Credibility of scientific analysis, and assessment of pv systems and ethanol production

Abstract

This chapter makes an assessment of photovoltaic (PV) systems and ethanol production and reexamines the credibility of scientific analysis when applied to energy policy. The Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) scheme is introduced to assess PV systems of crystalline silicon wafer-based solar cells against biophysical, environmental, economic and technological criteria. If electricity generation by first-generation PV systems is significantly scaled up, silver will prove to be a limiting factor for large-scale electricity generation by the current PV systems. There are several bothersome problems associated with large-scale ethanol production from corn (United States) and sugarcane (Brazil). In particular, it is shown that in the case of United States ethanol production, various forms of energy carrier, in addition to corn biomass, are intensively and indirectly used to produce corn-ethanol. A question then immediately emerges: Why do many countries pour an enormous amount of investment into alternative energy carrier production systems? Certain reasons explaining why such wasteful investments are being attempted are presented. To better understand the critical situation of our modern society—a situation associated with the nature of scientific analysis and energy assessment, this chapter offers three additional ideas proposed by K. Vonnegut, by C. S. Peirce, and by S. Funtowicz and J. Ravetz.