How Do We Get There From Here? Global Energy Transitions Planning

In this paper, using the "bottom-up" energy-system optimisation ERIS model, we examine the effects of emission trading on technology deployment, emphasising the role of technology learning spillovers. That is, the possibility that the learning accumulated in a particular technology in a given region may spill to other regions as well, leading to cost reductions there also. The effects of different configurations of interregional spillovers of learning in ERIS and the impact of the emission trading mechanism under those different circumstances are analysed. Including spatial spillovers of learning allows capturing the possibility that the imposition of greenhouse gas emission constraints in a given region may induce technological change in other regions, such as developing countries, even if the latter regions do not face emission constraints. Our stylised results point out the potential benefits of sound international cooperation between industrialised and developing regions on research, development, demonstration and deployment (RD3) of clean energy technologies and on the implementation of emission trading schemes.

As per the International Energy Agency (IEA) 2009 report, rapidly growing energy demand in developing countries is projected to double by 2030. After ending the three decades of civil war, the Sri Lankan economy has also shown a robust growth; hence the country has shown a continuous growth in energy demand. In 1995 Sri Lanka met 95% of the total electricity demand using major hydro power plants. But due to the escalating demand for electricity and government policies favouring the coal powered power plants, a completely different power mix exists today. By the end of year 2012, more than 70% of the total electrify requirements of the country was met with fossil based energy sources. Today, as responses to the threats of climate change manifest, following many other nations, Sri Lanka also considered renewable energy in their energy mix. However, the lack of technological capabilities has hindered the development of renewable energy technologies in the Country. The solution to such constrains lies with effective technology transfer and cooperation of renewable energy technologies. Technology Road-mapping and scenarios are two widely used future techniques to support strategic and long-range planning. This paper provides a combined approach of technology road mapping and scenario planning in order to foster the renewable energy technologies of Sri Lanka via effective technology transfer mechanisms. The combined approach consists with six steps, and foresight analysis tools such as literature review, expert’s interviews, STEEPV analysis, and Delphi technique were used along the process. Four scenarios named ‘Land of Republic’, ‘Green Paradise,’ ‘Drowning Island’ and ‘Black Island’ were developed. Out of the four scenarios, ‘Green Paradise’ was considered as the most favourable scenario for Sri Lanka and technology roadmap was developed targeting this scenario. The proposed technology roadmap consists with six steps and the roadmap suggests effective technology transfer mechanism to foster the renewable energy technologies of the country.

