Search Results (400)

The vehicle–battery separation (VBS) model offers a viable framework for promoting new energy vehicle (NEV) adoption. To facilitate its broader diffusion, this study examines a supply chain comprising a vehicle manufacturer and a third-party operator for the battery leasing and swapping (BLS) services under this business model, from the perspective of automakers. Within this framework, three service operation strategies are developed for the automaker: (1) self-operated swapping services (VYN strategy); (2) self-operated leasing services (VNY strategy); and (3) full outsourcing of both services (VNN strategy). A comparative analysis yields three main findings. First, the automaker achieves the highest profit under strategy VNY, whereas the third-party operator prefers to cooperate with an automaker that adopts strategy VNN. Second, whether VNN or VNY yields higher total supply chain profit is determined by swapping price sensitivity and the vehicle’s base price: the VNN strategy is optimal when both parameters are low, and the VNY strategy is optimal otherwise. Third, to promote the adoption of battery-swappable vehicles, automakers should outsource battery swapping services (i.e., adopt strategy VNY or VNN). By contrast, leasing operations are better outsourced (through VYN or VNN) when the goal is to grow the swapping service market. Full article

Under geopolitical conflicts, the deployment of emergency green energy in energy-import-dependent countries is constrained by limited upfront capital and uncertainty regarding the conflict duration. This study evaluates financial leasing as a policy instrument by combining a benchmark decision model under conventional procurement with a tripartite evolutionary game involving the energy demand side, financial leasing companies, and the government. The results show that conventional procurement creates an underinvestment-idle-capacity dilemma governed by the critical conflict-persistence probability. Financial leasing alleviates financial constraints and redistributes the risks associated with demand uncertainty, producing market-driven and policy-guided stable equilibria. A global grid search shows that the policy-guided basin expands as the conflict-persistence probability increases. However, government subsidies have an inverted-U-shaped effect because their effectiveness is jointly constrained by the demand-side participation condition and the government’s net-benefit condition. The numerical example shows that combining financial leasing with government subsidies reduces the critical conflict-persistence probability for adopting financial leasing from 0.286 to 0.127, a decrease of approximately 56%, and substantially relaxes the feasible upper bound of the risk-sharing coefficient. These findings provide a theoretical basis for the use of financial leasing as a policy instrument to enhance energy security in energy-import-dependent countries and for the design of complementary incentive mechanisms. Full article

The vehicle–battery separation (VBS) model, which encompasses battery leasing and swapping services (BLSs), can effectively address the adoption challenges of new energy vehicles (NEVs). To identify the optimal strategy for battery-swapping operators under this model, this paper develops four operational models: full in-house provision of both services (FS), in-house battery swapping only (OS), in-house battery leasing only (OL), and full outsourcing of both services (FO). A comparative analysis is then conducted to determine the optimal strategy. The results show that the operators’ optimal strategy is co-determined by consumers’ price sensitivity to the battery swapping and the cost of battery production. Specifically, under conditions of high consumer responsiveness to battery swapping price, the battery-swapping operator should adopt the FS strategy. As price sensitivity decreases, the optimal strategy becomes contingent on the battery production cost. Specifically, when battery production costs are low, the FO strategy is the most profitable option; otherwise, the FS strategy emerges as the optimal strategy. Furthermore, the numerical analysis shows that the optimal strategy for promoting the VBS model is either FS or FO, depending on consumers’ sensitivity to swapping price. Full article

