Evaluation of Economic, Energy-Environmental and Societal Effects of Non-Renewable Energy Substitution with Renewable Energy Sources

Abstract

The analysis of effects of non-renewable energy (reference fuel) substitution with renewable energy sources of interest (RES) was conducted with the use of social indicator for each effect arising from production of a given utility product in communal and living power industry. The aforementioned effect may be of energy-environmental, economic or social nature, etc. This means it affects elements of living standard ratios. Reference fuel should be the most common one in the area in terms of a given application. The renewable energy sources of interest (communal and living purposes) may include solar power, biofuels, geothermal energy, wind power and others. Applications may include: heating, cooling and air-conditioning, preparing hot tap water, electric power supply for lightening or minor powering, meal preparation, etc. In this paper, the social indicator of a given effect presents difference of an effect for the same amount of utility product when applying reference fuel and renewable substitution energy source. The amount of utility product should equal the use of one substitution energy unit. The method proposed constitutes generalization of the existing method of economic effect evaluation on the basis of the Economic Efficiency of Energy Substitution coefficient (EEES). The paper presents calculation methodology and examples of applications referring to use of particular renewable energy sources (solar energy in solar collectors, boilers powered by biofuels and heat pumps using geothermal energy) to prepare hot tap water. Furthermore, this paper presents relations of calculations which allow for defining dimensionless indexes for the effects of interest.

Keywords

• renewable energy sources
• economic effects
• energy-environmental effects
• societal effects
• energy substitution