Lawrence Agbemabiese

As module prices have continued to decline (Maycock, 1995), interest in the technical and economic feasibility of using dispatchable photovoltaic (DPV) systems in peak-shaving applications on commercial buildings has grown. Currently, the United States Department of Energy is supporting the development of an integrated DPV peak shaving (DPV-PS) system for the commercial buildings sector through the PV:BONUS Program. Modest amounts of battery storage are used in conjunction with a PV array to achieve firm peak-shaving for commercial building operators. The development of this system involves the collaborative effort of the

This paper presents a technical and economic analysis of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ (UCS) 2.1 kW photovoltaic (PV) array located on the roof of their Cambridge headquarters. We analyze the technology from a variety of different perspectives. The system as it currently exists is primarily an energy supply technology. Alternatively, the system could be reconfigured with the addition of a modest amount of storage to serve energy management functions, primarily offering firm, peakshaving benefits on a daily and yearly basis. This value would be enhanced with better energy management by UCS of their heat pump cycles. We also analyze the economics of the UCS PV array serving an additional emergency power function. The results of our analysis indicate that the economic value of the UCS PV array would be optimized in a configuration that serves all three functions: energy supply, energy management, and emergency power. In fact, we estimate that the payback period for the system conf...

Advances in energy access in developing countries over the past 25 years have been remarkable with more than 1 billion unserved people gaining access to electricity and modern fuels. However, as impressive as this may sound, large gaps remain: 1.6 billion people still lack access to electricity and another 2.5 billion continue to rely on traditional biomass fuel for cooking and heating. The problems of access are greater in rural areas than in urban areas. If today's energy policies and inv estment trends were to continue, the situation will not look any better, especially in least developed countries, in the coming decades. Drawing on recent theoretical advances regarding the meaning of development and the role of energy with empirical evidence from case studies, the article suggests an alternative energy and development paradigm to guide efforts toward meeting current and future needs for modern energy services. energy utilities, and even grant-funded programs that seek to fil...

This chapter assesses energy, water, and food resource systems based on their inter- and intra-sectoral imperatives of large scale development investments at the institutional level (including private and public activities) and how to achieve security of resource supplies. It identifies key interrelated processes, practices, and factors that underpin integrated resource management (IRM) and their attendant benefits. Applying the E4 framework concerned with energy, economy, environment, and equity to identify the main threats to these systems, the chapter evaluates their institutional, political, economic, cultural and behavioral components, and characterizes the forces that drive each of them at different governance scales. The chapter is guided by political economy, economic, and sociological theories that suggest that institutional structures affect economic factors and processes (i.e. production, distribution, and consumption processes). A case study of energy, water, and food (E...

The cessation of production and replacement of cathode ray tube (CRT) displays with flat screen displays have resulted in the proliferation of CRTs in the electronic waste (e-waste) recycle stream. However, due to the nature of the technology and presence of hazardous components such as lead, CRTs are the most challenging of electronic components to recycle. In the State of Delaware it is due to this challenge and the resulting expense combined with the large quantities of CRTs in the recycle stream that electronic recyclers now charge to accept Delaware's e-waste. Therefore it is imperative that the Delaware Solid Waste Authority (DSWA) understand future quantities of CRTs entering the waste stream. This study presents the results of an assessment of CRT obsolescence in the State of Delaware. A prediction model was created utilizing publicized sales data, a variety of lifespan data as well as historic Delaware CRT collection rates. Both a deterministic and a probabilistic approach using Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) were performed to forecast rates of CRT obsolescence to be anticipated in the State of Delaware. Results indicate that the peak of CRT obsolescence in Delaware has already passed, although CRTs are anticipated to enter the waste stream likely until 2033.

The Global Energy Assessment (GEA) emphasizes the importance of energy to all societies, which explains a longstanding tendency for governments to be closely involved in the energy sector. The nature and extent of this involvement – the degree and types of energy-related policies – depends on a government's ideological orientation, the particular energy resource endowment in its jurisdiction, the development level of its economy, and specific concerns of its society with respect to energy access, energy security, and the environmental and human health impacts of energy supply and use. In every country, energy's critical role for the goal of sustainable development is widely acknowledged. This means that energy-related policies need to be assessed in terms of performance with respect to the social, economic, and environmental dimensions that are encompassed by the concept of sustainable development. Ideally, energyrelated policies will make advances with respect to all three of these critical sustainability dimensions. But frequently policymakers are faced with difficult trade-offs in which improvement in one dimension is at the cost of another. Thus, the first goal of energy-related policy design should be to seek win-win opportunities for simultaneously advancing social, economic, and environmental goals. When this is not possible, the goal should be to apply decision-support mechanisms that integrate diverse social objectives and values into the policy design process, such as the application of multi-criteria analysis as described by Munasinghe (1992; 2009).

This study estimates the carbon abatement potential of 43 Chinese economic sectors by establishing and utilizing an environmental learning curve (ELC) model of carbon intensity. The model selects energy intensity, per capita value added and fuel consumption mix as the independent variables and obtains its learning coefficients using panel data regression. Based on this model, the carbon abatement potential of 43 economic sectors in 2020 is estimated for business-as-usual (BAU) and planned scenarios. The findings show that: (1) the established learning curves adequately simulate the carbon intensity of different sectors; (2) energy intensity has the strongest positive learning ability among the three variables for all sectors. A reduction in energy intensity will lead to reduced carbon intensities for 42 sectors (all except the agriculture sector). However, an increase in sectoral value added will make it possible to reduce carbon intensity in 34 sectors. Reducing the proportion of coal energy will result in decreased carbon intensities in only ten sectors; (3) the average carbon intensity reduction potential for 43 sectors in 2020 will be 33.0% and 39.0% based on 2012 in two different scenarios. Sectors related to the manufacture of food, medicine, beverages and chemical fiber have the largest carbon intensity potential among the 43 sectors.

As module prices have continued to decline (Maycock, 1995), interest in the technical and economic feasibility of using dispatchable photovoltaic (DPV) systems in peak-shaving applications on commercial buildings has grown. Currently, the United States Department of Energy is ...