Overview

Overview

In previous lessons, we looked at the construction of markets and were introduced to a variety of renewable energy options. In this lesson, we will continue to gather means for determining how the market ultimately arrives at the value of an energy offer, so that we may be able to determine what costs and consequences are being left out of a market valuation. For example, the market pricing of fossil fuel use currently does not reflect the costs and consequences of CO₂ releases into the atmosphere, keeping their market pricing "artificially" lower than the actual costs of using fossil energy. (Essentially, instead of the producers and consumers fronting those costs, they are placing the burden on the environment.) Gaining a better picture of the actual costs and consequences of an energy project requires taking a 'holistic' life-cycle approach to the energy infrastructure as well as the extraction and consumption of the fuels. To further complicate a comparison of energy costs between renewable and non-renewable energy projects at any given time, the costs of the energy being produced can change over the life of the project (such as a solar PV array, or an enhanced geothermal project, etc.) As we will cover in this lesson, there are a variety of ways for rectifying the costs of renewables over the lifetime of a project. In the context of this course, these various 'holistic' approaches to cost accounting are key to developing successful nonmarket strategies in the renewables arena. (Remember, non-market does not mean non-monetary.)

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

• identify the various stages of an energy life cycle;
• estimate and valuate the necessary scale of energy demand;
• identify basic energy and material balances as well as the technical essentials of a project; and
• evaluate the economics of a renewables project.

What is due for Lesson 5?

This lesson will take us one week to complete. Please refer to the Course Syllabus for specific time frames and due dates. Specific directions for the assignment below can be found within this lesson.

Questions?

If you have any questions, please post them to our Questions? discussion forum (not e-mail), located under the Discussions tab in Canvas. I will check that discussion forum daily to respond. While you are there, feel free to post your own responses if you, too, are able to help out a classmate.