sectoral economic costs and benefits of ghg mitigation - IPCC

Renewable Energy
Issues Associated with Implementing action
• Small incremental gains in capacity, efficiency, and energy production through
modernization and upgrading of turbines and generators may not be enough to justify the
cost of facility upgrading.
• The public may perceive that increasing efficiency at existing sites may adversely impact
aquatic life and habitat. Also, in some areas, the public has put pressure on dam and
reservoir operators to increase non-power flows. Public education programs highlighting
energy, environmental and recreational benefits and implications of new operating
conditions may be necessary.
• Regulatory issues related to relicensing procedures and their impact on capacity and
costs during the processing period creates uncertainty for economic projections, which
can jeopardize financing project improvement.
• Equipment changes may require amendment of the original license.
Climate Change Impact
Conditions for Emissions Mitigation:
• Hydropower produces no GHG emissions. Environmental impact may occur due to landuse
or siting issues.
Emission estimate: Produces no greenhouse gas emissions. In the U.S., in 1997,
hydropower generation avoided release of 83 million metric tons
of carbon Equivalent.
Cost-effectiveness:
$25-38/ton of net CO 2 avoided
Secondary effects:
Produces no air pollutants.
PHOTOVOLTAICS (PV)
Characteristics
Size:
Modules range from a few watts to multi-MW. For power generation,
modules can be combined to produce 5-10 MWe or larger.
Features:
Maximum operating effic iency 15% (sunlight-to-electricity); Average
efficiency 10%. Systems using trackers that follow the sun receive about
33% more sunlight than fixed arrays.
Cost:
$6,000-20,000/kw for systems of which the module costs ~$5,000/kw,
although expectations are that cost will decrease to $1,000kwh by 2005-
2015 and as low as $700-800/kw by 2020-2030. PV is competitive as a
stand-alone power source in areas remote from electric utility grids. The
average cost for large PV systems (>1kw) is $0.25-.50/kwj, marking PV
cost-effective for residential customers more than a quarter mile (0.4 km)
from the grid.
Current usage: About 150 MW of PV is shipped every year; more than 200,000
residential and commercial buildings use PV systems. PV demand is
increasing at a rate of 15-20% each year.
Potential usage: Solar radiation sufficient for PV exists in areas of virtually every country
in the world.
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