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This report provides a Europe-wide resource assessment of onshore and offshore wind potential in a geographically explicit manner. In addition to calculating raw wind resource potential, this study also introduces and quantitatively analyses the environmental and social constraints on wind sector development. Concerns addressed include the noise and visual impact of wind power, as well as the deaths of birds and bats that fly into rotor blades. The report also evaluates the future costs of wind energy production across Europe in order to gauge the potential output at competitive rates.

Hydro energy’s potential may be overlooked because; it is “old” renewable energy, or because like nuclear energy, some hydro electric schemes have been criticized by environmental groups, but most importantly a perception by many, that most hydro electric potential in North America has already been exploited. Hydro electricity deserves more scrutiny because; 1) North America has significant undeveloped potential, 2) the technology is well understood, although technical improvements continue to be made, especially for low head and small hydro, 3) hydro has a very high energy return on energy investment (ERoEI), 4) additional hydro can enable more wind and solar energy capacity to be absorbed by the grid, 5) hydro potential is more geographically dispersed than wind and solar, and finally, 6) the cost of developing additional hydro capacity is moderately low and has very low technical and financial risk.

Take an artificial pacemaker. This device transmits an electrical voltage to the biological pacemaker cells of the heart. In a healthy human, these pacemaker cells generate their own action potential, an electrical waveform of about 100 millivolts. This may not sound like much energy until we remember that this electrical potential is sustained across an insulating membrane only five nanometers thick. That is 5 billionths of a meter. So the energy of an action potential is almost 20,000,000 volts per meter. Compare this to the 12,000 volts per meter at a standard wall plug. Healthy pacemaker cells spark the electrical wave that drives heart muscle contraction. When these cells malfunction, an artificial pacemaker may be implanted to take over. Waves of electrical voltage generated at the metal lead of the artificial device cross over to living tissue and initiate normal muscle contraction.

In this report, McKinsey & Company offers a detailed analysis of the magnitude of the efficiency potential in non-transportation uses of energy, a thorough assessment of the barriers that impede the capture of greater efficiency, and an outline of the practical solutions available to unlock the potential.

Small-scale wind energy (wind turbines <50kW rated capacity) is receiving increasing interest as one of a number of microgeneration technologies with potential to reduce carbon emissions. Recent years have seen new products being made available on the UK market, which a survey by the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) suggests is growing quickly.

However, the overall potential of small-scale wind energy to reduce carbon emissions, and the conditions under which maximum carbon reductions can be made, have not been entirely clear.

It has been suggested that this “rebound effect” only accounts for 5-20% of efficiency gains, but I have written previously about the potential for a “shadow” rebound effect that potentially accounts for nearly the entire efficiency gain.

The simultaneous onset of climate change and the peaking of global oil supply represent unprecedented challenges for human civilisation. Global oil peak has the potential to shake if not destroy the foundations of global industrial economy and culture. Climate change has the potential to rearrange the biosphere more radically than the last ice age. Each limits the effective options for responses to the other. The strategies for mitigating the adverse effects and/or adapting to the consequences of Climate Change have mostly been considered and discussed in isolation from those relevant to Peak Oil. While awareness of Peak Oil, or at least energy crisis, is increasing, understanding of how these two problems might interact to generate quite different futures, is still at an early state.

Abstract Many are interested in China’s energy situation, however, numerous energy related issues in China still remain unanswered, for example, what are the potential forces driving energy demand and supply? Previous reviews focused only on fossil fuel based energy and ignored other important elements including renewable and ‘clean ’ energy sources. The work presented here is intended to fill this gap by bringing the research on fossil-based and renewable energy economic studies together and identifying the potential drivers behind both energy demand and supply to provide a complete picture of China’s energy situation in the new millennium. This will be of interest to anyone concerned with the development of China’s economy in general and the energy economy, in particular.