Energy questions Question 1 Fossil fuel reserves in North America, Europe and China (in tonnes of oil equivalent

x108) Coal Gas Oil Total fossil fuel China Use 10.4 0.00039 0.0032 10.40359 Reserve 589 16.4 32.38 637.78 Europe Use 3.68 0.005 0.008 3.693 Reserve 1357.83 484.3 118.45 1960.58 N. Use 6.1867 0.0069 0.0125 6.02061 America Reserve 1253.3 62.09 64.93 1380.32 Fittingly, it appears that for each of the regions specified, their energy use relates to how large their reserves are. For example, Chinas largest area of use is coal which is by far its biggest reserve. Oil reserves are next in size followed by gas and that follows the usage pattern. Refs oil information http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/oilconsumption.html gas information http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/gasconsumption.html there is another reference but cant find itit was the trend thing, Junia can you remember what it was? And you said have you had a look at this and I said yup but neglected to write down the website something to do with trends Question 2 Question 3 There are two types of solar energy being used today. They are Solar Thermal and Photovoltaic. Solar Thermal uses energy from the sun to generate heat. This method uses solar panels to store heat from the sun and transfers this heat to buildings for space heating or to water for domestic hot water use.

The second type of solar energy in use is Photovoltaic which is the process used to turn energy from the sun into electricity.

(http://www.go-solar.net/) 500-700kwh per sq m Sweden annually

2200-2500 sahara 15% so a photovoltaic cell in Sweden generates (700kwh per sq m) 105kwh in Sweden, whereas in the Sahara, it will generate (2500kwh per sq m) 375kwh (assuming 15% efficiency) ref? Of all of these technologies the solar dish/stirling engine has the highest energy efficiency. A single solar dish-Stirling engine installed at Sandia National Laboratories National Solar Thermal Test Facility produces as much as 25 kW of electricity, with a conversion efficiency of 30%.[62] Solar parabolic trough plants have been built with efficiencies of about 20%. Fresnel reflectors have an efficiency that is slightly lower (but this is compensated by the denser packing). The gross conversion efficiencies (taking into account that the solar dishes or troughs occupy only a fraction of the total area of the power plant) are determined by net generating capacity over the solar energy that falls on the total area of the solar plant. The 500-megawatt (MW) SCE/SES plant would extract about 2.75% of the radiation (1 kW/m; see Solar power for a discussion) that falls on its 4,500 acres (18.2 km).[63] For the 50 MW AndaSol Power Plant [64] that is being built in Spain (total area of 1,3001,500 m = 1.95 km) gross conversion efficiency comes out at 2.6% Furthermore, efficiency does not directly relate to cost: on calculating total cost, both efficiency and the cost of construction and maintenance should be taken into account. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy Question 4 The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing industrialised countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment (called Annex 1 countries) to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries. A crucial feature of an approved CDM carbon project is that it has established that the planned reductions would not occur without the additional incentive provided by emission reductions credits, a concept known as "additionally". The CDM allows net global greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced at a much lower global cost by financing emissions reduction projects in developing countries where costs are lower than in industrialized

countries. However, in recent years, criticism against the mechanism has increased. The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol excluded forest conservation/avoided deforestation from the CDM for a variety of political, practical and ethical reasons]. However, carbon emissions from deforestation represent 18-25% of all emissions, and will account for more carbon emissions in the next five years than all emissions from all aircraft since the Wright Brothers until at least 2025. This means that there have been growing calls for the inclusion of forests in CDM schemes for the second commitment period from a variety of sectors, under the leadership of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, and brought together under the Forests Now Declaration, which has been signed by over 300 NGOs, business leaders, and policy makers As the CDM is an alternative to domestic emission reductions, the perfectly working CDM would produce no more and no less greenhouse gas emission reductions than without use of the CDM. However, it was recognized from the beginning that if projects that would have happened anyway are registered as CDM projects, then the net effect is an increase of global emissions as those "spurious" credits will be used to allow higher domestic emissions without reducing emissions in the developing country hosting the CDM project. Spurious credits may also occur because of overstated baselines. Such a rejection is termed a "false positive". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cdm) Question 5 Question 6 Question 7