This chapter discusses the theory underlying measurements of asset utilization as a way to provide support to economic and financial viability analysis of Renewable Energy Projects (REPs). It starts by providing an overview of the literature for economical and financial viability analysis within the Renewable Energy Sector and follows revealing the gap in the literature that this thesis tackles.
2.1 Challenges for Business Evaluation of REPs
There has been advancements on many fronts to make economical and financial viability assessment for Renewable Energy Projects possible, including (but not limited to) production costs (e.g.McAloon, F. Taylor, Yee, Ibsen, & Wooley, 2000); transportation costs (Batidzirai, 2005; Overend, 1982; Searcy et al., 2007); capital costs (Bridgwater & Double, 1991; Gallagher, Schamel, Shapouri, & Brubaker, 2006); resources availability (Graf & Koehler, 2002); environmental performance (Von Blottnitz & Curran, 2007; Taheripour, Hertel, Tyner, Beckman, & Birur, 2008; Pimentel & Patzek, 2007); regional socio-economic development (Swenson & Eathington, 2006), and organizational costs (Altman & Johnson, 2008).
Regarding business development, many studies have focused on the selection of optimum energy-conversion pathways and identification of successful strategies for related business design (e.g. Hamelinck & Faaij, 2006; Junginger et al., 2008). In that sense, full-systems approaches have also been attempted for evaluating overall production performance of particular systems (Bridgwater & Double, 1991; Kerstetter, 2001).
None, however, has successfully presented a simple, yet robust, framework for inferring and comparing economic and financial aspects of Renewable Energy Projects that impact business vi...
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...med throughout the production ladder (one for each stage). Nonetheless, such effect has its advantages as this analysis might make bottlenecks to efficiency more apparent and easily identifiable. It might even be desirable, as some authors suggest that, the exploration and cross-comparison of asset utilization within an industrial sector, only make sense when a “holistic view of the producing chain is kept” (Stadtler, 2008, p. 38). Perhaps such a view will not only increase our overall understanding of the energy system, but also facilitate its mathematical modeling. Although directly calculating the overall energy turn presented by the energy system is our ultimate goal, its direct aggregated estimation would naturally reduce our ability to cross-compare and understand REPs and increase the likelihood of incurring mathematical errors during the process of modeling.
Production is a large part of the Eaton Corporation, “Eaton is a global leader in fluid power systems and services for industrial, mobile and aircraft equipment; electrical systems and components for power quality, distribution and control; automotive engine air management systems, power train solutions and specialty controls for performance, fuel economy and safety; and intelligent truck drive train systems for safety and fuel economy.” With Eaton’s broad range of products efficiency in the production process is extremely important to Eaton. To maximize efficiency in the production process Eaton uses the Eaton Lean Six System this system helps allow Eaton increase the performance of the company by eliminating waste, simplifying processes, reduce cycle times, and more effectively deploy resources to it’s business segments all of which work to help Eaton increase their profits. Another system Eaton uses is known as PROLaunch, this system allows Eaton to speed of the production process of its products. PROLaunch guides Eaton’s production of new products from concept to completion using a, “set of integrated processes” to help speed up the development process of Eaton’s new products.
The issues of two impacts are in two ways. The first one, more efficient plants are likely to cannibalize sales from the Rotterdam plant. The second one, the forecasted rate of return for customers needs to account for a ramp up period before it is possible to reach the 7% additional revenue of the project. Furthermore, the two impacts should be calculated in the project's cash flows for the final evaluation purposes.
Roberts, MJ, Lassiter, JB & Nanda, R 2010, US Department of Energy & Recovery Act Funding: Bridging the “Valley of Death”, Harvard Business School, Cambridge, USA.
I do not recommend we spend 4 billion and not recoup the investment for many years. Divide 4 billion by 150 million it would take us 26 years to make back what you invested. I disagree with the consultants on this project. Whether you look at PV cash flow or Cumulative PV the numbers don't go into the positive for PV until year 9 and never go into the positive for the Cumulative for many
In this case, there are two solutions presented to reduce carbon emissions in the air from burning fossil fuels; as a result, it will reduce global warming. In this paper, these solutions and questions related to them are to be discussed and analyzed.
