Economics ETDs

Publication Date

10-24-1979

Abstract

Determination of an optimal course for alternative energy development involves not only an investigation of new technologies for exploiting non-conventional energy sources, but also an investigation of the economic viability of those new technologies in future energy markets. This thesis focuses on structuring and analyzing the workings of a representative model of the economic performance of one non-conventional source of energy: hot, dry rock (HOR) geothermal energy to be utilized in the production of electricity. The central theme stressed throughout the analysis is the importance of evaluating a very new energy technology such as HOR in a manner which is flexible enough to investigate commercial viability under a variety of scenarios that are possible, given current technological uncertainty and fluctuating energy markets of the future. Viewing a site-specific reservoir of HOR geothermal energy as an exhaustible resource, the principles of the pure theory of exhaustion are applied to the extraction production process in HOR electricity generation. This application of exhaustion theory provides a conceptual framework for determining optimal resource management and investment strategies over a time horizon of HOR energy extraction. An operationally meaningful algorithm is then developed to investigate model behavior under several R & D strategies with which technologists are currently experimenting for HOR electricity production. These strategies are described and introduced into the operational model with the purpose of analyzing the technological and market conditions under which cost competitive (i.e., commercially viable) HOR electricity might be produced in the near future. In this way, economic trade-offs along the course of research and development of a new energy resource are investigated.

Degree Name

Economics

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Department of Economics

First Committee Member (Chair)

Ronald G. Cummings

Second Committee Member

Jefferson W. Tester

Third Committee Member

Glenn E. Morris

Fourth Committee Member

Illegible

Fifth Committee Member

Shaul Ben-David

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

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