In 2020, the transportation sector was the second largest source of carbon emissions in the UK an... more In 2020, the transportation sector was the second largest source of carbon emissions in the UK and in Newcastle upon Tyne, responsible for about 33% of total emissions. To support the UK’s target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, electric vehicles (EVs) are pivotal in advancing carbon-neutral road transportation. Optimal EV charging requires a better understanding of the unpredictable output from on-site renewable energy sources (ORES). This paper proposes an integrated EV fleet charging schedule with a proximal policy optimization method based on a framework for deep reinforcement learning. For the design of the reinforcement learning environment, mathematical models of wind and solar power generation are created. In addition, the multivariate Gaussian distributions derived from historical weather and EV fleet charging data are utilized to simulate weather and charging demand uncertainty in order to create large datasets for training the model. The optimization problem is expressed as a Markov decision process (MDP) with operational constraints. For training artificial neural networks (ANNs) through successive transition simulations, a proximal policy optimization (PPO) approach is devised. The optimization approach is deployed and evaluated on a real-world scenario comprised of council EV fleet charging data from Leicester, UK. The results show that due to the design of the rewards function and system limitations, the charging action is biased towards the time of day when renewable energy output is maximum (midday). The charging decision by reinforcement learning improves the utilization of renewable energy by 2–4% compared to the random charging policy and the priority charging policy. This study contributes to the reduction in battery charging and discharging, as well as the volume of electricity sold to the grid in order to create benefits and a reduction in carbon emissions.
A Place to Charge Your Wheels: Re-imagining the urban landscape for electric-wheelchair users through Design Fiction, 2024
While public charging infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (EVs) in the form of cars or vans attr... more While public charging infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (EVs) in the form of cars or vans attracts significant investment, charging infrastructure for electric wheelchairs and mobility scooters has been neglected. With the expansion of EV charging points over the past decade, local governments and mobility providers have only recently started to take note. Concurrently, municipal governments in the US and researchers in the EU have begun working with developers to envision an electric wheelchair (or equivalent mobility scooters) public charging infrastructure, while acknowledging the absence of current facilities. This is especially the case in the UK, where, at this time, there are no known public charging points for mobility vehicle users. As part of an international (student) research exchange event, we worked with community partners to capture the lived experience of electric wheelchair use in the urban environment, identifying key priorities and current barriers with them. Using a Design Fiction approach, we explored how speculative futures about public charging provision can help with awareness-raising and impact public policy in relation to this important issue.
Geographers explore geographical connections in their imagination and through research as well as... more Geographers explore geographical connections in their imagination and through research as well as citizens across time, space, with an interest in flows in particular, at different scales-here through the lenses of economic, political and historical geography. I try and offer an example of weaving together different geographical connections not ordinarily done so prominently in regional geography approaches.
This report, led by Northumbria University and POLIS, provides a final analysis by project partne... more This report, led by Northumbria University and POLIS, provides a final analysis by project partners regarding policy recommendations and a roadmap based on the culmination of experiences, learnings and additional research within the Interreg NSR SEEV4-City project. It is part of a collection of reports published by the project covering a variation of specific and cross-cutting analysis and evaluation perspectives and spans 6 operational pilots. This report is dedicated to policies relating to the integration of transport, urban planning and energy. Below an indication of the set of reports is provided, including an indication where this report fits in. Sustainable Energy Action Planning (SEAP), Sustainable Energy Climate Action Planning, (SECAP) and Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP) can all be characterised as policy-packages that rely on guidance and processes for implementation and monitoring. They should be integrated with each other, which is often not the case as yet. Increasing decarbonisation of energy production, generation, distribution, supply, consumption and temporary storage is required alongside the move towards low carbon mobility. Further integration is still needed in coupling the increasing electrification of transport and energy with the move towards a "Smart Grid". The Smart Grid approach also entails an increase in distributed energy sources and 'prosumers' (produce and consume electricity). Hence Electric Vehicle-for-Energy-Services need to be considered and integrated in this approach. In order to achieve a significant decarbonisation of transport, buildings and electricity supply, electricity systems need to become much less dependent on fossil fuel. The better integration of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, hydro) and electric transport therefore needs to be advanced and supported. The cost of production of renewable energy is increasingly declining and is becoming competitive with fossil fuel energy. In addition, energy autonomy may further reduce the cost of energy if based on locally produced renewable energy and also used for transportation to charge electric vehicle batteries.
