Questions about this wiki
Questions about how the tool works
- Why doesn't the spreadsheet work in older versions of Microsoft Excel or in other spreadsheet programs such as open office
- How can one see the costs sections of the analysis on the webtool?
- Could you put links to the underlying trajectories onto the wiki?
- How does the 2050 pathways model relate to other energy models?
Questions about the analysis
- Where is industrial chp?
- How is bioenergy treated?
- How is shale gas treated?
- Why have you included the total cost of vehicles?
- I expected altering the level of insulation to make a bigger difference
- On the "Energy flows" tab of the webtool, why do you show losses from thermal plants but not from other technologies such as renewables?
- You appear to have costs and cost ranges for 2010 and 2050, what are the costs you use for the intervening periods?
- Have you used a discount rate What have you used if so?
- Why are you using total costs to society rather than tax, subsidy and costs to consumers?
- The calculator uses an average CO2 emissions factor for solids, liquids and gas, how did you reach this value?
- Is the 2050 Calculator an optimisation model (like MARKAL)?
- Where did the space-heating technologies trajectories come from? They're on spreadsheet tab IX.a, C73-S89. They cite reference 1, but that's a reference to Met Office temperature data.
- What are the exact numbers in Figure A3 in the 2050 pathways report for the levels of domestic lighting and appliances in 2007; 2010; 2020; 2030 and 2050?
- Why does fuel cell technology in motor vehicles use gas?
- Why does reducing thermal waste in all domestic buildings by 50% by 2050 have no apparent impact on oil use?
- Does the National Grid's pathway make no provision for district heating?
- It is very confusing having energy supply from coal and from biomass represented by the same block on chart two
- Why are there drastic jumps in zero carbon vehicle units in 2020 and 2025, continuing upwards?
- Where did the u-values in the heat sector (IX.a) come from?
- Is it really possible to both increase land used for biocrops and increase livestock numbers?
- What is pumped heat on the sankey diagram?
- Does the 2050 Costs calculator account for system costs?
- Do you account for the wind not blowing?
- how do you treat discounting?
- how do you treat financing costs?
- Why are the cost ranges so large?
- Do you account for nuclear waste costs?
- Presumably if energy prices are rising people will demand less. Do you account for these dynamic feedbacks?
- How will you measure the impact on bills?
- For CHP, do you include the saving in producing electricity as well as heat?
- Do you account for the damage cost of carbon?
- How are you accounting for the macroeconomic impact of climate change?
Questions about copying and adapting the tool
- May I copy the tool and adapt it for my country or my purposes?
- What are the key things I may want to consider changing?
Questions about conclusions reached with the tool
- Do we really need to increase electricity generation from todays levels to hit the 2050 target?
- Why are oil demand projections from the DECC energy model so different from the 2050 analysis?
Observations and comments
- Mike Childs of Friends of the Earth has some general issues around methodology.
- Mike Knowles (Knowlesmichael2), member of IMech, has some comments around the impact of recent government policies on investment costs for renewables. See page: Mike Knowles' comments on investment and government involvement in renewable power generation.
You can also read about the 2050 Calculator in the media.