Initial Concepts/Resources & Uses
What is the first law of thermodynamics?
energy / matter can be neither created nor destroyed
What is human-produced capital? What is natural capital?
Natural capital – the ability of the environment (the earth) to provide humans with resource inputs and waste assimilative capacity
Human-produced capital – human-produced inputs (buildings, equipment, infrastructure, know-how, institutions) and waste treatment capacity (recycling, waste treatment, capture and storage of wastes)
What are the differences b/w HEV, PHEV, and BEV.
HEV - Uses electric motor and ICE. Electricity is generated on the car through regenerative breaking or by the ICE. Smallest battery of the three.
PHEV - Uses electric motor and ICE. Uses combo of grid electricity (plug-in), regenerative breaking, and ICE. Second smallest battery.
EV - Only uses battery to power electric motor. Combo of grid power & regenerative breaking. Largest battery.
Name one form of renewable dispatchable energy (other than hydro).
Geothermal.
free-rider problem
What is the difference between a resource and a reserve?
Resource – total stock (or flow) of a defined element, compound or physical attribute (like wind) of potential value to humans [can be discovered or undiscovered, not economically profitable)
Reserve – the subset of a resource that is technologically feasible and economically profitable (or almost) for humans to exploit
What are some potential adverse local impacts of Alberta's oil sands?
1. “Temporary” land alienation (multiple decades)
2. “Permanent” land alienation leading to loss of natural habitat – possible loss of biodiversity, reduction of biological activity, disruption of fluvial-geological processe
3. Gradual dispersion of toxins into water and soils.
4. Risk of accidents – failure of settling ponds, pipeline rupture, major wildlife incident, major fire, oil tanker spill, rail accident.
Name a type of energy storage.
batteries, compressed air, pumped hydro, flywheel
What is the social cost of carbon?
The NPV of future global climate change impacts from one additional net global metric ton of CO2 emissted to the atmosphere at a specific point in time.
...more simply - monetary estimate of incremental damages of an extra unit of carbon pollution in a time period.
Difference b/w flex reg & prescriptive reg. Give an example of each.
flex - A performance standard which obligates all firms in a sector to meet the requirement or pay others to do extra (“market-oriented regulation”) - ie ZEV mandate or LCFS
prescriptive - Government dictates building design, technology or energy form and applies this identically to each emitter (household, firm). - ie every firm must reduce emissions by 50 units of GHG
What is a unit of power and a unit of energy?
Power - joule/second, btus/hr, horsepower, watts
Energy - joule, kwh, btu, calorie, newton meter (nm)
What are the two requirements for sustainability?
No resource scarcity, not waste toxicity
Describe a fuel cell.
Hydrogen enters fuel cell on one side and oxygen on the other. Hydrogen is attracted to oxygen so it travels through catalytic converters to join with the oxygen. As it does this, electricity is generated. With the by-product being water vapor, no GHG emissions in use.
What is a negative externality? How could these be addressed by governments?
Negative environmental externality – a harm or risk from production or consumption of a good that is not included in its price.
Policy solution – charge producer the monetary value of the harm (taxes, tradable permits), which will increase the market price. Sometimes regulations can produce a similar outcome. (Can sometimes be difficult to monetize the externality).
Describe direct & indirect rebound effect. What are their implications for energy efficiency analysis?
direct rebound – increased efficiency that lowers the operating cost of an energy service (car travel) and stimulates an increase demand for it (thus less reduction than expected)
indirect rebound – if energy efficiency investment is profitable (for consumer or industry) it increases income (consumer) and lowers production cost (industry) – both of which can increase energy use (thus less reduction than expected)
What are the differences b/w the different levels of energy (give examples of each).
Primary - energy at its point of production (ie crude oil)
Secondary - energy that has been processed and is ready for use (ie gasoline)
Tertiary/end-use - energy performing useful work at its point of application (ie personal transportation - ICE burning gasoline as your drive)
What is the difference between weak and strong sustainability?
Weak sustainability – the sum of natural capital and human-produced capital does not decline (allows human-produced capital to substitute for losses of natural)
Strong sustainability – natural capital does not decline (does not allow for substitution of human and natural capital)
Describe BECCS. Why is BECCS considered carbon negative?
Burn biomass for energy, capture CO2 emissions and stick it in the ground.
Biomass absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere which is not re-emitted if the emissions are stored underground --> negative emissions.
Two electricity pricing schemes (name and define). When would you choose one over the other?
Time-of-use pricing – setting different prices at different times of day and season to reflect time-specific cost of providing energy and capacity.
Block pricing (stepped rates) – setting prices for quantities of energy that rise or fall to reflect rising or falling costs with changes in total demand.
Because market is not competitive, regulator must set price to reflect utility costs caused by the timing and/or amount of consumption. Meet demand during baseload and peaking times.
How would you assess if a politician is climate sincere or not?
• GHG targets
• targets linked to policies
• are the key policies pricing and regs (so compulsory)
• policies increasing in stringency
Name 5 ranks of coal. (point for each)
1. Anthracite (almost pure carbon)
2. Bitumino
3. Sub-bitumino
4. Lignite
5. Peat
Explain peak oil. How might peak phosphorus differ?
Belief that oil is finite and, as such, we will soon run out. Peak oil ignores feedback between rising price and the resulting increased (1) exploration & discovery and (2) innovation. These increase reserves.
Phosphorus - primarily from phosphate rock which is finite, extraction rates majorly increased with the advent of modern agriculture/wide use of fertilizers, and we have yet to determine if there are additional resources that may shift to reserves. Or are still lacking innovation to derive enough phosphorus from other sources to meet the demands of modern agriculture (primary use in fertilizer).
Describe how a heat pump works and why it appears to achieve 300% efficiency.
Heather didn't want to type out the answer, so just verbally explain it please...sorry!
Give the best arguments why the Site C dam might have high economic value in 2050, and then give the best arguments why it might not.
For:
• High value of Site C’s quick ramp-up dispatchable capacity in a net-zero future
Tremendous growth in electricity demand as we electrify transportation, buildings and much industrial energy demand. Thus, all of Site C’s energy will be used. And there will be tremendous growth of non-dispatchable wind and solar, which will greatly increase Site C’s capacity value as a quick ramp-up dispatchable complement to these zero GHG options.
Against:
• Value of non-dispatchable may increase if tech and economic feasibility of storage improves
• the dam is badly constructed and needs to be shut-down or even dismantled
• BC fails to expand grid interties with neighboring jurisdictions and there is already enough dispatchable hydro capacity within BC to handle any local increase in reliance on non-dispatchable wind and solar
• decarbonization in North America fails to happen so there is no massive expansion of solar and wind
Explain why flexible regs may come close to the equi-marginal principle?
• define EMP...Heather didn't want to type this out again (sorry)
• Possibly cost-effective by mimicking the innovation and flexibility that occurs under emissions pricing; does not pick technology or fuel winners, but lets market deci; allows trading among market participants to reduce compliance cost
• flex is per sector, emissions price is for every sector (all players in the economy)