SEEV4-City Project Aims, Operational Pilots, and business models • Three goalsinvestigated throug... more SEEV4-City Project Aims, Operational Pilots, and business models • Three goalsinvestigated through 6 Operational Pilots in 4 countries, plus systematic analysisjointly with POLIS and AVERE: (1) An increase in electrical energy autonomy (Self-Consumption of locally generated Renewable Energy (RES)behind the meter, not necessarily Self-Sufficiency) (2) An increase of ultra-low emission kilometres (CO2 reductions). (3) Avoiding extra investments to make existing electrical grids compatible with an significant increase in electro-mobility and distributed / local renewable energy production. • The results should enable: • Clean electric transport services and a better use of renewable energy generation; • New business models/businesses for renewable energy & ultra-low emission mobility services; • Social acceptance studies, management guidelines and policy frameworks.
International journal of research in geography, 2018
Geographers explore geographical connections in their imagination and through research as well as... more Geographers explore geographical connections in their imagination and through research as well as citizens across time, space, with an interest in flows in particular, at different scales-here through the lenses of economic, political and historical geography. I try and offer an example of weaving together different geographical connections not ordinarily done so prominently in regional geography approaches.
Despite, or perhaps even because of, President Trump coming into office and announcing his intent... more Despite, or perhaps even because of, President Trump coming into office and announcing his intention to withdraw the United States from many international environmental agreements, such as the Paris Climate Accord, something which many US federal states and major US cities will work to counteract in practice at their scale, governments are still at the centre of attention of global environmental issues. But so also are major corporations or businesses, and internationally active and connected civil society groups. These have various connections to businesses themselves to advance some campaigns and to demonstrate proposed solutions, processes and products. Around us, as Kate O’Neill argues (p. vii), Today’s students were born into a world with serious and widespread environmental challenges, with literally thousands of international agreements, organizations, partnerships, networks, and initiatives attempting to meet those challenges. They also know that many global environmental trends are going in the wrong direction, and serious structural and institutional changes are likely to be needed in order to address them. There are no optimal solutions to global environmental degradation, and many will be grappling with these problems for decades to come.
In 2020, the transportation sector was the second largest source of carbon emissions in the UK an... more In 2020, the transportation sector was the second largest source of carbon emissions in the UK and in Newcastle upon Tyne, responsible for about 33% of total emissions. To support the UK’s target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, electric vehicles (EVs) are pivotal in advancing carbon-neutral road transportation. Optimal EV charging requires a better understanding of the unpredictable output from on-site renewable energy sources (ORES). This paper proposes an integrated EV fleet charging schedule with a proximal policy optimization method based on a framework for deep reinforcement learning. For the design of the reinforcement learning environment, mathematical models of wind and solar power generation are created. In addition, the multivariate Gaussian distributions derived from historical weather and EV fleet charging data are utilized to simulate weather and charging demand uncertainty in order to create large datasets for training the model. The optimization problem is expressed as a Markov decision process (MDP) with operational constraints. For training artificial neural networks (ANNs) through successive transition simulations, a proximal policy optimization (PPO) approach is devised. The optimization approach is deployed and evaluated on a real-world scenario comprised of council EV fleet charging data from Leicester, UK. The results show that due to the design of the rewards function and system limitations, the charging action is biased towards the time of day when renewable energy output is maximum (midday). The charging decision by reinforcement learning improves the utilization of renewable energy by 2–4% compared to the random charging policy and the priority charging policy. This study contributes to the reduction in battery charging and discharging, as well as the volume of electricity sold to the grid in order to create benefits and a reduction in carbon emissions.
A Place to Charge Your Wheels: Re-imagining the urban landscape for electric-wheelchair users through Design Fiction, 2024
While public charging infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (EVs) in the form of cars or vans attr... more While public charging infrastructure for Electric Vehicles (EVs) in the form of cars or vans attracts significant investment, charging infrastructure for electric wheelchairs and mobility scooters has been neglected. With the expansion of EV charging points over the past decade, local governments and mobility providers have only recently started to take note. Concurrently, municipal governments in the US and researchers in the EU have begun working with developers to envision an electric wheelchair (or equivalent mobility scooters) public charging infrastructure, while acknowledging the absence of current facilities. This is especially the case in the UK, where, at this time, there are no known public charging points for mobility vehicle users. As part of an international (student) research exchange event, we worked with community partners to capture the lived experience of electric wheelchair use in the urban environment, identifying key priorities and current barriers with them. Using a Design Fiction approach, we explored how speculative futures about public charging provision can help with awareness-raising and impact public policy in relation to this important issue.
