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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
A Spatial Approach To Energy Economics, Juan B. Moreno-Cruz, M Scott Taylor
A Spatial Approach To Energy Economics, Juan B. Moreno-Cruz, M Scott Taylor
Juan B. Moreno-Cruz
We develop a spatial model of energy exploitation where energy sources are differentiated by their geographic location and energy density. The spatial setting creates a scaling law that magnifies the importance of differences across energy sources. As a result, renewable sources twice as dense, provide eight times the supply; and all new non-renewable resource plays must first boom and then bust. For both renewable and non-renewable energy sources we link the size of exploitation zones and energy supplies to energy density, and provide empirical measures of key model attributes using data on solar, wind, biomass, and fossil fuel energy sources. …
Back To The Future Of Green Powered Economies, Juan B. Moreno-Cruz, M. Scott Taylor
Back To The Future Of Green Powered Economies, Juan B. Moreno-Cruz, M. Scott Taylor
Juan B. Moreno-Cruz
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of power density [Watts/m2] into economics. By introducing an explicit spatial structure into a simple general equilibrium model we are able to show how the power density of available energy resources determines the extent of energy exploitation, the density of urban agglomerations, and the peak level of income per capita. Using a simple Malthusian model to sort population across geographic space we demonstrate how the density of available energy supplies creates density in energy demands by agglomerating economic activity. We label this result the density-creates-density hypothesis and evaluate it using …