Energy options: real economics and the solar-hydrogen system

Book · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1980

OSTI ID:6544656

Bockris, J O'M

All price comparisons being made at present, upon which energy decisions only effective decades later are being made, are irelevant, the author feels. The relevant economics is that of the time beyond the year 2000, when the fossil fuels will be playing a diminishing role in the energy mix, at energy prices greatly above those of the present time. This book attempts to put numbers in the various years concerned, and to discuss now the financing. It shows that the coal-nuclear policy, which is the basis of the present energy thrust in research and in financing, is incompatible with environmental and health considerations. However, Prof. Bockris notes that the alternatives are not those of having nuclear energy or having gross unemployment, but rather those of having nuclear energy or solar energy on a massive scale by means of collection in desert areas. Solar energy is not primarily a source for rooftops and water heating, but one which could supply factories, industries, commerce and transportation. The key to the difference in viewpoint is the introduction of hydrogen as a transmission, storage, and distribution medium, the hydrogen coming from the electrolysis of water, and the electricity for this coming from the solar source. The title of the book arises because of the newly introduced subjects of the Second Law economics and the real economics which takes into account the Second Law cost, but also the differing cost of health with each alternative-energy system. It is only if one takes into account economics from the point of view of the consumer of the energy that the relevant order of preference of the various energy options can be ascertained. 526 references, 148 figures, 94 tables.

• OSTI ID: 6544656
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

08 HYDROGEN
080000 -- Hydrogen
14 SOLAR ENERGY
140500 -- Solar Energy Conversion
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
295000* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Hydrogen & Synthetic Fuels
299001 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Solar-- (1989-)
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CONVERSION
ECONOMICS
ENERGY CONVERSION
ENERGY SYSTEMS
HYDROGEN STORAGE
HYDROGEN-BASED ECONOMY
SOLAR ENERGY CONVERSION
STORAGE