Download or read book Impacts of Climate Change on the Evolution of the Electrical Grid written by Melissa Ree Allen and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maintaining interdependent infrastructures exposed to a changing climate requires understanding 1) the local impact on power assets; 2) how the infrastructure will evolve as the demand for infrastructure changes location and volume and; 3) what vulnerabilities are introduced by these changing infrastructure topologies. This dissertation attempts to develop a methodology that will a) downscale the climate direct effect on the infrastructure; b) allow population to redistribute in response to increasing extreme events that will increase under climate impacts; and c) project new distributions of electricity demand in the mid-21st century. The research was structured in three parts. The first used downscaling techniques to scale regional gridded atmospheric processes to measurements of local extreme events. These techniques illustrate the ability to move reasonably from regional to local effects. The second chapter explored how people migrated in response to the extreme events for which climate change will increase the frequency and intensity. The third chapter translated downscaled climate impacts and granular population movements into a national map of electricity demand. The results of this research illustrates the feasibility of the three part approach to address possible future infrastructure vulnerabilities under varying policy options and technology assumptions. This methodology can be an important tool for increasing the robustness of the nation's infrastructure.
Download or read book Smart Power written by Peter Fox-Penner and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2010-04-05 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new national policy on climate change is under debate in the United States and is likely to result in a cap on greenhouse gas emissions for utilities. This and other developments will prompt utilities to undergo the largest changes in their history. Smart Power examines the many facets of this unprecedented transformation. This enlightening book begins with a look back on the deregulatory efforts of the 1990s and their gradual replacement by concerns over climate change, promoting new technologies, and developing stable prices and supplies. In thorough but non-technical terms it explains the revolutionary changes that the Smart Grid is bringing to utility operations. It also examines the options for low-carbon emissions along with the real-world challenges the industry and its regulators must face as the industry retools and finances its new sources and systems. Throughout the book, Peter Fox-Penner provides insights into the policy choices and regulatory reform needed to face these challenges. He not only weighs the costs and benefits of every option, but presents interviews with informed experts, including economists, utility CEOs, and engineers. He gives a brief history of the development of the current utility business model and examines possible new business models that are focused on energy efficiency. Smart Power explains every aspect of the coming energy revolution for utilities in lively prose that will captivate even the most techno-phobic readers.
Download or read book Smart Grid R Evolution written by Jennie C. Stephens and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-02-26 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores smart grid from a social perspective, for advanced students, academic researchers, and energy professionals.
Download or read book Impact of Climate Risk on the Energy System written by Amy Myers Jaffe and published by Council on Foreign Relations Press. This book was released on 2019-09-13 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change affects virtually every aspect of the U.S. energy system. As climatic effects such as rising seas and extreme weather continue to appear across many geographies, U.S. energy infrastructure is increasingly at risk. The U.S. Gulf Coast--which is home to 44 percent of total U.S. oil refining capacity and several major ports--is highly vulnerable to flooding events and dangerous ocean surges during severe storms and hurricanes. The link between water availability and energy and electricity production creates another layer of risk to U.S. energy security. Climate risk could manifest not only in physical damages, but also in financial market failures. Climate change-related challenges could impede energy firms' access to capital markets or private insurance markets. Already, climate-related risks have created severe financial problems at a handful of U.S. energy firms, forcing them to interrupt their sales of energy to consumers in particular locations. Over time, climatic disruptions to domestic energy supply could entail huge economic losses and potentially require sizable domestic military mobilizations. The United States is ill prepared for this national security challenge, and public debate about emergency preparedness is virtually nonexistent. To explore the challenges of climate risk to the U.S. energy system and national security, the Council on Foreign Relations organized a two-day workshop in New York, on March 18 and 19, 2019. The gathering of fifty participants included current and former state and federal government officials and regulators, entrepreneurs, scientists, investors, financial- and corporate-sector leaders, credit agencies, insurers, nongovernmental organizations, and energy policy experts. During their deliberations, workshop participants explored how climate-related risks to U.S. energy infrastructure, financial markets, and national security could be measured, managed, and mitigated. Impact of Climate Risk on the Energy System summarizes the insights from this workshop and includes contributions from seven expert authors delving into related topics.
Download or read book Power after Carbon written by Peter Fox-Penner and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-19 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the electric power industry faces the challenges of climate change, technological disruption, new market imperatives, and changing policies, a renowned energy expert offers a roadmap to the future of this essential sector. As the damaging and costly impacts of climate change increase, the rapid development of sustainable energy has taken on great urgency. The electricity industry has responded with necessary but wrenching shifts toward renewables, even as it faces unprecedented challenges and disruption brought on by new technologies, new competitors, and policy changes. The result is a collision course between a grid that must provide abundant, secure, flexible, and affordable power, and an industry facing enormous demands for power and rapid, systemic change. The fashionable solution is to think small: smart buildings, small-scale renewables, and locally distributed green energy. But Peter Fox-Penner makes clear that these will not be enough to meet our increasing needs for electricity. He points instead to the indispensability of large power systems, battery storage, and scalable carbon-free power technologies, along with the grids and markets that will integrate them. The electric power industry and its regulators will have to provide all of these, even as they grapple with changing business models for local electric utilities, political instability, and technological change. Power after Carbon makes sense of all the moving parts, providing actionable recommendations for anyone involved with or relying on the electric power system.
Download or read book Climate Change written by The Royal Society and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2014-02-26 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate Change: Evidence and Causes is a jointly produced publication of The US National Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society. Written by a UK-US team of leading climate scientists and reviewed by climate scientists and others, the publication is intended as a brief, readable reference document for decision makers, policy makers, educators, and other individuals seeking authoritative information on the some of the questions that continue to be asked. Climate Change makes clear what is well-established and where understanding is still developing. It echoes and builds upon the long history of climate-related work from both national academies, as well as on the newest climate-change assessment from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It touches on current areas of active debate and ongoing research, such as the link between ocean heat content and the rate of warming.
Download or read book Climate Change written by Jason Smerdon and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-25 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate Change is geared toward a variety of students and general readers who seek the real science behind global warming. Exquisitely illustrated, the text introduces the basic science underlying both the natural progress of climate change and the effect of human activity on the deteriorating health of our planet. Noted expert and author Edmond A. Mathez synthesizes the work of leading scholars in climatology and related fields, and he concludes with an extensive chapter on energy production, anchoring this volume in economic and technological realities and suggesting ways to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Climate Change opens with the climate system fundamentals: the workings of the atmosphere and ocean, their chemical interactions via the carbon cycle, and the scientific framework for understanding climate change. Mathez then brings the climate of the past to bear on our present predicament, highlighting the importance of paleoclimatology in understanding the current climate system. Subsequent chapters explore the changes already occurring around us and their implications for the future. In a special feature, Jason E. Smerdon, associate research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, provides an innovative appendix for students.
Download or read book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster written by Bill Gates and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical—and accessible—plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions—suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.
Download or read book Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation s Electricity System written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-10-25 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans' safety, productivity, comfort, and convenience depend on the reliable supply of electric power. The electric power system is a complex "cyber-physical" system composed of a network of millions of components spread out across the continent. These components are owned, operated, and regulated by thousands of different entities. Power system operators work hard to assure safe and reliable service, but large outages occasionally happen. Given the nature of the system, there is simply no way that outages can be completely avoided, no matter how much time and money is devoted to such an effort. The system's reliability and resilience can be improved but never made perfect. Thus, system owners, operators, and regulators must prioritize their investments based on potential benefits. Enhancing the Resilience of the Nation's Electricity System focuses on identifying, developing, and implementing strategies to increase the power system's resilience in the face of events that can cause large-area, long-duration outages: blackouts that extend over multiple service areas and last several days or longer. Resilience is not just about lessening the likelihood that these outages will occur. It is also about limiting the scope and impact of outages when they do occur, restoring power rapidly afterwards, and learning from these experiences to better deal with events in the future.
Download or read book Energy and Environment Report 2008 written by European Environment Agency and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication presents a view on how much energy is used in the European Union, compared to elsewhere. The focus is on energy policies in terms of making sure that there is enough energy, fair and transparent competition, and efficient and renewable energy.--Publisher's description.
Download or read book Urban Energy Systems written by James Keirstead and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses the technical and social systems that satisfy these needs and asks how methods can be put into practice to achieve this.
Download or read book Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States written by U.S. Global Change Research Program and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-08-24 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Summarizes the science of climate change and impacts on the United States, for the public and policymakers.
Download or read book Advancing the Science of Climate Change written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-01-10 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for-and in many cases is already affecting-a broad range of human and natural systems. The compelling case for these conclusions is provided in Advancing the Science of Climate Change, part of a congressionally requested suite of studies known as America's Climate Choices. While noting that there is always more to learn and that the scientific process is never closed, the book shows that hypotheses about climate change are supported by multiple lines of evidence and have stood firm in the face of serious debate and careful evaluation of alternative explanations. As decision makers respond to these risks, the nation's scientific enterprise can contribute through research that improves understanding of the causes and consequences of climate change and also is useful to decision makers at the local, regional, national, and international levels. The book identifies decisions being made in 12 sectors, ranging from agriculture to transportation, to identify decisions being made in response to climate change. Advancing the Science of Climate Change calls for a single federal entity or program to coordinate a national, multidisciplinary research effort aimed at improving both understanding and responses to climate change. Seven cross-cutting research themes are identified to support this scientific enterprise. In addition, leaders of federal climate research should redouble efforts to deploy a comprehensive climate observing system, improve climate models and other analytical tools, invest in human capital, and improve linkages between research and decisions by forming partnerships with action-oriented programs.
Download or read book Physical Impacts of Climate Change on the Western US Electricity System written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper presents an exploratory study of the possible physical impacts of climate change on the electric power system, and how these impacts could be incorporated into resource planning in the Western United States. While many aspects of climate change and energy have been discussed in the literature, there has not yet been a systematic review of the relationship between specific physical effects and the quantitative analyses that are commonly used in planning studies. The core of the problem is to understand how the electric system is vulnerable to physical weather risk, and how to make use of information from climate models to characterize the way these risks may evolve over time, including a treatment of uncertainty. In this paper, to provide the necessary technical background in climate science, we present an overview of the basic physics of climate and explain some of the methodologies used in climate modeling studies, particularly the importance of emissions scenarios. We also provide a brief survey of recent climate-related studies relevant to electric system planning in the Western US. To define the institutional context, we discuss the core elements of the resource and reliability planning processes used currently by utilities and by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council. To illustrate more precisely how climate-related risk could be incorporated into modeling exercises, we discuss three idealized examples. Overall, we argue that existing methods of analysis can and should be extended to encompass the uncertainties related to future climate. While the focus here is on risk related to physical impacts, the same principles apply to a consideration of how future climate change policy decisions might impact the design and functioning of the electric grid. We conclude with some suggestions and recommendations on how to begin developing this approach within the existing electric system planning framework for the West.
Download or read book Energy and Climate Change written by Michael Stephenson and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2018-03-20 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energy and Climate Change: An Introduction to Geological Controls, Interventions and Mitigations examines the Earth system science context of the formation and use of fossil fuel resources, and the implications for climate change. It also examines the historical and economic trends of fossil fuel usage and the ways in which these have begun to affect the natural system (i.e., the start of the Anthropocene). Finally, the book examines the effects we might expect in the future looking at evidence from the "deep time" past, and looks at ways to mitigate climate change by using negative emissions technology (e.g. bioenergy and carbon capture and storage, BECCS), but also by adapting to perhaps a higher than "two degree world," particularly in the most vulnerable, developing countries. Energy and Climate Change is an essential resource for geoscientists, climate scientists, environmental scientists, and students; as well as policy makers, energy professionals, energy statisticians, energy historians and economists. Provides an overarching narrative linking Earth system science with an integrated approach to energy and climate change Includes a unique breadth of coverage from modern to "deep time" climate change; from resource geology to economics; from climate change mitigation to adaptation; and from the industrial revolution to the Anthropocene Readable, accessible, and well-illustrated, giving the reader a clear overview of the topic
Download or read book Global Vegetation Dynamics written by Dominique Bachelet and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-09-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global Vegetation Dynamics: Concepts and Applications in MC1 model describes the creation in the mid 1990s, architecture, uses, and limitations of the MC1 dynamic global vegetation model (DGVM) that is being used by an increasing number of research groups around the world. The scientific foundation of most models is often poorly documented and difficult to access, and a centralized source of information for MC1, including the complete list of over eighty papers and reports with MC1 results will be useful to scientists and users who want to better understand the model and the output it generates. Global Vegetation Dynamics: Concepts and Applications in MC1 model will be a valuable resource for students and researchers in the fields of climate change science, conservation science, biogeochemistry and ecology, as well as for land managers looking for a better understanding of the projections of climate change impacts and of the tools that have been developed to produce them.
Download or read book Reliability Assessment of Electric Power Systems Using Monte Carlo Methods written by Billinton and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The application of quantitative reliability evaluation in electric power sys tems has now evolved to the point at which most utilities use these techniques in one or more areas of their planning, design, and operation. Most of the techniques in use are based on analytical models and resulting analytical evaluation procedures. Improvements in and availability of high-speed digi tal computers have created the opportunity to analyze many of these prob lems using stochastic simulation methods and over the last decade there has been increased interest in and use made of Monte Carlo simulation in quantitative power system reliability assessment. Monte Carlo simulation is not a new concept and recorded applications have existed for at least 50 yr. However, localized high-speed computers with large-capacity storage have made Monte Carlo simulation an available and sometimes preferable option for many power system reliability applications. Monte Carlo simulation is also an integral part of a modern undergrad uate or graduate course on reliability evaluation of general engineering systems or specialized areas such as electric power systems. It is hoped that this textbook will help formalize the many existing applications of Monte Carlo simulation and assist in their integration in teaching programs. This book presents the basic concepts associated with Monte Carlo simulation.
