John Etherington-PRA-Canada

Subject: Comments to Draft Specifications for Application of UNFC-2009 to Renewable Energy Resources: from John Etherington, PRA International Ltd, Canada

9 September 2014

I have reviewed the Draft document "Generic Specifications for Application of the United Nations Framework Classification for Fossil Energy and Mineral Reserves and Resources 2009 (UNFC-2009) to Renewable Energy Resources" distributed on August 21 2014.
In general, the conformance to the UNFC-2009 logic is quite good and the document is well structured to illustrate this alignment. The following comments are intended to promote clarity

1. Geothermal energy projects may not provide replacement at a higher rate than consumed as the heat may dissipate after significant production – it is not infinitely renewable. The same may apply to biomass sources.
    
2. The Term Renewable Energy Resources may better be described as Ultimate Recoverable Renewable Energy Resources to align with the term Estimated Ultimate Recoverable (EUR) as used I the petroleum industry being the sum of prior production and remaining recoverable.
    
3. One of the costs not discussed under Section B under risks and uncertainties is the mitigation of social/economic impact (killing birds by wind farms, using large areas of arable land for solar farms, etc.) The use of corn for ethanol is an example of poorly defined consequences in reducing food sources.

I congratulate the authors on their progress.
John Etherington
Managing Director
PRA International Ltd
Canada 

Comments from John Etherington, PRA International Ltd to Draft Specifications for Application of UNFC-2009 to Renewable Energy Resources.