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Annex III - Recent Renewable Energy Cost and Performance Parameters
- Edited by Ottmar Edenhofer, Ramón Pichs-Madruga, Youba Sokona, Kristin Seyboth, Susanne Kadner, Timm Zwickel, Patrick Eickemeier, Gerrit Hansen, Steffen Schlömer, Christoph von Stechow, Patrick Matschoss
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- Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation
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- 05 December 2011
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- 21 November 2011, pp 1001-1022
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Summary
Annex III is intended to become a ‘living document’, which will be updated in the light of new information in order to serve as an input to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). Scientists that are interested in supporting this process are invited to contact the IPCC WG III Technical Support Unit (TSU) (using srren_cost@ipcc-wg3.de) in order to get further information concerning the submission process. Comments and new data input will be considered for inclusion in Volume 3 of the IPCC AR5 according to the procedures of the IPCC review system.
This Annex contains recent cost and performance parameter information for currently commercially available renewable power generation technologies (Table A.III.1), heating technologies (Table A.III.2) and bio-fuel production processes (Table A.III.3). It summarizes information that determines the levelized cost of energy or energy carriers supplied by the respective technologies.
The input ranges are based on assessments of various studies by authors of the respective technology chapters (Chapters 2 through 7). If not stated otherwise, the data ranges provided here are worldwide aggregates. Data are generally for 2008, but can be as recent as 2009. They represent roughly the mid-80% of values found in the literature, hence, excluding outliers. The availability and quality of different sources of data varies significantly across individual technologies for a variety of reasons. Some expert judgment is therefore required to determine data ranges that are representative of particular classes of technologies and specific periods of time and valid globally.
Chapter 1 - Renewable Energy and Climate Change
- Edited by Ottmar Edenhofer, Ramón Pichs-Madruga, Youba Sokona, Kristin Seyboth, Susanne Kadner, Timm Zwickel, Patrick Eickemeier, Gerrit Hansen, Steffen Schlömer, Christoph von Stechow, Patrick Matschoss
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- Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation
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- 05 December 2011
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- 21 November 2011, pp 161-208
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Executive Summary
All societies require energy services to meet basic human needs (e.g., lighting, cooking, space comfort, mobility, communication) and to serve productive processes. For development to be sustainable, delivery of energy services needs to be secure and have low environmental impacts. Sustainable social and economic development requires assured and affordable access to the energy resources necessary to provide essential and sustainable energy services. This may mean the application of different strategies at different stages of economic development. To be environmentally benign, energy services must be provided with low environmental impacts and low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, 85% of current primary energy driving global economies comes from the combustion of fossil fuels and consumption of fossil fuels accounts for 56.6% of all anthropogenic GHG emissions.
Renewable energy sources play a role in providing energy services in a sustainable manner and, in particular, in mitigating climate change. This Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation explores the current contribution and potential of renewable energy (RE) sources to provide energy services for a sustainable social and economic development path. It includes assessments of available RE resources and technologies, costs and co-benefits, barriers to up-scaling and integration requirements, future scenarios and policy options.
GHG emissions associated with the provision of energy services are a major cause of climate change. The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) concluded that “Most of the observed increase in global average temperature since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.”
Annex II - Methodology
- Edited by Ottmar Edenhofer, Ramón Pichs-Madruga, Youba Sokona, Kristin Seyboth, Susanne Kadner, Timm Zwickel, Patrick Eickemeier, Gerrit Hansen, Steffen Schlömer, Christoph von Stechow, Patrick Matschoss
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- Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation
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- 21 November 2011, pp 973-1000
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Summary
Introduction
Parties need to agree upon common data, standards, supporting theories and methodologies. This annex summarizes a set of agreed upon conventions and methodologies. These include the establishment of metrics, determination of a base year, definitions of methodologies and consistency of protocols that permit a legitimate comparison between alternative types of energy in the context of climate change phenomena. This section defines or describes these fundamental definitions and concepts as used throughout this report, recognizing that the literature often uses inconsistent definitions and assumptions.
This report communicates uncertainty where relevant, for example, by showing the results of sensitivity analyses and by quantitatively presenting ranges in cost numbers as well as ranges in the scenario results. This report does not apply formal IPCC uncertainty terminology because at the time of approval of this report, IPCC uncertainty guidance was in the process of being revised.
Metrics for analysis in this report
A number of metrics can simply be stated or are relatively easy to define. Annex II provides the set of agreed upon metrics. Those which require further description are found below. The units used and basic parameters pertinent to the analysis of each RE type in this report include:
International System of Units (SI) for standards and units
Metric tonnes (t) CO2, CO2eq
Primary energy values in exajoules (EJ)
IEA energy conversion factors between physical and energy units
Capacity: GW thermal (GWt), GW electricity (GWe)
Capacity factor
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Annex I - Glossary, Acronyms, Chemical Symbols and Prefixes
- Edited by Ottmar Edenhofer, Ramón Pichs-Madruga, Youba Sokona, Kristin Seyboth, Susanne Kadner, Timm Zwickel, Patrick Eickemeier, Gerrit Hansen, Steffen Schlömer, Christoph von Stechow, Patrick Matschoss
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- Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation
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- 21 November 2011, pp 953-972
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Summary
Glossary entries (highlighted in bold) are by preference subjects; a main entry can contain subentries, in bold italic, for example, Final Energy is defined under the entry Energy. The Glossary is followed by a list of acronyms/abbreviations, a list of chemical names and symbols, and a list of prefixes (international standard units). Some definitions are adapted from C.J. Cleveland and C. Morris, 2006: Dictionary of Energy, Elsevier, Amsterdam. Definitions of regions and country groupings are given in Section A.II.6 of Annex II of this report.
Glossary
Adaptation: Initiatives and measures to reduce the vulnerability or increase the resilience of natural and human systems to actual or expected climate change impacts. Various types of adaptation exist, for example, anticipatory and reactive, private and public, and autonomous and planned. Examples are raising river or coastal dikes, retreating from coastal areas subject to flooding from sea level rise or introducing alternative temperature-appropriate or drought-adapted crops for conventional ones.
Aerosols: A collection of airborne solid or liquid particles, typically between 0.01 and 10 μm in size and residing in the atmosphere for at least several hours. Aerosols may be of natural or anthropogenic origin. See also black carbon.
Afforestation: Direct human-induced conversion of land that has not been forested historically to forested land through planting, seeding and/or the human-induced promotion of natural seed sources. See also deforestation, reforestation, land use.