Topic Until the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the main drivers for investment in – graduate researcher

Topic
Until the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the main drivers for investment in renewable energy were the following:
–global warming (also called climate change);
— comparative costs of renewable and fossil fuel technologies pollution and its role in pushing investment into renewable energy;
— pollution and its role in pushing investment into renewable energy;
–the amount of money likely to be in play;
–government regulations—national, state/regional, or municipal and international agreements, such as that of Cop 21–including taxes and subsidies which may favor (or disadvantage) investment in renewable energy;
–the element of belief, sometimes called dreams, in major investment shifts;
–and the potential role of millions of electric car owners as a lobbying force to shift the world into a re-thinking of energy and pollution.
However, a new driver has suddenly become, perhaps, the main driver—energy independence in the name of national defense. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has created literally millions of refugees (four million as of this writing, mainly women with their children) who are flooding the EU. All of the EU countries are participating in the resulting sanctions against Russia (and some Putin-linked oligarchs) and some of the EU countries are furnishing weapons to Ukraine. But the EU gets some 45% of its natural gas from Russia. So Russia’s attack on the Ukraine has put the EU in the inadvertent position of trading with the enemy. The only real solution is to stop buying the Russian natural gas
.
So the topic of the term paper is: If the EU attempts to substitute its own locally produced biogas for imported Russian natural gas, what percentage of currently imported Russian gas can it replace? If it also adds methane now leaking out of abandoned coal mines, what percentage of Russian natural gas can it replace?
You should look at biogas produced from:
–landfills
–food waste
–sewage sludge
–livestock waste
–crop residues
All of this has been or will be discussed in class.
Interestingly, most of this potential biogas is now utterly wasted, and much of the material that can be used to produce biogas, especially human sewage, is producing massive pollution, some of it even destroying the oceans.
This is the only topic permitted for the term paper. A paper on any other topic will not be counted and the grade for the course will be INC.
You may focus on any aspect of the topic that interests you: current major companies or minor ones devoted to these topics (any such company); transformations of the major oil companies, or waste water treatment companies, into renewable energy companies that focus on these topics; transformations of other types of companies, such as waste management companies, into renewable energy companies that focus on these topics; start-ups that could conceivably replace the fossil fuel giants by focusing on these issues; etc.
Structure of the paper:
After an initial introduction, in the first part of your paper you should discuss the drivers of the renewable energy investment story that we have reviewed in class, and any others that you think are significant. We have discussed, or will discuss, in class the following drivers. Each should be discussed under an individual caption:
–global warming (also called climate change);
–pollution and its role in pushing investment into renewable energy;
–comparative costs of renewable and fossil fuel technologies;
–the amount of money likely to be in play;
–government regulations—national, state/regional, or municipal and international agreements, such as that of Cop 21–including taxes and subsidies which may favor (or disadvantage) investment in renewable energy;
–the element of belief, sometimes called dreams, in major investment shifts; –
–the potential role of millions of electric car owners as a lobbying force to shift the world into a re-thinking of energy and pollution;
–energy independence in the name of national defense.
In the next part of your paper, you should explain the technologies that have been used (for these biogas and leaking methane issues), and whether or not they have wide application throughout the EU. Make sure that you discuss the costs of these technologies and whether or not they have a cost advantage over other renewable energy technologies. Discuss whether the cost advantage or disadvantage makes any difference, given the catastrophic consequences of sewage pollution, methane leaks, and energy independence/scarcity due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
You should conclude your paper with a recommendation (to a major company or a big investor) on whether to invest or not in the industry/company that is the focus of your paper.
Your paper must be fully documented, as discussed in class. Papers without documentation will receive no grade and the course grade will be INC.
Under no circumstances should you infringe the copyright on published material. Setting aside all ethical issues, it is now fully detectable using the internet.