Document Type

Closed Project

Publication Date

Winter 2009

Instructor

Tugrul Daim

Course Title

Management of Engineering and Technology

Course Number

ETM 520/620

Abstract

Nations take great interest in their energy policy as it ensures the quality of life for its people and also has a major impact on their economy. Within the context of the European Union, many benchmarks have been set in terms of increasing the use of renewable energy sources, but this alone is not adequate in providing base-load electricity supply. Member nations have chosen to go in different directions in addressing this issue based on factors such as political, economic and technological issues. Two nations that represent the vast extremes of national energy mix are France and Germany. France, due to low fossil fuel reserves, has chosen to develop and rely on nuclear energy as its primary source. Germany, on the other hand, has gone the way of renewable sources but still relies heavily on coal. The search for a technical assessment regarding these countries and their energy mix proved unsuccessful, but developing a Hierarchical Decision Model could prove to be beneficial for energy departments. It was thought a model could be built using the available information regarding the various energy mixes of the countries. Using the technologies as alternatives, and determining the criteria which each satisfied, a model was developed to show what each nation weighted as high importance. The study showed a couple results. First was that social/political factors were overwhelmingly low importance. It was also found to not completely reflect the countries’ portfolios, suggesting more research must be done to refine and extend the model. Also, experts need to be consulted and areas such as public opinion need to be quantified. Ultimately, the model developed could help nations around the globe assess their needs and develop an energy mix suited to those needs.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Comments

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

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/22883

Download

Share

COinS