Are renewable energy resources large enough to replace non-renewable energy?

• While the very large potential of renewable energy has been known to some scholarsat least since the end of the 19th century, the potential is still today commonlyunderrated in public debate. To get the physical proportions right is a necessaryfirst step in a sensible discussion on possible and desirable development paths.The primary purpose of this chapter is to answer the question if the resources ofrenewable energy flows are large enough to completely replace fossil fuels andnuclear energy, and to indefinitely support a world population of 9-10 billion peopleat a living standard equivalent to present day industrialised societies. A secondpurpose is to outline what expectations we may have on each of the differentrenewable flow resources.The potential of the conversion route via bioenergy is excluded from this discussionbut is treated more extensively in in another book in this e-book series.1 Ourscope is limited to potentials of electricity production, but since electricity is anenergy form of high quality (see Chapter 2) its use is versatile. It is not unlikely that many applications that today are powered by the chemical energy in fuelswill switch to electricity in the coming decades2. Electricity can also, at a cost,be converted to chemical energy stored in hydrogen or even hydrocarbons (seeChapter 12). Hence, a comparison makes sense not only to the global electricitydemand, but also to the total energy demand.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Energiteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Energy Engineering (hsv//eng)

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