The current Glossary is in the Renewable Energy Annual 1996. The following terms do not appear in that glossary.
Abatement: Reducing the degree or intensity of, or eliminating, pollution.
Adders: Environmental adders are estimates of the monetary value of damage imposed upon society by each additional ton of a particular pollutant. In theory, when these values are added to the direct cost of resources under planning consideration, resources with the lowest marginal social cost can be identified.
Air Collector: A medium-temperature collector used predominately in space-heating, utilizing pumped air as the heat-transfer medium.
Allowance: An authorization for the holder to emit a specified amount of a pollutant into the atmosphere as set forth in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990; for example, one sulfur dioxide allowance permits one ton of SO2 emissions.
Integrated Resource Planning (IRP): In the case of an electric utility, a planning and selection process for new energy resources that evaluates the full range of alternatives, including new generating capacity, power purchases, energy conservation and efficiency, cogeneration, district heating and cooling applications, and renewable energy resources, in order to provide adequate and reliable service to electrical customers at the lowest system cost. Often used interchangeably with least-cost planning.
Internalizing Externalities: This expression means to create social conditions where the damages (or benefits) from production and consumption are taken into account by those who produce the effects. Such social conditions can be created by government regulation, a tort system, bargaining between private parties, or other policy and institutional arrangements. Benefits and damages can exist even when all externalities have been internalized.
Rankine Cycle Technology: A repeated succession of operations or cycling representing the idealization of the processes in certain heat engines in which the working fluid is a liquid and its vapor. Vapor or condensing turbines operate on an approximate Rankine cycle. Vapor-compression refrigerators, air conditioners, and heat pumps use the Rankine cycle in reverse.
Reserve: That portion of the demonstrated reserve base that is estimated to be recoverable at the time of determination. The reserve is derived by applying a recovery factor to that component of the identified coal resource designated as the demonstrated reserve base.
Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES): SMES rings are devices being developed that will store electricity without loss by circulating the electricity through a ring of superconducting magnets. This application would allow utilities to generate electricity during periods of low demand for use during peak periods.
Uncertainty: The state of not being definitely ascertainable or fixed as in time of occurrence, number, quality, or some other characteristic.
Uniformly Mixed Pollutants: Pollutants that have the same effect on the environment regardless of their geographic point of origin.