Report by UK

First Order Draft, Energy Systems:
UK
This chapter could be shortened by having less text describing data already presented in graphs and tables e.g. material on p 13 describing evidiece presented in Table 7.1. Some of the material describing developments in energy use and supply is not particularly relevant for emissions and climate change.
View full comment by Alexander Bowen...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems:
UK
For the UK, the most comprehensive MAC carve analysis was undertaken by the Committee on Climate Change in our report 'Building a low-carbon economy' in 2008. This report recommended the UK's 2050 target and 'carbon budgets' from 2008-22, which were then set in law under the Climate Change Act. It is available from http://www.theccc.org.uk/reports/building-a-low-carbon-economy
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems:
UK
a distinction must be made between capacity (GW) & energy (GWh) as the technologies have significantly diffeent utilistion capacities
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems:
UK
This graph does not add any useful information
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems:
UK
Indications for the amount of the y axis?
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems:
UK
a 10% IRR is not commercial and underestimates real costs, 15% would be more appropriate
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems:
UK
diagram does not add any message
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems:
UK
message lost in information overload
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems:
UK
this graph adds nothing other than confusion
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems:
UK
The top graph is illegible
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems:
UK
General comments. The chapter provides a very clear account of the major issues, and particular, the major changes since the last report. The writing team exhibit an excellent appreciation of the significance of the many relevant events since the last report, and exhibit sensible, pragmatic and informed assessments of their likely impact. Of particular importance here is the greater growth in GHG, which exceeded that of GDP per capita in the latest period (attributable large
View full comment by Peter McGregor...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems:
UK
In terms of detail a number of things occurred to me, though unfortunately I did not have time to go through the text in detail. Firstly, I think the draft status does show a little and the English needs a little tidying up throughout (though this is a minor issue – and I fear one that if it was fully met could only increase the length of the chapter). Secondly, I felt that there was a fair amount of repetition (perhaps because different sections were written by different i
View full comment by Peter McGregor...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems:
UK
Peter McGregor, 14 September 2012.
View full comment by Peter McGregor...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems:
UK
This section offers little in the way of sectoral policies. There is no balance in the discussion since most CO2-emitting sectors are omitted. The discussion on policies for electricity generation are general, rather than practical. There is no discussion of what works and what does not, across a range of countries and time periods. Therefore, there is little offered to the reader to inform decision making in the future. To illustrate, Table 7.6 offers a summary of policy
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems:
UK
It is worth mentioning in this section that decarbonisation of the heat and transport sectors has the potential to require signficant additional distribution network capacity, as heat pumps and electric vehicles are adopted. It is also worth mentioning that the amount of additional capacity required will depend on the patterns of consumption from these new demands, which depend on whether smart infrastructure is introduced (e.g. smart EV charging overnight vs. charging at the
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 0
UK
The authors rely on IEA projections in the early part of the Chapter. Therefore, the Chapter reads more as a condensed IEA report and lacks the analysis and suggestions that we need to break the projected trends. The Chapter could be shortened by removing the background on oil reserves/resources on p23. The CCS discussion could be shortened and its nature as an end-of-pipe emphasized. That is, less use of carbon intense fuels means a decreased need for CCS facilities. The
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 0
UK
I regret I have not had time to review the Sectoral chapters in depth. My only overall comment on this chapter is that whilst the Sankey diagrams are technically very valuable, their complexity may risk obscuring simpler messages about the underlying structures of the energy system. A simpler classification and flow diagram - along with quantification of both energy and carbon associated with each main block - is offered in Chapter 3, of Grubb, Hourcade and Neuhoff, Planet
View full comment by Michael Grubb...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 0
UK
I have three general comments on balance/comprehensiveness (which are reflected in detailed comments below): 1. Although the chapter is headed “Energy Systems” it gives insufficient attention to systems aspects. The largest part of the discussion is on low carbon resource availability and technologies – which is odd since, as the chapter acknowledges, this is not the main problem area. In my view, these sections (along with the scenarios section) could be shortened
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 0 , Line 0 To Page 0 , Line 0
UK
The chapter would profit from short summaries at the beginning and end of each section to help the reader remember the focus and main line of the chapter given how long the chapter is
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 0 , Line 0 To Page 0 , Line 0
UK
The chapter should give more weight to affordability implications given the current economic crisis as this has an important impact on climate related policies.
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 1
UK
Energy in itself is not important to consumers. It’s rather the services that energy delivers that matter. This is particularly relevant in discussions of risk, behavioural patterns and new investment. The interaction with consumers is currently lacking in the chapter, meaning that the context or the reality grounding the chapter is weak. In addition, the notion of behaviour related to market segmentation should also be considered in relation to customer centricity. A hol
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 1
UK
thereis a lack of distinction in the chapter between energy systems in developing countries and those in developed countries
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 1
UK
Roadmaps from different sources are recommended for inclusion in the chapter, including the EU 2050 Roadmap, and scenarios from Eurelectric (Power Choices) , EPRI (Prism) and Greenpeace.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 1
UK
The diagrams must be much clearer. At present they detract from the text.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 1
UK
The language in the chapter is often inconsistent in its use of the terms energy, power, and electricity
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 1
UK
Additional sources of information should be used - suggested sources attached separately below
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 1
UK
Withana, S., Núñez Ferrer, J., Medarova-Bergstrom, K., Volkery, A., and Gantioler, S. (2011) ‘Mobilising private investment for climate change action in the EU: The role of new financial instruments’, IEEP, London/Brussels. Behrens, A., Colijn, B., The Socio-Economic Transition towards Sustainability and its Impacts on Jobs in Europe, Intereconomics, Volume 47, Issue 3, May/June 2012, pg. 146-151, Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg. Behrens, A. et al., Escaping the Vicious C
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 1 To Page 135
UK
In general, the draft is a long and tedious piece. The chapter is 100 pages, much longer than the 60 page goal; huge cuts will be needed.  
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 1 To Page 135
UK
There is a huge amount of data, but little insight. The chapter never really gets around to saying anything. Many parts of the chapter read like a laundry list, naming a bunch of things and giving a few sentences of summary for each one.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 1 To Page 135
UK
Many paragraphs appear to be comprised of many sentences, each put together by a different author. And many sentences appear to be crafted to encompass the full range of the data, often at the expense of communicating the central points.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 1 To Page 135
UK
this chapter would be more effective in communicating mitigation potential if it were organized more along the following lines:
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 1 To Page 135
UK
1.       Establish, using historical and current data, an account of the state of emissions from the power sector. I say power sector because that's actually all we're really interested in here; transportation is probably its own chapter. Nowhere in this chapter is oil mentioned except to say that oil-fired plants aren't very common.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 1 To Page 135
UK
2.       Establish, using current research and development, the strategies available to mitigate emissions from the power sector. Strategies for mitigation can include technologies (CCS), economic measures (investments), and social programs (education). As the authors point out, no single strategy will work to fix this complex system.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 1 To Page 135
UK
3.       Using research, forecasting, and data modeling, make an argument about the viability of methods and techniques to mitigate climate change outcomes. 
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 1 To Page 135
UK
I am afraid that I did not appreciate the tight timescale here (relative to my pre-existing commitments) and so read through the material very quickly. My reactions should be weighted accordingly.
View full comment by Peter McGregor...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 10 , Line 12 To Page 11 , Line 2
UK
This seems like one of the most important points to be made with respect to TPES – that supplying energy consumes more energy than anything else. Emphasize this point more strongly.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 12 , Line 14 To Page 12 , Line 15
UK
Is the large room for efficiency improvement the difference between average efficiency and best practice or the difference between average/best practice efficiency and the thermodynamic upper limit (exergy) of the process?
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 13 , Line 1
UK
The levels of waste heat from thermal power stations could be mentioned in contaxt of total space heating demands, which I feel puts things in perspective. For example, in the UK the waste heat from thermal power stations is roughly equivalent to the total space heating demands in the UK. For evidence, please see http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/statistics/publications/flow/flow.aspx
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 13 , Line 1 To Page 13 , Line 3
UK
The reference to “relatively low average global efficiency” is unclear. Relative to what? Efficiencies have been steadily increasing over time. If the reference is to some theoretical potential, citing only fossil sources is misleading; conversion efficiencies of renewable sources or nuclear are generally much lower (in terms of the amount of potentially available energy which they convert to useful work).
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 13 , Line 1 To Page 21
UK
There is an issue of objectivity (use of language which could be considered pejorative) which does not reflect the age of investments and economic factors
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 13 , Line 12 To Page 13 , Line 15
UK
Mention should be made of thermodynamic limitations on efficiency (Carnot/Kalina cycles)
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 13 , Line 25 To Page 13 , Line 25
UK
Here, and at many other points, the 'Global Energy Assessment' is referenced as 2011. As of September 5, 2012, I await my copy from Cambridge University Press as a reviewer.
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 13 , Line 33
UK
Section 7.2.2 does not describe energy markets per se (rather it describes traded volumes). It is not clear what the value of this section is. A more relevant aspect may be to highlight the differences in fuel prices between regions and its influence on demand
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 13 , Line 34 To Page 37
UK
The paragraph lacks clarity. Is international trade being presented as a risk or opportunity? What is the role of markets?
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 13 , Line 8 To Page 13 , Line 21
UK
No need to summarize the chart so directly. The large number of detailed staistics actually impairs comprehension. Instead, highlight the numbers that are striking, unexpected, or relate to future arguments and ideas.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 13 , Line 9 To Page 13 , Line 21
UK
When citing conversion efficiencies, it should be clear whether they are on a gross or net calorific value basis (also known as higher / lower heating value) - this makes a difference of around 5 % points, which is pretty significant
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 13 , Line 6 To Page 13 , Line 7
UK
Text: "Those low efficiencies and large own energy use in energy sector result in a high potential indirect multiplication effects of energy savings from end users" This point cannot be stressed enough - reducing final end point consumption has a more-than-equivalent impact on energy waste at all stages in the energy supply chain - it can even remove the need for replacement energy plant on lifecycle turnover, in some cases.
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 14 , Line 1
UK
Increased trade should reduce the volatility of prices
View full comment by Alexander Bowen...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 14 , Line 1 To Page 3
UK
Ditto
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 14 , Line 17 To Page 19
UK
Clarity lacking. What is the intent of this statement?
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 14 , Line 20 To Page 14 , Line 20
UK
The combustion GHG emissions from natural gas are not 'low' as stated, merely lower than coal and oil - suggest replacing with 'relatively low'
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 14 , Line 23
UK
This overstates the regional nature of gas markets. There is significant inter-regional trade and some inter-regional price transmission so it is not true that markets are limited to regional scales, though of course the regional markets do all have different characteristics.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 14 , Line 35
UK
While it is often claimed that coal is widely distributed, the claim appears to have no foundation. Occurrences of coal are of course widespread, but that is true of other fossil fuels and not of any particular significance. In terms of proved reserves, BP lists 55 countries with natural gas reserves, of which the largest has 23.7% of the global total; for coal the equivalent numbers are 33 and 28.9%. Production of coal is even more concentrated (the largest coal producer,
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 14 , Line 4 To Page 8
UK
Clarity lacking. The global oil market is not driven primarily by fuel transportation costs
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 14 , Line 20 To Page 14 , Line 23
UK
Text: "Natural gas penetrates many markets because it burns efficiently with low GHG emissions, and requires limited processing to prepare for end use. But it is disadvantaged in terms of transmission and storage, because of its low energy density, which makes transportation costs a large fraction of the total supply chain costs. This limits the development of gas markets to regional scales." Gas fuels are likely to become increasingly sought after for a number of reasons, in
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 14 , Line 39 To Page 14 , Line 42
UK
Text: "Australia dominated the list of coal exporters (IEA, 2011a). China is responsible for nearly 90% of additional global coal use in 2000-2009 (Figure 7.1). India also plays an increasingly important role. Power generation remains the main driver of global coal demand (US DOE, 2011a)." With the disruption in the global economy, it is possible that China will not be able to keep up its current rate of economic growth as its trading partners have worsening deficits.
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 14 , Line 6 To Page 14 , Line 8
UK
Text: "Most prominent oil supply security concerns relate to over 3 bln. people living in 83 countries (including all of the world’s low-income countries) importing more than 75% of the oil and petroleum products they consume." It is critical that the issue of energy access be addressed, because many of the countries dependent on energy imports are at risk of paying ever-increasing prices for those energy supplies. Some countries are consistently in GDP deficit over energy
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 15
UK
The coloring here renders this chart difficult to read. Suggest using more contrasting colors and/or patterns.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 15 , Line 1 To Page 15 , Line 3
UK
Although thorium is mentioned later (p. 24) this would be an appropriate place to mention thorium also.
