The Economics of Renewable Energy
by David Timmons, Jonathan Harris and Brian Roach.
This module covers issues that are central to the transition to renewable energy, including the potential of solar energy, wind, geothermal, biomass, hydropower and other low-carbon energy sources. It stresses the crucial role of energy efficiency in facilitating a transition to renewables, and discusses issues including electrification, energy variability and battery storage. It presents a systems approach to optimizing renewable energy deployment and approaching the goal of 100 percent renewables. A section on government policy reviews energy taxes and subsidies, renewable energy portfolios, removing regulatory barriers, and special issues of developing renewable energy systems in low- and middle-income countries. The module is written at an introductory level, but more technical material on levelized costs of energy, cost of conserved energy and energy capacity factors is included in boxes.
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Older 2014 module: