Climate emergency-focused economic model

Abstract

This paper deals with the existing carbon dioxide mitigation efforts toward the Paris agreement and shows that current economic rules and the first law of thermodynamics, all of which are linear, are necessary but not sufficient tools to solve the nonlinear problems of global warming. In this respect, the quasi-linear, Pareto principle-based green economy has been modified by the second law of thermodynamics, which deals with the useful work potential of energy systems and resources for added value in society, aka exergy. It is argued that the aged Pareto principle, which may only associate with the first law of thermodynamics, recognizes less than half of the total root causes of emissions. For example, fossil fuels are currently treated as a simple economic commodity in the stock market, subject to market rules rather than environmental parameters, whereas exergy destructions are the primary root causes of emissions. A new model was developed for evaluating and rating green energy systems, which calculates the exergy destruction-based emissions and optimizes systems for minimum emissions. Five cases are presented to quantify the face value of the Pareto principle against renewable energy resources and systems. These cases are, namely, solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy with organic Rankine cycle, heat pumps, and Fresnel lenses for photovoltaic panels. Sample results show that the Pareto principle may not rate these systems because its equivalent unit exergy value (0.21 kWh/kWh), also described as virtual Pareto temperature (363.9 K), is less than the unit exergy of renewable energy systems under their normal domain of operations. One of these results regarding wind energy is that the 80/20 Pareto principle has equivalent unit exergy of 0.21 kW hexergy/kW henergy, corresponding to a wind velocity of three meters per second, which is less than the practical cut-in speed of a conventional wind turbine. Therefore, the Pareto principle may not be a measuring stick for wind energy and other resources. It has also been shown why the global average of rational exergy management efficiency of 0.21 is not improving because the Pareto principle limits it.