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Electricity demand response refers to consumer actions that change the utility load profile in a way that reduces costs or improves grid security. The focus of demand response has mainly been on the commercial and big industrial sectors because of the large demand reduction that they can offer to the utility grid operators. Utilities are showing increasing interest in residential demand response (RDR). RDR can be treated as an energy resource which can be assessed and commercially developed, however, there are still some issues that remain to be addressed for RDR to be successful. These include price unresponsiveness of some residential consumers, equity issues and high cost of the metering infrastructure. The aim of this paper is to investigate and present some of the challenges in achieving effective voluntary demand reduction based on a review of residential demand response literature as well as the general residential energy use behaviour literature. The authors propose the use of a hybrid engineering approach using social psychology and economic 2 behaviour models to overcome these challenges and realize the benefits of supply security and cost management.

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Many Cookstove programs have been implemented in many countries around the world. The objectives of these programs have been to reduce fuel use and hence reduce deforestation, and improve the health conditions of users by reducing environmental emissions. Other objectives include improving the social life of people in developing countries and reducing global climate change. The success of improved Cookstove programs has been reported as mixed. While some of the programs have achieved their target objectives, many of them have failed. This paper reviews the literature of improved Cookstove programs around the world. It starts with a review of some selected Cookstove technologies, classified by the types of fuel they burn and whether they are fixed or portable. This is followed by a review of different Cookstove programs, with the objective of finding the factors that determine their success, the form they should take, and the role played by the stakeholders. It is found that the success of the programs depends on the factors such as: compatibility of technical parameters of stoves with social expectations, consistency with local needs and culture, attitude of the users who are often afraid adopting new technology, and the stove cost. Also programs that use a "bottom-up" strategy, where users and local artisans play participatory roles in establishing a self-sustaining industry ensure success of the program.

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This research investigates the contribution of dust to the long-term performance degradation of various photovoltaic (PV) modules that have been operating for almost eighteen years without any cleaning procedures at the Renewable Energy Outdoor Testing Area (ROTA), Murdoch University, Perth, Australia. A solar module analyser was used to assess the PVs'electrical performance, while a combination of spectrophotometer, scanning electron microscope, electron dispersive spectroscope and X-ray diffraction were used to exam the properties of the dust on the panels. The study found that the degradation of the PV modules' power output, ranged from 19% to 33%. The degradation is mostly due to non-dust related factors such as corrosion, delamination, and discoloration, which account about 71% to 84%, although the contribution of dust is still significant at 16% to 29%. Anova analysis shows that the dust has a fairly uniform impact on the performance degradation of all PV technologies at ROTA. This is in line with the results of spectral transmittance curves for different dust density samples that essentially flat over the wavelength range of the PV modules. An investigation of the properties of dust revealed that dust particles deposited on PV modules' surface at ROTA were dominated by fine particles built of large amounts of quartz (SiO 2 ), followed by calcium oxide (CaO) and some minors of feldspars minerals (KAlSi 3 O 8 ), which are the main factors in transmittance losses that affect PV module performance.

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