5pgs, At a central Illinois feed mill, electricity from its rural electric co-op was exceeding grain costs as its biggest operating expense. With a new 3-megawatt solar array, the facility expects to reduce energy costs by about 50%.
15 pages, Integrating renewable energy (RE) technologies into agriculture can contribute to attaining sustainable production. Farmers’ adoption of RE in agriculture can lead to substantial reductions in Greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions as well as providing alternative income sources for farmers, and reliable energy supplies for farms and households. Policies can facilitate, support, or encourage farmers’ adoption of RE. However, it is not clear what policies currently exist which facilitate or promote the adoption of RE technologies in Ghanaian agriculture. This paper aims to identify policies in Ghana that can facilitate the adoption of RE in agricultural production. A policy review was conducted to identify such policies, evaluate their potential impact on RE adoption, and suggest paths to enhance RE adoption by farmers. These policies are focused on two aspects: 1) promoting solar energy and 2) the conversion of agricultural waste to energy. Noting limitations including the underdevelopment of the RE sector and the lack of a central policy to promote RE utilization in Ghanaian agriculture, the review suggests that policymakers need to fully implement provisions of the Renewable Energy Act-(832) (2011) through the application of, for example, policy levers such as subsidies, tax exemptions, financing, and training potential end-users in the agricultural community.
16 pages, Background
Residue-based biogas is considered as a renewable energy that should be used to improve energy security and household livelihoods in rural areas. Observational learning and word-of-mouth learning are critical in the dissemination of knowledge about agricultural technologies. Yet, scholars have little understanding of the impacts of these learning methods on farmers’ use of residue-based biogas. Using survey data from rural areas of Hubei China, this study estimates the impacts of observational learning and word-of-mouth learning from different subjects (i.e., relatives, neighbors, cadres, cooperative members, and technical instructors) on the use of residue-based biogas by farmers. Additionally, the moderating role of interpersonal trust in these relationships is explored.
Results
Results from logistic regression models show that observational learning from technical instructors significantly increases farmers’ use of biogas. Furthermore, interpersonal trust significantly and positively influences the impact of observational learning on farmers’ decisions to use biogas. Similarly, interpersonal trust significantly and positively moderates the influence of positive word-of-mouth learning on farmers’ decision to use biogas. In contrast, a negative moderating role exists in the relationship between negative word-of-mouth learning and farmers’ decision to use biogas. These impacts are further affirmed by robustness checks.
Conclusions
The results presented here show that enhancing farmers’ interpersonal trust promotes the use of residue-based biogas by farmers. One important implication is that the government might promote the use of residue-based biogas by organizing technology demonstration activities, providing communication platforms, and enhancing mutual trust between farmers and relevant groups.
35 pages, Despite the significance and growth of wind energy as a major source of renewable energy, research on the risks of wind turbines in the form of accidents and failures has attracted limited attention. Research that applies data analytics methodologically in this context is scarce. The research presented here, upon construction of a text corpus of 721 selected wind turbine accident and failure news reports, develops and applies a custom-developed data analytics framework that integrates tabular analysis, visualization, text mining, and machine learning. Topic modeling was applied for the first time to identify and classify recurring themes in wind turbine accident news, and association mining was applied to identify contextual terms associated with death and injury. The tabular and visual analyses relate accidents to location (offshore vs. onshore), wind turbine life cycle phases (transportation, construction, operation, and maintenance), and the incidence of death and injury. As one of the insights, more incidents were found to occur during operation and transportation. Through topic modeling, topics associated most with deaths and injuries were revealed. The results could benefit wind turbine manufacturers, service providers, energy companies, insurance companies, government bodies, non-profit organizations, researchers, and other stakeholders in the wind energy sector.
Online from publisher. 4 pages., "Building trust in food begins with empowering farmers through one of the largest and most diverse conservation- and sustainability-focused pulic-private partnerships in our nation's history."
2 pages., Summary of results from a survey among British citizens inviting attitudes toward food and farming. First such research effort by the British Guild of Agricultural Journalists.
USA: Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, Arizona State University, Phoenix.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 166 Document Number: D11683
Notes:
3 pages., Via online article., Description of proposed legislation in support of efforts to implement environmental/green practices and technologies. Describes seven features of the Green New Deal and provides questions reporters might ask in gather information about it.
