SOLAR, WIND, GEOTHERMAL NUMBERS ADD UP

Another entrant in the Battle of New Energy Statistics (see PROF DISSES EROEI STATS). Now we have (1) Dale’s Displacement Value, (2) Net Energy (or EROEI or EROI) and (3) Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). And they all conclude nearly the same thing: Wind energy is just about ready and solar energy is not far behind.

Go Solar, Wind or Geothermal If You Want Renewable Energy With Life-cycle Efficiency
August 13, 2007 (Inderscience Publishers via Science Daily)

WHO
Christopher Koroneos and Yanni Koroneos, the Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

WHAT
The researchers examine what they call “a whole life cycle assessment (LCA)” of renewable energies to determine which are the best long-term bets for replacing fossil fuels.

Life Cycle Assessment (click to enlarge)

WHEN
Statistical methods currently being evolved and debated.

WHERE
- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is in Greece
- The study was published in Inderscience’s International Journal of Global Energy Issues.

WHY
- Cheap fossil fuels supplies are near exhaustion and burning them aggravates climate change. Moving to renewable energies is more than desirable, it is necessary.
- LCA weighs environmental impact and energy release in comparison to fossil fuels.
- Examination of a renewable’s LCA helps identify the best investment.
- Considerations of an energy’s LCA: materials sourcing, manufacture, running, and decommissioning. Examples: land use and waste produced; materials employed including components and extraction; energy consumed by construction, operation and decommissioning of the energy.
- 3 renewables emerge as viable: solar, wind and geothermal.
- Wind and geothermal assess as equivalent or better than fossil fuels for producing electricity; solar from photovoltaics is not quite as efficient as fossil fuels absent adequate scale although it generates much less pollution.

A Net Energy calculation graphically demonstrating wind energy's efficiency. (click to enlarge -- be prepared to think hard)

QUOTES
Christopher and Yanni Koroneos: "A significant advantage of the use of renewable energy systems…is that they are environmentally friendly because overall they result in lower dangerous pollutant emissions, this and one other major factor, they are essentially inexhaustible."