Green Technology
Description
The United States has announced that it invests $150 Billion in research and development of renewable energy and other countries also do not stop investing in green technology despite current economic downturn. (UNEP 2008) Green technology can be categorized by three segments: technology for energy generation, energy storage and delivery, and energy consumption.
Energy generation technology includes efficient fossil fuel technology, renewable energy technology, and nuclear power technology. CCS, Carbon Capture Storage, is a representative for efficient fossil fuel technology. CCS is an approach to capture CO2 emission from coal plants and send it to underground which prevents it from coming out to the atmosphere. CCT, Clean Coal Technology, is also attracting attentions as an efficient fossil fuel technology. Especially coal gasification technology which burns coal layer underground and send the generated gas to the ground is promising technology since it does not require on the ground plants, reducing the initial cost by 90%. Renewable energy includes photovoltaic power, wind power energy, bio fuel and fuel cell energy. Governments sometimes select the renewable technologies to invest according to their geographical conditions. Nuclear power technology is considered one of the cleanest technologies due to its low CO2 emissions despite the harmfulness of its waste material. Developed countries such as France, the United States, and Japan plan to expand energy capacity of nuclear power plants. (Ozaki.H 2009)
Smart energy and battery technology are recognized as key solutions for energy storage and delivery segment. Smart energy controls energy delivery and realize efficient electricity transmission by identifying accurate demand from households or equalizing the amount to transmit interacting with battery system. Huge amount of money has been invested in lithium ion battery market. Lithium ion battery was used mainly for electric devices, but now it is also an engine for electric vehicles which still have problems with its low duration and size. Technology that materializes the capacity enhancement with downsizing is significantly demanded. (Nikkei Ecology 2009)
In the energy consumption segment, technologies for energy efficiency improvements in vehicles, households and building are attracting investment. Energy management system which shows the energy consumptions and automatically switches the electric devices in households or building on and off is considered a strong solution.
Enablers
- Ambitious political decisions: Ambitious reduction target, subsidizing policy
- An increase in green consumer population
- A raise/instability in oil price
- A raise/instability in raw material price
Inhibitors
- A significant drop/stability of oil price
- A significant drop/stability of raw material price
Paradigms
- Corporations can achieve both cost reduction besides energy efficiency through installations of green technology which used to be considered the unattractive investment.
Experts
- Government institution
- Project developers
Sources
- http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/masters/ccs_info/
- http://www.dpj.or.jp/special/manifesto2009/index.html
- JACSES (ed.) 2009, Carbon market and CDM, Tsukiji Shokan, Tokyo.
- Eco-Business Network 2008, Carbon Trading and CDM, Nihon Jitsugyo, Tokyo.
- http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/mechanisms/clean_development_mechanism/items/2718.php