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Stakeholder analysis allows analysts to identify how parties might be affected by government projects. This process involves identifying the likely impacts of a proposed action and stakeholder groups affected by that action. Additionally, the process involves assessing how these groups might be affected and suggesting measures to mitigate any adverse effects. Evidence suggests that the efficiency and effectiveness of government actions can be increased and adverse social impacts mitigated when officials understand how a proposed action might affect stakeholders. This report discusses how to conduct useful stakeholder analyses for government officials making decisions on energy-efficiency and renewable-energy technologies...
Stakeholder analysis allows analysts to identify how parties might be affected by government projects. This process involves identifying the likely impacts of a proposed action and stakeholder groups affected by that action. Additionally, the process involves assessing how these groups might be affected and suggesting measures to mitigate any adverse effects. Evidence suggests that the efficiency and effectiveness of government actions can be increased and adverse social impacts mitigated when officials understand how a proposed action might affect stakeholders. This report discusses how to conduct useful stakeholder analyses for government officials making decisions on energy-efficiency and renewable-energy technologies...
Stakeholder analysis allows analysts to identify how parties might be affected by government projects. This process involves identifying the likely impacts of a proposed action and stakeholder groups affected by that action. Additionally, the process involves assessing how these groups might be affected and suggesting measures to mitigate any adverse effects. Evidence suggests that the efficiency and effectiveness of government actions can be increased and adverse social impacts mitigated when officials understand how a proposed action might affect stakeholders. This report discusses how to conduct useful stakeholder analyses for government officials making decisions on energy-efficiency and renewable-energy technologies...
Next-generation U.S. biofuel capacity should reach about 88 million gallons in 2010, thanks in large measure to one plant becoming commercially operational in 2010, using noncellulosic animal fat to produce green diesel. U.S. production capacity for cellulosic biofuels is estimated to be 10 million gallons for 2010, much less than the 100 million gallons originally mandated for use by the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act. In early 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency lowered the cellulosic biofuel mandate to 6.5 million gallons, more in line with production prospects. Even so, expansion of next-generation fuels will have to be rapid to meet subsequent annual mandates and the longer term goal of 16...
Biomass remains a key energy source for several billion people living in developing countries, and the production of liquid biofuels for transportation is growing rapidly. However, both traditional biomass energy and crop-based biofuels technologies have negative environmental and social impacts. The overall research challenge for bioenergy is to develop the technologies to produce useful products at low costs while minimizing the use of scarce resources such as arable land and water. This requires substantial advancements in modern biomass power generation and the success of liquid biofuel technologies that permit the use of lignocellulosic feedstocks or possibly algae. With such technologies, biomass resources...
Decentralised bioenergy systems are receiving increasing attention due to the potential ability to support local development, create local employment, and contribute to climate change mitigation. These issues, along with other bioenergy sustainability issues, are reviewed through eighteen international case studies with the objective of identifying opportunities and threats to decentralised bioenergy systems. The case studies were selected based on feedstock type, bioenergy type, production capacity, synergistic alliances, ownership structure and physical locations. This variation was used to provide a basis for evaluating opportunities and threats from different contexts. Commercial viability remains the primary...
Transformational energy and climate policies are being debated worldwide that could have significant impact upon the future of the forest products industry. Because woody biomass can produce alternative transportation fuels, low-carbon electricity, and numerous other "green" products in addition to traditional paper and lumber commodities, the future use of forest resources is highly uncertain. Using the National Energy Modeling System (NEMS), this paper assesses the future of the forest products industry under three possible U.S. policy scenarios: (1) a national renewable electricity standard, (2) a national policy of carbon constraints, and (3) incentives for industrial energy efficiency. In addition, we discuss...
Rising global demand for energy, high energy prices, climate change, and the threat of terrorism all point to the need for greater energy efficiency and conservation in the United States. While technological innovation is plainly needed, our laws and institutional arrangements must also play an important role. The United States has scores of legal and policy tools from which to choose to improve energy efficiency and curb energy consumption. This Article, which grows out of a Spring 2006 seminar at theWidener University School of Law, evaluates a handful of these tools: transit-oriented development; fuel taxation; real-time pricing for electricity use; public benefit funds; improving the efficiency of existing residential...
Interest in renewable energy has never been greater, but much uncertainty remains as to the role the various technologies will play in the transition to a low-carbon future. This book sets out the facts - how the technologies work, where and to what extent they are currently employed, and where the greatest potential lies. Covering all the major fields - solar electricity, solar thermal, solar architecture, bioenergy, wind, geothermal, hydropower, as well as new energy technologies - it also includes sections on how best to promote the uptake of renewables and answers to common questions and opposition. The authors provide a number of German-sourced yet internationally relevant examples and strategies which have...
