Abstract
Etymologically, clean energy means a source of energy which neither by itself nor in the course of its usage is having adverse effects to people’s health, that of other living organisms, or on other parts of the natural environment. This definition, however, is incomplete, first because it is not accounting for effects connected to the intensity of energy usage. As an example, today, one out of every four barrels of oil is being burned in the USA.
It has been a deliberate choice not to include among the energies discussed in this chapter geothermal power. According to its pros, the heat created at 3 km of depth will be enough to cover the earth’s energy needs. But the investment will be colossal and, contrary to what its proponents think or say, geothermal is polluting eventually much more than the energy sources it intends to replace (see also D.N. Chorafas “Energy, Natural Resources and Business Competitiveness in the EU,” Gower, London, 2011).
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Notes
- 1.
Paul Roberts, “The End of Oil,” Bloomsbury, London, 2004.
- 2.
See www.ipcc.ch.
- 3.
Swiss Re, Sigma, No 1/2014.
- 4.
International Herald Tribune, December 14, 2011.
- 5.
This should include cross-border issues to avoid the sort of controversy which some years ago opposed Turkey to Syria and Iraq.
- 6.
Carleton S. Coon “The Hunting Peoples,” Nick Lyons Book, New York, 1971.
- 7.
For starters, derivatives are financial instruments whose value changes in response to a change in the price of an underlying, such as an interest rate, security spot price, index, price of barrel of oil, or other commodity. Typically, a derivative instrument requires no initial investment or calls for one that is smaller than would be needed for a classical contract with similar response to changes in market factors.
- 8.
Bloomberg News, April 24, 2014.
- 9.
Another contrarian argument has been raised regarding cropland. A study by Scott Wilson Group, a consultancy, commissioned by Friends of the Earth to assess the impact of Britain's Renewables Transport Fuel Obligation (RFTO) targeted land use and it found that 10 % extra cropland would have to be found to replace food and other crops used for biofuel in Brazil, Argentina, and the USA.
- 10.
In August 2005, US lawmakers passed the Energy Policy Act, mandating the consumption of 7.5 billion gallons a year of biofuels by 2012 (compared with 3.5 billion in 2004). With this, a building boom took off for new ethanol facilities.
- 11.
Financial Times, April 11, 2014.
- 12.
Bloomberg News, July 4, 2014.
- 13.
Financial Times, July 6, 2014.
- 14.
The Economist, August 7, 2010.
- 15.
The Economist, October 22, 2011.
- 16.
Though I am and remain a believer in cost control, all key factors have to be taken into account, and security is at the top of the list.
- 17.
UBS Chief Investment Office WM, «US Equities», May 4, 2014.
- 18.
Exact figures of leaked gas are not being published (for evident reasons), but unofficially, it is said that this stands at 20–30 % of recovered gas—including losses in the pipeline.
- 19.
This is a hypothesis as experimental data will not be available for many years.
- 20.
The Economist, March 8, 2014.
- 21.
International Herald Tribune, October 6/7, 2012.
- 22.
The Economist, April 28, 2012.
- 23.
The Economist, January 4, 2014.
- 24.
Le Canard Enchainé, March 10, 2010.
- 25.
SFR, May 14, 2012.
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Chorafas, D.N. (2015). Sources of Energy. In: Science and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09189-1_8
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