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on Energy Economics |
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Issue of 2012‒05‒29
forty-four papers chosen by Roger Fouquet Basque Climate Change Centre, Bilbao, Spain |
| By: | Aldy, Joseph Edgar |
| Abstract: | Despite bipartisan interest in advancing American energy policy, comprehensive energy and climate legislation fell short in the Senate last year after passing in the House of Representatives in 2009. The difficulty of coming to broad agreement highlights the need for a more targeted and incremental approach. One promising intermediate step would be a technology-neutral national clean energy standard that applies to the U.S. power sector. This paper proposes a standard that would lower carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 60 percent relative to 2005 levels over twenty years, streamline the fragmented regulatory system that is currently in place, generate fiscal benefits, and help fund energy innovation. Through a simple design and transparent implementation, the National Clean Energy Standard would provide certainty about the economic returns to clean energy that would facilitate investment in new energy projects and lower the emission intensity of the power sector. It would also serve as an ambitious bridge to economy-wide energy and climate policy. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:4901643&r=ene |
| By: | Aldy, Joseph Edgar |
| Abstract: | The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included more than $90 billion in strategic clean energy investments intended to promote job creation and promote deployment of low-carbon technologies. In terms of spending, the clean energy package has been described as the nation’s “biggest energy bill in history.†To provide a preliminary assessment of the Recovery Act’s clean energy package, this paper reviews the rationale, design, and implementation of the act. The paper surveys the policy principles for clean energy stimulus and describes the process of crafting the clean energy package during the 2008-2009 Presidential Transition. Then, the paper reviews the initial employment, economic activity, and energy outcomes associated with these energy investments and provides a more detailed case study on the Recovery Act’s support for renewable power through grants and loan guarantees. The paper concludes with lessons learned. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:5688917&r=ene |
| By: | Erdogdu, E. |
| Abstract: | More than half of the countries in the world have introduced a reform process in their power sectors and billions of dollars have been spent on liberalizing electricity markets around the world. Ideological considerations, political composition of governments and educational/professional background of leaders have played and will play a crucial role throughout the reform process. Adapting a political economy perspective, this paper attempts to discover the impact of political economy variables on the liberalization process in electricity markets. Empirical models are developed and analysed using panel data from 55 developed and developing countries covering the period 1975–2010. The research findings suggest that there is a significant negative relationship between electricity market liberalization and the size of industry sector, meaning that countries with larger industry sectors tend to liberalize less. Also, we detect a negative correlation between polity score and power sector liberalization, that is; it cannot be argued that liberalization policies are stronger in more democratic countries. On the other hand, our results imply that countries that receive foreign financial aid or assistance are more likely to liberalize their electricity markets. In OECD countries, single-party governments accelerate the reform process by reducing public ownership and vertical integration. Moreover, we detect a negative relationship between the years the chief executive has been in office and the reform progress in OECD countries. Furthermore, we identify a decrease in vertical integration in electricity industry during the terms of parties with “right” or “left” ideologies in OECD countries. Additionally, professional and educational background of head of executive branch (prime minister, president and so on) seem to have very significant impact on reform process in OECD countries, but this is not the case in non-OECD countries. Leaders with a professional background as entrepreneurs speed up electricity market liberalization process in OECD countries while those with a background as economists slow it down. As for educational background, the reforms seem to progress slower in OECD countries if the head of executive has an educational background in economics or natural science. As a final point, the study suggests that EU or OECD membership, the existence of electricity market reform idea, population density, electricity consumption, income level, educational level, imports of goods and services (as % of GDP) and country specific features have a strong correlation with liberalization process in electricity markets. |
| Keywords: | Electric utilities, industrial policy, political economy |
| JEL: | L94 L52 Q48 |
| Date: | 2012–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:1227&r=ene |
| By: | Nobuhiro Hosoe (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies); Makoto Tanaka (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies) |
| Abstract: | The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station held by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) had a serious nuclear accident in March of 2011. TEPCO's liability for the losses caused by this accident is speculated to reach several trillion yen. For this compensation, TEPCO is supposed to sell its assets, including those for its power business. Their sales are crucial for TEPCO's solvency. We estimate the fundamental values of TEPCO's thermal plants by modeling their plant operation patterns based on spot market prices and fuel costs. Then, we discuss the implication of their divestiture in the context of the regulatory reforms as a radical path to unbundling. |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:12-02&r=ene |
| By: | Alistair Munro (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies) |
| Abstract: | Economic analysis of nuclear accidents and their aftermath is comparatively rare. In this paper, in the light of the Japanese government’s intensive efforts to decontaminate areas affected by radioactive Caesium from Fukushima dai-ichi nuclear power plant, we create a cost-benefit framework for assessing the merits of decontamination strategies. Using some benchmark data for Japan we estimate that optimal delay is positive for most reasonable parameter values. For low value land, optimal delay could be in excess of 30 years. For higher value, urban land, optimal delay generally lies in the range of 5-10 years. |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ngi:dpaper:12-01&r=ene |
| By: | Lee, Audrey; Bunn, Matthew G.; Catenacci, Michela; Anadon, Laura Diaz; Bosetti, Valentina |
