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5 - Assessment of the potentials for renewable energy sources
- Edited by Michael Ball, Martin Wietschel
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- Book:
- The Hydrogen Economy
- Published online:
- 22 January 2010
- Print publication:
- 24 September 2009, pp 135-167
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Summary
In this chapter, an assessment of the global and European potentials of renewable energy sources is given. With respect to hydrogen as a promising future energy carrier, a clear focus is put on electricity generation from renewable energy sources (RES), serving as a sustainable solution for producing hydrogen based on electrolysis (see also Chapter 16). Biomass gasification and solar-thermal technology provide further options to produce hydrogen using RES. In the following, first, different categories of renewable energy potentials are defined, followed by a general overview of the potentials on a global level and a more detailed picture of the European potentials of renewable energy sources. Finally, the global potential for biofuels is shortly addressed.
Potential categories
The possible use of RES depends in particular on the available resources and the associated costs. In this context, the term ‘available resources’ or RES potential has to be clarified. The RES potential might be represented by the overall theoretically available resources or might take into account different aspects that restrict the theoretically available resources. Subsequently, the RES-potential categories used within this book are described.
Theoretical potential The highest potential of an energy source is the theoretical potential. To derive the theoretical potential, general physical parameters have to be taken into account, based on the determination of the energy flow resulting from a certain energy resource within the investigated region. Examples are the kinetic energy of the wind, the total energy content of the existing biomass or the amount of solar energy radiated to a defined territory during one year. The theoretical potential consists of the overall physical energy supply available and represents a theoretically upper limit for the use of RES.
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4 - Non-renewable energy resources: nuclear fuels
- Edited by Michael Ball, Martin Wietschel
-
- Book:
- The Hydrogen Economy
- Published online:
- 22 January 2010
- Print publication:
- 24 September 2009, pp 115-134
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Summary
Nuclear fuels
Nuclear power today and outlook until 2030
Civilian use of nuclear power started with the opening of the first nuclear reactor in 1957 in the United Kingdom, generating approximately 50 MWel in its first year. This picture has changed considerably since the beginning of the 1970s. In 2006, nuclear power contributed around 2700 TWh to 16% of global electricity generation (6% of primary energy use) (WNA, 2007). Worldwide, some 440 nuclear power plants are in operation in 30 countries, using the energy released by nuclear fission of the natural uranium radionuclide 235U. (All commercial nuclear plants today use uranium as fuel (Olah et al., 2006).) The total installed nuclear-generation capacity amounts to around 370 GWel.
Three countries, namely the USA (104 plants), France (59 plants) and Japan, account for approximately 58% of the worldwide generation capacity, followed by Germany and the Russian Federation. These three countries also dominated the historical development of nuclear power expansion (see Fig. 4.1). The three countries with the highest nuclear energy share in their electricity mix today are France, with around 75%, followed by Lithuania, with 70%, and Slovakia, with 55%. While nuclear power contributes some 20% to power generation in the United States, the share in the EU25 is around 36%.
The historic growth of nuclear power can be divided into three broad periods: early growth (1957–1973), major expansion (1973–1990), and slow growth (1990 until today) (NEA/IAEA, 2006a).