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 15 , Line 11 To Page 15 , Line 11
UK
Coal combustion does not produce Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions but does produse Nitric oxide (NO) & Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) emissions which have difereen GWPs
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 15 , Line 23 To Page 15 , Line 24
UK
Where this says 'As is the case with energy...' it should probably say 'energy consumption'
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 15 , Line 5 To Page 15 , Line 17
UK
As per the first sentence of the Executive Summary, it is essential to define here what you mean by the 'energy sector' (presumably heat and power generation) - otherwise this section is very confusing
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 15 , Line 6 To Page 15 , Line 6
UK
See comment #1. The "energy sector" would be less confusing if it were renamed as "the energy supply sector".
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 16 , Line 1 To Page 16 , Line 2
UK
References to large ranges of variability, experessed here as 1-99%, are not improved by adding numbers to such an open-ended range.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 16 , Line 3 To Page 4
UK
Lacks clarity. It is not clear wht the purpose of including the analysis in this paragraph is other than to say that the extenf of the agriculture and forestry sector in each country determines where the upper bound on the contribution of energy related emissions lies.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 17 , Line 25 To Page 17 , Line 26
UK
""Rates of global energy intensity decline were not sufficient to compensate for GDP growth, thus leaving room for energy demand to expand."" As phrased, this suggest that growth in energy demand found an opportunity, when as described it was a tautological outcome. Rephrase as ""Rates of global energy intensity decline were not sufficient to compensate for GDP growth, thus energy demand inevitably expanded.""
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 17 , Line 4
UK
Is there evidence to support the statement that natural resource availability is a factor in influencing the growth in energy supply and demand?
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 17 , Line 4 To Page 17 , Line 4
UK
"Major drivers for energy demand and supply" you should mention demand drivers first and they supply drivers
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 17 , Line 10 To Page 17 , Line 13
UK
Text: "The interplay between the drivers in 2001-2010 was very different from that in the previous decades (Figure 7.4).Global total primary energy supply (TPES) expanded by 27%, or by 2.4% per annum (2% in 2011), which is much faster, than in 1980-2000, when energy prices were significantly lower." The globalisation of trade has been a major economic goal of the World Trade Organisation and other bodies. It is logical that when industry relocates to countries where there is
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 17 , Line 25 To Page 17 , Line 26
UK
Text: "Rates of global energy intensity decline were not sufficient to compensate for GDP growth, thus leaving room for energy demand to expand" China, for example, is attempting to initiate strong renewable energy growth, whilst at the same time continuing with policies for strong economic growth. As in more developed countries, renewable energy sector growth is slower than fossil fuel use growth.
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 17 , Line 27 To Page 17 , Line 29
UK
Text: "Global energy consumption per capita after stabilization in 1991-2000 started growing as fast as it was back in 1971-1980." This partly reflects an economic shift - energy-intensive manufacturing was transfered, under globalisation policy, from energy-efficient economies to energy-inefficient economies.
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 18 , Line 1 To Page 17 , Line 1
UK
"The slow trend to diversification of energy sources away of fossil fuels was blocked in last decade." is misleading. As worded, this sounds as if there was an active thwarting of policy, when several other explanations are possible. Suggest rephrasing as "The trend to diversification of energy sources away from fossil fuels slowed in last decade."
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 18 , Line 26 To Page 18 , Line 30
UK
Could this irony be attributed to policies which promote low gCO2/kWh instead of low gCO2 absolute? It is the issue of normalized measures concealing the real trends (illustrated in Fig 7.4). Indeed, climate change is affected by absolute amounts of CO2, even if we become more efficient at extracting energy services per mass CO2.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 18 , Line 26 To Page 18 , Line 30
UK
The impacts, causes and sources of 'embedded emissions' should also be mentioned here.
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 18 , Line 26 To Page 18 , Line 30
UK
The comment that the last decade has seen both the highest growth in emissions and the greatest political will to curb them seems really critical to the story being told here. it would be valuable to unpack why this might be – where is the increase coming from? Is this unique to the energy sector?
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 18 , Line 1 To Page 18 , Line 11
UK
Text: "The slow trend to diversification of energy sources away [from] fossil fuels was blocked in last decade (BP, 2011a; IEA, 2011a; US DOE, 2011a). Oil continues to suffer a long run decline in global energy market share. Nonetheless, despite energy security and climate concerns, oil demand was growing by 1% annually driven mostly by non-OECD transport with OECD demand likely peaked in 2005 and expected to decline (BP, 2011a; IEA, 2011a). Coal demand was growing by over 4%
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 18 , Line 17 To Page 18 , Line 18
UK
Text: "The rate at which modern renewables penetrate the global energy market is similar to the emergence of nuclear power in the 1970’s and 1980’s (BP, 2011a)." It is interesting to note this, and it is also interesting to note that the underlying financial support for this is of a very different form. Nuclear power required intensive centralised state financial and framework support, but renewable energy technologies are more quickly profitable, so do not require more t
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 18 , Line 19 To Page 18 , Line 30
UK
Text: "7.3.1.2 Evolution of global energy-related GHG emissions : According to the EDGAR 4.2 FT 2008 dataset, global total greenhouse-gas emissions increased by 27% during the 1990-2008 with CO2 emissions from fuel combustion (+40%) drove much of this increase accompanied by CH4 emissions from fossil fuel production (+43%) (EIA, 2011). CO2 emissions trajectory partly mirrors the story of the global economic cycle and after decline in 2009 by about 2% regain over 5% in 2010 a
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 19 , Line 19
UK
At some points, as in this sentence, a little more precision would be helpful. Income is probably the main determinant of demand for energy services but demand for energy is also a function of the equipment in use, and there is at least some evidence of an S-curve leading to a levelling off of energy demand at higher income levels.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 19 , Line 5 To Page 19 , Line 8
UK
What explanations are offered for developing countries not leapfrogging?
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 19 , Line 6 To Page 19 , Line 30
UK
The lines 6-8 and 27-29 are contradictory
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 19 , Line 9 To Page 18
UK
Should energy efficiency improvement not also be considered as a driver of energy demand in addition to population and economic growth. This also contributed to the stable demand in OECD Europe
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 19 , Line 14 To Page 19 , Line 15
UK
Text: "Population and income growth are the two most powerful (but not the only) driving forces behind the demand for energy and energy related CO2 emissions." A significant driving force that should be mentioned is "state direction" - in other words, the intentions of governments, who are the leaders in plans for the built environment, transport and industry.
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 19 , Line 19 To Page 19 , Line 20
UK
Text: "Income evolution is the most influential determinant on the overall demand for energy. Global picture masks significant regional disparities." Income is not directly causally related to demand for energy. Changing lifestyle aspirations for consumption are constructed by corporate marketing mechanisms, and state leadership on urban development and manufacturing creates an energy-hungry environment.
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 19 , Line 25 To Page 19 , Line 26
UK
Text: "This region was the only one that managed to decouple economic growth with energy use: its GDP in 2009 being 6% above the 1990 level while TPES declined by 32% over the same period." The reasons why total primary energy supply (consumption) dipped in the Non-OECD Europe and Eurasia region are not necessarily to do with improved energy efficiency of productivity or a greater use of low carbon energy - the collapse of the former Soviet Union saw Russia and its former sat
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 19 , Line 33 To Page 19 , Line 41
UK
Text: "Besides technical improvements, falling energy intensities reveals structural changes away from industry toward less energy intensive activities – first in rich and then in newly industrialized economies...most developing countries show little or no de-carbonization. Historical trends reveal that rising carbon intensity is a common feature of many developing nations in early industrialization stage in which heavy use of fossil fuels for power production plays a key
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 19 , Line 5 To Page 19 , Line 8
UK
Text: "Studies do not support the leapfrogging hypothesis that developing countries would shift towards significantly less carbon-intensive energy use patterns while bridging income gaps with developed ones (Jakob et al., 2012)." Carbon-intensive energy vendors, and those selling high carbon energy power plant and high carbon fuels, may be doing less business in developed countries, and so have turned their attention to markets elsewhere. A parallel can be found in the health
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 2 , Line 10
UK
Long-term price trends are missing
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 2 , Line 13
UK
integrated coal and still integrationg global gas market should be dealt with in more depth since a sustainable global price trend supports cliamte cahnge mitigation.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 20 , Line 17 To Page 20 , Line 19
UK
Repetition of sentences from p xx, line xx illustrating how China has become the world's largest emitter of CO2.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 20
UK
Consider taking the two main points of this section – that despite some countries' progress towards decreased carbon intensity of energy, the massive growth of China and India more than make up for this and that the US has been eclipsed as the biggest emitter – and weaving them in to the previous section.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 20 , Line 22 To Page 20 , Line 26
UK
Text: "The relatively few studies that undertook ex post verification of energy model baselines (e.g., Pilavachi et al., 2008; Strachan, 2011), or the US DOE’s review of its energy forecasts (US DOE, 2011b), showed the evolution and inclusion of current policies was a key determinant of projected energy supply, demand, and prices." This re-emphasises the point that energy consumption management needs to be subject to organisational administration - countries and regions nee
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 20 , Line 5 To Page 20 , Line 6
UK
Text: "Energy de-carbonization progress in OECD countries (-0.3% per annum) was smaller than in three previous decades" This low figure indicates that current decarbonisation policies are not producing a sustainable gradient of change in the general economic context. It also suggests a lack of organisation of energy use. Whilst it is becoming evident that companies and corporations are beginning to consider their Energy Management, by contrast public sector administration and
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 20 , Line 7 To Page 20 , Line 10
UK
Text: "In non-OECD countries, average annual increase of energy-related CO2 emissions exploded from 1.1% in 1990-2000 to 4.7% in 2001-2010 due to the expansion of TPES accompanied by growing carbon intensity of energy of 0.6% per annum, driven to a large degree by coal demand in China and India (IEA, 2011a)." From the point of view of economic and social development, an increase in the use of energy in a country is a positive signal. Energy enables capacity.
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 21
UK
The points made in this section are strong and should be continually emphasized throughout this document. The notion that despite our inability to stop trying to “talk the talk,” we've really been unable to apply policy tools to reduce GHG emissions in a meaningful way.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 22 , Line 10 To Page 22 , Line 12
UK
""Oil, natural gas and coal are finite resources that cannot be reproduced in human time frames. Any extraction depletes the stock, and demand growth will rapidly lead to the exhaustion of remaining supplies."" This theory of depletion vastly oversimplifies economic reality and history. As stated in line 21 on p. page 22, ""Resources, therefore, are not fixed things."" Conclusions of exhaustion, scarcity, and depletion cannot be justified from the information presented.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 22 , Line 11 To Page 22 , Line 11
UK
Exhaustion will not necessarily be "rapid" - depends on the stock and rate of demand growth
View full comment by Eric Ling...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 22 , Line 15 To Page 23 , Line 24
UK
While this section makes some great points, it seems as though it could be condensed. The main point – that our use of fossil resources has varied historically depending on market forces, technology changes, and social factors – should remain, but its current length could be decreased.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 22 , Line 9 To Page 26 , Line 26
UK
This section can be shorter
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 22 , Line 5 To Page 22 , Line 7
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Text: "This need for a radical break in current trends and the challenges of GHG reduction policy implementation illustrates the absolute scale of the GHG mitigation challenge." Since most things in economies seem to happen as a result of monetary reward, it would be tempting to suggest that policy could better be implemented by offering financial incentives. However, the changing climate and energy insecurity may prove quite sufficient in creating incentives for change - bas
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 22 , Line 23 To Page 22 , Line 24
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Text : "If a resource becomes too expensive the market responds in 24 two ways: consumers tend to shift to alternative resources (demand reduction)..." This is not necessarily so. It is a tenet of microeconomics that this is so, but much energy use is inelastic, regardless of the price, and without deliberate regulation, policy, targeted investment focus and stimulus, alternative energy resources will continue to play a minor part in energy markets. Because we are so dependen
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 22 , Line 24 To Page 22 , Line 29
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Text : "...producers seek additional supplies through enhanced exploration activities and innovative production methods, thus enabling production from previously inaccessible deposits. Moreover, technology change and improvements in knowledge push the frontier of exploitable resources towards deeper, more remote or lower concentration occurrences, making resources a dynamically evolving rather than a ‘fixed’ quantity..." This is also not necessarily so. It may not be poss
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 23 To Page 25
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These pages contain background reading of a related topic. They should be omitted to maintain the focus of the chapter and reduce its length
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 23 , Line 10 To Page 23 , Line 14
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The political nature of 'proved reserves' data for conventional oil should be explained and the underlying facts set out. Saudi Arabia's ~ 260 billion barrels has scarcely changed over the past 20 years, nor has Kuwait's ~ 100 billion, nor UAE (Abu Dhabi's) ~ 98 billion since 1985. The late Matt Simmons and Hans Jud have taken an extreme position. Sadad Al-Husseini and Obaid Nawaf (both ex-ARAMCO senior geologists) quoted a figure of 140 billion barrels for Saudi Arabia over
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 23 , Line 18 To Page 23 , Line 20
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The definition of “unconventional” is unclear and seems to mix together geological, economic and engineering considerations – how does EOR, for instance, fit in? It is not normally regarded as unconventional but appears to be covered by the definition here. (Admittedly, there is no standard international definition, but the text does not clarify anything).