Energy technology development, adoption, and deployment are featured in the national economic development plans of all countries. The success of such economic development plans has manifestations that go beyond just the provision of goods and services to citizens who increasingly demand an enhanced standard of living. It extends to the survival of political establishments themselves. Furthermore, the international geopolitics of energy systems and its complex web of possibilities, opportunities, and jconstraints drive, and are driven, by technology implementation. Thus, the construction of oil platforms in the North Sea reformatted international alignments on energy issues, and advances in horizontal drilling technologies for oil recovery from continental shelves increased the number of oil-producing countries. Today, basically all countries that border on oceans and large seas are oil-producing. Technology is the link between opportunity/ potential and harvest of benefits along the path to sustainable development, a status that must be defined in terms of the optional mix of economic development, environmental quality, and social equity. Energy as a natural resource is as bountiful as its demands for operational civil/industrial systems. Unfortunately, it is not always available in readily usable forms at locations of high demand. Geospatial factors climate, terrain, vegetation, and geology , socio-economic factors, and political factors e.g., international alliances determine the overall implementability and sustainability of a specific energy technology. The first set of factors merely determines the technical potential along with some associated cost factors, while the second and third set of factors determine the possibility and ease of translation from an acceptable level of technical potential to implementation. On the basis of geospatial factors, high feasibility can be assigned to geothermal energy as the primary energy source in the northwestern United States, solar energy in the tropics, wind energy in the desert and high-altitude terrains, biomass energy in luxuriantly vegetated zones around the world and in regions that produce significant amounts of organic wastes, and nuclear energy in countries endowed with uranium/plutonium. Such perfect matches between energy demand and indigenous energy sources qualify as highly desirable cases of the much sought-after “distributed energy system.” They can also minimize intercontinental and international transfers of energy in terms of electricity and fuel that have caused some costly conflicts. Unfortunately, the potential for such development is currently overridden by socioeconomic and sociopolitical factors, as well as the lack of technological capacity of some regions and countries. About half the people in the world, mostly within the tropics, still cook their food over open fires that are fueled by firewood, coal, animal dung, and crop residues. These fuels cause a high toll in mortality due to indoor air pollution that causes many acute and chronic pulmonary diseases. As many as 14% of urban households and 49% of rural households in the developing world did not have access to electricity in 2000. Developments in solar energy systems have not reached the stage that could take advantage of the relatively isolated regions where most developing countries are located, in order to produce affordable and efficient solar cells that can meet energy demand. However, recent developments in nanotechnology and fabrication methods are likely to improve the efficiency and affordability of solar energy systems to make them implementable in circumstances beyond highprofile applications. A variety of photovoltaic solar cell devices are at the research stage, although scale-up systems that convert more than 30% of incident sunlight into electricity would still be expensive. Among the promising materials for solar cells are nanometer-sized semiconductor crystals, dye-sensitized solar cells, lead selenide PbSe nanocrystals, and cadmium selenide CdSe nanocrystals. As more activities and instruments are extended to extreme environments such as space, deep sea, deserts, forests, Arctic zones, Antarctic zones, caves, and deep mines, remoteaccess equipment needs more efficient power sources that need little or no network connections. Improvements in battery and fuel-cell systems are needed. For some functions, such as the use of numerous but isolated sensors to monitor many environmental parameters in remote environments, appropriatelysized and efficient battery and fuel-cell systems are needed. In a bidirectional advance, microsensors, some of which are based on enzymes, are used to develop fuel cells for small devices while larger fuel cells are being developed to support wind energy systems. An acceleration of technological advances in energy systems is needed to support many sustainable development projects. In order to be sustainable, it is important that policymakers and technology developers seek the optimization of the three pillars of sustainable development economic development, environmental equity, and social equity with specification of minimum acceptable levels of each factor rather than seeking to maximize any of the factors to the detriment of others. The principal categories of options that are available for promoting the implementation of promising systems and technologies are engineering, communication/education, regulation, enforcement, market incentives, environmental management systems, and international cooperation.

The growing energy security and climate change concerns have created a huge demand and global market for renewable energy technologies such as solar panels. The race to capture a share of this lucrative global market and other political economy considerations have inspired a trade war. Much of this war has been fought with and against green industrial policy measures such as subsidies tied to local content requirements (LCRs) and trade remedy instruments such as antidumping and countervailing duties. Safeguard measures are the latest additions to the armoury of trade defence measures in this burgeoning trade war. This article examines the dynamics behind and the implications of the turn to renewable energy safeguards for the global effort to accelerate the development and deployment of renewable energy technologies in light of the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) Panel report on US – Safeguard Measure on PV Products. The article makes three interrelated arguments. First, the WTO jurisprudence on renewable energy support measures and rapidly evolving global value chains in renewable energy technologies helped spur the turn to safeguard measures (SGMs). Second, the seal of approval from the Panel will drive interest in the use of renewable energy safeguards. Third, the increased and unfettered use of safeguard measures is detrimental to the transition towards sustainable energy sources. Safeguards, Solar Panels: Renewable Energy, Trade War, DS562, Trade and Environment

Although research, development, and deployment of advanced energy technologies are essential for the clean energy transition, communication about these technologies is equally important to their success. Energy is part of everyday life; therefore, changes in energy systems should be accepted by communities and industries. Yet details about energy generation, transmission, and environmental impacts are complex. The combination of commonality and complexity requires communications to use visualization, localization, narrative, and understandable terminology to reach a range of stakeholders. Collaboration between technology experts and communications professionals builds integrity and accessibility of energy information that enables community‐based solutions for energy.

