The recent statements of both the European Union and the US Presidency pushed in the direction of using renewable forms of energy, in order to act against climate changes induced by the growing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In this paper, a survey regarding methods and tools presently available to determine potential and exploitable energy in the most important renewable sectors (i.e., solar, wind, wave, biomass and geothermal energy) is presented. Moreover, challenges for each renewable resource are highlighted as well as the available tools that can help in evaluating the use of a mix of different sources. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
François Maréchal, Julia Granacher
François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Meire Ellen Gorete Ribeiro Domingos, Réginald Germanier
Michael Lehning, Wolf Hendrik Huwald, Jérôme François Sylvain Dujardin, Franziska Gerber, Fanny Kristianti, Sebastian Wilhelm Hoch