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 23 , Line 41 To Page 23 , Line 42
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""When compared with cumulative past production of 162 Gt (6.8 ZJ), “peak oil” production is imminent or has already been passed."" This is very misleading. The paragraph is referring to conventional oil production, but concludes that overall oil production is peaked. Peak oil for conventional reserves is misleading, much as a discussion of declining Nintendo sales -- without consideration of other systems and online gaming -- would suggest an overall declining in enter
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 23 , Line 41 To Page 23 , Line 42
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Not clear you can infer peak oil (a peak and subsequent decline in annual production) is imminent based on ratio of past production to conventional reserves. The right economic conditions could deliver increasing annual production despite declining reserves. This paragraph really refers to "peak conventional oil", the economic significance of which is debatable given the size of the unconventional oil resource discussed in the next section. This section does not discuss the i
View full comment by Eric Ling...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 23 , Line 12 To Page 23 , Line 14
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Text: "For oil, the R/P ratio has fluctuated around 40 years for more than a century, while production has steadily increased. The quasi-constant R/P ratio could only be the result of an equivalent increase in oil reserves." This is also not necessarily so. It seems that the oil and gas companies have deliberately tried to keep their R/P at 10 or more years, in order to satisfy their shareholders. However, this does not mean that the level of reserves has increased overall. T
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 23 , Line 21 To Page 23 , Line 24
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Text: "Unconventional resources require different logistics and cost profiles, and pose different environmental challenges. Their future accessibility is, therefore, a question of technology development, i.e. the rate at which unconventional resources can be converted into marketable fuels at competitive costs." I would suggest that although engineering technology can show and has shown strong development in the ability of energy production companies to exploit unconventional
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 23 , Line 25 To Page 23 , Line 28
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Text: "Assessments and comparisons of global coal reserves and resources are subject to uncertainty and ambiguity, especially when reported in physical unit (tonnes) and without a clear distinction of their specific energy contents, which can vary between 5 GJ/t and 30 GJ/t." I would suggest that all reports of coal reserves, resources/occurrences should be treated to a matrix assessment, tabling their accessibility/cost profile, their likely energy content, and their co-fact
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 23 , Line 35 To Page 23 , Line 37
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Text: Coal occurrences are plentiful with reserves estimated at 13.3 to 21.0 ZJ (or 446 to 542 Gt C) and resources at 291 to 435 ZJ (or 7500 to 11,200 Gt C) globally." There is no reference here. I assume it is a reference to Rogner et al. 2011 (IIASA GEA Global Energy Assessment), summarised in Table 7.2. If so, there are two typographical errors, as the table shows reserves at 17.3 to 21.0 ZJ (not 13.3 to 21.0 ZJ as in the text) and resources as (7,510 - 11,230 GtC) not as
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 23 , Line 41 To Page 23 , Line 45
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Text : "When compared with cumulative past production of 162 Gt (6.8 ZJ), “peak oil” production is imminent or has already been passed. Including resources extends oil availability considerably - essentially doubling reserves (Figure 7.8). Even the higher range of reserves and resources would only postpone the peak by about two decades (depending on demand) before global conventional oil production starts its inevitable decline." To call the current oil production situati
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 24 , Line 13 To Page 24 , Line 16
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Text: "Oil prices in excess of $80 per barrel are probably needed to stimulate investment in unconventional oil development." The possibility is that if oil prices remain as high as they have been, that the economies as a whole will suffer inflation, because of the high dependency on oil (inelastic demand). This will then make the relative cost of exploiting unconventional resources that much more expensive - and large sections of the unconventional resource will remain uneco
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 24 , Line 21 To Page 24 , Line 34
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Text: "Conventional natural gas can be found as “associated gas” accumulated as a gas cap above an oil pool or, with high reservoir pressures, dissolved in the oil or as non-associated gas. Recovery of associated gas is generally a by-product of oil production...Non-associated natural gas reservoirs are much more abundant than reservoirs with both oil and gas. When there are no significant liquid hydrocarbon components, a larger part of the in-place gas can be recovered b
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 25 , Line 1 To Page 25 , Line 5
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Text: "Unconventional natural gas reserves, i.e., coal bed methane (CBM), shale gas, deep formation and tight gas are now estimated to be larger than conventional reserves and resources combined. This does not include potential reserves from gas hydrates. In some parts of the world, unconventional gas already exceeds conventional supplies. In the Unites States unconventional gas now makes up about 60% of marketed production" I note there is no mention of the high-impact risk
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 25 , Line 14 To Page 25 , Line 18
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Text: "Since the industrial revolution, fossil fuel combustion released almost 400 Gt C into the atmosphere (Table 7.2). Fossil reserves alone contain two to four times that amount of carbon - a daunting outlook for climate stability." The reserves figures in Table 7.2 are to my mind rather suspect - particularly the one for coal reserves. I suspect that most of the unconventional oil and gas will remain unexploited owing to economic problems, and that, if the recoverable coa
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 25 , Line 14 To Page 25 , Line 18
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Text: "For climate change, it is the carbon endowment potentially available for combustion that matters. Table 7.2 also presents the world’s fossil resource endowment in terms of its carbon content. Since the industrial revolution, fossil fuel combustion released almost 400 Gt C into the atmosphere (Table 7.2). Fossil reserves alone contain two to four times that amount of carbon - a daunting outlook for climate stability." As indicated in previous comments, I would contend
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 25 , Line 26 To Page 25 , Line 29
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Text: "The theoretically available uranium in the Earth’s crust has been estimated at 100 teratonnes (Tt) uranium of which 25 Tt occur within 1.6 km of the surface (Lewis, 1972). The amount of uranium dissolved in seawater is estimated at 4.5 Gt. Without substantial R&D efforts, these occurrences do not represent practically extractable uranium." This assessment of the practical recovery of uranium from dispersed resources - especially as regards seawater - is much more rea
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 26 , Line 15 To Page 26 , Line 23
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While lithium is a potential source of nuclear energy it is (at least for the forseeable future) also essential in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles. It is worth mentioning this competition, with estimates of the relative quantities of lithium required for each, given that EVs are a major option for decarbonisation of the transport sector
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 26 , Line 15 To Page 26 , Line 23
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Much of the identified lithium resource - at least in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile - is in the form of pristine salt flats. There are signficant environmental implications of exploiting a large proportion of these reserves, which probably ought to be mentioned
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 26 , Line 32 To Page 27 , Line 34
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The discussion of renewable potential should be clearer about the fact that most of the studies examined do not consider economics – most of the quoted renewables potential is not directly comparable with the figures quoted for fossil fuel reserves and this should be noted.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 26 , Line 32 To Page 26 , Line 35
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Remove the sentence on theoretical potential to reduce the size of the chapter
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 26 , Line 7 To Page 26 , Line 14
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Further detail by country should be given, to include research and investments in India, China, the USA, etc. as well as such data that do exist on the resource base - which is far larger than implied here. This sub-section seems to show a bias.
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 26
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This section, and those that follow, have a number of places for potential cuts. Paragraphs spent on describing the availability of fringe nuclear fuels that exist mostly in labs could be shortened or cut entirely, as their contribution to the overall goals are miniscule.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 26 , Line 27 To Page 28 , Line 14
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This whole section, though very important for the Assessment, is extraordinarily short and weak. The bland reference to the theoretical potential is far too generalised. There are severe limits on all forms of RE except CSP + UHVDC transmission taking a global perspective. At the regional level, taking into account latitudes and solar insolation, mean wind speeds, the presence or absence of large tidal ranges and wave movements as well as geothermal potential, need all to be
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 27 To Page 27
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Figure should be re-drawn for clarity
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 27 , Line 25
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It is interesting how the EU27 shows that financial wealth and renewable resource wealth (such as the UK) does not equate to high levels of renewables. To take the UK example further, looking at data from www.energy.eu, the UK is number 25 in the EU27 for renewable energy penetration, a surprisingly low position.
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 28 , Line 12
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One thing which also helps acceptance is joint ownership of the energy systems. If a system is owned by a community, they are much more supportive of it
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 28 , Line 12
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There are issues with disinformation on renewable energy systems. Some of this is perpetuated by organizations which do appear from the outside to be fair, neutral sources. The Renewable Energy Foundation in the UK is a good example of this.
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 28 , Line 15
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Sections 7.5 andf 7.6 provide excellent summaries of current technology and infrastructure performances in relation to consideration of future mitigation. However, it would also be worthwhile to include a brief summary of advanced laboratory research developments, including use of nanotechnology, that have the potential to fundamentally restructure energy production and provision.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 28 , Line 15 To Page 28 , Line 15
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Include assessment of demand side management (smart grids/meters, energy efficiency measures, storage, etc) to the list of mitigation options
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 28 , Line 3 To Page 28 , Line 6
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This sentence appears to be a misleading restatement of data on technical potential for RE, and the source supplied does not sufficiently support the assertion of limited RE potential.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 28 , Line 34 To Page 28 , Line 37
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The discussion of LCA here is out of place and over-compressed and this sentence (and probably the whole paragraph) could be omitted – there is a better treatment in 7.8.1. In any event, the referencing at both points is odd. Singh et al 2011 is about CCS technologies so it is not clear why it is used as a reference for conventional generation – on which it takes its figures from the Ecoinvent database, which reflects historical European conditions. The discussion sho
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 28
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This section is in general detailed, well-written, and comprehensible. However, it tends towards listing technologies and providing a brief explanation of them, which isn't quite effective in understanding how they compare to each other. Using tables or other figures as the primary means of displaying information could solve this problem, while potentially reducing the total page count.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 28 , Line 40 To Page 28 , Line 41
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Text: "Emissions associated with NGCC are still too high to meet long-term stabilization targets." This is true if one considers all new Natural Gas combustion plant to be in permanently in operation. However, balancing variable Renewable Energy capacity with Natural Gas as backup will allow for gas power generation to idle. With the growth in different streams of Renewable Gas, net carbon emissions of gas generation should reduce significantly, even if carbon intensity is so
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 28 , Line 41 To Page 28 , Line 42
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Text: "Further emissions reductions are possible through CO2 capture and storage" It seems to me to be wasteful to burn more gas in order to capture the carbon dioxide and pump it into permanent storage. The time taken to develop widescale carbon capture and storage capacity is going to take much longer than it would take to properly implement fugitive gas capture. (Example reports : "Leaking Profits, NRDC http://www.nrdc.org/energy/leaking-profits.asp; "Controlling fugitive
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 29 To Page 29
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A y-axis with numbers is needed for this figure.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 29
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no distinction between coal & gas
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 29 , Line 26 To Page 29 , Line 27
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Add a line on the rationale for transmission losses being less than distribution losses. Does this apply to all countries? I would think that countries such as Brazil where most of the generation is located far from consumption would have more transmission losses compared to distribution, than countries where generation is close to consumption. Or is this losses by km instead of system losses?
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 29 , Line 30 To Page 29 , Line 31
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This transmission+distribution losses figure should be updated.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 29 , Line 12 To Page 29 , Line 13
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Text: "Fugitive emissions associated with unconventional gas production are controversially discussed (Howarth et al., 2011; Cathles et al., 2012)" Additional papers : "Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Systems", Robert Howarth, Drew Shindell, Renee Santoro, Anthony Ingraffea, Nathan Phillips, and Amy Townsend-Small, February 25, 2012, Background Paper Prepared for the National Climate Assessment, Reference number 2011-0003, http://www.eeb.cornell.edu/howarth/Howarth%20et%20
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 29 , Line 20 To Page 29 , Line 24
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This figure is missing the horizontal axis.
