Posts Tagged ‘markets’

Environmental, social and legal considerations

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While most renewable energy sources do not produce pollution directly, the materials, industrial processes, and construction equipment used to create them may generate waste and pollution. Some renewable energy systems actually create environmental problems. Sustainable development and global warming groups propose a 100% Renewable Energy Source Supply, without fossil fuels and nuclear power.Scientists from the University of Kassel have suggested that Germany can power itself entirely by renewable energy.

The U.S. electric power industry now relies on large, central power stations, including coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydropower plants that together generate more than 95% of the nations electricity. Over the next few decades uses of renewable energy could help to diversify the nations bulk power supply. Already, appropriate renewable resources (which excludes large hydropower) produce 12% of northern Californias electricity.

Although most of todays electricity comes from large, central-station power plants, new technologies offer a range of options for generating electricity nearer to where it is needed, saving on the cost of transmitting and distributing power and improving the overall efficiency and reliability of the system.

Improving energy efficiency represents the most immediate and often the most cost-effective way to reduce oil dependence, improve energy security, and reduce the health and environmental impact of the energy system. By reducing the total energy requirements of the economy, improved energy efficiency could make increased reliance on renewable energy sources more practical and affordable.

Competition with nuclear power :Nuclear power proposed as renewable energy.

Nuclear power continues to be considered as an alternative to fossil-fuel power sources (see Low carbon power generation), and in 1956, when the first peak oil paper was presented, nuclear energy was presented as the replacement for fossil fuels.However, the prospect of increased nuclear power deployment was seriously undermined in the United States as a result of the Three Mile Island, and in the rest of the world after the Chernobyl disaster. This trend is slowly reversing, and several new nuclear reactors are scheduled for construction.

Physicist Bernard Cohen proposed in 1983 that uranium dissolved in seawater is effectively inexhaustible, and could therefore be considered a renewable source of energy.However, this idea is not universally accepted, and issues such as peak uranium and uranium depletion are ongoing debates. No legislative body has yet included nuclear energy under any legal definition of “renewable energy sources” for provision of development support, and statutory and scientific definitions of renewable energies normally exclude nuclear energy.

Lady Liberty to renewable energy

Duration : 0:10:41

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Technorati Tags: Coal, country, Developing, DIVERSITY, eco, Efficiency, energy, Ethanol, friendly, future, geothermal, industry, MAIZE, markets, obama, PARMIONOVA, policy, potential, solar, trends, waves, WINDS

Introduction to the Course; and Introduction to Electricity
- January 17, 2008. An introduction to the course, including the history of energy, the relationship between energy and development, environmental and environmental justice impacts of energy generation, and an introduction to current energy issues. Lecture includes an introduction to the basics of electricity generation, transmission and distribution, efficiency, reliability, and ancillary services.

Duration : 2:36:22

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Technorati Tags: Air, Berkeley, boalt, Coal, conservation, course, Development, Economy, electric, Electricity, emissions, energy, energy law, energy resource plannin, Environment, Environmental, environmental law, gas, global, Green, greenhouse, grid, land, law, LAW 270.6, management, markets, nuclear, oil, petroleum, pollution, Power, practice, solar, Steve Weissman, suburban, transmission, transportation, uc, urban, use, wind, yt:quality=high

Introduction to the Course; and Introduction to Electricity
- January 17, 2008. An introduction to the course, including the history of energy, the relationship between energy and development, environmental and environmental justice impacts of energy generation, and an introduction to current energy issues. Lecture includes an introduction to the basics of electricity generation, transmission and distribution, efficiency, reliability, and ancillary services.

Duration : 2:36:22

Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Air, Berkeley, boalt, Coal, conservation, course, Development, Economy, electric, Electricity, emissions, energy, energy law, energy resource plannin, Environment, Environmental, environmental law, gas, global, Green, greenhouse, grid, land, law, LAW 270.6, management, markets, nuclear, oil, petroleum, pollution, Power, practice, solar, Steve Weissman, suburban, transmission, transportation, uc, urban, use, wind, yt:quality=high

Class 9: Resource Alternatives: Renewable Energy – The Technologies and the Programs – March 13, 2008. This class will introduce: the types of renewable energy including wind, biomass, landfill gas, photovoltaic, esoteric sources, and energy storage; the regulatory and legal strategies for encouraging the implementation of renewable energy options. Regulatory matters including PURPA, stranded benefits under deregulation, System Benefit Charges and Renewables Trust Funds, life cycle costs and emissions, Renewable Portfolio Standards, Renewable Energy Credits, net metering, and tax credits.

Duration : 2:39:21

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Technorati Tags: choices, design, Electricity, energy, energy law, energy resource plannin, environmental law, LAW 270.6, markets, natural, oil, Steve Weissman, system, yt:quality=high