The global sustainability project and the LLNL China energy systems model
The sustainability of our modern way of life is becoming a major concern of both our domestic and international policy. The Rio conference on the environment and the recent Kyoto conference on global climate change are two indications of the importance of solving global environmental problem. Energy is a key component in global sustainability since obtaining and using it has major environmental effects. If our energy systems are to be sustainable in the long run, they must be structured using technologies that have a minimal impact on our environment and resources. At the same time, they must meet practical economic requirements: they must be reasonably economical, they must meet the needs of society and they must be tailored to the resources that are available in a particular region or country. Because economic considerations and government policies both determine the development of the energy system, economic and systems modeling can help us better understand ways that new technologies and policies can be used to obtain a more sustainable system. The Global Sustainability Project has developed both economic modeling software and models to help us better understand these issues and has applied them to the analysis of energy and environmental problems in China. In the past year, the models and data developed by the project have been used to support other projects investigating the interaction of technologies and the environment. The project this year has focused on software development to improve our modeling tools and on the refinement and application of the China Energy System model. The major thrust of the software development has been improvements in the META∙Net economic software system. We have modified its solution algorithm to improve speed and accuracy of the solutions and to make it compatible with the SuperCode modeling system. It is planned to eventually merge the two systems to take advantage of the faster, more flexible solution algorithms of SuperCode. The China Energy system model has been extended somewhat and its parameters have been documented (they are included as an appendix to this report). As is discussed below, the model has been used this year in support of several analytic efforts assisted by this project. The rest of the report discusses the modeling work that has been done this year. We first describe the economic modeling approach and the META∙Net economic modeling system. A short description of the improvements made this year in META∙Net is included. We then discuss the China Energy Systems model. The body of the report generally describes the model and each of its sectors. The studies that have been supported by this project are described. The Appendix, presents the documentation of the current model parameters. These describe the parameter values and the approaches used for estimating them.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Defense Programs (DP)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-Eng-48
- OSTI ID:
- 8051
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-ID-133167; EB4200000; 97-ERD-048; ON: DE00008051
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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