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 29 , Line 40 To Page 29 , Line 42
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Text: "Emissions associated with NGCC are still too high to meet long-term stabilization targets. Further emissions reductions are possible through CO2 capture and storage (Section 7.5.3)" Carbon Capture and Storage is possible, but the question remains as to whether it is probable. Although on a very local level it is already being employed, it is difficult to imagine incentives for widescale use, considering its implications for added combustion of fuel, and the constructio
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 3 , Line 13
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ince prices determine demand, subsideis bias the price signal, IEA made some investitgation in international subsidies in their WEO, role of ubsidies in climate perspective should be mentionend in more depth. Especially subidies in developing countries
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 3 , Line 29
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topic of energy taxes is just mentioned but energy taxing might be looked with some higher depth since energy taxing might also help the meet climate purposes.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 3 , Line 3
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many mire reports than referenced have been produced on this topic
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 30
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There is still much work to be carried out on CCS. Technically yes it is possible, but how commercially possible is it?
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 30 , Line 1 To Page 30 , Line 2
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Reference for the assertion of 25% losses from distribution transformers in Europe.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 30 , Line 18 To Page 30 , Line 25
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There could usefully be a more detailed discussion here about work being done, and progress made, on UHVDC transmission, links to CSP and the Desertec concept, developments in California, and potntial to harness wind energy as well over large distances which might offset the criticism immediately above.
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 30 , Line 23 To Page 30 , Line 25
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Define considerable distances. What losses are predicted for programmes, such as the IEA PV in the desert? There are discussions of a pan-Asian network and pan-Australian network.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 30 , Line 1 To Page 30 , Line 2
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Text: "Approximately 25% of all losses in Europe are due to distribution transformers (and this will be similar in OECD countries) so use of improved transformer designs can make a significant impact." A programme of replacement of equipment in the electricity grids is a major undertaking, and cannot be expected without mandatory efficiency targets being set for utility companies.
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 30 , Line 36 To Page 32 , Line 28
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This section seems out of touch and out of date. It talks about “dozens” of demonstrations worldwide without pointing to the recent cancellation of many of them. It would not be apparent to a reader of this section why a recent journal article was entitled “How a ‘Low Carbon’ innovation can fail – tales from a ‘Lost Decade’ for carbon capture, transport and sequestration” (Economics of Energy and Environmental Policy vol 1 issue 2). The authors may not ag
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 31 , Line 1
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Typo - "mind" should be "mid"
View full comment by paul fennell...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 31 , Line 1 To Page 31 , Line 1
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The word 'mind' should presumably be 'mid'
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 31 , Line 1 To Page 31 , Line 1
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As of mid 2012, instead of mind 2012.
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 31 , Line 1 To Page 31 , Line 5
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I think it is worth making the point that none of the four functioning CCS projects are in the power sector. Making CCS work in the power sector is still a major challenge.
View full comment by Ian Temperton...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 31 , Line 14
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The following statement "Wappel et al., (2010), and Vaidhyanathan (2010) are exploring advanced CO2 capture systems based upon novel approaches using amino acid and iocinc liquid‐based capture materials which potentially represent the core of new CO2 capture systems that would require dramatically less energy (typically heat) to regenerate the capture solvent." is unnecessary and implies that ionic liquids and ammino-acid based CCS systems are significantly better than othe
View full comment by paul fennell...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 31 , Line 18 To Page 31 , Line 18
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Quantify the high capital costs, for example as a proportion of new powerplant capital expenditure or final cost of electricity.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 31 , Line 18 To Page 31 , Line 20
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High capital costs as such do NOT drive CCS plants down the dispatch curve - you want to run a plant intensively if its variable costs are low, which is a different matter. The issue is more that you would only want to build something with high capital costs IF it had low variable costs and therefore could be run intensively. See eg Stoft, Power System economics, Wiley 2003, or Kirschen and Strbac, Fundamentals of Power System Economics, Wiley 2004, or Green, OXREP 2001 or
View full comment by Richard Green...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 31 , Line 18 To Page 31 , Line 20
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This sentence is odd given that, as the text recognises, there are no large scale commercial CCS power plants so it is not clear what it is supposed to be describing. In a future low carbon system dominated by renewables and nuclear, CCS plant might have to operate flexibly; the problem is how to construct the necessary incentives. Page 38 explains this better.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 31 , Line 18 To Page 31 , Line 20
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"The high capital costs and single purpose use for CO2 capture equipment when mated to power plants drives these CCS‐enabled power plants down the dispatch curve where they serve primarily to produce baseload power." This sentence seems flawed. The high capital costs may serve to discourage CCS-enabled plants from being built to serve new capacity, but once built those capital costs should not affect its merit order in dispatching.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 31 , Line 28 To Page 31 , Line 33
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This is another case where evidence from models should be qualified by reference to empirical evidence – see article referenced above. Even if models agree they do not necessarily provide much of a guide to the real world; it is symptomatic that a modelling result is described as an “important insight”.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 31 , Line 28 To Page 31 , Line 28
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Add price to the line: at a PRICE of about $100/tonCO2
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 31 , Line 30 To Page 31 , Line 33
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Net CO2 removal from the atmosphere when including land use changes and other externalities?
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 31 , Line 7 To Page 31 , Line 8
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A sentence could be inserted to describe the barriers to large-scale deployment of CCS solutions. This is relevant both as you have stated that each part of the CCS system exists already in practice and the potential that for CCS to mitigate global warming as discussed on p32, lines 13-28.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 31 , Line 28 To Page 31 , Line 29
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Text: "Integrated assessment models (see Chapter 6) tend to agree that at about $100/tonCO2 the electricity sector is largely decarbonized with a significant fraction being from CCS deployment" The problem with pricing carbon dioxide emissions is that, since the global economy is highly dependent on carbon dioxide emissions, a level of pricing at $100/tonCO2 would create significant risk of inflation, which would be followed by economic re-equilibriation, after which the carb
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 32 , Line 30 To Page 32 , Line 30
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Provide figures for potential RE and the fraction currently used, if available
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 32 , Line 44
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I think the major reason for the reduction in the price of PV has been the subsidization of Chinese PV factories by the Chinese government
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 32 , Line 46
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The reason we look to creating larger offshore wind turbines is that this means there is less infrastructure, as less turbines for the same energy output
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 32 , Line 29 To Page 34 , Line 14
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Section 7.4.3 was weak, but Section 7.5.4 Renewable Energy is even weaker. Issues such as power densities, real potential, and the plethora of exaggerated claims about performance to date and propsects are not dealt with. Is this all that can be said about CSP (page 33, line 10), or biofuels (page 34, lines 10-11) - already a disaster zone in the US transportation sector. Grand statements about the increased energy capture of wind turbines overlooks the patter of placing Vest
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 33 , Line 13
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Tidal devices have not really settled on one general commercial design, but they generally are horizontal axis turbines, for example Evopod, Open Hydro, Tidel and Marine Current Turbines. The only other main contender for this approach is the hydrofoil based devices such as Pulse Tidel. Wave is much more under development, generally devices are point absorbers, hydraulic or overtopping,
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 33 , Line 14
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Typical three bladed horizontal axis turbine is mature, but there is still much work on a range of vertical axis turbines. Mostly these are for the urban environment where turbulant winds are supposed to, anecodtally, mean the vertical axis systems work better than horizontal. However, there is also the Aerogenerator X, a vertical offshore system hoped to scale up to 10MW – see http://www.windpower.ltd.uk/
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 33 , Line 25 To Page 33 , Line 33
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As per earlier comment - presumably RE was nearly half of new nameplate (i.e. peak) GW installed; however on average RE technologies will tend to operate at a much lower load factor (e.g. <20% for PV, around 30% for onshore wind) than fossil capacity operating at baseload, so TWh generation from RE installed in 2011 likely to be still consderably lower than that from new fossil plant - RE share might be 20-25%. Given that this is arguably a more accurate reflection of the sha
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 33 , Line 3 To Page 33 , Line 16
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How is maturity being defined in this paragraph?
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 35 , Line 45 To Page 35 , Line 45
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More on the thorium fuel cycle and its perceived advantages over uranium would be useful.
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 35 , Line 41 To Page 35 , Line 42
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Text : "Partial recycling of used fuels, such as the use of mixed oxide (MOX) fuels where U-235 in enriched uranium fuel is replaced with recycled or excess plutonium already contributes to improved uranium resource utilization and waste minimization efforts". MOX processing is not without its problems, and in some cases has been abandoned (for example, Sellafield in the UK).
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 35 , Line 44 To Page 35 , Line 47
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Text : "Ultimately, full recycling options based on either uranium or thorium fuel cycles that are combined with advanced reactor designs where only fission fragments are relegated as waste can significantly extend nuclear resources and reduce high level wastes (GIF, 2002)." No option is without its waste disposal and security risks. The storage and treatment of "low level radioactive waste" is frequently omitted in assessing novel reactor designs. Plus the toxicity of some o
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 35 , Line 7 To Page 35 , Line 20
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Text: "Other more revolutionary small modular reactors (SMR) with additional passive safety features are near commercial status (Kuznetsov, 2008; Rosner and Goldberg, 2011; World Nuclear Association, 2012b). The size of these reactors is typically less than 300 MWe and much smaller than the 1000 MWe size of current LWRs. Their lower power density, large heat capacity, and heat removal through natural means contribute to their improved safety. SMRs based on light-water designs
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 36 , Line 20 To Page 36 , Line 28
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The discussion on the Japan earthquake could be omitted as there have been discussions on nuclear safety on p34 and later on p36.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 36 , Line 20 To Page 36 , Line 20
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It should be stressed that if the retaining wall had been built higher, or if the Fukushima plant had not been placed so close to a techtonic plate and the ocean, and if proper maintenance had been done by Tepco over the years there would have been no nuclear accident. In this sense it was not a failure of a nuclear system, but a wider systemic failure.
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 36 , Line 24 To Page 36 , Line 28
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Text : "The severity of the nuclear accident in Japan has brought about a reinvestigation of nuclear energy policy and deployment activities for many nations around the world, most notably in Japan and Germany. The response to the accident has been otherwise mixed and its full impact may not be realized for many years to come." The Fukushima Dai-ichi 3/11 ongoing accident was not an unique failure in nuclear power plant management. There have been regulatory problems regardin
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 37
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Other issues with renewables in the grid will include: real power fluctuation, reactive power generation and absorption, voltage dips, and voltage harmonic distortions. Please see Chen, Z., Spooner, E., ""Grid power quality with variable speed wind turbines"", Energy Conversion, IEEE Transaction on, 2001, Vol 16, Issue 2, pages 148-154
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 37
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Some more detail on infrastructure would be good. For example, substation issues, of which one solution is fault current limiters.
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 37
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Superconducting magnetic energy storage can also be used for grid quality issues
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 37
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Peak energy demand is also effected by heat pumps on defrost cycles and electric cars in localised areas – this needs to be sorted
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 37 , Line 21 To Page 37 , Line 22
UK
In a liberalised market, the challenges are mainly to do with market and pricing structures, risk and reward, operating regimes etc.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 37 , Line 29 To Page 37 , Line 31
UK
It may be worth emphasizing the institutional barriers at this point – many countries are interconnected and accommodate large flows of energy between them.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 37 , Line 35 To Page 37 , Line 38
UK
This section underplays the potential of the demand side in referring only to “any available flexibility” there. One of the main challenges is to encourage more demand-side flexibility, for which the potential is growing rapidly with advances in ICT, smart grids and so on. This whole area needs more detailed analysis.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 38 , Line 1 To Page 37 , Line 2
UK
Flexibility of CHP plants can also be improved through the addition of other heat sources such as network heat pumps see Kilmakommissionen. (2010). “Danish commission on climate change policy.” Kilmakommissionen. Copenhagen. Denmark.
View full comment by Robert Sansom...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 38 , Line 19 To Page 38 , Line 27
UK
I'm not convinced by the low variable cost argument
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 38 , Line 27 To Page 38 , Line 27
UK
Thus increasing consumer bills which has an important social impact given the economic crisis
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 38 , Line 28 To Page 38 , Line 32
UK
Another, probably the, key strategy is improvements in market and pricing structures.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 38 , Line 3 To Page 38 , Line 18
UK
What is CCS flexibility? Under what scenarios would a CCS fitted to a conventional powerplant not be operated at full potential linked to plant throughput?