Independent battery energy storage systems (BESSs) can contribute to time-of-use arbitrage, ancillary services, capacity value compensation, capacity leasing, and demand response. Their multi-service value, however, depends on how power, energy, state-of-charge (SOC), and service windows are occupied or reserved across services. This paper develops a mechanism-oriented framework linking candidate-service identification, capacity-occupation modelling, revenue-activation assessment, and interpretation-boundary clarification. A 100 MW/200 MWh independent BESS is evaluated using four comparative typical-day portfolios under common technical and economic settings. Arbitrage provides CNY 0.280 million/day in all cases. Cases 2 and 3 reach CNY 0.330 million/day, with the declared midday charging-service capacity reaching 100 MW. In Case 4, a specified 100 MWh demand-response event is included; arbitrage, the midday charging service, capacity value compensation, and demand response generate positive revenue, while frequency regulation and capacity leasing remain at 0 MW. Net daily revenue reaches CNY 0.375 million/day. The results distinguish endogenous capacity-allocation outcomes from exogenous scenario commitments: regulation and leasing are screened by opportunity-cost competition; midday charging is subject to scenario-defined inclusion and timing but an endogenous declared capacity, whereas demand response is specified exogenously. The framework therefore supports transparent interpretation of positive and zero-capacity outcomes without extending station-level evidence to unsupported grid-level benefits. Full article

Heating and cooling account for roughly half of EU final energy demand, yet the decarbonisation of community-led district heating remains underrepresented in the finance literature. This paper examines the financial viability of heat cooperative business models through a three-model typology (administrative, leasing, asset) developed within the HeatCOOP project, applied to a financial feasibility analysis of two Slovenian biomass district heating projects. Both adopt the asset model via a public–private concession framework; capital expenditures range from €617,000 to €1.87 million and annual heat delivery from 1100 to 3300 MWh. Sensitivity analysis across grant rates of 0–65% shows that the subsidy rate is the dominant financial viability determinant: all four variants achieve positive net present value and internal rate of return of 7.3–7.8% at approximately 45% subsidy, while none are viable without public co-financing. The levelised cost of heat ranges from 85–97 €/MWh on a private basis to 114–134 €/MWh on an unsubsidised full-cost basis. Comparison with fourteen European benchmark cases shows that public subsidy functions not as a market-failure correction but as a structural substitute for cooperative member capital in environments where the cooperative tradition is nascent—with direct implications for subsidy programme design targeting cooperative district heating. Full article

This single-site industrial case study compares a leased diesel shunting locomotive with a battery-electric shunting locomotive used for the same class of in-plant railway tasks at the Seza Cement Plant. The evidence base comprises plant leasing and fuel records, equipment specifications, site-reported electricity indicators, operator-reported operational observations, direct CO₂ calculations, and documented occupational safety and health (OSH) functions; it is not a controlled or statistically replicated time–motion experiment. The diesel system incurred a monthly lease cost of USD 10,000 and consumed approximately 1800 L/month, equivalent to 21,600 L/year. Cross-checking the direct CO₂ calculation with 2.692 and 2.683 kg CO₂/L factors gives 58.1 and 58.0 t CO₂/year, respectively. The approximately 24-month payback is treated as a plant-reported investment indicator and evaluated through a normalized sensitivity model because disaggregated costs for locomotive purchase, charging infrastructure, battery replacement, and historical maintenance are not available in the case-study dataset. Operational evidence is reported descriptively: the 20–40% reduction in task time is an operator-reported range rather than a statistical mean; the 7–9 min value refers to the complete 10-wagon weighing maneuver; and 25 loaded wagons (approximately 1450 t) represents the maximum documented field movement rather than a manufacturer-rated capacity. A force-balance check shows that this maximum movement is feasible only if total equivalent resistance remains below approximately 5.41 N/kN, using the 77 kN catalog tractive effort as an upper bound. The battery-electric locomotive produces no local exhaust emissions at the point of use and incorporates SIL 2 remote-control functions, a deadman function, emergency-stop controls, camera support, lighting, and warning systems; these features indicate risk-control capability but do not constitute a measured accident-rate reduction. The study therefore contributes facility-scale, evidence-bounded information for low-speed, repetitive industrial shunting within a defined operating area rather than a general proof of battery-electric superiority across railway applications. Full article

