Economic Aspects of Alternative Energy Sources: An Introduction

The economic experience of the last decade has taught us two important lessons about energy economics and energy policy. First, the era of focusing world-wide on one main source of energy has come to an end; after the dominance of wood in the past centuries (but still nowadays in many developing countries), then of coal for many decades, especially at the time of industrial take-off in the now developed countries, and finally of oil after the Second World War, we are entering a period in which we will use many sources of energy at the same time, some not renewable, other renewable or very slowly exhaustable. The issue of delineating the best mix of these alternative sources of energy comes to the forefront when defining an energy policy. Though this problem is set up in different ways in different countries, according, of course, to geographical endowments, but also to the standard of the equipment industry, it has to be solved in all of them, whether they are rich or poor in sources of energy.