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 38 , Line 3 To Page 38 , Line 18
UK
this discussion is clearer than that on p 31; Pouret, L., N. Buttery and W.J. Nuttall (2009) “Is nuclear power inflexible?” Nuclear Future, vol. 5 no. 6, pp. 333-340 suggest that existing designs of PWR can flex down to 60% of output
View full comment by Richard Green...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 38 , Line 3 To Page 38 , Line 4
UK
Relatively low variable costs: is this variable costs of operation or investment?
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 38 , Line 3 To Page 38 , Line 4
UK
Is there a technical constraint to build flexible nuclear plants? Because financially there is the incentive to operate them as hydro-storage plant which are able to capture high prices at peak time (on top of their base load profit) as they can ramp up quickly enough to enjoy these prices
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 38 , Line 38 To Page 38 , Line 38
UK
Note that new flexible generation will most probably be CCGTs in most countries which will increase GHG
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 38 , Line 40
UK
The word “modestly” here is misleading. Presumably (though the text is unclear) this is a reference to cycling costs rather than total back up requirements (which can have a very significant impact on emissions in a wind-dominated system). Even in regard to cycling some studies show significant emissions and cost implications (eg Denny and O’Malley enpol.2008.10.050 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2008.10.050).
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 39 To Page 39
UK
This figure could be re-drawn so the text is easer to read.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 39 , Line 12 To Page 39 , Line 13
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in a number of EU countries, regulations strongly discourage system operators from constraining off wind power, and the support mechanisms used can force the system operator to pay the opportunity cost of subsidies foregone rather than the (near-zero) marginal cost of turning down the station
View full comment by Richard Green...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 39 , Line 3 To Page 39 , Line 5
UK
While pumped storage is indeed a major contribution to energy storage at large scales, this assertion neglects the fact that conventional storage hydropower is also a storage technology. I.e., pumped storage is only needed when traditional storage reservoirs are not available. It is not reasonable to build pumped storage unless you have no option to build a storage hydropower facility. The statement could be improved by rephrasing as follows: "Outside of conventional stora
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 39 , Line 6
UK
I think storage needs to be discussed more – include a mention of redox batteries, superconducting energy storage and flywheels. Happy to provide summaries if necessary.
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 39 , Line 10 To Page 39 , Line 13
UK
Text : "Finally, if surplus renewable supply exists despite the best efforts of system operators, renewable energy generation can be curtailed by switching off unwanted plant or through regulation of the power output. Indeed curtailment of wind power is common practice where and when transmission constraints prevent full utilization of available wind." There is scope for using unused wind and solar power for such things as the production of Renewable Hydrogen through electrol
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 39 , Line 19 To Page 39 , Line 21
UK
Text : "Base-load operation of CCS and nuclear plant, on the other hand, is of little concern from a system balancing perspective up to the point where the capacity of nuclear and CCS approaches the minimum net load of the system." Not included in this analysis is the problem of outages, both planned and unplanned. There will always be a need to have back up - even for generation considered as "baseload". Studies on the "supergrid" concept, and others, show that with a suffic
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 39 , Line 30 To Page 40 , Line 2
UK
Text : "Finally, if substantial GHG emissions reductions are required, some of the most cost effective current solutions for system balancing (e.g., relying upon flexible but GHG emitting fossil plant) may no longer be acceptable, requiring the application of currently more costly options." In developed countries with a gas grid, the backup, balancing electricity generation plant that currently burn gaseous fossil fuels could be converted to burn increasing levels of carbon n
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 4 , Line 5
UK
picture seems pretty much realistic with perspective on the energy demand in develoging countries but does not argue on the challenges to provide energy with relativ low energy density in more industrializd countries.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 40 , Line 1 To Page 40 , Line 4
UK
The reader may be reminded here that large-scale conventional powerplants have lifetimes on the order of 30-40 years which locks the system into a particular operation.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 40 , Line 10 To Page 40 , Line 19
UK
It seems very odd to discuss theoretical constructs like capacity credits in terms of “value” and not economic incentives like capacity payments and obligations.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 40 , Line 27 To Page 40 , Line 28
UK
Is line 27-28 a repetition of line 15-16?
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 40 , Line 28 To Page 40 , Line 31
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These costs should be quantified. Specifically, how does the cost of energy storage compare with expanding generating capacity and associated fuel costs?
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 42 , Line 14 To Page 42 , Line 22
UK
Personally I am very skeptical of biomethane replacing substantial quantities of natural gas. I think the anticipated scale of such substitution should be mentioned in the paragraph
View full comment by Ian Temperton...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 42 , Line 17
UK
UK also injects biomethane into the grid - http://www.ngvaeurope.eu/uk-becomes-eighth-european-country-to-inject-biomethane-into-the-gas-grid
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 42 , Line 30 To Page 42 , Line 33
UK
The Yang and Ogden work makes clear that the flow rate and the distance are important determinants not only of the delivery mode cost, but also of the consequent choice of delivery mode (as the flow rate and distance affect the costs of different delivery modes very differently) - it is worth making this clear, perhaps together with the implication that pipelines are favoured over shorter delivery distances and at high flow rates, while liquid hydrogen delivery is favoured by
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 42 , Line 33 To Page 42 , Line 34
UK
Specify that the 3000 km H2 pipelines is the global figure.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 42 , Line 8 To Page 42 , Line 30
UK
Text : "...low pressure networks which distribute gas for power generation, industry and domestic use. Because of their ability to carry natural gas substitutes, these networks provide an opportunity to expand production of these gases. Low CO2 emitting natural gas substitutes can be produced from renewable sources such as biomass and waste...Provided the substitute natural gas meets the relevant gas quality standard (European Commission, 2001; IEA Bioenergy, 2006, 2009) ther
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 42 , Line 36 To Page 42 , Line 38
UK
Text : "Options for CCS and CO2 storage are presented in 7.5.5, the focus here is the infrastructure required for CO2 transport. The recent CO2 transport literature addresses the scale of the required CO2 pipeline network and potential ways to optimize these (largely) yet-to-be-built pipeline networks." It may turn out to be unnecessary to construct CO2 transport pipeline infrastructure if carbon dioxide gas is no longer regarded as waste emissions that requires pumping (to t
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 43 , Line 22 To Page 43 , Line 29
UK
This paragraph emphasises the impacts of climate change in terms of raising electricity demand for cooling, but fails to mention that it could reduce energy demand for heating in many countries - it could do with more balance
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 43 , Line 36 To Page 43 , Line 36
UK
"grip" should be "grid"
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 43 , Line 40 To Page 43 , Line 42
UK
It may be worth adding water desalination as a further example of increased energy demand as a response to climate change
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 44
UK
I will send through a short document I wrote on biofuels and how they are effected by climate change, and the same for hydro. It might be useful.
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 44 , Line 16 To Page 44 , Line 29
UK
There's no need for such a long self quote; summarize the important conclusions and move on.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 44 , Line 30
UK
I think this statement is an oversimplification which ignores the infrastructural issues. For example, a wind farm will require the transmission and distribution grid to be extended, and improved. Additionally, local substations may be improved, or new ones built. New systems will, ultimately replace old systems as they become obsolete
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 44 , Line 44
UK
Worth giving the example of how the drought in Australia has caused issues with a lack of cooling water for coal fired power plants
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 44 , Line 46 To Page 47
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Objectivity: Nuclear facilities are designed to accommodate extreme weather events. Their resilience is being enhanced following safety reviews triggered by the Fukushima (geological) incident.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 45 , Line 11 To Page 47 , Line 14
UK
Most of the text in this section could be summarised in a table
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 45 , Line 21 To Page 30
UK
Clarity: A life cycle approach is appliewd to gas generation whereas coal is treated at point of use only e.g. coal bed methane emissions are not considered in the comparison made.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 45 , Line 35 To Page 46 , Line 13
UK
Long prose summaries of numerical data are rarely more effective than a chart. Charts allow for rapid comparisons and easier lookup. Suggest cutting down on these few paragraphs.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 45 , Line 7 To Page 45 , Line 9
UK
Suggest adding the word "potentially" before the words "impacting hydropower". Regional conflicts exist currently and can be managed to allow for hydropower negotiation. Increased water conflict across borders may indeed occur due to climate change, but asserting that this will impact on hydropower is not a given.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 45 , Line 7 To Page 45 , Line 9
UK
Text : "Climate change may also exacerbate water and energy conflicts across sectors and regions, impacting hydropower development (Cisneros and Oki, Forthcoming; D Arent and Tol, Forthcoming; Kumar et al., 2011)." The exploitation of unconventional fossil fuels is also at risk from climate change-stressed water supplies. The production of shale gas and oil from sands are particularly dependent on water. Water and energy conflicts are likely to become more widespread for most
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 45 , Line 41 To Page 45 , Line 44
UK
Text : "Measures to increase energy efficiency and reduce fugitive emissions in fuel production and distribution can give further emission reductions, but these gains may be offset by the need to tap lower-quality resources which result in higher fuel-chain emissions (Section 7.5.1)." Arguably, the world is already using lower-quality fossil fuel resources, although they are still mostly classed as "conventional". Even if the fossil fuels are of a reasonable quantity, their i
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 20
UK
Another reference to what scenarios “will” produce without any corrective to note that this outcome is at present unlikely and would require big changes. For the reasons given on p 24-5 and 29 and section 7.10.5, emissions from marginal production of fossil fuels are likely to increase, not decrease, as unconventional sources take an increasing share and we remain locked in to fossil capacity.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 23 To Page 46 , Line 26
UK
Studies exist which show how that PV modules perform at better than 90% name plate capacity after 30 years in the field [Dunlop & Halton (2006). The performance of crystalline silicon photovoltaic solar modules after 22 years of continuous outdoor exposure. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, 14, 53 – 64.]. This has implications for the current economic lifetime assumption of 20-25 years for PV devices. Moreover, recovering the material from end-of-life
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 31 To Page 46 , Line 31
UK
The phrase "complex issue" needs to be qualified, especially since the values given are in line with the values for solar and nuclear earlier in the same page (lines 3-5)
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 31 To Page 46 , Line 31
UK
The word 'emissions' needs to be changed to 'flux' because water bodies can absorb and degrade carbon as well.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 31 To Page 46 , Line 48
UK
This topic is a complex subject to summarize but this paragraph fails to do this accurately and scientifically.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 32 To Page 46 , Line 32
UK
CO2 is not an issue with regard to hydropower. The UNESCO/IHA GHG Project has identified that CO2 is already likely to be emitted by the water body irrespective of the existence of a reservoir. The 'issue' is the conversion of CO2 to CH4.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 32 To Page 46 , Line 32
UK
Emissions of CH4 can be heavily influenced by upstream unrelated anthropogenic sources or activities, e.g., unreated releases of sewage. This has been observed in reservoir and run-of-river projects.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 33 To Page 46 , Line 33
UK
interfere' should be changed to 'influence'
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 33 To Page 46 , Line 33
UK
The word 'stopping' is incorrect. Reservoirs may influence the pattern of transport, but they do not stop the flow of biomass.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 34 To Page 46 , Line 35
UK
Accumulation of carbon does not 'slow' anaerobic digeestions. This sentence doesn't reflect current scienfitic knowledge, and furthermore, it doesn't make sense.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 35 To Page 46 , Line 36
UK
The sentence beginning 'At the same time...' is erroneous. In the case where there are low level outlets, power stations may draw from the low-level anoxic water, which can increase methane exchange with the atmosphere, but this has nothing to do with surface water.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 37 To Page 46 , Line 37
UK
The concept of 'net flux' has been introduced here without any definition. Net flux represents the true impact of a water body which may then be allocated to its various water users, including hydropower among others. This approach has not been applied in the published literature to date but the scientific community recognizes the need to develop a methodology for this.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 38 To Page 46 , Line 38
UK
The word 'boreal' should be changed to 'cool' and the word 'significant' should be removed entirely. In the database of the UNESCO/IHA GHG Project, there are no examples of reservoirs that are 'signficant' sources of GHG.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 39 To Page 46 , Line 39
UK
Regarding 'tropical regions' the UNESCO/IHA GHG Project has recently confirmed that the key influencing parameter on GHG transport and exchanges is temperature. It is an over-simplificaton to allocate performance to any region, tropical or otherwise.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 41 To Page 46 , Line 41
UK
An older reservoirs' should be removed. GHG uptake can happen regardless of age.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 43 To Page 46 , Line 44
UK
The average age of reservoirs in many countries is in excess of 100 years. There are very few examples of decommissioning and it is misleading to reference these as having the highest values of GHG emissions.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 44 To Page 46 , Line 46
UK
We consider the value estimated by Barros et all (41gCO2E/kWh) to be gross emissions that have not been discounted to account for the true net impact of a reservoir and its (multiple) purposes. However, even with this exageration of gross emissions this figure confirms that hydropower is among the lowest sources of GHG per unit of energy produced.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 46 , Line 46 To Page 46 , Line 48
UK
The term 'fossil GHGs' is not a commonly used term. We take it this is intended to mean emissions related to construction, but the rate of emissions on line 47-48 do not carry a meaningful unit. I.e., 0-40g/kWh of what? If carbon, it seems extraordinarily high. This is the only reference we've see that indicates construction is a meaningful factor in a life cycle assessment of hydropower.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 47 , Line 16 To Page 47 , Line 19
UK
This discussion here should point out that levelised costs are not a good basis for comparison between intermittent and inflexible sources (ie most low carbon sources) on the one hand and dispatchable sources on the other, since the value of electricity is time dependent. Bringing the point in as an afterthought in relation to infrastructure four pages later means it can easily be lost.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 47 , Line 17
UK
The LCOE concept applies to electricity, not "energy" per se.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 47 , Line 9 To Page 47 , Line 11
UK
The qualification of only run-of-river hydropower is not supported by text or references anywhere in this section, nor anywhere in the SRREN report. The phrase 'run-of'river' should be removed so that the sentence indicates that wind, solar, nuclear and hdyropower can provide electricity with less than 5% of the lifecycle GHG emissions of coal power. The vast majority of hydropower will fit in this category, not just run-of-river.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 47 , Line 9 To Page 47 , Line 11
UK
Text : "The literature reviewed in this section shows that a range of technologies can provide electricity with less than 5% of the life-cycle GHG emissions of coal power: wind, solar, nuclear and run-of-the-river hydro power." I would expect that Renewable Gas (the class of emerging gas fuels that includes Renewable Hydrogen made from "spare" wind and solar capacity, refined and upgraded Biogas, and Syngas from such processes as gasification) when properly developed will be
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 48 To Page 48
UK
This graph needs a label on the x-axis
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 48 , Line 9
UK
Should also mention sensitivity to economic projections.
