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Economic Feasibility for Sustainability

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 May 2020) | Viewed by 16969

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Prof. Dr. Byungik Chang

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Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of New Haven, West Haven, CT 06516, USA
Interests: structural engineering; wind engineering; wind energy; economic feasibility
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

An economic feasibility study for sustainability evaluates the potential impact of the system and aims to uncover the strengths and weaknesses of an existing or proposed project. Therefore, it must be conducted with an objective approach to provide information upon which decisions can be based. In its simplest terms, the two criteria to judge feasibility are cost required and value to be attained. A well-designed feasibility study should provide a historical background of the project, details of the operations and management, marketing research and policies, financial data, legal requirements, and tax obligations. The results of the economic feasibility study could be used to analyse or further develop feasibility studies of systems at other locations that share similar climatic characteristics and economic factors.

The most common economic feasibility parameters in the study may include:

payback period (PB)
net present value (NPV)
internal rate of return (IRR)
simple cash flow (SCF)
profitable index (PI)

This Special Issue will focus on the environmental and economic benefits of sustainable energy, system design, management, or strategies, which include:

sustainable management;
LEED certified structures;
environmental efficiency;
sustainable materials (reuse and recycling);
sustainable transportation system;
renewable energy;
smart cities;
sustainable construction;
resilient design.

References:

Lee, Jongsung & Chang, Byungik & Aktas, Can & Gorthala, Ravi, 2016. "Economic feasibility of campus-wide photovoltaic systems in New England," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 452-464.

Prof. Dr. Byungik Chang
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

feasibility
cost-effectiveness
economic benefit
sustainability
efficiency

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 2107 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of Alternative Home-Produced Concrete Strength with Economic Analysis

by Muhammad Rauf Shaker, Mayurkumar Bhalala, Qayoum Kargar and Byungik Chang

Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 6746; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12176746 - 20 Aug 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3119

Abstract

Ready-mix concrete is not always affordable because it is less economical for small projects. This study shows an effort to introduce alternative home-produced concrete for small paving areas such as sidewalks, backyards, or fixing the existing concrete and discusses the economic evaluation of the alternative concrete for home purpose. The materials being used in this study are available locally or are easily purchased. The primary objective of the study is to analyze the compressive strength and conduct economic analysis of alternative home-produced concrete with different mix designs. Wood ash, fly ash, and recycled aggregate concretes are the alternative concrete types discussed in this study. Fly ash can replace Portland cement up to 30% without losing significant compressive strength of the concrete. Furthermore, fly ash is less expensive than Portland cement and can reduce the cost of concrete by saving approximately 15%. Wood ash can be used up to 25% in concrete without losing considerable strength which saves approximately 13% of cement cost. The use of recycled concrete aggregates saves only about 1% CO₂ emission compared to regular concrete while fly ash saves more than 28.5% and wood ash saves almost 24.5%. They can replace natural aggregates up to 100%, but there is only a 5% saving. In addition, an equivalent cost of USD 13.47 for one cubic yard of concrete could be saved by using 30% fly ash concrete when considering reduced emitted CO_2eq from the material production. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economic Feasibility for Sustainability)

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15 pages, 725 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of the State-Dependent Queueing Model and Its Application to Battery Swapping and Charging Stations

by Doo Il Choi and Dae-Eun Lim

Sustainability 2020, 12(6), 2343; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12062343 - 17 Mar 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2347

Abstract

This study analyzes the performance of a queue length-dependent overload control policy using a leaky bucket (LB) scheme. This queueing model is applied to the operation of a battery swapping and charging station for electric vehicles (EVs). In addition to the LB scheme, we propose two congestion control policies based on EV queue length thresholds. With these policies, the model determines both EV-arrival and battery-supply intervals, and these depend on the number of EVs waiting in the queue. The queue length distributions, including those at arbitrary epochs, are derived using embedded Markov chain and supplementary variable methods. Performance measures such as blocking probability and mean waiting time are investigated using numerical examples. We study the characteristics of the system using numerical examples and use a cost analysis to investigate situations in which the application of each congestion control policy is advantageous. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economic Feasibility for Sustainability)

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20 pages, 3279 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Performance and Economic Evaluation of Solar Rooftop Systems in Different Regions of Thailand

by Suntiti Yoomak, Theerasak Patcharoen and Atthapol Ngaopitakkul

Sustainability 2019, 11(23), 6647; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11236647 - 25 Nov 2019

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 5011

Abstract

Solar rooftop systems in the residential sector have been rapidly increased in the term of installed capacity. There are various factors, such as climate, temperature, and solar radiation, that have effects on solar power generation efficiency. This paper presents a performance assessment of a solar system installed on the rooftop of residence in different regions of Thailand by using PSIM simulation. Solar rooftop installation comparison in different regions is carried out to evaluate the suitable location. In addition, three types of solar panels are used in research: monocrystalline, polycrystalline, and thin-film. The electrical parameters of real power and energy generated from the systems are investigated and analyzed. Furthermore, the economic evaluation of different solar rooftop system sizes using the monocrystalline module is investigated by using economic indicators of discounted payback period (DPP), net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and profitability index (PI). Results show that the central region of Thailand is a suitable place for installing solar rooftop in terms of solar radiation, and the temperature has more solar power generation capacity than the other regions. The monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar panels can generate maximum power close to each other. All solar rooftop sizes with the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme give the same DPP of 6.1 years, IRR of 15%, and PI of 2.57 which are better than the cases without the FiT scheme. However, a large-scale installation of solar rooftop systems can receive more electrical energy produced from the solar rooftop systems. As a result, the larger solar rooftop system sizes can achieve better economic satisfaction. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economic Feasibility for Sustainability)

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15 pages, 751 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mathematical Investigation on the Sustainability of UAV Logistics

by Joonyup Eun, Byung Duk Song, Sangbok Lee and Dae-Eun Lim

Sustainability 2019, 11(21), 5932; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11215932 - 25 Oct 2019

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 3705

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are expected to make groundbreaking changes in the logistics industry. Leading logistics companies have been developing and testing their usage of UAVs recently as an environmentally friendly and cost-effective option. In this paper, we investigate how much the UAV delivery service is environmentally friendly compared to the traditional ground vehicle (GV) delivery service. Since there are fuel (battery) and loadable weight restrictions in the UAV delivery, multi-hopping of UAV is necessary, which may cause a large consumption of electrical energy. We present a two-phase approach. In Phase I, a new vehicle routing model to obtain optimal delivery schedules for both UAV-alone and GV-alone delivery systems is proposed, which considers each system’s restrictions, such as the max loadable weight and fuel replenishment. In Phase II, CO₂ emissions are computed as a sustainability measure based on the travelling distance of the optimal route obtained from Phase I, along with various GV travel-speeds. A case study finds that the UAV-alone delivery system is much more CO₂ efficient in all ranges of the GV speeds investigated. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Economic Feasibility for Sustainability)

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