Global energy consumption in the last half century has increased very rapidly and is expected to continue to grow over the next 50 years. However, we expect to see significant differences between the last 50 years and the next. The past increase was stimulated by relatively “cheap” fossil fuels and increased rates of industrialization in North America, Europe, and Japan; yet while energy consumption in these countries continues to increase, additional factors are making the picture for the next 50 years more complex. These additional complicating factors include the very rapid increase fuel economy in energy use in China and India (countries representing about a third of the world’s population); the expected depletion of oil resources in the not-too-distant future; and the effect of human activities on global climate change. (more…)
The relationship of gross national product per capita to energy consumption per capita for most countries of the world correlat ...
The long-term prospects for the U.K. economy are inevitably uncertain, and the most recent Department of Energy long-term proje ...
Transportation is another sector that has increased its relative share of primary energy use. This sector has serious concerns ...
The development of the ‘‘new’’ wind and solar technologies is of great importance for the future contribution of RESs to energy sup ...
To determine the effects of past climate trends on global energy consumption, the econometric equations providing the degree day el ...
The long-term prospects for the U.K. economy are inevitably uncertain, and the most recent Department of Energy long-term projection puts forward three scenarios for the next 30 years with GDP growth rates of roughly 2.5, 1.5 and 0.5% p.a. The highest value corresponds to slightly less than the 1948 - 72 average, the central value is close to the long-run average over the last 80 years, and the lowest figure is similar to the performance during the current recession since 1973. (more…)
Following the recent completion of three nuclear power plants, there is now some 9.6 GW of nuclear capacity in the United Kingd ...
Global energy consumption in the last half century has increased very rapidly and is expected to continue to grow over the next ...
Most major oil and gas firms engage in both upstream (i.e., hydrocarbon exploration and production) and downstream (i.e., hydro ...
Energy is consumed by various segments of the economy, including households, commercial establishments, manufacturing enterpris ...
World energy use has increased steadily over the past several decades. Much of the growth in world energy consumption has been ...
Following the recent completion of three nuclear power plants, there is now some 9.6 GW of nuclear capacity in the United Kingdom. The nuclear share of electrical output, which has stood at around 13% for many years, should rise to around 20% when this capacity is in full operation. A further two reactors are currently under construction which will increase the British nuclear capacity to more than 12 GW by the late 1980s, which could bring the nuclear share of electrical output to around 25%. (more…)
Geographers researching the development of nuclear power have shifted emphasis from commercialization, cost, risk, public acceptanc ...
The long-term prospects for the U.K. economy are inevitably uncertain, and the most recent Department of Energy long-term proje ...
Nuclear fission and fusion Research and Development continues to account for nearly half of the total spending by IEA countries, al ...
Sir Arthur Eddington’s general address on subatomic energy at the 1930 World Power Conference in Berlin stirred the imagination of ...
For years it was out of desperation that observers have advised and viewed of American energy policy and geopolitical risks regardi ...
Indoor air quality (IAQ) research deals with the presence, levels, health effects, and control of physical, chemical, and biological factors in indoor environments, including homes, workplaces, and vehicles. IAQ research in industrialized countries has examined hundreds of specific factors (e.g., temperature, various chemicals, and mold), sources of pollution environment (e.g., environmental tobacco smoke, occupational factors, consumer cleaning products, and moisture), and control technologies (e.g., ventilation). (more…)
Important research over the past few decades has illustrated that indoor air pollution and indoor smoke from solid fuel poses i ...
In terms of aggregate health effects, household solid fuel use is currently the most important source of indoor air pollution i ...
Exposure to air pollutants and air pollution problem are very high in indoor environments in developing countries. Smith has es ...
Reducing exposure to indoor air pollution from household energy use can be achieved through interventions in of the following a ...
Exposure to indoor air pollution from the combustion of solid fuels has been implicated, with varying degrees of evidence, as a ...
Acid deposition and the associated particulate nitrates and sulfates are implicated in the deterioration of certain sensitive ecosystems, decreased visibility, negative human health effects, and increased degradation of certain stone building materials and cultural resources, especially those made of limestone and marble. Fine particulate nitrate and sulfate particles associated with acid deposition are implicated in aggravating cardiorespiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic bronchitis, especially in urban areas. In many cases estimating the impact of acid deposition on various ecosystems can be a difficult process because acid deposition is only one of many impacts that can effect a response. However, wet and dry acid deposition has been documented as a major factor in the following ecosystem responses. (more…)
The formation of acidic deposition is largely from the combustion of fossil fuels and the smelting of sulfide ores. Minor natur ...
The increased use of fossil energy since the industrial revolution, and especially since 1950, has been the major cause of incr ...
Although underground coal mines operations are not as visible as surface mining, their overall environmental impact can be greater ...