View full comment by Alexander Bowen...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 48 , Line 9 To Page 48 , Line 27
UK
The BNEF references are generally directionally right but they do not take into account country specific costs and factors and so can be quite misleading if applied to a particular situation. The data basically shows that everything but STG and Marine are between $100 and $200 / MWh and I would say that is the granularity that you can use generic global data at.
View full comment by Ian Temperton...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 49 , Line 17 To Page 49 , Line 19
UK
The sentence compares the cost of supply of energy and the value of energy consumption which are two different things (say for PV on a rooftop). PV panels on a rooftop rely on the grid and associated systems as much as a remote large-scale power generator and so I believe that the comparison made is erroneous and can be misleading.
View full comment by Ian Temperton...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 49 , Line 23 To Page 49 , Line 24
UK
"Applied to fossil‐fuelled power plants, CCS reduces the fuel efficiency of those plants. Typical efficiency differences projected for 2015 are on the order of 8 ‐ 11 % points." the 8-11% points is a very misleading way to express changes, as its significance depends greatly on the starting efficiency. This would be better expressed as a change in overall efficiency, e.g., a change from 40% to 36% would be a 10% drop, not 4 percentage points.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 49 , Line 3 To Page 49 , Line 22
UK
The quotation here is selective. One could as easily quote different passages from IPCC 2011a – eg “the current levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) from solar PV is generally still higher than wholesale market prices” (p 380) “Commercial markets are not yet driving marine energy technology development” (p 522) “Though the cost of wind energy has declined significantly since the 1980s, policy measures are currently required to ensure rapid deployment in most reg
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 49 , Line 20 To Page 49 , Line 22
UK
Text : "Although the gas prices went down in the last few years in many regions, the increase in capital expenditures and operation and maintenance costs is explaining the raising LCOE of natural gas combined cycle power and coal-fired power plants." For those countries with extensive gas grid and related infrastructure, it will be of benefit to invest in Renewable Gas, to displace carbon in the gas supplies, but also, potentially, to reduce the impact of potentially rising c
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 1
UK
price, tax ans subsidies trends are missing
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 1 To Page 5 , Line 7
UK
The beginning of this sectionis quite garbled and I couldn’t quite figure out what the start of the first paragraph was trying to say
View full comment by Ian Temperton...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 14 To Page 5 , Line 14
UK
I am not familiar with 450ppmv CO2eq - could you explain in a footnote for non-experts?
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 16 To Page 5 , Line 23
UK
Expected increase in energy use: are these values comming from governments/ accademia / both?
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 2 To Page 5 , Line 5
UK
There are two problems with this sentence (the first of the Executive Summary): a) it does not make grammatical sense ("...it provides only part of energy-related GHG emissions in form both fugitive emissions in fuel extraction...") and b) it only makes logical sense that 45% of energy-related emissions are in the energy sector if one understands that the energy sector is not in fact the entire energy system, but specific types of energy use (presumably heat and power generat
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 2 To Page 5 , Line 5
UK
The energy sector is the largest contributor to global GHG emissions, but it provides only part (45%) of energy‐related GHG emissions is a confusing sentence. Perhaps rephrase as "Energy extraction, conversion, storage, transmission and distribution processes, collectively comprise the energy sector and is the largest contributor to global GHG emissions."
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 2 To Page 5 , Line 5
UK
This first paragraph is not clear for a reader that has not read the rest of the document.
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 20 To Page 5 , Line 20
UK
The word 'Left' is not standard English in this context - suggest 'Remaining'
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 24 To Page 6 , Line 17
UK
These paragraphs understate the scale of the challenge (see detailed comments below). They also read oddly after paragraph 1, which notes that despite a wide array of mitigation policies, we are not on track. I would have expected to see some explanation for this failure.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 24 To Page 6 , Line 4
UK
This paragraph reads like a grocery list. While there are a lot of concerns the ES needs to address, this would be better if it were split it apart and the transitions smoothed, or turned into a table or more readable figure. As an example, from 5,31 to 5,34 we move from emissions reductions from replacing old coal plants with new gas generation to a comparison of the technical renewable potential to primary energy supply. Not only is “RE” not previously defined, but thes
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 30 To Page 5 , Line 36
UK
The bland statements about the combined technical potential of local carbon technologies not being a constraint; the regional technical potential of RE as a whole being a multiple of global primary energy supply requirements, do not stand up to examination. There should be here and elsewhere in this chapter a proper examination of the power densities of the various forms of renewable energy (a la Vaclav Smil). There should be a proper examination of the implications of these
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 31
UK
better reference to low cost
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 33
UK
Why just efficient gas and not a first step more efficient coa, the text states that there are merits in chaging less efficient coal by more efficient coal plants.l
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 36 To Page 5 , Line 38
UK
Presumably RE was nearly half of new nameplate (i.e. peak) GW installed; however on average RE technologies will tend to operate at a much lower load factor (e.g. <20% for PV, around 30% for onshore wind) than fossil capacity operating at baseload, so TWh generation from RE installed in 2011 is likely to be still consderably lower than that from new fossil plant (RE share might be e.g. 20-25%). Given that this is arguably a more accurate reflection of the share of new capacit
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 36 To Page 5 , Line 38
UK
npmic maturity
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 48 To Page 5 , Line 49
UK
Storage capacity has been shown to be a constraint well within a century in previous Assessments.
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 5 To Page 5 , Line 15
UK
It would be helpful for people not familiar with previous documents to have some infor on the dates covered in the AR4 and AR5.
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 To Page 6
UK
The ES isn't effective in explaining the overall arguments and goals of the chapter. This should be clearly established from the opening paragraph. The first sentence is exceptionally egregious – a massive run-on with multiple basic grammatical errors and little clear direction. This section needs to be rewritten to clearly explain the conclusions reached are, and how they are arrived at.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 20 To Page 5 , Line 21
UK
Text : "Left hydrocarbon reserves alone contain two to four times that amount of carbon." There is mounting evidence to suggest that not all reserves can be converted into fossil fuel products within the current economic system - particularly in certain regions and for certain fuel types. Of special concern is the stress on global coal supplies from rapidly increased demand for power generation from China and India. Also, the weaknesses in the global oil supply are a risk to
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 42 To Page 5 , Line 43
UK
Why are the issues that nuclear energy has to put effort into improving put in the order that they are? Namely, what justification is there for putting safety first instead of economics? Surely alphabetical order would be preferable.
View full comment by Michael O'Brien...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 5 , Line 45 To Page 5 , Line 46
UK
Even though the next sentence addresses the issue, it may be preferable to note from the outset that CCS addresses "fossil fuel emissions" from large point sources. If a vehicle runs on natural gas, there is little CCS can do with a multiplicity of point sources.
View full comment by Michael O'Brien...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 50 , Line 20 To Page 50 , Line 20
UK
$42-$137 / MWh for LCOE for nuclear looks extremely low compared to what we are hearing it may cost in the UK and what the recent Finnish and French experiences will come out at. I would look for other references or caveat it. At these costs the only reasonable thing to do is to go for nuclear power.
View full comment by Ian Temperton...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 50 , Line 5 To Page 50 , Line 11
UK
Explain the difference between cost of CO2 avoided and cost of CO2 captured.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 50 , Line 23 To Page 51 , Line 2
UK
Text : "Back-end costs include spent fuel storage, reprocessing and disposal and are estimated at $2.33 per MWhel...Not included in the levelised costs presented here are the costs associated with low probability - high consequence events such as nuclear accidents and limited operator liability." The extensive and expensive clean up costs of both the Chernobyl and Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant accidents suggests that decommissioning nuclear reactors and disposing of
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 50 , Line 9 To Page 50 , Line 11
UK
Text : "The additional LCOE costs exhibited by CCS plants (compared to traditional fossil fueled power plants) are to be compared with the LCOE increase of the latter once significant CO2 costs (e.g., via carbon taxes or permit prices) are to be taken into account." To my mind there is a risk that significant CO2 charging is unattainable, through any policy mechanism or treaty - "significant" in this sense meaning a level of CO2 charging/pricing/taxation that could facilitat
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 51 , Line 15 To Page 52 , Line 11
UK
This section could be shortened and combined with previous discussions on infrastructure limits, particularly expansion of the transmission network and power plant siting.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 51 , Line 22 To Page 51 , Line 22
UK
I would be inclined to caveat the costs of balancing. These costs look very low and even today in the UK the cost of commercial balancing is double these figures and we are at nothing like 30% penetration
View full comment by Ian Temperton...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 51 , Line 40 To Page 51 , Line 43
UK
Text : "If mitigation technologies can be deployed near demand centres on the distribution network or if these are intended to serve isolated autonomous systems, those technologies may defer or avoid transmission and distribution needs, potentially reducing infrastructure costs relative to a BAU scenario." For this reason, rather than transporting carbon dioxide away for Carbon Capture and Storage, it seems sensible to attempt to recycle waste carbon dioxide at the point of i
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 52 , Line 12 To Page 53 , Line 21
UK
The discussion of renewables here is unbalanced. While technology costs for renewables do tend to go down over time, the capacity cost curve tends to go up, for the obvious reasons that the cheapest sources and sites tend to be used first (as pointed out on p 28) and integration costs increase with the level of penetration. How this balances out depends on the situation. There is only passing recognition of this inherent tension, in the last paragraph of 7.8.2.2. But it is
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 52 , Line 33 To Page 52 , Line 43
UK
It's unclear what this lengthy series of quotes is doing here – if there's another place that makes arguments for the market viability of renewable technologies, point to it in a reference or footnote rather than in this method.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 52
UK
The purpose of this section is unclear – why experience curves for ethanol? Many of the other conclusions fall on the obvious side – that nuclear power may increase post-Fukushima is not surprising. Cut.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 52 , Line 12 To Page 52 , Line 32
UK
The continued discussion on CCS barriers, costs and potentials could be combined with paragraphs on previous pages.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 53 , Line 1 To Page 53 , Line 3
UK
There is recent work by the Crown Estate in the UK on offshore wind cost reduction in the coming years which would be a better reference to use than BNEF
View full comment by Ian Temperton...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 53 , Line 6 To Page 53 , Line 12
UK
This paragraph repeats much of what has already been discussed in the context of barriers to deploying nuclear-powered electricity generation plants.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 53 , Line 3 To Page 53 , Line 5
UK
The FOD states, "By 2020, grid parity (i.e., competitiveness with grid retail prices) of PV can be expected in many countries provided that sufficient policy support is available (IPCC, 2011a)". It may be worth explaining, perhaps in a footnote, that while residential or small commercial PV systems are competing with the delivered retail price of electricity through the grid -also known as "socket parity" - larger-scale PV systems may be assessed against wholesale generation,
View full comment by Michael O'Brien...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 53 , Line 3 To Page 53 , Line 5
UK
Bazilian et al.argue that, "Grid parity is now largely an outdate concept […] it is not useful in real-world power sector decision [...] it does not take into account the value of solar PV to the broader electrical industry." The "value of (distributed, non-utility) solar PV to the broader electricty industry" is elucidated by Keyes and Wiedmen (2012) and can include: avoided energy costs; avoided capacity costs; avoided line losses; avoided fuel volatility;and, avoided tra
View full comment by Michael O'Brien...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 54 , Line 3 To Page 54 , Line 16
UK
Resource estimates for various fossil-fuels have been discussed already.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 54 , Line 35 To Page 54 , Line 37
UK
Another weakness of the MAC curve approach is that they tend to look at the simple NPV of the investment rather than what it actually takes to make an investment decision. Real life experience of the MAC curve tends to be very different from the theoretical ones published.