First homesteaded in 1870, Longdale Farm (289 ha) in the Driftless Area hill country of west central Wisconsin, USA, has remained under the same family ownership since 1888 (138 years and five generations). Because such long-term family farm ownership and operation is very rare, our objective was to document and describe how the history and operational changes that took place on this family farm allowed it to continue under management of the same family, while so many other family farms were being sold off or transferred to commercial entities. We examined available farm records, diaries, and documents, governmental records, and historical photographs, and questioned living family members to gather data that allowed us to examine expected shifts away from self-sustaining farming, decreasing farm diversification, and changes in family interest in active farming. Hand-written entries in a multi-volume farm book or diary spanning 1913 through 2007 and information provided by living family members allowed for a generation-by-generation reconstruction of farm activities and assessments of changing practices. The farm has remained as a diversified operation throughout its history, including crop production, livestock (dairy and beef cattle, hogs, chickens) rearing, timber harvest, and wildlife and fish harvest. Farming priorities have shifted significantly across the generations, moving away from being largely self-sustaining but not becoming specialized in one particular area (e.g., dairy production) as have neighboring farms, instead remaining as a diversified operation. Multiple generations of family-owners still reside on and manage the farm with assistance from governmental land management professionals, but the farm’s croplands and pastures are now leased to neighboring farmers as a major source of farm income. Although the latest generations of farm owners have shifted away from active crop and livestock farming, Longdale Farm continues as a sustainable, revenue-generating operation available to future generations. Full article

Wind gusts are known to significantly influence wildfire behavior, yet their direct role in ignition dynamics remains underexplored in laboratory settings. This study investigates how controlled wind gusts affect ignition behavior, combustion transitions, and heat re-lease characteristics of wildland fuels using a bench-scale wind tunnel. Three fuel types, Excelsior, wild oat (Avena), and Wheatgrass were exposed to heated stainless-steel par-ticles under varying wind speeds (1.0 and 2.0 m/s) and gust frequencies (0.03, 0.05, and 0.07 Hz). Key ignition parameters, including ignition temperature, ignition delay, smol-dering-to-flaming (StF) transition, burnout time, and heat release rate (HRR), were measured and analyzed. The results show that increasing gust frequency consistently impacted ignition behavior which reduces ignition and transition times across all fuels while raising ignition temperatures and HRR. For instance, StF transition times in Avena dropped from 58 to 42 s and flaming ignition temperatures rose from ~415 °C to ~498 °C as gust frequency increased from 0.03 Hz to 0.07 Hz at 2.0 m/s wind speed. Also, for the same set of experiments, HRR rose from 1674 J/s to 2372 J/s with increasing gusts. These findings indicate that gusty winds enhance convective heat transfer and oxygen availability, accelerating fire initiation and intensifying combustion. The results offer valuable insights for improving predictive fire spread models, ignition risk assessments, and wildfire mitigation strategies under transient wind conditions. Full article

Despite substantial AI technology investment, many firms fail to translate isolated AI applications into integrated capabilities that deliver strategic returns and drive business model changes. Grounded in service-dominant logic (SDL), this study proposes and empirically tests a theoretical framework that positions AI capability (AIC) as a key antecedent in the nomological network of business model innovation (BMI). Drawing on a three-wave, two-week-interval longitudinal survey of 193 Chinese digital-intensive firms across IT, technical services, and digital leasing industries, and employing PLS-SEM, we examine associations among focal constructs, specifically, the mediating role of customer responsiveness (CR) and the moderating effect of digital organizational culture (DOC). This design mitigates common method bias and establishes temporal causal ordering. Empirical results indicate that AIC positively relates to BMI both directly and indirectly through CR, and that DOC significantly enhances the indirect effect of AIC on BMI via CR, particularly under high levels of AI-enabled sensing and interpretation. However, causal inference is limited by the cross-sectional nature of the data and self-reported measures. This study makes three key theoretical contributions. First, we identify CR as a market-oriented mechanism linking AIC to BMI, shifting focus from prior internal efficiency-focused mechanisms to customer-centric value co-creation. Second, we extend SDL to the AI context by clarifying how DOC shapes the strategic transformation of ambiguous probabilistic AI outputs into market-oriented actions. Third, we introduce DOC as an internal boundary condition for AIC, complementing prior research on external environmental moderators. These findings provide actionable guidance for managers seeking to unlock the strategic value of AI investments. Findings reflect statistical associations rather than confirmed causal effects, and results are based on perceptual survey data from Chinese digital firms. Full article

Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) is the sensing backbone of the smart grid, and its reliability underpins urban energy services such as state estimation, demand response, and distributed-energy integration. When AMI uses cellular spectrum leased through a cognitive mobile virtual network operator (C-MVNO), allocating channels to data aggregation points (DAPs) each frame is difficult because three uncertainties interact: imperfect spectrum sensing, time-varying and cross-channel-correlated primary-user activity, and stochastic urban propagation. Classical Hungarian assignment is optimal per frame but blind to primary-user dynamics, while cognitive-radio heuristics ignore queue state and cross-channel structure. We propose a two-timescale hierarchy that couples these established tools in a new way: a Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) agent decides, once per epoch, which opportunistic channels to expose, and an exact Hungarian solver performs the per-frame DAP-to-channel assignment. To our knowledge this is the first coupling of a learned cognitive layer with exact Hungarian assignment for cognitive-radio resource allocation. On a 3GPP TR 38.901-compliant simulator, PPO significantly outperforms a Bayesian-belief baseline and the Hungarian-only configuration in delivery ratio, latency, and a strict per-meter satisfaction metric, and is robust across independent seeds and sensitivity sweeps. An architectural ablation shows the DAP tier is a precondition for viability, not merely an optimization. Full article

Against the background of rapid urbanization and rural population decline, the revitalization of idle rural homesteads in China faces institutional constraints arising from collective ownership, membership-based qualification rights, and restrictions on market-oriented transfer. Existing studies have mainly focused on homestead circulation and exit mechanisms, while the role of long-term leasing in stabilizing rural land use expectations remains insufficiently explored. This study examines whether long-term leasing represents institutional innovation or legal avoidance through a comparative analysis of the “Shared Village” project in Gaoling District, Xi’an, and the “Xiangyue Huating” project in Shanghai. The study indicates that the Gaoling model employs flexible contractual arrangements and village-level coordination to adapt fragmented rural resources to market demand, yet its renewal-dependent operation leads to persistent legal uncertainty. In contrast, the Shanghai model adopts a collective coordination pathway. Through platform-based development and collective participation, it enhances resource integration and investment capacity, while requiring robust institutional mechanisms to curb excessive capital involvement and guarantee equitable benefit distribution. The results show the following: (1) Long-term leasing primarily functions as a mechanism for stabilizing use-right expectations rather than transferring ownership rights. (2) Different governance pathways generate different forms of use-right stability. (3) Collective intermediary governance plays a critical role in coordinating rights, supervising land use, and balancing stakeholder interests. (4) Long-term leasing constitutes institutional innovation only when it maintains collective ownership, protects farmers’ rights, and operates within established institutional boundaries. Full article

Wind power producers face increasing market risks in electricity spot markets because output uncertainty may lead to large imbalance penalties and unstable revenues. This study aims to improve the market participation performance of wind farm consortia by coordinating day-ahead bidding, real-time deviation correction, and internal revenue allocation. The main novelty of this study is the integration of consortium-level bidding, shared energy storage leasing, and post-settlement revenue-cost allocation within a unified decision-allocation framework. A two-stage coordinated bidding model is developed for a wind farm consortium that leases shared energy storage to mitigate real-time power deviations. A Shapley value-based allocation mechanism is further introduced to distribute consortium revenue, while the shared energy storage leasing cost is allocated using an additional revenue-proportional fairness rule. Case studies show that the proposed strategy can reduce deviation penalties, increase the final net revenue after leasing cost, and maintain fair incentives among consortium members. Sensitivity analyses further demonstrate that the economic performance of the consortium is affected by storage size, charging/discharging efficiency, and wind farm output correlation. The proposed framework provides a practical decision-making reference for wind power aggregation, shared energy storage utilization, and coordinated participation in electricity spot markets. Full article

