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Pitch

Using innovative and flexible renewable energy technologies and strategies, Latin America can live up to its true energy potential.


Description

Summary

     It is no news that Latin America has the capacity to fulfill its energy requirements entirely through renewable resources. However the rate of development and growth in many region is leading Latin America down a path towards fossil fuels rather than renewable resources. By implementing innovative and flexible technologies, and changing market attitudes and regulations towards renewable resources, Latin America can truly become a model for full utilization of renewable resources.

     Latin America presents a unique environment where use of renewable resources has to be balanced with preservation of the local environment. Thus flexible technology is necessary. Long standing notions that renewable resources are expensive and difficult to utilize must be replaced by an acknowledgement that new technologies for renewable energy are making it cheaper, and easier than ever before to transition to a fully renewable energy market. As the economy of Latin America continues to grow, governments and economic institutions must adopt new strategies towards development, and not go down the path of fossil fuels.

In order to accomplish this goal, two major obstacles must be addressed. First, the cost of implementing renewable energy systems, and secondly, the possible environmental, and cultural impacts that implementing such sources would have. There is no perfect technological solution at the present that can solve all of the issues of implementing renewable systems in Latin America. Thus, I propose the following: utilize computer modeling to analyze the interactions of the Latin American economy and environment, and use the results to formulate a plan to shift Latin America towards a reliance on sustainable resources. 


Category of the action

Reducing emissions from electric power sector.


What actions do you propose?

Development of a Computer Model

     There are many kinds of computer models. The most applicable for evaluating the pros/cons of renewable resource technology is a decision based analytic model with discrete event parameters. This type of model takes a goal and a set of parameters, and alters them to find the most optimum course of action. This "decision tree" type model has several advantages in that it can balance the benefits and disadvantages of a certain course of action, even when the scenario is as complex as human-environmental interactions.

Decision analytics models have the potential to provide a course of action, however, because allocation of risk can never be completely accurate, a single large scale model will not be sufficient to give a reliable result. Instead, smaller models should be used to cross refference the conclusions made by the larger model. For example, if the energy consumption of certain Latin American cities is extremely high when compared to others, a delay in the arrival of renewable technology could have a worse impact than on a city where energy consumption is low. These varied risks must be based on specific data gathered at the cities. In order to accomplish this, a reliable method of collecting data must be established.

Smart Grid Technology

   Current smart grid technology is highly advanced, and capable of

 

Implementation of Findings

 


Who will take these actions?


Where will these actions be taken?


How much will emissions be reduced or sequestered vs. business as usual levels?


What are other key benefits?


What are the proposal’s costs?


Time line


Related proposals


References

BMJ article outlining decision analytics modeling -- http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d1766