Economic development in the clean energy age: South Carolina

This paper focuses on the development of the ocean energy sector, identifying the necessary steps that are required in order to facilitate the development and deployment of ocean energy technologies towards the formation of a viable and successful industry. The paper presents recommendations, which represent a key opportunity to reinforce Europe's leadership in Research Development Innovation and Demonstration (RDI&D) as the ocean energy sector progresses from concept to commercialisation; highlighting mechanisms that are required to overcome existing challenges and barriers hindering the commercialisation of wave and tidal energy technologies.

The United States is in the midst of an energy revolution, spurred by advancement of technology to produce unprecedented supplies of oil and natural gas. Simultaneously, there is an increasing concern for climate change attributed to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that, in large part, result from burning fossil fuels. An international consensus has concluded that the U.S. and other developed nations have an imperative to reduce GHG emissions to address these climate change concerns. The global desire to reduce GHG emissions has led to the development and deployment of clean energy resources and technologies, particularly renewable energy technologies, at a rapid rate. At the same time, each of the major energy sectors—the electric grid, industrial manufacturing, transportation, and the residential/commercial consumers— is increasingly becoming linked through information and communications technologies, advanced modeling and simulation, and controls. Coordination of clean energy generation technologies through integrated hybrid energy systems, as defined below, has the potential to further revolutionize energy services at the system level by coordinating the exchange of energy currency among the energy sectors in a manner that optimizes financial efficiency (including capital investments), maximizes thermodynamic efficiency (through best use of exergy, which is the potential to use the available energy in producing energy services), reduces environmental impacts when clean energy inputs are maximized, and provides resources for grid management. Rapid buildout of renewable technologies has been largely driven by local, state, and federal policies, such as renewable portfolio standards and production tax credits that incentivize investment in these generation sources. A foundational assumption within this program plan is that renewable technologies will continue to be major contributors to the future U.S. energy infrastructure. While increased use of clean renewable technologies will aid in achieving reduced GHG emissions, it also presents new challenges to grid management that must be addressed. These challenges primarily derive from the fundamental characteristics of variable renewable generators, such as wind and solar: non-dispatchability, variable production, and reduced electromechanical inertia. This document presents a preliminary research and development (R&D) plan for detailed dynamic simulation and analysis of nuclear-renewable hybrid energy systems (N-R HES), coupled with integrated energy system design, component development, and integrated systems testing. N-R HES are cooperatively-controlled systems that dynamically apportion thermal and/or electrical energy to provide responsive generation to the power grid.

The road map of fusion power is compared to the development and deployment of other energy technologies. A generic deployment model is presented, which describes the fastest deployment (of any new technology) achievable with the constraint that the industrial capacity that needs to be built up must be continuous and should not overshoot the replacement market in the final, saturated state. It is shown that the development needs an ‘investment’ phase to build up industrial capacity which takes several decades, during which growth is typically exponential, but net energy production is negligible. During the exponential growth the cost is dominated by the capital investment, which allows for a simple comparison of different energy technologies. Fusion is at the start of the exponential growth phase, while still having significant uncertainties concerning its technical feasibility. In comparison to e.g. solar PV and wind, fusion is ‘late’, lagging by some 50 years. To follow the same rate of development that fission, wind and PV have shown, fusion will need to have 3 DEMO reactors operational in the early 2050s, followed by 10 generation one (GEN1) plants in the early 2060s and 100 GEN2 plants in the early 2070s. For the cost development to be comparable, an estimated allowable cost for one DEMO reactor is ~20 G$. While these indicative numbers for the pace and cost of development are very challenging but perhaps not unthinkable for fusion, this analysis does point towards an emphasis on ‘simpler and cheaper’ reactor designs.

Economic Assessment of Onshore and Offshore Wind Energy Systems

Harnessing rivers of wind: A technology and policy assessment of high altitude wind power in the U.S.