Ports and industrial regions increasingly call clean-fuel projects “hubs,” although the market functions behind those projects are often still being developed. In Ulsan, this language has shifted from the Northeast Asian Oil Hub to an oil–gas hub and then to a hydrogen–ammonia vision. This article does not ask whether the infrastructure matters. It asks whether the “hub” label is supported by publicly visible evidence. It develops a public-evidence framework for calibrating claims against evidence and adds a public-label validation layer to sustainability-transition and port-governance analysis. The framework is applied to public documents on Ulsan’s oil, oil–gas, and hydrogen–ammonia projects. The oil-hub narrative began with the use of stockpiling assets and tankage leasing. The North Port later became an oil/LNG terminal through project vehicles, terminal-use agreements, EPC contracts, financing, and commercial operation. These records confirm terminal implementation, not the existence of a trading hub. The South Port is better understood as a low-carbon infrastructure vision, while the April 2026 ammonia-bunkering operation is treated as a port-system fuel-supply milestone. By linking public labels to evidence of implementation, recurring use, coordination routines, market institutions, and external recognition, the framework treats hub naming as a sustainability–accountability issue tied to SDG-related infrastructure claims and ESG disclosure integrity, rather than merely as project branding. Full article

Shared energy storage (SES) in renewable energy bases can integrate reliability support, curtailed-energy accommodation, spot-market arbitrage, and frequency-regulation services, but unclear service boundaries and static depreciation may distort capacity-allocation and economic-evaluation results. This paper proposes a bi-level capacity optimization model that incorporates operational intensity and dynamic depreciation. The model defines service-occupation boundaries and cycle-attribution rules, uses annual equivalent cycles to quantify cycling intensity, and feeds this intensity back into economic lifetime and capacity-side depreciation, forming a closed loop of capacity configuration, operational dispatch, lifetime assessment, and cost correction. A seasonal representative-day case study shows that static depreciation overestimates annualized net income by 7.55% under the same configuration. The dynamic-depreciation closed loop corrects the evaluation of high-cycling schemes and identifies leasing-based reliability support, passive curtailed-energy accommodation, and spot-market arbitrage as the preferred scheme under the benchmark conditions. Passive accommodation reduces annual curtailed energy by 54.90% and increases annualized net income by 41.40%. The proposed method provides a quantitative basis for capacity configuration and multi-service operation of shared energy storage in renewable energy bases. Full article

This paper assesses mining-induced surface deformation in Mine-A of the Khetri Copper Belt, India, using a three-dimensional (3-D) numerical model based on geological, geotechnical, mine layout, and in situ stress data. 3-D numerical models were developed for the virgin state, current mining state, next 5 years of mining, and next 10 years of mining, and their corresponding strain and displacement were analysed in different directions. For the mine lease boundary, the strain increment from the virgin to current mining state shows maximum surface strain of 2.41 mm/m, 1.93 mm/m, and 2.35 mm/m in the XX, YY, and ZZ directions, respectively, and the displacement increment from the virgin to current mining state shows maximum surface displacement of 0.003 m, 0.002 m, and 0.003 m in the X, Y, and Z directions, respectively. The results indicate that the model-predicted surface deformation response for the current, next 5 years, and next 10 years of mining states is mainly concentrated around already disturbed zones, while the incremental deformation outside such zones remains comparatively limited under the simulated mining sequence. The spatial concentration of deformation within the mining-influenced zone is further supported by available Total Station monitoring data. From a mine planning perspective, the validated modelling framework is useful for identifying locations requiring focused subsidence monitoring, slope stability assessment, and future model refinement. Full article