View full comment by Ian Temperton...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 54 , Line 4 To Page 54 , Line 6
UK
Text : "Total resources of hard coal and lignite (IEA, 2011g) are very large (Table 7.2), and are estimated to cover future demand for many decades at up to 400,000EJ." Although there may be large reserves of coal, they are not necessarily economically viable to mine. If strong coal demand continues, it could be that future demand will not be met, and that even current demand might not be met "for many decades" to come. Some researchers are pointing to Peak Coal being imminen
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 54 , Line 40 To Page 54 , Line 42
UK
Text : "The use of consistent and transparent scenarios (Chapter 6) is one mechanism to make the MAC more transparent to policy makers." MAC curves suffer from one problem that is not discussed here : there is an underlying assumption that the costs of carbon in the graphs can be imposed by a combination of regulatory and general policy means. Since there are many competing forces that will oppose high carbon prices, it is unlikely that the cost of carbon will be higher than
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 54 , Line 6 To Page 54 , Line 8
UK
Text : "Technically recoverable reserves of oil (summarized in Figure 7.8) and Table 7.2) have been classified into a production cost curve with 18,300EJ at a cost of <$40/barrel to 39,700EJ at a cost of <$100/barrel (IEA, 2010c)." It is possible that even at this higher end of oil prices, that much oil will remain unrecovered. Since the global economy is so dependent on oil, any price change has to be absorbed, and will cause inflation in general, or contraction in some econ
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 55 To Page 55
UK
This table does not show the MAC of specific technologies. Therefore, the reader cannot assess quickly or easily the relative costs of different technologies and their abatement potential (mass of CO2).
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 55 , Line 25 To Page 56 , Line 3
UK
Not clear why lack of trade is said to contribute to diversity; a priori, it reduces it by restricting access to indigenous sources only.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 55 , Line 25 To Page 56 , Line 2
UK
"With renewable energy resources more evenly distributed around the globe than fossil fuels (WEC, 2007) and being, in general, less traded on the world market, renewables can contribute to diversify the portfolio of supply options." the statement is correct, but limited. In addition to the effect of renewables on the immediate markets, their presence anywhere helps to reduce pressure everywhere on globally-traded commodities.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 55 , Line 8 To Page 55 , Line 13
UK
"Policies for improving energy security tend to focus on the interconnected factors of availability of resources, affordability of energy services, efficiency of energy use, and minimizing energy‐related environmental degradation. In meeting these criteria of energy security holistically, there will be trade‐offs between technology options that are effective along one dimension, which will have implications for other aspects of security." These statements point to both th
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 55 , Line 5 To Page 63 , Line 42
UK
If you are looking for ways to cut down the Chapter, I personally wasn't sure that this section added much to the debate.
View full comment by Ian Temperton...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 55
UK
The connections to climate change ar unclear. In this section there are multiple full-page graphs which don't seem necessary. Cut, if connections cannot adequately be justified.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 56 , Line 18 To Page 56 , Line 32
UK
Elements in this paragraph repeat earlier discussions of cost-competitiveness and LCOE of electricity generation from various energy sources.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 56 , Line 26 To Page 56 , Line 32
UK
There have been criticisms of the fuel poverty threshold of 10% of household income [cite]
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 59 , Line 6
UK
Balance: It should be acknowledged that the health benefits of access to secure energy/electricity supplies signficantly outweighs the damages associated with electricity production (as evidenced by life expectancy rates). While a discussion of the relative health impacts of different technologies has value, net health impacts (improvement) deends on their relative costs (affordability)
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 6 , Line 13 To Page 6 , Line 17
UK
The sentence beginning with "In favourable settings….." implies that only small-scale hydropower can be cost competitive and only in off-grid locations. The sentence could be improved by splitting into two sentences and rephrasing as follows: "In favourable settings, some of the low carbon energy supply technologies are already economically competitive: for example, larger‐scale RE power supplies including hydropower, wind energy, and others can be competitive with fossi
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 6 , Line 17 To Page 15
UK
The inference that large scle RE systems can be competitive with fossil fuel technologies is subject to a number of qualifications. In particular in relation to variable RE sources, this statement does not appear to encompass the total costs of ensuring continuity of supply
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 6 , Line 18 To Page 33
UK
Lack fo clarity as to what is being stated
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 6 , Line 18 To Page 6 , Line 20
UK
Tie back to page 5, lines 2-3. Perhaps rephrase as "Among the energy sector activities of energy extraction, conversion, storage, transmission and distribution processes, power production is the largest single activity."
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 6 , Line 3 To Page 6 , Line 3
UK
At every point in this chapter the source of bioenergy needs to be provided in view of the already seriously adverse effects of using some forms for bioenergy/biofuel purposes - including impacts on food availability, food prices, social stability, and water resources.
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 6 , Line 36 To Page 6 , Line 36
UK
Many mitigation technologies increase price volatility - cf negative power prices in FRG due to excess wind
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 6 , Line 40 To Page 5 , Line 41
UK
It is not clear what this final sentence of the paragraph means - if it means that residual emissions from coal CCS generation might still be too high to be consistent with stringent emissions limits, this could be made clearer (possibly with an example)
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 6 , Line 5 To Page 6 , Line 17
UK
Main generation source in South America (developing countries) is hydro which is already a clean technology, thus, mitigation is not needed in the same level as for developed countries where fossil is much more important.
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 6 , Line 8 To Page 6 , Line 9
UK
Shouldn't the issue of intermittency be specifically mentioned here - rather than presumably elided under 'systems integration'? Again it would be appropriate to mention the challenges of low power densities.
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 60 , Line 26 To Page 62 , Line 24
UK
This section should be subdived by technology to ease reading and quick comparison of risks by technology
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 60 , Line 34 To Page 60 , Line 34
UK
Add full stop after "may take place"
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 60 , Line 41 To Page 60 , Line 44
UK
For context, the date of the Shimantan dam failure (1975) should be included at a minimum. Furthermore, a note on substantial improvements in hydropower construction and safety regulations since the 1970s around the world should also be included (similar to what's included for crude oil releases into maritime environments, see p. 62, lines 12-13 in same chapter). As well, China is today considered to be one of the best performers in terms of dam safety, their reputation in
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 60 , Line 44 To Page 60 , Line 44
UK
What about Fukushima?
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 60 , Line 5
UK
Whether or not CCS has adverse effects on human health will also depend on the degree to which it lowers particulate air pollution from fossil fuel combustion. Substantial lowering of fine particulates should more than compensate for any potential adverse effects from leakage of CO2 etc
View full comment by Andy Haines...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 61 , Line 15 To Page 61 , Line 18
UK
As the causes of these three 'nuclear accidents' are indeed 'fundamentally different' it would be worth reviewing the wording here.
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 61 , Line 5 To Page 61 , Line 5
UK
Explain maximum consequences index
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 62 , Line 25 To Page 64 , Line 2
UK
The discussion of public acceptability does not cover transmission lines, though these can raise significant acceptability issues.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 64 , Line 20 To Page 24
UK
The inference that the difference between average thermal plant efficiencies and best available is a barrier to mitigation lacks balance. It is an economic consequence of the large scale of the required capital investments and the length of the cost recovery periods. The situation is not a technical barrier. The same argument can be applied to network infratructure investments
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 64 , Line 33
UK
The analysis in Section 7.10.2 should be strengthened as it is a critical aspect of mitigation
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 64 , Line 34 To Page 64 , Line 38
UK
Should point out that it is not so much the barriers in themselves, as the fact that renewables are thereby less attractive than fossil sources, which leads to a need for policy support.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 64 , Line 39 To Page 64 , Line 40
UK
Unbalanced – while some studies show lower overall costs, others show higher costs. Should point out that these results depend on assumptions, inter alia about future fossil fuel prices, whose accuracy is inherently unknowable.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 64 , Line 39 To Page 64 , Line 40
UK
"Various studies indicate that investing in low carbon energy technologies would end up costing less than continuing to invest in older technologies." This sentence, particularly in using the word "would", sounds much more conclusive than may be warranted. It does not say which low-carbon energy technologies would cost less, and thereby clumps together technologies that may be cost-effective with others that are not. It does not describe whether it is referring to overall soc
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 64 To Page 65
UK
This section repeats a number of barriers already discussed, including capital cost investment and uncertainty
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 65 , Line 12 To Page 65 , Line 17
UK
This offers only an incomplete checklist. More detailed analysis is needed of the problem of mobilising investment, drawing attention to the scale of the problem, the capital intensiveness and consequent riskiness of low carbon sources, and the uncertainty facing investors and showing how these can be overcome.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 65 , Line 28 To Page 32
UK
It has previsouly been identified that most RE technologies involve high capital cost. This makes them unnatractive to least developed countries. Lack of energy capital stock can only provide an opportunity for low carbon investments if extensive external support mechnaisms are put in place
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 67 , Line 29
UK
Clarity: there is greater certainty regarding effective carbon lock-in than is stated
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 67 , Line 6
UK
Should also mention that the employment benefits have been disputed – eg Hillebrand et al Energy Policy Vol 34 issue 18 p 3484-94 for Germany; http://www.juandemariana.org/pdf/090327-employment-public-aid-renewable.pdf for Spain. Again the authors may not agree with these studies but balance requires that they acknowledge them.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 68 , Line 13 To Page 68 , Line 13
UK
The author of the paper cited here is DECC (Department of Energy and Climate Change) not Ofgem
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 68 To Page 72
UK
This section offers a lengthy discussion of policies and challenges. The section could be shortened by offering a description of the policies which have worked (broadly) and those which have not, with a discussion of the conditions for success and failure, respectively. The goal of this section is to offer the reader guidance on policy design and considerations, with insights into what policies have worked and how to avoid those which have not.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 69 , Line 30 To Page 69 , Line 34
UK
"Tax regimes fix the tax rate and allow markets to determine emissions, while EP regimes fix emissions and allow markets to determine the EP price. In a world with certainty it is a matter of indifference which approach is taken as both can be implemented so as to deliver the same distribution of economic activates in the economy. However, the two policy instruments differ importantly in their implications for income distribution." the first two sentences are important points
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 69 , Line 41
UK
As well as Weitzman, Pizer has written key articles on this issue e.g. Pizer, WA (2002). 'Combining price and quantity controls to mitigate global climate change,' Journal of Public Economics, Vol 85, pages 409–434; Pizer, WA (1997). 'Prices vs. Quantities Revisited: The Case of Climate Change' Discussion Paper 98-02, Resources for the Future, Washington DC. W. Nordhaus and G. Metcalf have also written extensively on the advantages of taxes over cap and trade. A different v
View full comment by Alexander Bowen...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 69 , Line 41 To Page 69 , Line 42
UK
The citation to Weitzman is too absolute - the 1974 paper showed that the balance of advantage depends on the relative slope of the marginal damage and the marginal cost of abatement - subsequent papers summarised in Hepburn (2009) in Eds Helm and Hepburn "The Economics and Politics of Climate Change" OUP show that this will normally imply taxes are the best choice for carbon, but Hepburn points out that this is NOT inevitable. Weitzman 2007 is irrelevant here.
