The status and needs relating to the optimal design of community seasonal energy storage are reported. Thermal energy storage research has often focused on technology development and integration into buildings, but little emphasis has been placed on the most advantageous use of thermal storage in community energy systems. Depending on the composition and characteristics of a community, the most appropriate community thermal storage may differ from that for a single building. District energy systems usually link thermal users to cold supplies and/or heat supplies (e.g., solar thermal energy, geothermal energy from ground-source heat pumps or geothermal hot zones, industrial waste heat, thermal energy from cogeneration or trigeneration). It is demonstrated that the optimal integration of these technologies can be enhanced through the use of appropriate seasonal thermal energy storage and that community-level seasonal storage can facilitate the development of smart net-zero energy buildings and yield efficiency, economic and environmental benefits. Issues that need to be resolved to allow optimal solutions to be attained are described. Advanced tools are required for modeling, simulation, analysis, improvement, design and optimization, which incorporate advanced methods like exergy analysis. The most appropriate scale, number and type (e.g., sensible, latent, thermochemical) of thermal storages in a community need to be better assessed, and the appropriate time duration capacities for each determined in an optimal manner. This is particularly important since a combination of short-, medium- and long-term storage is sometimes required to yield the most benefits from community energy systems.

This study uses Johansen cointegration technique to examine both the equilibrium relationship and the causality between oil consumption, nuclear energy consumption, oil price and economic growth. To do so, four industrialized countries including the USA, Canada, Japan, and France are investigated over the period from 1965 to 2010. The cointegration test results suggest that the proposed variables tend to move together in the long run in all countries. In addition, the causal linkage between the variables is scrutinized through the exogeneity test. The results point that energy consumption (i.e., oil or nuclear) has either a predictive power for economic growth, or feedback impact with real GDP growth in all countries. Results suggest that oil consumption is not only a major factor of economic growth in all the investigated countries, it also has a predictive power for real GDP in the USA, Japan, and France. Precisely, increasing oil consumption by 1% increases the economic growth in Canada by 3.1%., where increasing nuclear energy consumption by 1% in Japan and France increases economic growth by 0.108 and 0.262%, respectively. Regarding nuclear energy consumption–growth nexus, results illustrate that nuclear energy consumption has a predictive power for real economic growth in the USA, Canada, and France. On the basis of speed of adjustment, it is concluded that there is bidirectional causality between oil consumption and economic growth in Canada. On the other hand, there is bidirectional causal relationship between nuclear energy consumption and real GDP growth in Japan.

Rural populations often depend on small reservoirs for their water supply. These reservoirs are engineered systems designed to serve specific purposes. Water from these sources is not only utilized for drinking purposes, but also for commercial and industrial use. Thus, a thorough limnological study is essential. The present study is carried out at Bakreswar reservoir in Birbhum district, which was created by the dam, built on Bakreswar River. The major purpose of the reservoir is to supply drinking water to the surrounding villages and to use Bakreswar Thermal Power Station for cooling their power plant. A previous study on this reservoir has shown temporal variation of environmental factors as well as good assemblage of zooplankton. In order to get a more detailed preview on zooplankton groups, seasonal diversity is calculated for four major groups of zooplanktons (Cladocera, Ostracoda, Copepoda and Rotifera) with the software PAST. Spatial pattern analysis of zooplankton community is also performed to propose possible hypotheses explaining reasons underlying the causal factors for any such variation. Moreover, community ordination is done using SPSS 20 to understand the overall ecosystem functioning of the reservoir. The results show that Station I and Station III are more diversified in all the seasons compared to Station II. The mode of distribution is clumped, and the degree of clumping varied with different functional groups of studied zooplankton as seen in the two methods used. So it can be concluded that the zooplankton community of this reservoir is diverse and shows horizontal clumped distribution pattern and niche separation among the groups to avoid competition. The results help in formulating proper strategies for advanced water quality management and conservation of reservoir ecosystem.

Perchlorate is used as an oxidizing agent in rocket propellants, fireworks, munitions, etc. This results in perchlorate contamination of drinking water sources in the nearby areas. The present study was carried out in Kerala, southwest coast of India, where exist rocket propellant manufacturing site (Ammonium Perchlorate Experimental Plant), rocket propellant testing facility (Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station) and several fireworks manufacturing sites. Perchlorate contamination in drinking water was monitored during post-monsoon, pre-monsoon and monsoon seasons around these sites. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry was used for perchlorate quantification in drinking water. Mean perchlorate in drinking water ranged from 1.03 to 3760.16 ppb in post-monsoon, <6 to 5094.87 ppb in pre-monsoon and 13.99 to 601.28 ppb in monsoon. The perchlorate contamination is found to be varied with season, site and the type of drinking water.

This study explores gender in the energy input–output analysis by comparing the energy indicators in paddy production in female-headed farms and male-headed farms during years of 2014–2015 in Mazandaran Province. Questionnaires were used to collect data from 120 paddy farmers (60 males and 60 females). Energy indicators were calculated for female- and male-headed farms. Results revealed noticeable variations in some important energy indicators between female- and male-headed farms. A significant difference was observed in terms of total energy input. The majority of energy input consumption for both female- and male-headed farms was devoted to diesel fuel, fertilizers, especially nitrogen fertilizers, and machinery. Results indicated that there was no significant difference between male-headed and female-headed farms in terms of net energy and specific energy, but energy use efficiency and energy productivity were significantly higher for female-headed farms. Then, it can be argued that gender factor had a significant impact on amount of direct, indirect, and renewable energy inputs. Based on our findings, female-headed rice systems were more efficient, where fossil-based inputs were used more environment friendly than male-headed farms. Finally, targeted “soft” policies like gender-sensitive capacity-developing program were proposed.