'Renewable' Energy Frontiers: Editorial Introduction

2013

The perspectives of the depletion of fossil energy resources, together with the consequences of climate change, have provoked the development of numerous national and pluri-national energy policies. However, there have been few overall studies on the evolution of these resources. This paper uses a dynamic model to study the exhaustion patterns of world fossil and nuclear fuels and their possible replacement by renewable energy sources. The results show that peak oil will be the first restriction and it will not be easily overcome. Electric vehicles can produce some interesting savings, but they are insufficient to avoid the decline in oil. Biofuels are even more limited, due to the enormous extensions of fertile land they require and their low productivity. This shows that overcoming the decline in oil will need much more ambitious policies than the mere substitution of technology. If the “oil–economy” relationship does not change substantially, world economic growth may be seriously limited or even negative. In contrast, the production of electrical energy is not such a worrying problem in the short and middle-term.

2014

While partial energy transitions have been observed in the past, the complete transition of a fossil-based energy system to a sustainable energy one is historically unprecedented on a large scale. Switching from an economy based on energy stocks to one based on energy flows requires a social paradigm shift. This paper defines Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) and introduces a set of five propositions that prescribe its sustainability. The propositions are comprehensive, spanning environmental constraints, resource availability, equity, and the transition dynamics from an energy and economic accounting perspective aimed at addressing all three pillars of sustainability. In order to rigorously define the constraints of SET a theoretical energy economy framework is introduced along with the concept of the renewable energy investment ratio. The paper concludes with a practical application of the SET propositions on the global energy system and identifies an order of magnitude underinvestment in the renewable energy investment ratio in comparison to the estimated level needed for a controlled transition that satisfies all propositions. The option of drastically increasing this ratio in the future may not be available as it would reduce societally available energy, imposing unacceptably high energy prices that would induce either fossil resource extraction beyond the safely recoverable resources or energy poverty.

2018

I provided feedback on this renewable energy policy report. Renewables have progressed at an unprecedented pace over the past decade and have consistently surpassed expectations, with new records being set each year and an increasing number of countries committing to their respective energy transitions. Much of the advancement has been achieved thanks to effective policies and planning, coupled with ambitious targets. However, to meet the goals established in the Paris Agreement, the pace of the energy transitions will have to increase – and for this, policies enabling a rapid renewable energy deployment will be essential. Policy support for renewables continues to be focused primarily on power generation globally, with efforts in the heating and cooling and the transport sectors significantly lagging behind. In the future, policy frameworks need to take a systems approach with more fully integrated policies across sectors, incorporating supporting infrastructure and measures for balancing supply and demand, taking advantage of synergies with energy efficiency, and harnessing distributed renewables for increased access to electricity and clean cooking. Above all, policies should be stable and transparent. Though many challenges remain, not least among them the continued subsidies for fossil fuels, more sophisticated policies continue to stimulate and support the increasing uptake of renewable energy worldwide. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the International Energy Agency (IEA), and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) have joined forces to produce a new publication, Renewable Energy Policies in a Time of Transition, in a first collaboration of this nature. This publication aims to provide policymakers with a comprehensive understanding of the diverse policy options to support the development of renewables across sectors, technologies, country contexts, energy market structures, and policy objectives. It not only illustrates the changing landscape of policies for renewable energy in power, heating and cooling, and transport, but also highlights the importance of system integration and sector coupling, reflecting the expanding opportunities for integration with increasing renewable energy deployment.

2015

One of the most important issues facing humanity is the prospect of global climate change, brought about primarily by our dependence on fossil fuels. If we continue to use the present mix of fuels even as the world's economy and population grow we will invite very serious consequences. Common sense dictates that we switch to more renewable and sustainable sources of energy. This book provides detailed yet easily understandable information about sustainable energy alternatives in the context of growing public concern about climate change, the impending fuel crisis and environmental degradation. It describes the history of energy use and the factors that have led to the current interest in energy alternatives, and assesses the chances of renewable energy replacing fossil fuels. The authors manage to make a highly complex and often intimidating subject not only accessible but also engaging and entertaining. This book unpacks but never simplifi es the science of energy, leavening the more technical passages with anecdotes, metaphors, examples and imagery. By also dealing with the history, politics and economics of energy use, it offers both scientifi c and non-scientifi c readers a deeper understanding of one of the most important issues of our age.

Energies, 2022

This paper exposes the many flaws in the article “Through the Eye of a Needle: An Eco-heterodox Perspective on the Renewable Energy Transition, authored by Siebert and Rees and recently published in Energies as a Review. Our intention in submitting this critique is to expose and rectify the original article’s non-scientific approach to the review process that includes selective (and hence biased) screening of the literature focusing on the challenges related to renewable energies, without discussing any of the well-documented solutions. In so doing, we also provide a rigorous refutation of several statements made by a Seibert–Rees paper, which often appear to be unsubstantiated personal opinions and not based on a balanced review of the available literature.

This paper explores the technical and economic characteristics of an accelerated energy transition to 2050, using new datasets for renewable energy. The analysis indicates that energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies are the core elements of that transition, and their synergies are likewise important. Favourable economics , ubiquitous resources, scalable technology, and significant socioeconomic benefits underpin such a transition. Renewable energy can supply two-thirds of the total global energy demand, and contribute to the bulk of the greenhouse gas emissions reduction that is needed between now and 2050 for limiting average global surface temperature increase below 2°C. Enabling policy and regulatory frameworks will need to be adjusted to mobilise the six-fold acceleration of renewables growth that is needed, with the highest growth estimated for wind and solar PV technologies, complemented by a high level of energy efficiency. Still, to ensure the eventual elimination of carbon dioxide emissions will require new technology and innovation, notably for the transport and manufacturing sectors, which remain largely ignored in the international debate. More attention is needed for emerging infrastructure issues such as charging infrastructure and other sector coupling implications.

Review of International Political Economy, 2021

This essay will investigate the question of how the renewable energy (RE) transition may reshape world politics. To date, most IPE scholars of the RE transition assume that renewables will simply substitute for fossil fuels and thereby continue similar patterns of economic growth and military competition that have characterized world politics over the past two centuries. However, they do not systematically consider what I call the 'non-substitutability hypothesis,' or the view that renewables will be unable to substitute for many of the services that fossil fuels provide for economies and militaries. In contrast, I will argue that if the non-substitutability hypothesis is correct, then a fully decarbonized global political economy would require a 'Great Transformation,' or a structural transformation in the political-economic and military bases of world order. In particular, I suggest that this would require two conjoined transitions: 1) a transition towards a 'post-growth' global political economy, or an economy that does not depend on continuous annual increases in GDP; and 2) a shift towards 'demilitarization,' in the sense of 'leaner' low-energy force structures; weakening pressure for military arms racing; and a transformation in national security priorities to focus on climate mitigation, adaptation, and disaster response.

Energy Studies Review, 2004

Social Science Research Network, 2018

The existing economics literature neglects the important role of capacity in the production of renewable energy. To fiill this gap, we construct a model in which renewable energy production is tied to renewable energy capacity, which then becomes a form of capital. This capacity capital can be increased through investment, which we interpret as arising from the allocation of energy, and which therefore comes at the cost of reduced general production. Requiring societal well-being to never decline, we describe how society could optimally elect to split energy in this fashion, the use of non-renewable energy resources, the use of renewable energy resources, and the implied time path of societal well-being. Our model delivers an empirically satisfactory explanation for simultaneous use of non-renewable and renewable energy. We also discuss the optimality of ceasing use of non-renewable energy before the non-renewable resource stock is fully exhausted.