ENERGY-THE FOURTH FACTOR OF PRODUCTION

Burning fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, oil) supplies most of the energy in the industrial economies. The use of this chemical energy in economic production is one of the key characteristics of the industrial nations. The use of non-human and non-animal energy is so important to industrial societies that energy, itself, is now an additional factor of production. This was not explicitly observed in the pre-industrial era. Energy must now be added as a fourth factor to the three classical factors of economic production; land, labor and capital. Because energy is a factor of production in industrial society, its production and use is complicated.

Source: Stavy, Michael, The Effect That the Kyoto Protocol Will Have on the Cost of Wind Power in the Signatory Countries, Global Windpower 2002 Conference, 2-5 April 2002, Paris, France  

RECENTLY ON EXHIBITION:  On exhibit until 01/15/12 at the Art Institute of Chicago was a photograph of my Marina City Condo (Chicago, IL USA) with me reading, French in Three Months. GO TO: http://twitthis.com/7n4xog   RECENTLY QUOTED:  I was quoted in the 05/25/11, Chicagoland Daily Herald Business Ledger article, Pump Prices are only Half the Pain. http://twitthis.com/tgaxla  NEW OFFICE SONG: http://t.co/61NY9sNL

  The Icelandic Volcano did not stop me! I made a poster presentation of my paper, The Effect That a US Signature on a Kyoto-II Climate Change Mitigation Treaty (or an Equivalent US Domestic Change Mitigation Policy) Will Have on the US Wind Industry, at the 2010 European Wind Energy Conference, 20-23 April, Warsaw, Poland.  

Since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) entered into force (21 March 1994), the parties to the UNFCC have been meeting annually in the Conference of the Parties (COP) to assess the progress in dealing with climate change. Beginning in the mid-1990's, the COP was used to negotiate the Kyoto Protocol. The Protocol was initially adopted on 11 Dec 1997 in Kyoto Japan (Kyoto-I), it entered into force on 16 Feb 2005 and, unless extended (Kyoto-II) at COP 17, it will end on 31 Dec 2012. COP 17 was held 28 Nov-9 Dec 2011 in Durban, South Africa.

 

Because of COP 17, I am giving the public open access to my 2010 EWEC paper and poster.  My poster will look good on your office wall and on the office wall of your US Congressional Representative, your US Senator or your US President.  You can put my poster on your children's bedroom wall and can tell them that this is their future (hopefully).   

 

I am also giving open access to my 2008 Latin American Wind Conference presentation, The Use of the Kyoto Protocol and its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to Help Finance Wind Plants in Latin American Countries, and to my 2009 Michigan Wind Energy Conference presentation, A Mandatory US Federal Carbon Emissions Program (Kyoto-II) Will Reduce the Cost Advantage that Michigan Fossil Electricity has over Michigan Wind Electricity. 

 

GO TO: PRESENTATION at the EWEC 2010, Warsaw, Poland, 20-23 April     ALSO GO TO: http://twitthis.com/r44ec4

 

Open access to these documents ends on 20 June 2012, the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere.

   

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The annual Meeting of the American Economics Association (AEA) was held 6-8 Jan 2012 in Chicago. I am a retired (29 years, full-time, tenured) Economics Professor. I only attended this meeting.

To show my current energy economic work to my AEA peers, I have prepared two analyses, The Cost of Solar Electricity from Abengoa's Arizona CSP Plant with Storage, based on the WSJ article, Rebecca Smith, Solar Plant to Generate Power After Sundown, 12/31/10 and Why Rising Rood and Energy Prices are a Big Worry in response to Lawrence Meyer's 3/24/11 NYT Op/Ed, Why Rising Food and Energy Prices are not a Big Worry. Meyer is a former member of the Fed Board of Governors

This offer ends on 20 June 2012, the summer soltice in the northern hemisphere. GO TO:  http://www.nvo.com/stavy/aea

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Go to  Abstracts of My Published Papers and Presentations to read the abstracts of my 30 published papers/presentations.  To save a tree, my documents are only available from me in electronic form.    P Think Green   My published documents are only available to clients and friends of the practice.  For articles that have cited my published papers, GO TO:  http://twitthis.com/v6ugnu  GO TO My Contact Information

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My article, A Financial Worksheet for Computing the Cost (¢/kWh) of Solar Electricity Generated at Grid Connected Photovoltaic (PV) Generating Plants, was published in the Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, August, 2002, Vol. 124, Page 319.  This article was one of the top 10 articles downloaded from the Journal of Solar Energy Engineering in the following months:  November, 2006; December, 2007; February, 2008; October, 2008. For more information on this paper go to http://twitthis.com/b88sbn