Historically, mining companies have extracted the earth’s resources wherever economics made it feasible, secure in their knowledge ...
Various provisions in the federal income tax treat energy producers more or less favorably than other businesses. By changing the after-tax rate of return on investments in the energy sector, the Tax Code may alter the long-run supply of specific types of energy.
In general, the income of all participants in the energy sector is subject to income tax of one form or another. Two notable exceptions arise in the generation and sale of electricity. Governmental agencies (such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Bonneville Power Administration, and municipally owned power companies) account for approximately 14 percent of the electricity sold in the United States. (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 ...
A number of countries have vehicle tax incentives programs designed to reward purchasers and owners of alternative fuel-efficient v ...
The primary purpose of all forms of taxation, whether on energy or on non-energy items, is to raise money for the government to fin ...
Economists have overwhelmingly favored fuel taxes over fuel economy standards as a means to reduce fuel or gasoline consumption ...
Federal Excise Taxes placed on specific energy sources tend to reduce energy demand for these energy sources in both the short ...
The idea of using an absorption fluid as a refrigerant carrier derived from the drawback of VCR (vapor–compression refrigeration) systems that the gas compression requires a high work input. A pump that requires practically no work to increase the pressure in the refrigeration system replaces the complicated and work-consuming compressor. There are two major advantages of absorption refrigeration systems (ARSs) compared with VCRs (vapor–compression refrigeration): No CFCs or HCFCs are used as refrigerants, and they use heat from different sources, such as combustion, industrial processes, waste heat (an economical solution for recovery), or solar heat. (more…)
Heat-actuated heat pumps are cooling systems requiring no electricity for operation. Rather, a heat source is used, avoiding the ne ...
The term cryogenics derives from the Greek kryos, for icy cold. The upper limit that characterizes the cryogenic region of the temp ...
Separation is a unit operation used in absorption heat pumps and chemical processing applications such as solvent extraction and pr ...
Active solar hot water systems water are usable with air, liquid, vapor or liquid collector fluid or gas to liquid process. Hot ...
Micro technology can be employed to produce miniaturized refrigeration and cryocooling systems. Although process intensificat ...
Most discussions of energy use in paper production and papermaking are confusing because of a failure to define exactly what is meant by energy. It is important to keep track of the form in which energy is used. The major inputs to a paper mill are wood, purchased energy in the form of electricity and fossil fuels, and water. Some components of the wood are used as a raw material and some as by-product fuel. What the industry generally reports is the process energy use at the mill, which is the sum of the purchased energy and the process by-product energy (part of the energy originally in the wood) that is used. (more…)
More than 48% of the raw material fiber used for paper production (chemical pulp or mechanical pulp) in the United States in 2002 w ...
Agricultural and forestry residues provide the largest proportion of biomass used for the production of biomas bioenergy. Some esti ...
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 ...
In Europe, modern renewable energy sources technologies were explored thoroughly for the first time after the oil embargo/ price cr ...
From prehistory until the Industrial Revolution, most energy sources used by humans were localized (i.e., available within 5–10 miles of end users). Energy sources included draft animals, human slaves, and renewable sources such as biomass (wood and wastes), water mills, and wind power. Following the onset of the Industrial Revolution, with advancements in transportation technology and increased rates of deforestation in many regions, societies increasingly relied on long-distance shipments of coal, wood, and eventually oil, natural gas, and electric power. (more…)
Transportation is another sector that has increased its relative share of primary energy use. This sector has serious concerns ...
The global dependence on fossil fuels developed during the Industrial Revolution, two centuries of economic and social development ...
Natural gas and oil are common source energy used to give electricity. How efficient is coal if we compare to these other source of ...
Statistics on national production levels and indicators of environmental pressure have been collected during the past few decad ...
The entire concept of energy independence revolves around using the resources within a country. Simply put, it's "Stay within ...
Although some scientists and critics still dispute that human caused greenhouse gases are causing climate change, the majority of scientists and climate experts assert that global warming is a serious problem that could have devastating consequences unless action is taken to reduce fossil fuel emissions. In 2007, for example, the Nobel Prize–winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a scientific body charged by the United Nations with summarizing the best climate science, concludes that evidence of the warming of our climate is “unequivocal.” (more…)
Still hotly debated by some, human-induced global warming is now accepted in the scientific community. Earth’s average yearly tempe ...
Since the early 1960s, climate change and air quality have become major and often controversial issues in many countries and am ...
Addressing global warming, however, is a highly complex and daunting endeavor. Many climate experts have urged the world to stabili ...
Earth’s climate is a complex system of interacting natural components. These components include the atmosphere, the ocean, and the ...
Options for dealing with the threats of climate change include both adaptation to inevitable changes and mitigation, or lessening, ...