Foundations have made good progress on the energy front, but huge gaps remain. Promising technologies in energy production and use today prove that the prospects for an affluent but low-carbon society are good. But the U.S. and the world economies continue to run primarily on oil and coal. As the largest consumer and producer of energy in the world, the United States has the responsibility to lead the transition to cleaner energy technologies. (more…)
Not surprisingly, most Energy Research and Development takes place in industrialized countries where both the public and private se ...
World energy use has increased steadily over the past several decades. Much of the growth in world energy consumption has been ...
The development of the ‘‘new’’ wind and solar technologies is of great importance for the future contribution of RESs to energy sup ...
Germany is considered a world leader in wind energy deployment, with electricity production from wind having gone up more than eigh ...
Recently, attention to energy efficiency has been gaining momentum. The attention given by policy maker is mainly due to concer ...
The global cycling of carbon involves both biological and physical processes. Only the biological components are discussed here. Plants and other photosynthetic organisms assimilate CO2 and eventually convert the CO2 to simple sugars trough sugar extraction fermentation. From simple sugars, plants synthesize a variety of compounds and store them in the form of plant tissue. (more…)
The global carbon cycle involves both biological and physical processes. Only the biological components are discussed here. Pla ...
The flux of carbon among terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric pools is at least partially controlled by photosynthetic process ...
The accumulation of carbon within a forest growth cycle can be considered in four stages. The initial establishment stage involves ...
Reductions in carbon intensity, C/E, the carbon emitted per unit of energy generated, reflect the degree to which societies decarbo ...
It is of interest to examine potential sources of greenhouse gases sources or atmospheric CO2 by analysis of the global distrib ...
Another possible non-market-failure explanation for the energy efficiency gap is associated with the fact that even if a given technology is cost-effective on average, it will mostly likely not be for some individuals or firms.
If the relevant population is heterogeneous—with respect to variables such as the purchaser’s discount rate, the investment lifetime, the price of energy, the purchase price, and other costs— even an electricity technology that looks very good for the average user (more…)
Beginning at the end of the technological change process, research has consistently shown that diffusion of new, economically ...
It is important to remember that labeling and MEPS programs aim to influence the selection of products by consumers at the poin ...
Recently, attention to energy efficiency has been gaining momentum. The attention given by policy maker is mainly due to concer ...
Energy efficiency is defined here to mean energy services provided per unit of energy input (for example, gallons of water hea ...
Energy labeling is a policy tool that informs consumers about the energy performance of appliances and thereby encourages them ...
The primary purpose of all forms of taxation, whether on energy or on non-energy items, is to raise money for the government to finance its expenditures. Taxes finance the majority of government expenditure (the rest being financed by borrowing, which will have to be repaid from future taxation) so that the general level of taxation is determined by the requirements for government spending. However, the same total revenue can be raised by many different combinations of taxes, so that the tax rates on individual items and groups of items can be adjusted to reflect other criteria. (more…)
Taxation of energy in the United States, the federal government does not impose an energy tax or a general sales tax that is br ...
Economists have overwhelmingly favored fuel taxes over fuel economy standards as a means to reduce fuel or gasoline consumption ...
A number of countries have vehicle tax incentives programs designed to reward purchasers and owners of alternative fuel-efficient v ...
Federal Excise Taxes placed on specific energy sources tend to reduce energy demand for these energy sources in both the short ...
We know of no studies that have examined vehicle taxation incentives programs elsewhere in the world, but it seems likely that ...
As the need for energy efficiency becomes more pronounced, the drive toward efficiency in the commercial sector will be impeded by its complicated mix of building sizes and uses, the complicated systems often used in commercial buildings, and the relative lack of understanding of operations factors impacting energy use and how to achieve efficiency. (more…)
Current forecasts call for solid growth in world energy use over the next 20 years, potentially increasing 60% above current energy ...
Interest in rating the real-life energy performance of buildings has increased in recent years, and the real life efficiency perfor ...
Energy performance ratings tell what the energy performance of a building is, but if the energy performance of a building is to be ...
The amount of energy consumed in the commercial sector often must be estimated as a fraction of energy use in the combined resident ...
Energy labeling is a policy tool that informs consumers about the energy performance of appliances and thereby encourages them ...
