In terms of aggregate health effects, household solid fuel use is currently the most important source of indoor air pollution in developing countries. Although relatively equitable economic and rural development has contributed to reducing the use of solid fuels in some settings (e.g., in some newly industrialized Asian countries), indoor air pollution is likely to remain an important health risk in poorer developing countries in the absence of successful intervention programs. More broadly, indoor air quality issues in developing countries are dynamic phenomena that require dynamic research and policy responses. (more…)
Indoor air quality (IAQ) research deals with the presence, levels, health effects, and control of physical, chemical, and biologica ...
Important research over the past few decades has illustrated that indoor air pollution and indoor smoke from solid fuel poses i ...
Smoke from biomass and coal combustion contains a large number of pollutants with known health hazards, including particulate matte ...
Exposure to indoor air pollution from the combustion of solid fuels has been implicated, with varying degrees of evidence, as a ...
Lack of access to cleaner energy and the negative outwardnesses associated with energy consumption tend to cycle of poverty for ...
Up to around 1980, hydropower research and development (R&D) efforts focused mainly on improving turbine efficiency, reducing cavitations, and increasing generation. Whereas older units had efficiency ratings as low as 60%, the new units have efficiency ratings of approximately 90%. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) also looked at new technologies for developing low-head, ultra low-head, and small hydropower projects. These technologies included the following: (more…)
Hydropower, also known as hydroelectric power, is the use of water to produce power. Harnessing water to perform work has been ...
The World Commission on Dams (WCD) was formed in 1998 by a joint initiative of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Worl ...
The winners in hydropower and other large dam projects are those who gain electricity, domestic water supplies, sanitation, dro ...
The water levels of most of the world’s rivers fluctuate with seasonal rains, melting snows, or droughts, and in the arid zones ...
Hydraulic turbines have two main classifications: impulse and reaction. The impulse turbine generally uses the velocity of the wate ...
Agricultural and forestry residues provide the largest proportion of biomass used for the production of biomas bioenergy. Some estimates suggest that globally available biomass role in the form of recoverable residues represents about 40 Ejyr -1, enough to meet 10% of the total present energy use of 406 Ejyr -1 . However, realizing this potential is limited by factors such as ease and cost of recovery and environmental concerns relating to sustainable land use practices. (more…)
Estimation of the future technical potential of biomass as an energy source is dependent on assumptions with respect to land av ...
The quantification of the actual reduction in green house gases sourcess emissions resulting from the substitution of fossil fu ...
Bioenergy produced from biomass is sometimes called a carbon-neutral energy source, because the same quantity of carbon released wh ...
To date, most discussion and research relating to the various of biomass role in mitigating CO2 emissions has been focused around i ...
Another large source of renewable carbon supplies is waste biomass. It consists of a wide range of materials and includes munic ...
The aim of this broad sweep through the area of energy innovation, highlighting the main actors, activities, policies, institutions, and their interactions that eventually underlie energy technology development and deployment, was to present an overview of the current state of and challenges to energy innovation. (more…)
Not surprisingly, most Energy Research and Development takes place in industrialized countries where both the public and private se ...
Many readers may be unfamiliar with the way economists typically view the process of technological change, thus it is useful to fir ...
Government expenditures on energy R&D, energy conservation have risen steadily over the past decade, but only two countries, Japan ...
Now it is possible to move back in the process of technological change from diffusion to innovation. In the energy efficiency area, ...
In the absence of useful and established patterns of practice, a search is under way for new means of reconciling local government’ ...
Not surprisingly, most Energy Research and Development takes place in industrialized countries where both the public and private sectors are involved in the development of energy technologies. Given that most energy technologies are deployed through the marketplace, the predominant focus of Energy Research and Development is within firms. Still, governments have historically played an important role in the Research and Development of new energy technologies through direct financial support (e.g., gas turbines) as well as through policies that promote Energy Research and Development within firms. (more…)
Government expenditures on energy R&D, energy conservation have risen steadily over the past decade, but only two countries, Japan ...
The aim of this broad sweep through the area of energy innovation, highlighting the main actors, activities, policies, institutions ...
Nuclear fission and fusion Research and Development continues to account for nearly half of the total spending by IEA countries, al ...
Fossil fuels, had a broader impact in current society, still oil is the one that have far reaching effect. Oil, in all its forms is ...
