Future scenarios with significant anthropogenic climate change also display large increases in world production of fossil fuels, the principal CO2 emission source. Meanwhile, fossil fuel depletion has also been identified as a future challenge. This chapter reviews the connection between these...

In the Paris Agreement, ambitious emission targets are accompanied by insufficient mitigation measures. It lacks, in particular, strategies on how to reduce the use of fossil fuels. In this context the distinctive prospect of carbon capture and storage (CCS) – reducing emissions, albeit using...

Using energy data over the period 1981–2011 we find that US biofuels subsidies and production have provided a perverse incentive for US fossil fuel producers to increase their rate of extraction that has generated a weak green paradox. Further, in the short-run if the reduction in the CO2...

We estimate the short-run and long-run elasticities of various types of energy consumption and energy R&D to changes in oil prices and income of the 20 OECD countries over the period of 1980–2010 using the Nerlove partial adjustment model (NPAM). We find negative income elasticity for coal...

Global discussions on the reduction of Co2 emissions and the increasing interest in alternative energy sources and production technologies have started to concern oil exporting nations. International discussions on projects such as Desert Tec might also have sparked their interest to explore a...

The generic social and socioeconomic impacts of various biofuels and fossil fuels were screened by applying Social Life Cycle Assessment methodology. Data were taken from the Social Hotspots Database on all categories for all the related themes and all indicators available. To limit the amount...

This paper studies patenting dynamics in efficiency improving electricity generation technologies as an important indicator of innovation activity. We build a novel database of worldwide patent applications in efficiency-improving fossil fuel technologies for electricity generation and then...

Research around micro-hydro power is focused on technical aspects with limited understanding of the social organisation and environmental implications. We examine the ways in which micro-hydro is engaged by people and organisations as a means of contributing to the UK's policy ambition for...

Renewable energy systems are often criticized because of their intermittency and need for substantial amount of backup in terms of other energy sources or storage. The present paper proposes a method to estimate the required amount of storage backup for a mostly solar and wind system that uses...

A reconfigurable network can change its topology by opening and closing switches on power lines. We use real wind, solar, load, and cost data and a model of a reconfigurable distribution grid to show that reconfiguration allows a grid operator to reduce operational losses as well as to accept...