Suchergebnisse

AbstractAdministrations in public education can do little besides struggle to balance the number of needed and available teachers. Conventional student–teacher ratios perpetuate trends and are unfit for policy making. Besides lacking a suitable alternative, the Portuguese government was concerned that declining birth rates might make tenured teachers redundant over time. Their hiring policies became gradually more conservative and less transparent, and grievances escalated. An SD model provided rigorous estimates for the number of public grade and secondary teachers needed in each Portuguese school district, per teaching group (science, English, etc.). The model combined a structure of three goal‐seeking aging chain arrays. Its results were used to quantify and allocate tenured teacher vacancies in 2015. The model showed that redundancy concerns were unfounded and hiring for all vacancies was justifiable in the future. These results might have been difficult to anticipate by human decision makers because of the delays involved.© 2019 System Dynamics Society

The solar radiation available all over the year is a strong reason to promote the utilization of this resource and during the year 2009, a new program based on a 50% subside, was promoted by the Portuguese government. As expected, a significant number of new installations were realized. In 2009 the state program provided the installation of more than 50,000 systems. The program can be considered a success on the Portuguese solar thermal collector market.

Based on the work that it is running within the ProSTO EU project (http://www.solarordinances.eu/), this paper presents a tentative approach to the best way for a successful implementation of a solar thermal obligation (STO) in a community. The EU framework, and base line assessment – including success factors and performance indicators were presented by the ProSTO coordinator elsewhere [1]. The Portuguese case was presented elsewhere too [2]. Here, all the complete set of measures that must be taken to succeed, will be presented. The experience shows that it is necessary to get an integrated "policy package" in the way of "zero building emissions", around the kernel key point of clear requirements, aiming energy savings, namely for energy demand limitation, and energy efficiency of thermal installations. A parent kernel key point of this "policy package" is quality: certification of thermal solar system and components – solar collectors, factory made systems, and custom built systems; planner, designer and installer certification; technical impositions in the regulations (supported by a very consistent manual of actual good practices for solar thermal applications, with a flexible method to follow new developments); guarantee impositions (maintenance contract). All relevant documents of these quality items must be integrated in the Building Use Manual for easy management. Another kernel key point, this with focus on overcoming barriers, is that of public awareness, aiming to create an understanding that the implementation of a STO is not another awful bureaucratic burden, throughout on-line information (lists of certified equipments, installers, technical description of the equipments, manual of good practices, scholar materials (class notes, computer codes, homework assignments, etc.), etc.), and the implementation of training courses for all stakeholders.

Based on the work that it is running within the ProSTO EU project (http://www.solarordinances.eu/), this paper presents a tentative approach to an integrated demand side measures (DSM) package that must be associated to a solar thermal obligation (STO) in a community. All the complete set of measures that must be taken to succeed will be presented. The experience shows that it is necessary to get an integrated "policy package" in the way of "zero building emissions", around the kernel key point of clear requirements, aiming energy savings, namely for energy demand limitation, and energy efficiency of thermal installations. A parent kernel key point of this "policy package" is quality: certification of thermal solar system and components; planner, designer and installer certification; technical mandatory requirements in the regulations; mandatory guarantee (maintenance contract). All relevant documents of these quality items must be integrated in the Building Use Manual for easy management. Another kernel key point, this one with focus on overcoming barriers, is public awareness, throughout on-line information (lists of certified equipments, installers, technical description of the equipments, manual of good practices, scholar materials (class notes, computer codes, homework assignments, etc.), etc.), and the implementation of training courses for all

This paper starts remembering the steps given in Portugal to prepare the introduction of a solar thermal obligation. Next, it presents a description of the present legislation related to the Solar Thermal Obligation (STO) and to other incentive measures for growth of the solar thermal market in Portugal. The main problems with implementation of the new regulation are analysed and systematized. Based on the acquired knowledge, further actions are presented to guarantee the success of Solar Thermal Obligation, namely proposals for updating the obligation in conformity with best practice for solar thermal installations and taking into account the new realities upcoming from the actual solar thermal