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Advanced technology paths to global climate stability: Energy for a greenhouse planet (2002)
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| Venue: | Science |
| Citations: | 135 - 2 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Hoffert02advancedtechnology,
author = {Martin I. Hoffert and Ken Caldeira and Gregory Benford and David R. Criswell and Christopher Green and Howard Herzog and Atul K. Jain and Michael E. Mauel and L. John Perkins and Michael E. Schlesinger and Tyler Volk and Tom M. L. Wigley},
title = {Advanced technology paths to global climate stability: Energy for a greenhouse planet},
journal = {Science},
year = {2002},
volume = {298},
pages = {981--987}
}
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Abstract
Stabilizing the carbon dioxide–induced component of climate change is an energy problem. Establishment of a course toward such stabilization will require the development within the coming decades of primary energy sources that do not emit carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, in addition to efforts to reduce end-use energy demand. Mid-century primary power requirements that are free of carbon dioxide emissions could be several times what we now derive from fossil fuels (�10 13 watts), even with improvements in energy efficiency. Here we survey possible future energy sources, evaluated for their capability to supply massive amounts of carbon emission–free energy and for their potential for large-scale commercialization. Possible candidates for primary energy sources include terrestrial solar and wind energy, solar power satellites, biomass, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, fission-fusion hybrids, and fossil fuels from which carbon has been sequestered. Non–primary power technologies that could contribute to climate stabilization include efficiency improvements, hydrogen production, storage and transport, superconducting global electric grids, and geoengineering. All of these approaches currently have severe deficiencies that limit their
Keyphrases
advanced technology path global climate stability greenhouse planet carbon dioxide fossil fuel primary energy source nuclear fission fission-fusion hybrid mid-century primary power requirement carbon emission free energy large-scale commercialization non primary power technology climate change solar power satellite efficiency improvement hydrogen production severe deficiency global electric grid several time energy efficiency survey possible future energy source nuclear fusion possible candidate carbon dioxide emission massive amount energy problem end-use energy demand