Geographers explore geographical connections in their imagination and through research as well as... more Geographers explore geographical connections in their imagination and through research as well as citizens across time, space, with an interest in flows in particular, at different scales-here through the lenses of economic, political and historical geography. I try and offer an example of weaving together different geographical connections not ordinarily done so prominently in regional geography approaches.
This report, led by Northumbria University and POLIS, provides a final analysis by project partne... more This report, led by Northumbria University and POLIS, provides a final analysis by project partners regarding policy recommendations and a roadmap based on the culmination of experiences, learnings and additional research within the Interreg NSR SEEV4-City project. It is part of a collection of reports published by the project covering a variation of specific and cross-cutting analysis and evaluation perspectives and spans 6 operational pilots. This report is dedicated to policies relating to the integration of transport, urban planning and energy. Below an indication of the set of reports is provided, including an indication where this report fits in. Sustainable Energy Action Planning (SEAP), Sustainable Energy Climate Action Planning, (SECAP) and Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP) can all be characterised as policy-packages that rely on guidance and processes for implementation and monitoring. They should be integrated with each other, which is often not the case as yet. Increasing decarbonisation of energy production, generation, distribution, supply, consumption and temporary storage is required alongside the move towards low carbon mobility. Further integration is still needed in coupling the increasing electrification of transport and energy with the move towards a "Smart Grid". The Smart Grid approach also entails an increase in distributed energy sources and 'prosumers' (produce and consume electricity). Hence Electric Vehicle-for-Energy-Services need to be considered and integrated in this approach. In order to achieve a significant decarbonisation of transport, buildings and electricity supply, electricity systems need to become much less dependent on fossil fuel. The better integration of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, hydro) and electric transport therefore needs to be advanced and supported. The cost of production of renewable energy is increasingly declining and is becoming competitive with fossil fuel energy. In addition, energy autonomy may further reduce the cost of energy if based on locally produced renewable energy and also used for transportation to charge electric vehicle batteries.
SEEV4-City Project Aims, Operational Pilots, and business models • Three goalsinvestigated throug... more SEEV4-City Project Aims, Operational Pilots, and business models • Three goalsinvestigated through 6 Operational Pilots in 4 countries, plus systematic analysisjointly with POLIS and AVERE: (1) An increase in electrical energy autonomy (Self-Consumption of locally generated Renewable Energy (RES)behind the meter, not necessarily Self-Sufficiency) (2) An increase of ultra-low emission kilometres (CO2 reductions). (3) Avoiding extra investments to make existing electrical grids compatible with an significant increase in electro-mobility and distributed / local renewable energy production. • The results should enable: • Clean electric transport services and a better use of renewable energy generation; • New business models/businesses for renewable energy & ultra-low emission mobility services; • Social acceptance studies, management guidelines and policy frameworks.
International journal of research in geography, 2018
Geographers explore geographical connections in their imagination and through research as well as... more Geographers explore geographical connections in their imagination and through research as well as citizens across time, space, with an interest in flows in particular, at different scales-here through the lenses of economic, political and historical geography. I try and offer an example of weaving together different geographical connections not ordinarily done so prominently in regional geography approaches.
Despite, or perhaps even because of, President Trump coming into office and announcing his intent... more Despite, or perhaps even because of, President Trump coming into office and announcing his intention to withdraw the United States from many international environmental agreements, such as the Paris Climate Accord, something which many US federal states and major US cities will work to counteract in practice at their scale, governments are still at the centre of attention of global environmental issues. But so also are major corporations or businesses, and internationally active and connected civil society groups. These have various connections to businesses themselves to advance some campaigns and to demonstrate proposed solutions, processes and products. Around us, as Kate O’Neill argues (p. vii), Today’s students were born into a world with serious and widespread environmental challenges, with literally thousands of international agreements, organizations, partnerships, networks, and initiatives attempting to meet those challenges. They also know that many global environmental trends are going in the wrong direction, and serious structural and institutional changes are likely to be needed in order to address them. There are no optimal solutions to global environmental degradation, and many will be grappling with these problems for decades to come.
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Papers by Richard Kotter