View full comment by Richard Green...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 69 , Line 25
UK
Should this discussion be here or in Ch 15, on Policy Instruments? Is there a danger of repetition?
View full comment by Alexander Bowen...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 69 , Line 26 To Page 72 , Line 8
UK
This section is longer and more theoretical than needed and it overstates the impact of carbon trading – see below.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 7 , Line 12 To Page 7 , Line 12
UK
suggest adding the word "levels" after the phrase "current energy investments" so that the sentence reads: "Transition to low GHG concentrations will not be achieved by current energy investment levels nor simple evolution of business‐as‐usual of energy supply systems." Without this, the sentence implies that current investments in specific projects will have no impact.
View full comment by Tracy Lane...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 7 , Line 13
UK
This depends on scrapping and depreciation rates, which are not purely technologically determined.
View full comment by Alexander Bowen...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 7 , Line 13 To Page 7 , Line 15
UK
This does not take into account the possibility of retrofitting CCS
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 7 , Line 20
UK
The Summary should note, as per Chapter 7.12 and otyher studies (EURELECTRIC (2009), Power Choices: Pathways to a Carbon Neutral Electricty in Europe by 2050. Avaialble at www.eurelectric.org ) the decarbonsiation of electricity and eletrification of the transport and heating and cooling sectors, presents a cost optimised means of reducing emissions.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 7 , Line 22
UK
No parenthetical remarks in subject headings.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 7 , Line 33 To Page 7 , Line 35
UK
What are the Annex I countries?
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 7 , Line 36 To Page 7 , Line 42
UK
This section is a nonsense, due to its complete overlooking of 'embedded emissions'. The transfer of manufacturing capacity from a number of industrialised nations since 1990, and their import of manufactured goods from countries such as China and India, have completely falsified emissions accounting on any intellectually honest basis. The USA, Germany, France, and the UK are clear examples. Thus instead of the UK claiming to have reduced its carbon emissions by over 20% sinc
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 7 , Line 36 To Page 7 , Line 38
UK
This comment should perhaps point out (as on p 16) that the average is driven by the low emissions of ldcs. There is already a significant degree of overlap between Annex 1 and non-Annex 1 countries. For instance, in 2009 (IEA 2011c) per capita emissions in China, at 5.14t, were not that different from OECD Europe (6.85t). It is likely that China’s per capita emissions today are above, not just those of France (as noted on p 21 – it could have added Sweden and others)
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 7 , Line 42 To Page 7 , Line 43
UK
The word 'overcame' should be replaced with 'overtook'; the word 'position' is unnecessary in this context and should be deleted
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 7 , Line 46 To Page 7 , Line 46
UK
"Chapter 7 is dealing with energy systems". "Is dealing with" is poorly worded; "addressing" or "concerns" is better.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 7 , Line 46 To Page 8 , Line 3
UK
The purpose of this paragraph is unclear. The first sentence seems like an introduction, and the final two are both vague and obvious. Cut.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 7 , Line 13 To Page 7 , Line 14
UK
Text: "Existing energy-related capital stock has already locked in 80% of the 14 permissible 2035 CO2 emissions under a 450ppm CO2eq stabilization scenarios" Whilst it is true that current energy-related infrastructure could lock in high future emissions, it is also true that if decarbonisation in the energy sector begins to be treated seriously, not all the current plant will remain in use, or in constant use. One scenario could be that renewable electricity generation becom
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 7 , Line 38 To Page 7 , Line 39
UK
Text: "Annex I countries are not any more at the top of CO2 emitting countries list." Alternative wording suggests itself to avoid confusion, such as "Annex I countries are in the top CO2 emitting countries list, but a non-Annex I country now holds the very top position."
View full comment by Jo Abbess...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 70 , Line 14 To Page 70 , Line 18
UK
This is unbalanced. The studies cited do not justify the conclusion that GHG prices were effective in changing investment decisions. A more neutral summary of Ellerman et al 2010 said that it concludes that “the EU ETS did deliver operational changes, resulting in CO2 emission reductions of 3–5% during the pilot phase relative to a counter-factual without the ETS. The authors argue that it is too early to assess the additional impact on investment choices.” (Karsten
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 70 , Line 21
UK
The text seems to suggest that the only source of price elasticity is explicit demand-side policy measures. But consumers do respond to price changes if the changes are perceived to be permanent. Changing consumers' spending patterns by bringing about changes in relative prices should be a key part of climate change mitigation.
View full comment by Alexander Bowen...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 70 , Line 21 To Page 23
UK
Reducing demand for electricity (because of higher prices) does not impact overall carbon emissions (which are set by the cap). The principal effect is to reduce the price of permits.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 71 , Line 17
UK
The disucssion of CDM projects and distributions has limited relevance in this section
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 71 , Line 9
UK
As noted in previous text, ETS systems are also nder delveopment in non-Annex 1 countries.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 72 , Line 24 To Page 30
UK
Relocate to Page 69 after line 24 for better balance
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 72 , Line 27 To Page 30
UK
Objectivity: Strong support for "energy only" markets is also expressed with a view that the necessary back-up and other services can be provided in a competitive manner
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 72 , Line 31 To Page 72 , Line 31
UK
One point missing in this section is the impact of economic crisis in the implementation of enabling policies. There is usuallly a trade-off between affordability and green targets and the affordability aspect gains importance during economic crisis.
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 72 , Line 34 To Page 35
UK
Lack of policy instrument coherence is a critical point and needs further emphasis
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 72 , Line 9 To Page 72
UK
This section needs to be expanded, in particular the reference to wholesale market design. Market reforms are currently under way in many countries and deserve discussion. (See for example, Newbery Reforming Competitive Electricity Markets to Meet Environmental Targets in Economic of Energy and Environmental Policy vol 1 issue 1.)
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 73 , Line 6
UK
There is an ethical issue over smart grid technologies. Do we go down the route of somewhat invasive systems, which give energy providers control over the devices in domestic homes, or, alternatively, do we go down a more decentralized type system, using systems which monitor the local grid frequency?
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 73 , Line 31 To Page 86 , Line 8
UK
As mentioned in the general section the scenarios section could be shortened. There are one or two significant findings, such as the importance of demand and electricity and the need for immediate action. However, apart from those (familiar) points, no clear or useful message emerges, given the huge range of outcomes quoted from different models, and the cursory checklist of policies.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 75 , Line 27
UK
The suggestion that 40-90% of reductions can be achieved via demand reduction deserves more extensive analysis – for instance, how realistic this is, how it might be achieved, and what are the implications for the various systems issues listed in the general comments above. The suggestion is far reaching in its implications, but it does not seem to be reflected anywhere in the earlier sections.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 75 To Page 78
UK
Here, there doesn't seem to be enough text to explain the charts. Pointing out the key features of the various models being presented would help a reader follow what's being shown by all the colored blocks.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 79 To Page 81
UK
this seems as though it should be one of the central premises of the entire chapter. But that’s not the case here; it’s 4 paragraphs and a couple of charts spread out over 2 pages near the end of the chapter. It is actually shorter in text than the next subsection which summarizes literature on the difficulty of long-term stabilization planning.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 8 , Line 4 To Page 8 , Line 40
UK
Sentence structure like this is acceptable in the context of an introduction. However, the length of this paragraph and its repetition makes it ineffective. Consider splitting it up at the very least, preferably rewriting it entirely.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 8 , Line 41 To Page 8 , Line 50
UK
Use past tense for the summary of AR4
View full comment by Ochoa Patricia...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 8 , Line 42 To Page 9 , Line 25
UK
It is unclear how this section is a summary of AR4. Claims like “no single policy instrument will ensure the desired transition to a future secure and decarbonized world” are uncontroversial and read like meaningless platitudes. Suggest that this entire section be cut, and bring up AR4 when current conclusions are significantly different.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 8 , Line 5 To Page 8 , Line 5
UK
The words 'pre sets' here is a typo - presumably should be replaced with 'presents a'
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 8 , Line 50 To Page 8 , Line 50
UK
Not just 'long-term energy security'. The problems arising from intermittency, especially of wind power, should be specifically acknowledged.
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 80 To Page 80
UK
This figure is missing a legend for the bars.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 84 To Page 84
UK
This figure should be redrawn so that the two series in the top plot are joined to their counterparts in the bottom. That is, it should be explicit that both graphs share the same x-axis, even if the break in y-axis is emphasized to give resolution to the other series.
View full comment by Justin Bishop...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 87 , Line 1 To Page 87 , Line 4
UK
FAQ 7.2 asks whether "Is there a single best solution to achieve deep emission reductions in the energy sector?" The answer addresses supply-side technologies only., and demand-reducing activities seem to be omitted. Suggest adding a new sentence into line 3: " There are also many activities that can imporove end-use energy efficiency and thereby reduce the demand for energy and the attendant emissions."
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 87 , Line 11 To Page 87 , Line 12
UK
"Without intervention, energy systems way will not show a transition to low GHG concentrations. Specific climate protection policies will be necessary in order to achieve that goal." This is incorrect. In some instances, intervention may help in market transitions. In other case it may not be needed, or even hinder transitions. In the U.S., for example, the shale gas revolution is rapidly lowering the carbon intensity of the electric power sector, all without specific intent
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 87 , Line 9
UK
The need for financial mechanisms to encourage developing economies implment high capitla cost, low-carbon technologies should also be referenced
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 9 , Line 1 To Page 9 , Line 3
UK
This statement requires expansion and justification.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 9 , Line 11 To Page 9 , Line 12
UK
"Renewable energy sources … are the most rapidly increasing" is ambiguous. As presented here, it sounds as though the increase is referring to an increase in MW capacity. However, more likely it is referring to the percentage increase, where the capacity additions for renewables is applied to a much smaller base.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 9 , Line 28
UK
While the concerns of differing data gathering methodologies are valid, it's strange to bring it up here and not revisit it. Why point it out and then immediately start mixing and matching IEA and DOE sources? Issues like this are best addressed in a methodology section or chapter.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 9 , Line 3
UK
The value of $20/t at which a large mitigation potential of low carbon technologies is reported to exits should be qualified to specify whether it applies to variable RE technologies and if so whether it includes the cost of backup
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 9 , Line 33 To Page 9 , Line 35
UK
Lumping together unconventional fuels with renewables, as in this sentence, is misleading – they do not have the same implications for diversity (or emissions).
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 9 , Line 4
UK
Should it be mentioned that we actually need petroleum products for the production of renewable energy systems? Plastics, rubber etc.
View full comment by Tom Bradley...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 9 , Line 4 To Page 9 , Line 4
UK
I assume "Recoverable conventional oil reserves … " is meant.
View full comment by Michael Jefferson...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 9 , Line 4 To Page 9 , Line 4
UK
"Conventional oil reserves will eventually peak …" is a misleading way to begin the paragraph. As much of the subsequent discussion makes clear, unconventional reserves are accounting for an increasingly larger share of total production, in some cases over half. See p. 40, line 30. In this context, talk about "peak production" for a portion of the total production makes no sense, suggesting looming market crises that may or may not emerge.
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 9 , Line 7
UK
This section decribed as a summary of the last AR. How can a source from 2012 be referenced?
View full comment by William Kyte...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 91 , Line 26 To Page 91 , Line 48
UK
I agree that this section should be moved to somewhere else, and should broaden the rebound effect discussion - in this context, it should also cover the downward pressure on coal prices that would result from mitigation scenarios, in addition to the equivalent situation for oil
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 91 , Line 26 To Page 91 , Line 48
UK
Although I believe the bioenergy annex could be shortened or relocated, the issue of rebounds does, as suggested here, deserve systematic discussion and this should of course include efficiency rebounds. More generally, the impact of all the various options at system level needs consideration.
View full comment by Malcolm Keay...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 92 , Line 22 To Page 92 , Line 39
UK
For the long-term (e.g. 2050), given high expected carbon prices and constrained biomass availability, it is useful to frame the argument around where bioenergy should be used in terms of the quantity of abatement derived from using a tonne of biomass in different applications. By doing this one can incorporate bioenergy with CCS into the same analytical framework as uses that simply displace fossil fuel consumption (and also with non-energy uses, such as using wood as a cons
View full comment by David Joffe...

First Order Draft, Energy Systems: From Page 97 To Page 135
UK
the references are almost excklusively friom academic souces with no significant iputs from industry, governments or think-tanks.Publications from the Energy sector MUST be included.
View full comment by William Kyte...

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