The necessity of solar energy

Derek Lovejoy

Renewable Energy, 1996, vol. 9, issue 1, 1138-1143

Abstract: The idea of limits to growth has, understandably, achieved notoriety since the days of Malthus and, more recently, the Club of Rome. However, there must be some limits to the ability of the Earth to sustain a growing population. Fortunately, population models suggest that the world's population will probably level out at about two to three times the present numbers over the next hundred years. The question is whether the Earth's resources are sufficient to sustain that population at a high standard of living for all. In this the key issue is energy. It is clear that present trends in energy consumption, especially oil, cannot be sustained much longer. Regardless of this, however, prudence demands a drastic reduction in fossil fuel consumption, in view of the possibility of global warming. It can be shown that, combined with greatly improved energy efficiency, a transition to a solar (renewable) energy based economy capable of sustaining the anticipated growth in the world economy, is possible, but the constraints are extremely tight.

Date: 1996
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0960148196884795
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:9:y:1996:i:1:p:1138-1143

DOI: 10.1016/0960-1481(96)88479-5

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().