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technology
Bent Sorensen
During most of human history renewable energy found), and later draught animals came into use
has been the only energy option available. Only (according to available evidence at least 10 000 years
during the last few centuries has fossil and lately ago). Solar energy stored in the form of fossil fuels
nuclear energy sources been used in a non- was probably first used some 9 000 years ago (oil for
renewable way. They took over because they lighting). Since the mode of use is non-renewable,
seemed much cheaper than the renewable fossil energy is not usually included in the range of
sources. However, environmental problems of a renewable energy forms.
local as well as a global magnitude are becoming Wind energy was used for sailships in the
evident, and questions are now being raised: are Mediterranean region about 5 500 years ago. z Evi-
the fossil and nuclear choices indeed the dence for the use of windmills some 2 500 years ago
cheapest; could a full account of indirect costs be in India has been discussed, 3 and the Greek civiliza-
attempted? In any case, the renewable options tion probably used solar energy in some minor ways
have only been developed in some areas of the (Archimedes wrote a book on the use of burning
world, and the reasons for their successes and mirrors, which for example could have been used for
failures has to be discussed. igniting altar fires; solar heated airflows may have
been used for small mechanical devices4). Small-
Keywords: Renewable energy; History; Technical and economic scale water power was used by Ktesibios (eg a
evaluation
waterclock around 250 BC) and by Philon (a water-
wheel around 225 BC). 5
During practically all the history of life, renewable The Romans used human power in treadmills, eg
energy has been the main source of available energy: potter's wheels, and hand-operated water pumps. In
solar radiation provided the heat for suitable habi- the 1st century, Heron of Alexandria played with a
tats on earth, as well as the high-quality energy wind-powered organ and a primitive steam engine. 6
needed to grow food and hence furnish human European Renaissance brought about a renewed
energy for maintenance and external work, by con- interest in technology. A number of power-requiring
verting the mechanical energy to heat and eventually devices came into common use during the 16th
re-radiating it to space as low-quality heat. The century, and several energy supply technologies
average energy conversion of a human being is 60- were advanced, primarily based on muscle power
90 W for maintenance and 40-70 W for work and (Figure 1), wind power (Figure 2) and hydro power.
other activities (ie the equivalent of the electric The following centuries brought about experi-
power used by a typical incandescent light bulb). ments with many energy forms. In Italy, experi-
The maximum rate at which a human being can ments with burning mirrors were carried out, 7 and
deliver work is 330 W for periods of a few hours and the industrial revolution was intimately connected
2 000 W for durations around one minute. 1 with the development of the steam engine and the
As human civilization took shape, man was able to exploitation of coal, which soon took over the
expand his energy-use. Fuelwood provided fires geographically confined monopoly of water power.
(evidence dating back 350 000 years has been Solar furnaces were further developed during the
18th century, where in 1747, J. Cassini first obtained
Bent SCrensen is Technical Director, COWlconsult, Con- temperatures above 1 000C, thus making solar fur-
sulting Engineers and Planners, 15 Parallelvej, DK-2800 naces the most practical technology for melting
Lyngby, Denmark, on leave from Institute of Mathematics certain metals, s In 1883 the Ericsson hot air engine
and Physics, Roskilde University Center, DK--4000 Ros- cycle was developed and this opened new possibili-
kilde, Denmark. ties for solar thermal conversion. The solar thermal
P r e s e n t state o f r e n e w a b l e e n e r g y
technology
During most of history as outlined above, renewable
energy really had no competition in the area of
high-quality energy. Therefore, the cost of the con-
version equipment was not much of an issue. The
Figure 1. Sixteenth century muscle powered pump. cost of a windmill or a waterwheel could at most be
Source Agricola, De re Metallica, 1566.
compared to that of providing the same power given need at the final stage, and often implying vast
through draught animals or human labour. In slave- reductions in the amount of energy spent on the way
free Europe, the balance must have tipped in favour to the 'end-use'. 14 The implications of demand-side
of machine-produced power some time during the efforts are particularly important for renewable
16th century. energy-use, because the resource intensities (defined
When the use of fossil energy became possible on as the maximum energy fluxes of various renewable
a large scale, few of the renewable energy techni- energy flows that can be practically harnessed) are
ques could compete. In 1900 solar power was esti- finite and often of the same order of magnitude as
mated to cost about 10 times that of the competing gross demands. For example, the maximum practical
fossil power, 13 and although wind power may have area for collection of solar energy for a building may
been close to break-even, the fossil energy systems be its roof area, implying a maximum yield of
were soon developed to a degree of firm power electricity from solar cells and a maximum amount
dependability, which the intermittent renewable of heat from solar thermal collectors. If these yields
sources could only achieve with energy storage facili- are small compared to the energy demands of the
ties (eg batteries), which again brought the total cost building, the solar option would appear less interest-
out of range. An exception was hydro power and ing than if they are large or comparable to the
remote area applications, the first because it is often demands. Generally, the greater the variety of re-
even cheaper than fossil power plants, the second newable energy options that become available, the
because the transportation of fossil fuels to remote smaller the energy demand intensity is.
locations adds to the cost on their side. Finally,
low-maintenance systems without moving parts,
Evolution of institutional contexts
such as solar cells, are preferred in applications
where repair costs are decisive. It follows from the discussion above that energy
The renewed interest in energy alternatives fol- planning procedures aimed at opening up for renew-
lowing the oil embargo of 1973/74 has brought a able energy contributions must look first at the way a
range of renewable energy conversion techniques society uses energy in a very broad sense, and then
through a technological development process. Out more specifically at the overall efficiency of the
of this process a number of technically viable solu- energy conversion system, for various choices re-
tions has emerged, while other ideas have fallen garding the mix of supply options.
through holes in the sieve. As a result we have today Energy planning as a government responsibility
several proven renewable energy technologies which emerged in the years following the 1973/74 oil
will be able to penetrate the marketplace, as soon as embargo. Before, some planning efforts were made
indicated by the price of the alternatives, and pro- in the private energy supply sector and in the
vided that institutional and other distorting barriers (private or public) utility sector, but only for their
- should they exist - be removed. own sectors. The new Departments of Energy being
The recent rise in fossil fuel prices (due to the established in most countries during the late 1970s
pricing being increasingly determined on the basis of first had to establish their authority and gain the
market value rather than on production cost) has expertise required for this new type of planning.
made some of the new renewable energy systems (eg Outcomes of government planning efforts were
for wind conversion) come close to economic break- campaigns aimed at raising the energy awareness of
even. This trend is expected to continue, because the the populations, and the preparation of legislation
full-pricing principle is believed to be applied in the aimed at controlling energy use or encouraging the
energy sector. Full costing includes indirect costs desired energy use by subsidies/taxes. The cam-
such as the environmental ones, and clearly places a paigns mostly aimed to make people use energy
penalty on fossil fuels due to their contribution to more sensibly and save energy in cases where no
pollution and to the greenhouse effect, and on lowering in comfort would ensue.
nuclear fuels due to their hazardous potential. Examples of controlling legislation are the new
A concurrent result of several investigations is building standards specifying maximum heat losses
that optimization of the energy system requires that have become enforced in several countries, and
changes on many levels, and not just on the supply- the minimum energy efficiency requirements for
side. The demand-side offers many interesting possi- boilers enforced through annual inspections in coun-
bilities, ranging from improving the efficiencies of tries such as Denmark. 15 In the encouragement/
those energy conversion processes already taking discouragement area, efforts have partly included
place, to devising entirely new ways of satisfying a subsidies to individuals investing in improved effi-