Abstract
Sustainable energy sources are nondepletable and environmentally benign. A renewable energy source is nondepletable by definition. A rigorous definition of “sustainability energy” cannot be given, however, because each option has some drawbacks that may not be apparent at first blush. For example, fossil fuels are not sustainable for large modern economies and their use impacts the environment. Fossil fuels probably would almost be a sustainable resource if world population were only 1 million. Ultimately a definition of “sustainable energy” has to consider the carrying capacity of Earth (Section. 10.5).
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Hafemeister, D. (2007). Renewable Energy. In: Physics of Societal Issues. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68909-8_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68909-8_13
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