservation d’énergie a été implanté dans MIROS. Contrairement aux autres systèmes d’exploitation pour RCSF où la conservation d’énergie a été prise en compte seulement en logiciel, dans MIROS la conservation d’énergie a été prise en compte à la fois en logiciel et en matériel. Enfin, pour fournir un environnement de développement convivial aux utilisateurs, un nouveau intergiciel nommé EMIDE a été développé et intégré dans MIROS. EMIDE permet le découplage d’une application de système. Donc le programme d’application est plus simple et la reprogrammation à distance est plus performante, car seulement les codes de l’application seront reprogrammés. Les évaluations de performance de MIROS montrent que MIROS est un système temps réel à faible empreinte mémoire et efficace pour son exécution. De ce fait, MIROS peut être utilisé dans plusieurs plateformes telles que BTnode, IMote, SenseNode, TelosB et T-Mote Sky. Enfin, MIROS peut être utilisé pour les plateformes RCSF à fortes contraintes de ressources
With the recent advances in microelectronic, computing and communication technologies, wireless sensor network (WSN) nodes have become physically smaller and more inexpensive. As a result, WSN technology has become increasingly popular in widespread application domains. Since WSN nodes are minimized in physical size and cost, they are mostly restricted to platform resources such as processor computation ability, memory resources and energy supply. The constrained platform resources and diverse application requirements make software development on the WSN platform complicated. On the one hand, the software running on the WSN platform should be small in the memory footprint, low in energy consumption and high in execution efficiency. On the other hand, the diverse application development requirements, such as the real-time guarantee and the high reprogramming performance, should be met by the WSN software. The operating system (OS) technology is significant for the WSN proliferation. An outstanding WSN OS can not only utilize the constrained WSN platform resources efficiently, but also serve the WSN applications soundly. Currently, a set of WSN OSes have been developed, such as the TinyOS, the Contiki, the SOS, the openWSN and the mantisOS. However, many OS development challenges still exist, such as the development of a WSN OS which is high in real-time performance yet low in memory footprint; the improvement of the utilization efficiency to the memory and energy resources on the WSN platforms, and the providing of a user-friendly application development environment to the WSN users. In this thesis, a new hybrid, real-time, energy-efficient, memory-efficient, fault-tolerant and user-friendly WSN OS MIROS is developed. MIROS uses the hybrid scheduling to combine the advantages of the event-driven system's low memory consumption and the multithreaded system's high real-time performance. By so doing, the real-time scheduling can be achieved on the severely resource-constrained WSN platforms. In addition to the hybrid scheduling, the dynamic memory allocators are also realized in MIROS. Differing from the other dynamic allocation approaches, the memory heap in MIROS can be extended and the memory fragments in the MIROS can be defragmented. As a result, MIROS allocators become flexible and the memory resources can be utilized more efficiently. Besides the above mechanisms, the energy conservation mechanism is also implemented in MIROS. Different from most other WSN OSes in which the energy resource is conserved only from the software aspect, the energy conservation in MIROS is achieved from both the software aspect and the multi-core hardware aspect. With this conservation mechanism, the energy cost reduced significantly, and the lifetime of the WSN nodes prolonged. Furthermore, MIROS implements the new middleware software EMIDE in order to provide a user-friendly application development environment to the WSN users. With EMIDE, the WSN application space can be decoupled from the low-level system space. Consequently, the application programming can be simplified as the users only need to focus on the application space. Moreover, the application reprogramming performance can be improved as only the application image other than the monolithic image needs to be updated during the reprogramming process. The performance evaluation works to the MIROS prove that MIROS is a real-time OS which has small memory footprint, low energy cost and high execution efficiency. Thus, it is suitable to be used on many WSN platforms including the BTnode, IMote, SenseNode, TelosB, T-Mote Sky, etc. The performance evaluation to EMIDE proves that EMIDE has less memory cost and low energy consumption. Moreover, it supports small-size application code. Therefore, it can be used on the high resource-constrained WSN platforms to provide a user-friendly development environment to the WSN users

Solar technology has been a major topic in sustainable design for many years. In the last five years, however, the solar technology industry has seen a rapid growth in installations and technological advances in cell design. Combined with a rapidly declining overall system cost, the idea of introducing solar technology into a wider range of applications is becoming a focus for engineers and scientists around the world. So many variables which alter solar energy production, such as the sun and surrounding environment, determine whether a solar design is beneficial. This thesis presents a bridge deck surface integrated with solar cells tested under all AASHTO LRFD pedestrian bridge loadings. A detailed solar analysis of the University of Massachusetts’s campus is presented to determine if solar integration is even plausible for the Northeastern United States with the energy limitations created by the deck integration, as well as an economic evaluation of the deck design. The purpose of this thesis was to determine if a walking surface could be integrated with solar technology and be a plausible alternative to conventional walking surfaces, while providing a source of sustainable power.

For the grid to be stable, the supply of power must equal the demands of the consumer at every moment during the day. The unpredictable intermittent nature of wind results in inconsistent power generation. Energy storage technologies coupled with a wind farm can not only provide power during fluctuations but also maintain a stable and reliable grid. The objective of the thesis is to perform a comprehensive analysis of different types of energy storage technologies that can be coupled with a wind farm. The analysis is performed on the basis of multiple characteristics which affect their viability. We identified key characteristics for a range of storage technologies, including lead-acid, sodium-sulphur, nickel cadmium, lithium-ion, superconducting magnetic energy storage, electrochemical capacitors, flywheels, flow batteries, pumped hydro and compressed air energy storage systems. We performed a comparison study to analyze trade-offs and assessed potential improvement areas that will make them more competitive in the electric power industry. We suggested viable energy storage systems that could be better and suitable for different applications for an electric grid integrated with a wind farm.