The recent EU Commission proposal for promoting the supply of power from renewable energy sources was originally based on a pan-European, harmonised tradable green certificate (TGC) scheme. We suggest, on the basis of a multi-disciplinary analysis, that a pan-EU TGC system is not the way forward...

Renewable electricity supply is a crucial factor in the realization of a low-carbon energy economy. The understanding is growing that a full turn-over of the electricity sectors by 2050 is an elementary condition for avoiding global average temperature increase beyond 2 °C. This article...

This book focuses on the diversity of electricity reforms in Western Europe, drawing evidence from ten European Union memberstates plus Norway and Switzerland as associate members. The contributors analyse the various ways of introducing competition in the European electricity industries, and...

The article unveils the mystery of cogeneration. Cogeneration is an add-on or embedded activity in thermal power plants, with as merit the use of part or whole of their point source heat exhausts. EU's talk of “high-efficiency cogeneration” is an unfounded transfer of responsibility from the...

Reversibility and irreversibility are poorly defined in the decision-making literature. Defining reversibility as “the ability to maintain and to restore the functional performance of a system” is consistent with thermodynamics; specification of its crucial terms is case dependent....

Nuclear decision-making is embedded in slowly evolving political, economic and financial institutions. Belgium houses extended nuclear activities, mostly under French control, for example: SUEZ-GDF and EDF own all Belgian nuclear power plants. But a 2003 law mandates the closure of Belgium's...

This paper uses 19 criteria to assess whether nuclear fission power can be a part of sustainable development. This yes or no qualitative evaluation is due prior to ongoing marketability assessment and promotion of nuclear power by, for example, the IAEA, the IEA and the UK government. The...