Local market conditions should be taken into account for successful technology deployment. The organisational framework should favour the consolidation of technology transfer through the establishment of appropriate mechanisms for capacity retention and private-sector involvement (i.e. public–private partnerships with independent power producers, renewable energy service companies, etc.). Ultimately, local capacity for maintaining and operating the technologies to be transferred is key. Every country or region has different priorities and reasons for desiring an increased deployment of renewable energy technologies: the EU has a focus on climate change mitigation, the US has a focus on energy security, and sub-Saharan African countries generally have the objective of energy access. Small Island Developing States in the Pacific have a clear focus on energy security at the regional level, while many of them also have an unfinished agenda for energy access. Technology transfer and cooperation efforts in the region must address the barriers to the deployment of renewable energy technologies to ensure long-lasting provision of energy access and durable improvement of energy security. Pacific energy ministers endorsed the Framework for Action on Energy Security in the Pacific (FAESP) and its associated implementation plan (IPESP) in April 2011. At the global level, the UN General Assembly has declared 2012 the “International Year of Sustainable Energy for All”. This paper analyses the requirements for renewable energy technologies in Pacific Island Countries and Territories, the role of such technologies in the context of the FAESP and IPESP and their possible contribution to increased energy access, and identifies the main barriers to their deployment. Once common barriers have been identified, specific actions to address them will be highlighted in a framework setting out guidelines for policy development and identifying technology transfer needs, barriers to successful technology deployment and funding opportunities.

The fourth volume in the established Energy from the Desert series examines and evaluates the potential and feasibility of Very Large Scale Photovoltaic Power Generation (VLS-PV) systems, which have capacities ranging from several megawatts to gigawatts, and to develop practical project proposals toward implementing the VLS-PV systems in the future. It comprehensively analyses all major issues involved in such large scale applications, based on the latest scientific and technological developments by means of close international co-operation with experts from different countries. From the perspective of the global energy situation, global warming, and other environmental issues, it is apparent that VLS-PV systems can: contribute substantially to global energy needsbecome economically and technologically feasible soon contribute significantly to global environmental protection contribute significantly to socio-economic development This book recognises that very large scale solar electricity generation provides economic, social and environmental benefits, security of electricity supply and fair access to affordable and sustainable energy solutions and that VLS-PV systems must be one of the promising options for large-scale deployment of PV systems and renewable energy technologies.

This article examines the practice of instrument-making as it impinged upon the nascent science of physics during the period 1550–1700. Instrument-making workshops developed during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries — the period of transition in mathematical instrument-making from an occasional activity of scholar or artisan to a trade carried out in workshops in which it was possible for aspirants to the activity to be trained. One of the characterizing achievements of Renaissance instrument-making throughout Europe was to respond to an increasing demand by the production of semi-standardized instruments while retaining the ability to innovate and develop special instruments to special order. The number of instrument-makers increased from three in 1551 to fourteen in 1601 and 151 in 1701. This growth in numbers reflects the growth in demand, but conceals the greater capacity and range of workshops by the end of the century.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that the observed strong link between global economic output and primary energy use will continue in future; and attempts to replace fossil fuels with alternative energy sources or implementing CO2 removal or geoengineering approaches cannot provide the level of clean energy that economic growth needs. Global economic growth, therefore, is unlikely to continue for much longer. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses historical and recent global data (2012) for energy output from various sources, economic output and CO2, emissions to make its case. Findings – Alternative energy output is growing too slowly, and faces too many problems, to significantly change the energy mix in the coming decades. Continued use of fossil fuels requires either massive CO2 removal/sequestration or global solar radiation management (SRM). The first is too expensive and would take decades to be significant, the second carries risks, some already known and possibly also unknown ones. Practical implications – The paper makes the case that technical fixes such as alternative fuels, energy efficiency improvements, carbon dioxide capture and SRM will not be sufficient to prevent global climate change. Social implications – Social change, rather than reliance on technical fixes, is needed for ecologically sustainable economies. Originality/value – Most research argues that global energy intensity and carbon intensity will continue to fall. In contrast, we argue that the strong link observed between global economic output and primary energy use will most likely continue.