| Abstract: | Dramatic growth in nuclear energy would be required for nuclear power to provide a significant part of the carbon-free energy the world is likely to need in the 21st century, or a major part in meeting other energy challenges. This would require increased support from governments, utilities, and publics around the world. Achieving that support is likely to require improved economics and major progress toward resolving issues of nuclear safety, proliferation-resistance, and nuclear waste management. This is likely to require both research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) of improved technologies and new policy approaches. To gather information on the RD&D needs for the future of nuclear energy, the future cost and performance of nuclear technologies, and on the major barriers to large-scale deployment of nuclear energy, a team of researchers at Harvard University and the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) conducted two coordinated surveys of nuclear experts. The surveys asked experts how much they would recommend that their governments spend on nuclear energy RD&D; what progress in cost and performance might be expected by 2030 if those recommendations were followed; and what other factors might constrain or promote future nuclear energy growth. Leading experts from the United States (U.S.) and the European Union (E.U.) participated in this expert elicitation surveys during the summer and fall of 2010. In April 2011, the FEEM and Harvard teams held a workshop in Venice, Italy with a subset of the participating E.U. and U.S. experts to present and discuss the results of the elicitations, in an effort to understand where there is consensus and where the most important disputes and uncertainties lie. Given the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, the meeting opened with a discussion of the significance of that event for the future of nuclear power, and of the main lessons learned. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:8160715&r=ene |
| By: | Morozov, Yuri; Mowatt-Larssen, Rolf; Saradzhyan, Simon; Tobey, William H; Yesin, Viktor I.; Zolotarev, Pavel S.; Bunn, Matthew G. |
| Abstract: | Nuclear terrorism is a real and urgent threat. Given the potentially catastrophic consequences, even a small probability of terrorists getting and detonating a nuclear bomb is enough to justify urgent action to reduce the risk. Al-Qaeda and North Caucasus terrorist groups have both made statements indicating that they seek nuclear weapons and have attempted to acquire them; these groups are presented together as a case study to assess nuclear terrorism as a present and future threat. (The only other terrorist group known to have systematically sought to get nuclear weapons was the Japanese cult group Aum Shinrikyo.) This study makes the case that it is plausible that a technically sophisticated group could make, deliver, and detonate a crude nuclear bomb if it could obtain sufficient fissile material. The study offers recommendations for actions to reduce this danger. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:8160716&r=ene |
| By: | Nye, Joseph S. |
| Abstract: | Identifying “revolutions in military affairs†is arbitrary, but some inflection points in technological change are larger than others: for example, the gunpowder revolution in early modern Europe, the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century, the second industrial revolution of the early twentieth century, and the nuclear revolution in the middle of the last century. In this century, we can add the information revolution that has produced today’s extremely rapid growth of cyberspace. Earlier revolutions in information technology, such as Gutenberg’s printing press, also had profound political effects, but the current revolution can be traced to Moore’s law and the thousand-fold decrease in the costs of computing power that occurred in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Political leaders and analysts are only beginning to come to terms with this transformative technology. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:8052146&r=ene |
| By: | Matteo Pelagatti (Dipartimento di Statistica, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca) |
| Abstract: | In the fast growing literature that addresses the problem of the optimal bidding behaviour of power generation companies that sell energy in electricity auctions it is always assumed that every firm knows the aggregate supply function of its competitors. Since this information is generally not available, real data have to be substituted by predictions. In this paper we propose two alternative approaches to the problem and apply them to the hourly prediction of the aggregate supply function of the competitors of the main Italian generation company. |
| Keywords: | electricity auctions, functional prediction, reduced rank regression |
| Date: | 2012–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mis:wpaper:20120301&r=ene |
| By: | St\'ephane Goutte (LAGA); Nadia Oudjane (LAGA); Francesco Russo (CERMICS, INRIA Rocquencourt, UMA) |
| Abstract: | We consider the discretized version of a (continuous-time) two-factor model introduced by Benth and coauthors for the electricity markets. For this model, the underlying is the exponent of a sum of independent random variables. We provide and test an algorithm, which is based on the celebrated Foellmer-Schweizer decomposition for solving the mean-variance hedging problem. In particular, we establish that decomposition explicitely, for a large class of vanilla contingent claims. Interest is devoted in the choice of rebalancing dates and its impact on the hedging error, regarding the payoff regularity and the non stationarity of the log-price process. |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:1205.4089&r=ene |
| By: | Kilian, Lutz; Vigfusson, Robert J. |
| Abstract: | There is a long tradition of using oil prices to forecast U.S. real GDP. It has been suggested that the predictive relationship between the price of oil and one-quarter ahead U.S. real GDP is nonlinear in that (1) oil price increases matter only to the extent that they exceed the maximum oil price in recent years and that (2) oil price decreases do not matter at all. We examine, first, whether the evidence of in-sample predictability in support of this view extends to out-of-sample forecasts. Second, we discuss how to extend this forecasting approach to higher horizons. Third, we compare the resulting class of nonlinear models to alternative economically plausible nonlinear specifications and examine which aspect of the model is most useful for forecasting. We show that the asymmetry embodied in commonly used nonlinear transformations of the price of oil is not helpful for out-of-sample forecasting; more robust and more accurate real GDP forecasts are obtained from symmetric nonlinear models based on the three-year net oil price change. Finally, we quantify the extent to which the 2008 recession could have been forecast using the latter class of time-varying threshold models. |
| Keywords: | Asymmetry; Nonlinearity; