Download Overview

VIENNA -10th IAEE EUROPEAN CONFERENCE
ENERGY POLICIES AND TECHNOLOGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIES
Lead Author: Mr. Roudi Baroudi, Chief Executive Officer, Energy and Environment Holding
E-mail: [email protected] Phone +974 4669970
Overview
The Paper attempts to show how the changing energy scene, be it due to scarcity of energy leading to increasing
energy prices or climate change effects, has influenced policy change, and technological advances in energy
production, consumption, and conservation.
With rapid growth in a number of emerging economies, especially the highly populated ones, we have witnessed
significant increases in energy demand with attendant increases in prices. This
has in-turn
ledName,
to formulation
of Phone, email]
[Lead
Author’s
Affliation,
policies, strategies, and regulations aimed at providing incentives for the development
of innovative
to
[2nd Author’s
Name, technologies
Affliation, Phone,
email]
enhance energy production, reduce pollution and climate change impacts of energy
production
and
consumption,
[Other Author’s Name, Affliation, Phone, email]
development of new and renewable sources of energy, and energy efficient
technologies
for10
industrial
andTimes New Roman]
[Format:
single space,
point font,
household applications.
The rise in energy prices, as had been seen prior to the recent world-wide economic recession, had also rendered
economic the development of alternative energy resources that were otherwise uneconomic, thus increasing the
envelope of available energy resources that could be tapped to support economic growth. In the same vein the
challenge that arises is to ensure that such resources can be development in an environmentally friendly manner, and
without impacting adversely on the natural climate.
As the world population grows, and living standards in developing countries improve, the demand for energy will
increase significantly. The Paper discusses also the linkages between policy and strategy on one hand, and advances
in energy technologies on the other hand for sustainable economic growth. The Paper will go into some degree of
detail on the costs and benefits of applicable modern energy technologies, and their adaption for application in
developing countries, including issues of cost-effective access expansion to the majority of the world’ s underprivileged populations.
Methods
We now face major development challenges to secure the energy future that would assure efficient sustained
economic growth. Meeting the challenges depend on the policies that are adopted as well as the strategic choices
that would lead to the desired outcomes. The days of “laissez-faire” economics, where the supply and demand
balance is established purely by market forces are gone. It is now up to countries to build planning based on sound
economics into development programs to secure cost-effective energy supplies.
The significant technological advances that have been made in recent years in the areas of energy production and
consumption stem from the policy changes of countries to adapt the changed energy scene of dwindling low cost
resources, and the increased awareness of the negative impacts of energy production and consumption on the
natural environment and on human health, as well as on the global climate. The advances in boiler technologies
with the ultra and super-critical boilers are making it possible to use less fossil fuel, especially coal to achieve same
energy production as compared with non super critical boilers. Least-cost generation expansion analyses to
establish basis of long-term future generation expansion should incorporate the costs of externalities in comparing
alternatives in establishing the long-term least-cost expansion development plan. This raises the debate as to
whether the cost carbon dioxide emissions should be included in establishing the merits of coal-based generation,
and nuclear powered generation candidates. Such comparison would provide for integrating climate change effects
in planning for future power system expansion. The grey area of such analyses remains the appropriate value of a
pound or kilogram of carbon dioxide. The solution for analyses lies with the use of range values resulting in
alternative solutions to the system’s expansion.
Part of the solution lies in regional integration of power systems and the developments of networks in an optimized
manner for the entire region. Countries with large low-cost hydropower resource potential, such as the untapped
significant potential of the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of Congo ( about 100,000 MW) could serve as a
source of low-cost clean energy to serve the needs of Southern Africa in a significant way for many decades with
significant positive impacts in reducing climate change impacts of fossil fuel use in the region. Similarly, the
development of regional grids for transportation of cleaner fuels, such as gas, across regions and continents is one
key means to attaining regional integration.
The role of pricing that reflect economic cost of production and distribution is critical in inducing efficiency of
consumption and conservation. While this is necessary as a market mechanism, command and control mechanisms
are necessary not only for situations where market imperfections exist, but to provide the incentive to industry and
households, through direct interventions by setting standards, and providing the financial, taxation and material
support. The changed energy scene, and the likelihood of a continuing higher prices have given rise to the
development of cutting edge technologies for industrial energy efficiency. In addition, industries are retooling and
changing processes to save on energy.
Results
The methodological approaches help to determine the trade-offs among alternative strategies to securing reliable
and cost effective energy supplies to sustain economic growth. Decision makers would have basis to assess the
costs of alternative strategies and even the cost of decisions that may be based on political considerations.
Conclusions
The changes in the energy scene as we have experienced in recent years has made it imperative for policy change
towards adaption to the new situation in order to achieve and sustain economic growth. The positive impacts of
policy change in inducing the significant advances in technological improvements for energy production, quality and
use has been phenomenal. The challenge of climate change has shown how interdependent we are as a global
community. Securing reliable and affordable energy for sustain economic growth would require sound policies that
integrate economics and technologies effectively.