The aim of this study is to find an optimal design for a distributed hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) for a residential house in the UK. The hybrid system, which consists of wind turbines, PV arrays, a biodiesel generator, batteries and converters, is designed to meet the known dynamic electrical load of the house and make use of renewable energy resources available locally. Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables (HOMER) software is used for this study. Different combinations of wind turbines, PV arrays, a biodiesel generator and batteries are evaluated and compared using the NPC (Net Present Cost) method to find the optimal solutions. The HRES is modeled, simulated and optimized using HOMER. The results showed that the wind-biodiesel engine-battery system was the best with the lowest NPC (USD 60254) and the lowest COE (Cost of Energy, USD 0.548/kWh) while the second best system added PV arrays. This study gives evidence of the key contribution wind turbines make to HRES due to abundant wind resources in the UK, especially in Wales.

With the rapid development of the society and the economy, people are paying more attention to the value of natural resources and the benefits of the ecological environment. Evaluating the value of eco-assets has become a focus of concern. Quantitative remote sensing measurements, land data and other auxiliary data were used to measure the eco-assets in 46 regions of the Wanjiang Demonstration Area from 1990 to 2013. This paper analyzes temporal and spatial variations of eco-assets’ distribution, composition, change patterns and the factors driving variations. The results show that the distribution of eco-assets in the regions is very uneven, the central region has higher ecological assets than other regions, and it declined first and then rose during the period 1990-2013. The total amount of eco-assets increased by 3.05%. The change in the amount of ecological assets was not large, but it is important that the amount of assets was basically stable, and increases in the proportion of degraded areas was small. Grassland and water body eco-assets decreased by 11.19% and 0.66%, respectively, and that of cultivated land decreased by 15.54%, but forest land increased by 6.42%. As for the change pattern of ecological assets, the per capita assets of Hefei had the largest reduction, and those of Xuancheng the second largest. The spatial and temporal changes of ecological assets in the Wanjiang Demonstration Area include natural factors and human factors. The government's macro-control and economic policies are the main driving factors for the spatial and temporal changes of the ecological assets pattern.

In order to explore the relationship between urban construction land and economic development, this paper uses a decoupling model to analyze the decoupling relationship between expansion of urban construction land and economic growth in Jilin Province. The results show that from 2000 to 2015, the decoupling of urban construction land expansion and economic growth in Jilin province tended to be reasonable. The paper divides urban decoupling into three categories. The first type consists of ideal cities, including Liaoyuan and Baishan. The second type includes basic ideal cities like Changchun, Tonghua, Songyuan, Baicheng, and Yanbian. The third type consists of non-ideal cities, including Jilin and Siping. This paper puts forward relevant measures to promote the further decoupling of construction land expansion and economic growth in order to realize the sustainable use of land resources.