Abstract
Global warming and the depletion of fossil fuels suggest the need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels in the production of electricity worldwide, as well as to intensify the study and application of sustainable renewable energy technologies. Solar energy is very promising due to: (i) its enormous energy potential; (ii) its clean nature; (iii) the fact that it is available and abundant in large areas of the planet. Therefore, projections for solar electricity generation are very good, considering that the systems' performances are improving sharply, while prices go down. In this paper, the potential of concentrated solar power (CSP) for electricity generation in Portugal is evaluated. After analysing solar radiation data for Portugal mainland and the Portuguese national electricity grid, it is shown that one of the most favourable locations for the installation of a CSP plant is the region of Tavira, in the south of Portugal. Subsequently, the simulation of a 20MW parabolic trough concentrator (PTC) plant is performed and the obtained results are discussed. Results prove that Portugal has adequate solar resources to implement CSP despite the intra annual variability. Finally, it is shown that a CSP energy project may be economically competitive in Portugal, with the advantage of creating jobs and increasing research and industry in this field.

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The use of virtual reality in training and simulation as well as the use of haptic feedback are already used in many areas such as medicine, aviation, and training in controlled environments, such as training firefighters. The purpose of this study was the creation of a virtual multisensory environment for the simulation of a training task used in the training of firemen, with the added purpose of studying the impact of the use of haptic feedback on the feeling of presence, satisfaction and performance in the task. For this study a virtual reality experiment was designed to simulate an urban fire environment, where the participants had to train one of the methods used by firefighters in these situations, and the temperature was selected for the haptic feedback. The analysis to the obtained data show that, after doing the experiment, the performance with and without haptic feedback was approximately the same and the participants showed a low error rate. Regarding the sense of presence and satisfaction, the results demonstrate that there was an improvement in the involvement and experienced realism, as well as a low cybersickness value.

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This paper presents the demonstration of an energy resources management approach using a physical smart city model environment. Several factors from the industry, governments and society are creating the demand for smart cities. In this scope, smart grids focus on the intelligent management of energy resources in a way that the use of energy from renewable sources can be maximized, and that the final consumers can feel the positive effects of less expensive (and pollutant) energy sources, namely in their energy bills. A large amount of work is being developed in the energy resources management domain, but an effective and realistic experimentation are still missing. This work thus presents an innovative means to enable a realistic, physical, experimentation of the impacts of novel energy resource management models, without affecting consumers. This is done by using a physical smart city model, which includes several consumers, generation units, and electric vehicles.

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