Document Type

Closed Project

Publication Date

Winter 2014

Instructor

Jisun Kim

Course Title

Advanced Engineering Economics

Course Number

ETM 535

Subjects

Power resources -- Technological innovations, Renewable energy sources -- Economic aspects, Public utilities -- Attitudes toward solar energy

Abstract

In the last two Decades there has been an emergence of a large variety of clean energy sources available in the US market. In this Century, these “clean energy” products have become more accessible to consumers and the economic justification for them seems to grow at an exponential rate. The success and development of this field does not come as a shock; the evolution of the technology has made many strides to meet the needs of the consumer, whose demand for alternative energy options has grown just as quickly with the influence of increased costs of electricity and awareness of the environmental impacts of conventional energy generation methods.

The current state of society and technology today is pushing us through a transition in the way we think about, create and consume energy. With the size of the energy market, it is important to understand that there are multiple perspectives that have to be considered when looking at this transition and how it may impact each of the affected groups. In this paper, we will focus on three main stakeholders in the continued success or failure of the alternative energy market: The residential consumer, the manufacturer and the utility company. Our exploration into these groups will examine the economic justifications of the solar panel market, utilizing historical data, forecasts and predictions for the future and using that information to analyze the key factors for each group. The data and analysis will be based on information in Portland, Oregon. With this information we hope to be able to get a clearer understanding of what it will take for each group to find success with the proliferation of solar panels into our day to day lives.

Rights

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Comments

This project is only available to students, staff, and faculty of Portland State University

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/21821

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