Electric and gas utilities’ Research & Development activities deal nearly exclusively with energy conversion, distribution, and ene ...
Prior to the Clean Air Act of 1990, environmental issues regulations were aimed at reducing emissions as they left the exhaust system. The catalytic converter has been the primary means of attacking air pollution in this way. After 1990, regulations for the first time undertook to alter the composition of the fuel itself. Reformulated gasoline applies to gasoline that is sold in the nine metropolitan areas designated by the EPA with the highest level of ozone in air pollution problems. About 48 million people reside in areas where ozone concentrations exceed federal standards. (more…)
The development and blending of gasoline additives and petroleum additivies are undertaken for the most part by the petroleum r ...
Most alternative fuel vehicles on the road today were originally designed for gasoline, but converted for use with an alternative f ...
In recent years, there has been a greater understanding of the role of automotive emissions as environmental pollutants. Sulfur dio ...
At present, in the United States and worldwide, motor vehicles are fueled almost exclusively by petroleum based gasoline (or re ...
Gasoline is used mainly by cars, motorcycles, and light trucks; diesel is used mainly by heavier trucks, buses, and trains. Togethe ...
Energy efficiency is defined here to mean energy services provided per unit of energy input (for example, gallons of water heated to a specified temperature per British thermal units of natural gas input). Within this framework, energy efficiency is conceived primarily at the disaggregated, product level, rather than at a more aggregated sectoral level. (more…)
Cost–benefit analysis (CBA), also known as benefit–cost analysis, is rooted in applied welfare economics. It is a way of organizing ...
Statistics on national production levels and indicators of environmental pressure have been collected during the past few decad ...
Another possible non-market-failure explanation for the energy efficiency gap is associated with the fact that even if a given tech ...
Recently, attention to energy efficiency has been gaining momentum. The attention given by policy maker is mainly due to concer ...
Not surprisingly, most Energy Research and Development takes place in industrialized countries where both the public and private se ...
In 2006, total world wind generating electricity capacity was around 72,000 MW, producing some 160 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year of electricity. As of the end of 2006, the top wind producers were Germany, with 20,622 MW; Spain, with 11,615 MW; and the United States, with 11,575 MW.
Even so, wind accounts for only about 1 percent of the world’s total energy use. (more…)
Designers in China have launched the first wind turbine levitating in the world of permanent magnetic levitation (Maglev) in the Wi ...
In 2001, there were 14,000 small wind turbines for home/domestic use in the United States. The market potential for national an ...
Germany is considered a world leader in wind energy deployment, with electricity production from wind having gone up more than eigh ...
The wind has covered every Sunday morning more than 50 percent of electricity & energy demand. It has also achieved the record high ...
The development of the ‘‘new’’ wind and solar technologies is of great importance for the future contribution of RESs to energy sup ...
The tourism sector is taking an active role in environmental protection. They are becoming aware of the impact generated by the activity and recognizing that their actions affect the social, economic and environmental fate. Moreover, the culture of social responsibility, conducted increasingly by decision makers of different tourist areas, is becoming a new (more…)
As energy prices increase, industries are more and more aware that energy is an expensive commodity that has to be used effic ...
The pace of innovations in batteries has not matched the remarkably fast evolution in the development of portable electronic techno ...
Prior to the Clean Air Act of 1990, environmental issues regulations were aimed at reducing emissions as they left the exhaust ...
The convention aims not only at stabilizing CO2 emissions in developed countries but also at ultimately reducing man-made CO2 e ...
There are several options that, ultimately, must be integrated when attempting to realize a change in corporate culture: the legal ...
World energy use has increased steadily over the past several decades. Much of the growth in world energy consumption has been concentrated on the use of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal). This trend is expected to continue over the foreseeable future. Industrially mature nations will continue to rely on fossil fuels to meet their energy needs for all end uses, but the greatest rate of energy use is projected to occur in the emerging economies of the developing world. (more…)
Global energy consumption in the last half century has increased very rapidly and is expected to continue to grow over the next ...
There are various and somewhat complementary reasons to foster the growth of renewable energy sources in Europe. A major incent ...
Following the recent completion of three nuclear power plants, there is now some 9.6 GW of nuclear capacity in the United Kingd ...
The relationship of gross national product per capita to energy consumption per capita for most countries of the world correlat ...
Geographers researching the development of nuclear power have shifted emphasis from commercialization, cost, risk, public acceptanc ...