Ten industry giants – with business operations spanning the utilities, manufacturing, chemicals and financial-services sector – joined forces with four environmental groups to pressure for setting mandatory limits on CO2 emissions. The group calls for a market based emission trading program. Under a ‘cap and trade’ system, the Government gives or sells permits to business, allowing them certain levels of green house gases emissions. (more…)
Climate change caused by the enhanced greenhouse effect is one of the most significant global environmental issues. Increased emiss ...
The aim of emission trading is to achieve emissions reductions at the lowest economic cost. Emission trading occurs when a factory ...
Bioenergy produced from biomass is sometimes called a carbon-neutral energy source, because the same quantity of carbon released wh ...
Although the focus of many policy studies of climate change is on establishing the causal links between anthropogenic systems, emis ...
Options for dealing with the threats of climate change include both adaptation to inevitable changes and mitigation, or lessening, ...
The primary electric drivetrain components for fuel cell vehicles are the same as those for any electric vehicle: traction motors, power electronics, and batteries. Electric drive components require their own sets of auxiliaries and management systems, for control and cooling of the equipment. A fuel cell vehicle may have a hybrid powertrain, in which the fuel cell is sized at less than the vehicle’s peak power requirement and additional power is supplied from an electricity storage device, such as a high-power battery or ultracapacitor. Although a hybrid power train is more complex than one using a fuel cell alone, it offers advantages of regenerative braking, (more…)
A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that directly converts a fuel to electricity by means of reactions on the surfaces of ...
The commercialization prospects for fuel cell vehicles depend not only on their performance and cost, but also on how well th ...
Transport applications tend to demand rapid start-up and instant dynamic response from fuel cell systems, so a high-temperature ...
Alkaline fuel cell, often known as the Bacon fuel cell following the British inventor’ name. It has become the most created fue ...
There are different types of vehicle propulsion systems and the transportation fuels that have been studied for their potential ...
Estimation of the future technical potential of biomass as an energy source is dependent on assumptions with respect to land availability and productivity as well as conversion technologies. With the emergence of energy crops as the major source of biomass fuel, land use conflicts, especially in relation to food production, may arise. However, with efficient agricultural practices, plantations and crops could supply a large proportion of energy needs, with residues playing a smaller role without compromising food production or further intensifying agricultural practices. (more…)
The future development of energy crops, to the level at which they would replace residues as the major bioenergy fuel source, will ...
Bioenergy produced from biomass is sometimes called a carbon-neutral energy source, because the same quantity of carbon released wh ...
The quantification of the actual reduction in green house gases sourcess emissions resulting from the substitution of fossil fu ...
To date, most discussion and research relating to the various of biomass role in mitigating CO2 emissions has been focused around i ...
Over the last decade, the number of countries researching the potential of biomass and bioenergy for energy services rose rapid ...
It shows Well-to-Wheels Greenhouse Gas emissions of the 23 vehicle/fuel systems. For each system, the bottom bar represents CO2 -equivalent emissions of CO2 , CH4 , and N2O, combined with their greenhouse global warming potentials (GWPs). The top bar represents CO2 emissions only. For the two ethanol pathways (corn and cellulosic ethanol), there are some negative emissions. They represent carbon uptake during biomass growth. The carbon is eventually emitted to the air during ethanol combustion air. (more…)
The combination of well-to-pump results and the energy use and emissions associated with vehicle operation (also called the pum ...
There are different types of vehicle propulsion systems and the transportation fuels that have been studied for their potential ...
The spark-ignition and compression-ignition engine and internal combustion engines technologies that are currently employed in ...
The fuel cycle for a given transportation fuel includes the following processes: energy feedstock (or primary energy) product ...
The energy efficiencies of various fuel production pathways from well to pump. The efficiencies shown are defined as the energy ...
ISO document 14040 identifies four areas for using life cycle analysis (LCA) results:
(1) identifying opportunities to improve the environmental aspects of products,
(2) helping industry, governments, and nongovernmental organizations make sound environmental decisions,
(3) selecting relevant environmental indicators for measuring the environmental performance of products, and (more…)
For processes that produce multiple products, energy and emission burdens have to be allocated to individual products. ISO 14040 ad ...
The spark-ignition and compression-ignition engine and internal combustion engines technologies that are currently employed in ...
The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is the EU voluntary scheme for organizations willing to commit themselves to evaluate, i ...
The fuel cycle for a given transportation fuel includes the following processes: energy feedstock (or primary energy) product ...
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a multi-stakeholder process and independent institution whose mission is to develop ...