What are we wiling to pay for the energy we consume?

  • All energy sources have some impact on our environment, including air and water pollution, damage to public health, and global warming.
  • Increase in greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is the most important “forcing” of climate change.
  • We’ll look at the most common energy sources, costs, and our future energy outlook
  • Unless otherwise stated, the data presented will be based on world histrical data or forecasts from international agencies.

This slideshow was in part inspired by: Ruzic, D. (2019). Illinois EnergyProf Economics of Nuclear Reactor. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbeJIwF1pVY&t=11s

Comparison of Greenhouse Gas Emission by Sector

We compare greenhouse gas emission from major industries

Comparison of Greenhouse Gas Emission by Sector

Electricity and heat generation is a major contributor

Common sources of energy through time

Where does our energy come from?

Cost vs Comsumption

Are we making our choices based on price?

Harmful Effects of Energy Production

But are we paying for cheap energy in some other ways?

The Future of Energy

Renewables will likely become more economical in the future.

Conclusion

On the basis of human health, safety and carbon footprint, nuclear and modern renewables are both winners.

Many renewables are forecasted to become cheaper than traditional, none-renewable sources and will likely be where our future solution lies.

References

Data Sources

The World Bank. (2015). Electricity production from renewable sources, excluding hydroelectric (kWh). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.ELC.RNWX.KH.

Schlömer S., T. Bruckner, L. Fulton, E. Hertwich, A. McKinnon, D. Perczyk, J. Roy, R. Schaeffer, R. Sims, P. Smith, and R. Wiser. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2014). Annex II: Metrics & Methodology. In: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_annex-ii.pdf.

Krey V., O. Masera, G. Blanford, T. Bruckner, R. Cooke, K. Fisher-Vanden, H. Haberl, E. Hertwich, E. Kriegler, D. Mueller, S. Paltsev, L. Price, S. Schlömer, D. Ürge-Vorsatz, D. van Vuuren, and T. Zwickel. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2014). Annex III: Technology-specific cost and performance parameters. In: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/ipcc_wg3_ar5_annex-iii.pdf.

BP. (2019.) Statistical Review of World Energy https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy.html

Climate Watch. (n.d.). Historical Emissions. https://www.climatewatchdata.org/data-explorer/historical-emissions

Hayward, J and Graham, P. (2017).CSIRO. Electricity generation technology cost projections. https://publications.csiro.au/rpr/download?pid=csiro:EP178771&dsid=DS2

Ritchie, H. and Roser, M. Our World in Data. (2018). Energy. https://ourworldindata.org/energy

Other Refereces

NASA. (n.d.). Global Climate Change. https://climate.nasa.gov/.

IEA. (n.d.) https://www.iea.org/.

Open Energy Information. (n.d.) https://openei.org/.