IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v12y2019i24p4723-d296569.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Powering a Sustainable and Circular Economy—An Engineering Approach to Estimating Renewable Energy Potentials within Earth System Boundaries

Author

Listed:
  • Harald Desing

    (Empa – Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St.Gallen, Switzerland)

  • Rolf Widmer

    (Empa – Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St.Gallen, Switzerland)

  • Didier Beloin-Saint-Pierre

    (Empa – Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St.Gallen, Switzerland)

  • Roland Hischier

    (Empa – Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St.Gallen, Switzerland)

  • Patrick Wäger

    (Empa – Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St.Gallen, Switzerland)

Abstract

This study proposes a method to estimate the appropriability of renewable energy resources at the global scale, when Earth system boundaries/needs and the human demand for chemical energy are respected. The method is based on an engineering approach, i.e., uncertainties of parameters and models are considered and potentials calculated with 99 % confidence. We used literature data to test our method and provide initial results for global appropriable technical potentials (ATP) that sum up to 71 TW , which is significantly larger than the current global energy demand. Consequently, there is sufficient renewable energy potentially available to increase energy access for a growing world population as well as for a development towards increasingly closed material cycles within the technosphere. Solar energy collected on the built environment ( 29 % ) and in desert areas ( 69 % ) represent the dominant part of this potential, followed in great distance by hydro ( 0.6 % ), terrestrial heat ( 0.4 % ), wind ( 0.35 % ), and biomass ( 0.2 % ). Furthermore, we propose indicators to evaluate an energy mix on different levels, from an energy mix in single products to the mix used by the global economy, against the estimated RE potentials, which allow an evaluation and consideration in the design of sustainable–circular products and systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Harald Desing & Rolf Widmer & Didier Beloin-Saint-Pierre & Roland Hischier & Patrick Wäger, 2019. "Powering a Sustainable and Circular Economy—An Engineering Approach to Estimating Renewable Energy Potentials within Earth System Boundaries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-18, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:24:p:4723-:d:296569
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/24/4723/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/24/4723/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Szargut, Jan T, 2003. "Anthropogenic and natural exergy losses (exergy balance of the Earth’s surface and atmosphere)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 1047-1054.
    2. Reto Knutti & Joeri Rogelj, 2015. "The legacy of our CO 2 emissions: a clash of scientific facts, politics and ethics," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 133(3), pages 361-373, December.
    3. David Tilman & Michael Clark, 2014. "Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health," Nature, Nature, vol. 515(7528), pages 518-522, November.
    4. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    5. Jacobson, Mark Z. & Delucchi, Mark A., 2011. "Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part I: Technologies, energy resources, quantities and areas of infrastructure, and materials," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1154-1169, March.
    6. Gunn, Kester & Stock-Williams, Clym, 2012. "Quantifying the global wave power resource," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 296-304.
    7. Ayres, Robert U., 1999. "The second law, the fourth law, recycling and limits to growth," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 473-483, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rüdisüli, Martin & Bach, Christian & Bauer, Christian & Beloin-Saint-Pierre, Didier & Elber, Urs & Georges, Gil & Limpach, Robert & Pareschi, Giacomo & Kannan, Ramachandran & Teske, Sinan L., 2022. "Prospective life-cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions of electricity-based mobility options," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PB).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andreas Makoto Hein & Jean-Baptiste Rudelle, 2020. "Energy Limits to the Gross Domestic Product on Earth," Working Papers hal-02570677, HAL.
    2. Andreas M. Hein & Jean-Baptiste Rudelle, 2020. "Energy Limits to the Gross Domestic Product on Earth," Papers 2005.05244, arXiv.org.
    3. Peura, Pekka, 2013. "From Malthus to sustainable energy—Theoretical orientations to reforming the energy sector," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 309-327.
    4. Quentin Couix, 2019. "Natural resources in the theory of production: the Georgescu-Roegen/Daly versus Solow/Stiglitz controversy," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(6), pages 1341-1378, November.
    5. Korhonen, Jouni & Honkasalo, Antero & Seppälä, Jyri, 2018. "Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 37-46.
    6. Béné, Christophe & Oosterveer, Peter & Lamotte, Lea & Brouwer, Inge D. & de Haan, Stef & Prager, Steve D. & Talsma, Elise F. & Khoury, Colin K., 2019. "When food systems meet sustainability – Current narratives and implications for actions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 116-130.
    7. Searchinger, Timothy D. & Beringer, Tim & Strong, Asa, 2017. "Does the world have low-carbon bioenergy potential from the dedicated use of land?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 434-446.
    8. Lavidas, George, 2020. "Selection index for Wave Energy Deployments (SIWED): A near-deterministic index for wave energy converters," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    9. Quentin Couix, 2018. "The role of natural resources in production: Georgescu-Roegen/ Daly versus Solow/ Stiglitz," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-01702401, HAL.
    10. Emeline Bezin, 2019. "The economics of Green consumption, cultural transmission and sustainable technological change," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-02087970, HAL.
    11. Emeline Bezin, 2019. "The economics of Green consumption, cultural transmission and sustainable technological change," Post-Print halshs-02087970, HAL.
    12. Ribas, Aline & Lucena, André F.P. & Schaeffer, Roberto, 2017. "Bridging the energy divide and securing higher collective well-being in a climate-constrained world," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 435-450.
    13. Bezin, Emeline, 2019. "The economics of green consumption, cultural transmission and sustainable technological change," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 497-546.
    14. Mubashir Qasim, 2018. "Some Links between Sustainability and Well-Being," Working Papers in Economics 18/13, University of Waikato.
    15. Harjanne, Atte & Korhonen, Janne M., 2019. "Abandoning the concept of renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 330-340.
    16. Irene Blanco-Gutiérrez & Consuelo Varela-Ortega & Rhys Manners, 2020. "Evaluating Animal-Based Foods and Plant-Based Alternatives Using Multi-Criteria and SWOT Analyses," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-26, October.
    17. Arsani Alina & Stefan George, 2024. "Energy Transition and European Sub-Models. Restructuring EU Economy," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 18(1), pages 86-101.
    18. Castro, P. & Pedroso, R. & Lautenbach, S. & Vicens, R., 2020. "Farmland abandonment in Rio de Janeiro: Underlying and contributory causes of an announced development," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    19. Mechthild Donner & Anne Verniquet & Jan Broeze & Katrin Kayser & Hugo de Vries, 2021. "Critical success and risk factors for circular business models valorising agricultural waste and by-products," Post-Print hal-03004851, HAL.
    20. Cornelis Leeuwen & Jos Frijns & Annemarie Wezel & Frans Ven, 2012. "City Blueprints: 24 Indicators to Assess the Sustainability of the Urban Water Cycle," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 26(8), pages 2177-2197, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:24:p:4723-:d:296569. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.