Assessment of Effectiveness of Renewable Energy Systems in Mitigating Global Warming Based on Net Energy Analysis

Abstract

Renewable energy technologies are expected to be capable of contributing significantly to solution of the global warming problem because of their inherent advantages : resources can be considered as virtually inexhaustible and no carbon dioxide release will occur during the energy conversion process. On the other hand, their generally high energy cost due to low availability inevitably makes it difficult, under the prevailing decision-making process based on conventional performance indices, to exploit their advantages on the large scale of substitution for conventional energy technologies such as fossil fuel or nuclear power. In the present paper, we introduce a methodology based on indices derived from net energy analysis to assess the significance of renewable energy technologies as an option to mitigate global warming as well as to satisfy future energy demand, and discuss the effectiveness of some new carbon-free energy technologies, including the proposed Hydrogen-Based Global Renewable Energy Network System.