Papers by Aviel Verbruggen
Barriers, Opportunities, and Market Potential of Technologies and Practices 5 † Professor David H... more Barriers, Opportunities, and Market Potential of Technologies and Practices 5 † Professor David Hall, a close colleague, passed away in August 1999. He inspired us all through his vigorous support for bioenergy, and its just uses in the developing world. CONTENTS The transfer of technologies and practices that have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is often hampered by barriers 1 that slow their penetration. The opportunity 2 to mitigate GHG concentrations by removing or modifying barriers to the spread of technology may be viewed within a framework of different potentials for GHG mitigation (Figure 5.1). The " market potential " indicates the amount of GHG mit-igation that might be achieved under forecast market conditions , with no changes in policy or implementation of measures whose primary purpose is the mitigation of GHGs. The market potential can be close to zero as a result of extreme poverty, absence of markets, and remoteness of communities. The inability of the poor or isolated communities to access modern energy services reflects this situation. Because interventions to address poverty fall outside the immediate scope of this chapter , they receive only limited treatment here despite the intrinsic general importance of the subject. In addition to the market potential, there is also the economic potential and the socioeconomic potential to be considered. Eliminating imperfections of markets, public policies, and other institutions that inhibit the diffusion of technologies that are (or are projected to be) cost-effective for consumers (evaluated using consumers' private rate of time discounting and prices) without reference to any GHG benefits they may generate would increase GHG mitigation to the level defined as the " economic potential ". The " socioeconomic " potential consists of barriers derived from people's individual habits, attitudes and social norms, and vested interests in the diffusion of new technology. This potential represents the level of GHG mitigation that would be achieved if technologies that are cost effective from a societal perspective are implemented. Finally, some technologies might not be widely used simply because they are too expensive from a societal perspective. This leads to the level of the " technical potential " , which can be improved upon by solving scientific and technological problems. Policies to overcome this category of barriers must be aimed at fostering research and development (R&D). Technological and social innovation is a complex process of research, experimentation, learning, and development that can …
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Apr 1, 2007
Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Feb 23, 2023
Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, Feb 23, 2023
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
Overview Political economy is the study of rational decisions in a context of political and econo... more Overview Political economy is the study of rational decisions in a context of political and economic institutions. Institutions influence choices at all levels of society. They appear as conventions, norms and externally sanctioned rules. The number of institutions and their diversity is large, encompassing for example natural and artificial markets, public regulatory offices, education curricula, societal discourse formation, etc. Political economy is a social science and an art when constructing comprehensive understanding of societal mechanisms and evolutions. Similar to icebergs, parts of the constructs are visible but many components and relations are not directly observable. Understanding is assembled by deduction, by creative linking of the separate evidences, by hypotheses that are not verifiable in a reproducible way. Practical political economy is incidental, with several cases revealing particular patterns, and fitting patterns summing up to societal realities. Energy tra...
Overview Nuclear technology is considered by most international institutes as one of the four maj... more Overview Nuclear technology is considered by most international institutes as one of the four major low-carbon energy options, coming in line after demand-side management including enhanced energy efficiency and renewable energy supplies, but before carbon capture & storage. Today, nuclear GenII or GenIII (+) fission reactors deliver medium-pressure steam for power generation, with other technologies (the so-called GenIV options breeders, high-temperature reactors or GenV option fusion) in demo phase. This demo research aims to develop the ‘sustainable’ nuclear power of the future – i.e. safer, more resistant to proliferation, less resource intensive, and producing lower quantities of high-level waste. Most analysts and modelers juxtapose nuclear and other low-carbon supplies. This practice is investigated from a theoretical perspective, supported by empirical evidence about the composition and functioning of integrated power supply systems. For the future several authorities foster...
Uploads
Papers by Aviel Verbruggen
The presentation will show where and why the failures have been occurring for so long. Next the theoretical solution of the issues is presented: it is based on a unit mass flow analysis in a Rankine steam expansion path, with back-pressure heat extraction(s) before the cold condenser. This information is necessary to draw the production possibility set of the steam power plant. In real steam power plants, a significant part of the possibility set is actually virtual (this is the main reason why the solution wasn’t seen for so long). By adding the capacity and lay-out characteristics of a plant to the possibility set data, the practical and accurate measurement of cogenerated power becomes self-evident. The method will be documented with numerical cases.
Applying a transparent and accurate method as the one presented is important as foundation of good incentive regulations for CHP plant investments and operations. This regulation may imply subsidies for energy efficiency, or priority ranking in merit orderings of integrated power systems.
Politicians issue statements about energy which lack coherence and focus. Policy mud-dles along with too much reliance on outdated energy and technology systems. The EU aims to achieve secure, affordable and sustainable energy in abundance, but its strate-gy and regulations are insufficient. In addition, member states want to maintain their power to control energy, due to the immense role and impact of energy on the function-ing of society.
A fossilised civilisation is focused on its ‘glorious’ past and conservative present. The emerging future, built on new energy systems, is not being given the space, resources and targeted policy support to develop faster and more broadly. Effective and efficient policy requires a clear vision of the feasible future, starting in the present and learning from the experiences of the past.