Geoffrey Heal.

Thesis, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, NBER Working Papers, 2009.

Greater use of renewable energy is seen as a key component of any move to combat climate change, and is being aggressively promoted as such by the new U.S. administration and by other governments. Yet there is little economic analysis of renewable energy. This paper surveys what is written and adds to it. The conclusion is that the main renewables face a major problem because of their intermittency (the wind doesn't always blow nor the sun always shine) and that this has not been adequately factored into discussions of their potential. Without new storage technologies that can overcome this intermittency, much of the decarbonization of the economy will have to come from nuclear, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and energy efficiency (geothermal and biofuels can make small contributions). Nuclear and CCS are not without their problems. New energy storage technologies could greatly increase the role of renewables, but none are currently in sight.

K. Seyboth, L. Beurskens, O. Langniss and Ralph E. H. Sims.

Energy Policy, Vol. 36, No. 7, Jul 2008, pp. 2460-2463.

Heating and cooling in the industrial, commercial, and domestic sectors constitute around 40-50% of total global final energy demand. A wide range of renewable energy heating and cooling (REHC) technologies exists but they are presently only used to meet around 2-3% of total world demand (excluding from traditional biomass). Several of these technologies are mature, their markets are growing, and their costs relative to conventional heating and cooling systems continue to decline. However, in most countries, policies developed to encourage the wider deployment of renewable electricity generation, transport biofuels and energy efficiency have over-shadowed policies aimed at REHC technology deployment. This paper, based on the findings of the International Energy Agency publication Renewables for Heating and Cooling-Untapped Potential, outlines the present and future markets and compares the costs of providing heating and cooling services from solar, geothermal and biomass resources. It analyses current policies and experiences and makes recommendations to support enhanced market deployment of REHC technologies to provide greater energy supply security and climate change mitigation. If policies as successfully implemented by the leading countries were to be replicated elsewhere (possibly after modification to better suit local conditions), there would be good potential to significantly increase the share of renewable energy in providing heating and cooling services.; All rights reserved, Elsevier

I. Lerche.

Energy Exploration & Exploitation, Vol. 25, No. 2, 2007, pp. 95-106.

One of the forms of energy availability that is touted as environmentally friendly is the production of hot water from the Earth as a renewable energy resource. The basic argument is that such water can be used to drive steam turbines, thereby producing electricity, and that the water can be injected thereafter back into the Earth to be reheated and then further pumped back into the water/steam reactor as depicted schematically in Figure 1. Thus, the argument is that one has a constant supply of renewable energy, with only ongoing costs of maintenance to pay. As such the basic scheme seems to alleviate much of the concern for environmental degradation by CO sub(2) production from coal-fired, nuclear-driven, and even wind-power driven electricity generation mechanisms.

Taichen Chien and J. -L Hu.

Energy Policy, Vol. 35, No. 7, Jul 2007, pp. 3606-3615.

This article analyzes the effects of renewable energy on the technical efficiency of 45 economies during the 2001-2002 period through data envelopment analysis (DEA). In our DEA model, labor, capital stock, and energy consumption are the three inputs and real GDP is the single output. Increasing the use of renewable energy improves an economy's technical efficiency. Conversely, increasing the input of traditional energy decreases technical efficiency. Compared to non-OECD economies, OECD economies have higher technical efficiency and a higher share of geothermal, solar, tide, and wind fuels in renewable energy. However, non-OECD economies have a higher share of renewable energy in their total energy supply than OECD economies.; All rights reserved, Elsevier

Martin Kaltschmitt, Wolfgang Streicher and Andreas Wiese.

Berlin and New York: Springer, 2007, xxxii, 564

Nine papers in a corrected and enlarged English-language edition present the physical and technical principles of promising ways of utilizing renewable energies. Papers discuss basics of renewable energy supply; utilization of passive solar energy; solar thermal heat utilization; solar thermal power plants; photovoltaic power generation; wind power generation; hydroelectric power generation; utilization of ambient air and shallow geothermal energy; and utilization of geothermal energy. Kaltschmitt is in the Institute of Environmental Technology and Energy Economics at Hamburg University of Technology. Streicher is in the Institute of Thermal Engineering at Graz University of Technology. Wiese is with Lahmeyer International. Index.