RESOURCE STUDIES IN THE ENERGY PROJECT OF THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED SYSTEMS ANALYSIS

Publisher Summary This chapter describes resource studies in the energy project of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). One of the main tasks of the IIASA Energy Project is to compare the various long-term energy options or alternatives, such as nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, solar, geothermal, and carbon, that is, coal, conventional and non-conventional hydrocarbons, such as oil shales, tar sands, and heavy oil, and to analyze their embedding in the various spheres of human interest, such as the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the ecosphere, and the sociosphere. After some limiting values have been elaborated, two main tools are used for such studies and comparisons generally applied to model societies. For energy resource production, the main emphasis is given to large-scale mining problems including ecology, materials demand, energy expenses, water resources, land use, and risk assessment to the identification of systems effects of harvesting energy resources on a broad scale. Regarding world energy trade, which is mainly concerned with the physical availability of energy commodities, exploration studies are being performed on the methodology for assessing the formation and possible weighting factor of producer and/or consumer coalitions, and scenarios are run to estimate the effects of possible conservation policies of producers.