EXERNOMICS IS MOVING.

19 February 2016. exernomics is moving to a new consolidated site at https://ruayres.wordpress.com/

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Ayres on: How to Energise Economic Recovery

Robert U. Ayres comments on a surprising lack of awareness about the role of energy as a driver of economic growth, for the INSEAD KNOWLEDGE series of videos. You can read more on this at http://goo.gl/Ewxvvn

* Click here for video

Ayres on: Powering the Economic Growth Engine

A 15 minute interview of Robert Ayres and Benjamin Warr appearing in the INSEAD Knowledge series posted on 16 September 2009, in which the authors are quizzed on the key findings of their then just published book, ‘The Economic Growth Engine: How Energy and Work Drive Material Prosperity’ (Edward Elgar Publishing).

Click HERE for 15 minute video

Toward a more rational distribution of electrical generation

The best way to maximize overall national energy efficiency is to decentralize the electric power production and locate it very close to heat users. Since quite a lot of our electric power is actually used to generate heat (e.g. in electric furnaces, or electrically heated buildings) it is entirely possible that a more rational distribution of electrical generation would actually cut electric power demand, while simultaneously cutting energy (exergy) use and carbon dioxide emissions.

Part III. The Future of Energy: The future price of renewables

The future of energy will be driven by a combination of price and availability, as it always has. But in today’s uncertain world one thing is very sure, and that is that this combination is already in rapid transformation, meaning that we are now looking at a very different energy future indeed. In this four part series, we are looking out into the near term future of a battle  already well underway, the unfolding market contest between non-renewables and renewables. In Part II of this series we are looking for price trends in the economically significant renewables, today, are firewood, hydroelectricity (large or small scale), storage batteries, wind power and solar power. Firewood is not a commercial fuel except in some of the poorest and remote countries. The two most dynamic renewable technologies for electricity generation today are wind turbines (either on-shore or offshore) and solar power.  The number of installations of wind turbines and solar panels is large enough so that both can be treated analytically as aggregates, which we shall now look at here.

Part II. The Future of Energy: Why the price of oil and gas should increase (but will it?)

The future of energy will be driven by a combination of price and availability, as it always has. But in today’s uncertain world one thing is very sure, and that is that this combination is already in rapid transformation, meaning that we are now looking at a very different future indeed. In this four part series, we are looking out into the near term future of a battle which  is already well underway, the unfolding market contest between non-renewables and renewables.  The rising price of oil, in particular (because of its unique role as a fuel for mobile applications) together with declining prices of “renewables”  is creating new opportunities for long-term investors, as well as requiring that government policy take into consideration the considerable implications of this transformative  shift.  In Part II, we are looking first at the unfolding and very different picture emerging for oil and gas.

On Measures of “decoupling”

– Robert U. Ayres. Paris. 232 October 2014

The term “decoupling” is commonly used among ecological economists to express the notion that somehow economic activity can proceed without (or with much less) material resource consumption e.g. {Fischer-Kowalski, 2011 #7235}. The reasons for worrying about “decoupling” are three interconnected twin concerns: (1) environmental damages, (2) potential material scarcity problems, and (3) linkages to economic growth (or the lack of it). These three concerns are usually addressed separately, because different categories of material resources are involved in different ways. I will comment briefly on #2 and #3 later, but threats of environmental harm (especially climate change and bio-diversity loss)are the primary motivator of the “decoupling” proponents while #2 is somewhat supportive of #1 but #3 is, so to speak, “the elephant in the room”.