IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v3y2010i3p462-591d7518.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Current State of Development of Electricity-Generating Technologies: A Literature Review

Author

Listed:
  • Manfred Lenzen

    (ISA, School of Physics, A28, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia)

Abstract

Electricity is perhaps the most versatile energy carrier in modern economies, and it is therefore fundamentally linked to human and economic development. Electricity growth has outpaced that of any other fuel, leading to ever-increasing shares in the overall mix. This trend is expected to continue throughout the following decades, as large—especially rural—segments of the world population in developing countries start to climb the “energy ladder” and become connected to power grids. Electricity therefore deserves particular attention with regard to its contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, which is reflected in the ongoing development of low-carbon technologies for power generation. The focus of this updated review of electricity-generating technologies is twofold: (a) to provide more technical information than is usually found in global assessments on critical technical aspects, such as variability of wind power, and (b) to capture the most recent findings from the international literature. This report covers eight technologies. Seven of these are generating technologies: hydro-, nuclear, wind, photovoltaic, concentrating solar, geothermal and biomass power. The remaining technology is carbon capture and storage. This selection is fairly representative for technologies that are important in terms of their potential capacity to contribute to a low-carbon world economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Manfred Lenzen, 2010. "Current State of Development of Electricity-Generating Technologies: A Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-130, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:3:y:2010:i:3:p:462-591:d:7518
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/3/3/462/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/3/3/462/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Azar, Christian & Sterner, Thomas, 1996. "Discounting and distributional considerations in the context of global warming," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 169-184, November.
    2. Gowdy, John M. & McDaniel, Carl N., 1995. "One world, one experiment: addressing the biodiversity--economics conflict," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 181-192, December.
    3. Newell, Richard G. & Pizer, William A., 2004. "Uncertain discount rates in climate policy analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 519-529, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Gowdy, John M. & Ferreri Carbonell, Ada, 1999. "Toward consilience between biology and economics: the contribution of Ecological Economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 337-348, June.
    2. Onno J. Kuik & Barbara Bucher & Michela Catenacci & Etem Karakaya & Richard S.J. Tol, 2006. "Methodological aspects of recent climate change damage cost studies," Working Papers FNU-122, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Dec 2006.
    3. Richard S.J. Tol, 2021. "Estimates of the social cost of carbon have not changed over time," Working Paper Series 0821, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    4. Tol, Richard S. J., 2005. "The marginal damage costs of carbon dioxide emissions: an assessment of the uncertainties," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(16), pages 2064-2074, November.
    5. Nir Y. Krakauer, 2014. "Economic Growth Assumptions in Climate and Energy Policy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(3), pages 1-14, March.
    6. Richard S. J. Tol, 2021. "Estimates of the social cost of carbon have increased over time," Papers 2105.03656, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2022.
    7. Morrissey, J. & Meyrick, B. & Sivaraman, D. & Horne, R.E. & Berry, M., 2013. "Cost-benefit assessment of energy efficiency investments: Accounting for future resources, savings and risks in the Australian residential sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 148-159.
    8. Hoel, Michael & Sterner, Thomas, 2006. "Discounting and relative prices in assessing future environmental damages," Working Papers in Economics 199, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    9. Richard S.J. Tol, 2003. "The Marginal Costs Of Carbon Dioxide Emissions: An Assessment Of The Uncertainties," Working Papers FNU-19, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Apr 2003.
    10. Rintaro Yamaguchi, 2019. "Intergenerational Discounting with Intragenerational Inequality in Consumption and the Environment," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(4), pages 957-972, August.
    11. Mercy Berman DeMenno, 2023. "Environmental sustainability and financial stability: can macroprudential stress testing measure and mitigate climate-related systemic financial risk?," Journal of Banking Regulation, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(4), pages 445-473, December.
    12. Marlos Goes & Nancy Tuana & Klaus Keller, 2011. "The economics (or lack thereof) of aerosol geoengineering," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 109(3), pages 719-744, December.
    13. Funk, Matt, 2008. "On the Problem of Sustainable Economic Development: A Theoretical Solution to this Prisoner's Dilemma," MPRA Paper 19025, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 08 Jun 2008.
    14. Benjamin Leard, 2011. "Joan Martinez-Alier and Ingo Ropke (eds.): Recent developments in ecological economics (2 vols.)," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 161-178, July.
    15. Yohe, Gary W. & Tol, Richard S. J. & Anthoff, David, 2009. "Discounting for Climate Change," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 3, pages 1-22.
    16. Christian Azar, 1999. "Weight Factors in Cost-Benefit Analysis of Climate Change," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 13(3), pages 249-268, April.
    17. Richard S.J. Tol & Samuel Fankhauser & Richard G. Richels & Joel B. Smith, 2000. "How Much Damage Will Climate Change Do? Recent Estimates," Working Papers FNU-2, Research unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, revised Sep 2000.
    18. Fleurbaey, Marc & Zuber, Stéphane, 2015. "Discounting, risk and inequality: A general approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 34-49.
    19. Toman, Michael, 1998. "Sustainable Decisionmaking: The State of the Art from an Economics Perspective," RFF Working Paper Series dp-98-39, Resources for the Future.
    20. Tol, Richard S.J., 2006. "The Polluter Pays Principle and Cost-Benefit Analysis of Climate Change: An Application of Fund," Climate Change Modelling and Policy Working Papers 12058, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).

    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:3:y:2010:i:3:p:462-591:d:7518. 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.