For every plan to be implemented well it is important to determine the costs of implementation such as those of employing the Renewable Energy technologies. Naomi urges people to rely on the renewable energy as per the German’s help. Klein states, “The gal becomes not to build a few gigantic green solutions, but to infinitely multiply smaller ones and to use policies- as Germanys feed in tariff for renewable energy for instance- that encourage multiplication rather than consolidation” (384). Researchers claim that the analysis of Naomi Klein’s plan seems to be too expensive to the point of making a stop to some of the activities which are in progress at the moment. The estimates of Klein’s plans seem to cost a rough amount of 100 trillion dollars.
Among various options available for bio-energy, bio-diesel, bio-ethanol and biomass gasification are three major options, which have huge potential in India to develop as energy sources and where investments made would be economical. The objective of this Business Plan is to review the option of electricity generation through the use of biomass energy.
One of the key areas of long-term decision-making that firms must tackle is that of investment - the need to commit funds by purchasing land, buildings, machinery, etc., in anticipation of being able to earn an income greater than the funds committed. In order to handle these decisions, firms have to make an assessment of the size of the outflows and inflows of funds, the lifespan of the investment, the degree of risk attached and the cost of obtaining funds.
Energy is the basic necessity of daily life. Nowadays, dependence on fossil fuels for energy needs becoming lower in numerous countries due to the potential of renewable energy to supply sustainable energy to the huge populations in many developing countries who are short of clean and continues energy. Generally, renewable energy can be defined as energy that is derived from natural resources which are constantly replenished and theoretically inexhaustible. Fossil fuels on the other hand can be described as energy that cannot be renewed and will eventually diminish. Thus, in many developing countries renewable energy is the alternative energy to replace non-renewable energy or commonly known as fossil fuels. In addition, according to Sorensen (2004), there is a greater demand for renewable energy sources nowadays due to the uncertainty of fuel price rise in living expenses. Commonly, there are many types of renewable energy available in our world such as wind power, biomass energy, solar energy, hydroelectric power and geothermal energy. However, the main three example of renewable energy are hydroelectric power, solar and biomass energy (Refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).
Manufacturing businesses and business leaders need to increase their focus on key success factors such as: innovation, productivity improvement, investment in people & skills, and funding. Innovation is not just about retention and development, or the latest technology. It’s also about practical and efficient problem solving and business transformation. In the manufacturing industry, this can be achieved by: refining or exploring new supply and distribution channels, establishing new business offerings, developing leaner organizational arrangements, improving processes, providing a better customer experience, and accessing green, clean technology – high on the agenda for environmentally conscious customers (Performance, 2011)
Nunes, Breno, and David Bennett. "Green Operations Initiatives in the Automotive Industry." Benchmarking 17.3 (2010): 396-420. ProQuest. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
...ly increase if the used factors are also being used at an increasing rate. No matter how efficient the factors of production are being used it is required to use more of them in order to significantly receive a higher output. There is also a limitation to this rule, that being that the two factors of production are used at a very similar level of involvement. If one factor of production is greatly in excess compared to the other then the excess will first be used until it is at a similar level to the factor production of which there is less. Once there are even amounts then the initial rule applies again, and an increase in both is required for significant increase in output. In order to truly be efficient with this model only if both of the factors are used at similar levels and there is no excess of one, meaning none is wasted and the optimal output can be reached.
"U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - Independent Statistics and Analysis." U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). U.S. Department of Energy, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
Important companies like Shell, DuPont, BP has been reorganised to generate profits from this green market of goods and services. In this sense, it may sound altruistic, "the sustainability", the logic of profitability and competition is what will determine the ability of companies of the future to meet the changing needs of consumers.
In the search for alternatives to fossil fuels, scientists and policy makers have focused on three options: nuclear power, energy from biomass; and a combination of wind, water, and solar power. Nuclear power, however, is much more costly and runs the risk of having it fall into the wrong hands where it could be turned into a weapon of mass destruction. The third option entails wind turbines, photovoltaic power plants and rooftop systems, concentrated solar thermal power plants,...