Socio-Economic Analysis Of Renewable Energy : The Economics Of Renewable Energy

One of many possible renewable sources of energy is biomass. Biomass energy is the power that is contained within plant and animals.

Renewable energy has currently become a significant aspect in the countries generation, combination, and a constitution focus of government policy for energy, and environmental protection. As a result of public’s growing responsibility for the environment and constantly binding rules, and regulations of emission in the electric power industry, government has facilitated policies to boost the amount of renewable energy in the electricity generation portfolio. Additionally, the generation of electricity from renewable resources creates insufficient, and frequently, zero emissions of pollutants that comes from traditional fossil fuel production technologies. The additional use of renewable energy aids utilities in their emission agreement obligations. Furthermore, the anticipation of agreement with any future carbon emissions management would further toughen the incentive to move towards cleaner electricity creating technologies (Langwith, 2009).

Efficiency at a power plant is determined by energy conversion rate. This is rate is measured by the input energy source, in this case coal, in proportion to the output, which is the power generated. The less fuel that is required for power generation, the more efficient it is. Efficiency is very sensitive in relation to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted. A single percentage increase in the efficiency of a coal fired power plant yields a 2-3% reduction in the carbon dioxide levels emitted by this plant. The power stations on the upper side on the scale of efficiency may emit up to 40% less carbon dioxide than the average power stations currently installed. The efficiency of power plant improvements include the most cost effective and shortest lead time actions for reducing emissions from coal fired electricity. This is especially true in developing and lower-economy countries

Biomass energy is a renewable energy source from living or recently living plant and animal materials which can be used as fuel. There are many ways in which we could produce this energy such as heat and steam. Also, instead of leaving waste in landfills, we’re reusing that waste and converting it into usable power. Pros: 1. Renewable. 2. Dependency on Fossil Fuels is Reduced 3. Protects air quality 4. Improves forest health. Cons: 1. Not 100% clean. 2. Requires a lot of water. 3. Not as efficient as fossil fuels.

Wind energy is one of the cheapest forms of renewable energy sources. “ In 2013, the cost of generating one kilowatt hour of wind power was said to be about four cents as compared to five cents for hydropower and fifteen cents for nuclear power” (Environmental Encyclopedia). The operational cost for wind energy is also very low. The price for wind energy is steadily decreasing. “Prices have decreased over 80% since 1980 and are expected to keep decreasing” (Energy Informative).

In recent years, the use of renewable energy to replace fossil fuels to generate electricity has become an important topic of discussion around the world. As there are numerous drawbacks to using fossil fuels, such as global warming and air pollution, some people suggest that it is high time considering generating electricity by renewable energy on a large scale. Renewable energy mainly includes sunlight, wind, tides, waves, biomass and geothermal heat. In 2012 and 2013, renewable energy contributed 22 percent to our global electricity generation (Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century, 2014) and this shows that renewable energy only provides a small part of electricity generation. In this essay, both the advantages and disadvantages of using renewable energy to generate electricity will be discussed. The essay will demonstrate that despite the disadvantages of using renewable energy, its development is an unavoidable trend because our

Brazil is the third largest consumer of electricity in the Western Hemisphere and the ninth largest in the world. In 2011, of the 531 trillion watt hours of electric power generated, hydropower accounted for 424 trillion watt hours, approximately a staggering 80%. Brazil undoubtedly has extremely high reliance on hydropower. However, due to the large size of hydroelectric dams, the construction of dams lowering biodiversity in the Amazon Rainforest, and the unstable climate of Brazil, the hydroelectric power across Brazil is environmentally ineffective.

Biomass is the use of organic matter to make electricity. Organic matter such as trees and plants are burned and heat water to create steam. The steam created from boiling water is used to turn turbines to create electricity. Biomass can also be used to create Methane which is used to create even more electricity.

The Biomass energy is an organic matter that is used by photosynthesis. This is used to generate energy and the most common energy is coming from the wood of the trees, corn, municipal solid waste, and sugarcane. The biomass is used to create ethanol, biodiesel, bio oil and biogas. This in turns create electricity with steam turbines and gasifies to produce heat. The advantage of using the biomass over the fossil fuel is that biomass is a renewable carbon source, zero net carbon dioxide emissions, lower methane, sulfate, and hydrocarbon emissions, and the most important is no dependence on foreign oil. Another is the geothermal energy, in which it uses the heat from the earth to warm things up. The common source is cost effective, reliable, and environmentally friendly. The main sources of uses are to heat homes, greenhouse, industrial process heating mineral recovery, fisheries and also mitigate global warnings. Geothermal energy is more valuable than the fossil fuels because it is an inexhaustible energy source, lot less emissions in the atmosphere, more efficient than solar energy, work under any kinds of weather conditions. The fossil fuels are irreplaceable, create massive environmental pollution and are also causes the major factor of the global warming and the ozone layer depletion. Also the Biomass and the Geothermal are very inexpensive compare to the fossil fuels by almost 50 percent.

Summary: In this paper, I will introduce the Renewable Portfolio Standard and tell the audience what the Renewable Portfolio Standard is. And then I will list many different Renewable Portfolio Standard in many different countries and in different states in the U.S. Then I will analysis the advantages and disadvantages of this renewable energy policy. Finally I will make my own recommendations and suggestions.

Moreover, Biomass Energy is one of the most reliable alternative energy sources in the present and the future as well. According Adria and Bethge (2013, p.9), more than 2.5 billion people still depend on biomass such as wood, waste or drug for cooking, In Nepal about 88% percent of total energy consumption is traditional biomass resources and out of the bio mass resources nearly 78% is met by wood. The majority of the wood resources are used for cooking purposes but combusted in the traditional wood stoves which causes major health and environmental impacts. Therefore, to use this limited source of energy in a more sustainable manner more efficient devices and technologies have to be promoted.

Subsides for renewable energy comes in many shapes and sizes, but the end result is that renewable energy is significantly more expensive than current nonrenewable energy. Perponets of renewable energy claim the economic effects of renewable energy are seen in stable prices

Global climate changes and depletion of fossil energy resources on the planet forced the civilized world to pay more attention to the efficient use of traditional energy resources and increase the proportion of renewable ones. One can definitely say that Germany is the most progressive country in that sense. Constant growth in prices for gas and other energy sources, as well as Germany 's dependence on exporting countries, gave rise to a new round of debates about the German energy policy. The discussion primary topics concern mixed energy supply stability as well as promotion of inner energy production through the use of coal and alternative energy sources. This paper is focused on Germany’s wind

Denmark is a stable country economically and has a population of 5.6 million. Denmark is present in the north of Europe and has large coal and natural gas reserves in the North Sea. The present energy situation is that the electricity

Testing the stationary properties of time series is a very important exercise as the use of stationary time series data in the Classical Linear Regression Model will result in inflated results. The results are likely to be inconsistent and with a low Durbin Watson (DW) statistic. Several methods can be employed to test whether the time series variables are stationary , these includes residual plot but this paper will employ the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) to test the existence of a unit root. Conclusion of stationarity is going to be considered at 1% and 5% level of significance only. Any probability of each variable below the two values will be considered stationary. If the model fails to meet the stationary requirement, we will use the differencing method to make our model stationary.