The contribution of biofuels to the saving of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has recently been questioned because of emissions resulting from land use change (LUC) for bioenergy feedstock production. We investigate how the inclusion of the carbon effect of LUC into the carbon accounting framework, as scheduled by the European Commission, impacts on land use choices for an expanding biofuel feedstock production. We first illustrate the change in the carbon balances of various biofuels, using methodology and data from the IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. It becomes apparent that the conversion of natural land, apart from grassy savannahs, impedes meeting the EU's 35% minimum emissions reduction...
Projections are important tools for long-term planning and policy settings. Renewable energy sources that use indigenous resources have the potential to provide energy services with zero or almost zero emissions of both air pollutants and greenhouse gases. Currently, renewable energy sources supply 14% of the total world energy demand. Renewable energy is a promising alternative solution because it is clean and environmentally safe. Approximately half of the global energy supply will be from renewables in 2040. Photovoltaic systems and wind energy will be able to play an important role in the energy scenarios of the future. The most significant developments in renewable energy production are observed in photovoltaics...
The objective of this paper is to provide a review on the latest developments on the main initiatives and approaches for the sustainability certification for biofuels and/or bioenergy. A large number of national and international initiatives lately experienced rapid development in the view of the biofuels and bioenergy targets announced in the European Union, United States and other countries worldwide. The main certification initiatives are analysed in detail, including certification schemes for crops used as feedstock for biofuels, the various initiatives in the European Union, United States and globally, to cover biofuels and/or biofuels production and use. Finally, the possible way forward for biofuel certification...
Within the international community there is considerable interest in the socio-economic implications of moving society towards the more widespread use of renewable energy resources. Such change is seen to be very necessary but is often poorly communicated to people and communities who need to accept such changes. There are pockets of activity across the world looking at various approaches to understanding this fundamental matter. Typically, socio-economic implications are measured in terms of economic indices, such as employment and monetary gains, but in effect the analysis relates to a number of aspects which include social, cultural, institutional, and environmental issues. The extremely complex nature of bioenergy,...
This article develops a broad sociological understanding of why biofuels lost out to leaded gasoline as the fuel par excellence of the twentieth century, while drawing comparisons with biofuels today. It begins by briefly discussing the fuel-scape in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, examining the farm chemurgic movement, New Deal agricultural policies, mechanization trends within agriculture, and, finally, the invention of leaded gasoline. The second half of the article applies insights from that historical analysis to the biofuel craze currently under way. By employing a political-economy interpretation of the socioeconomic context combined with a path-dependency-informed...
In this study we analyze and compare the climate impacts from the recovery, transport and combustion of forest residues (harvest slash and stumps), versus the climate impacts that would have occurred if the residues were left in the forest and fossil fuels used instead. We use cumulative radiative forcing (CRF) as an indicator of climate impacts, and we explicitly consider the temporal dynamics of atmospheric carbon dioxide and biomass decomposition. Over a 240-year period, we find that CRF is significantly reduced when forest residues are used instead of fossil fuels. The type of fossil fuel replaced is important, with coal replacement giving the greatest CRF reduction. Replacing oil and fossil gas also gives long-term...
The increasing demand for bioenergy in the United States necessitates detailed case studies of cost and supply to assess its feasibility. We have developed supply curves based on six feedstocks in five counties surrounding the Yakama Nation in central Washington using spatially explicit estimates of supply and transportation cost. The supply curves were used to examine a base case supply for a bioenergy plant, to analyze the effects of land ownership, and examine the impacts of uncertainty in parameters used to determine cost and supply. The results show that existing industries produce the cheapest supply of feedstock as a byproduct of their operations, while supplies harvested specifically for bioenergy are considerably...
Based on observations, it is generally true to state, that the structure of implemented bioenergy projects is very diverse. It is true for i.a. size, technology, ownership, logic and acceptance. For most bioenergy projects socio-economics plays a great role, both at the planning stage, and in implementation and operation. In fact, many successful projects have drawn upon socio-economic drivers. This paper presents three planning models illustrating different approaches to such socio-economic drivers. A traditional model is the energy provision model or the cost minimising model, another the market orientation model or the profit maximising model, and the third is the joint implementation model or the participatory...
Based on observations, it is generally true to state, that the structure of implemented bioenergy projects is very diverse. It is true for i.a. size, technology, ownership, logic and acceptance. For most bioenergy projects socio-economics plays a great role, both at the planning stage, and in implementation and operation. In fact, many successful projects have drawn upon socio-economic drivers. This paper presents three planning models illustrating different approaches to such socio-economic drivers. A traditional model is the energy provision model or the cost minimising model, another the market orientation model or the profit maximising model, and the third is the joint implementation model or the participatory...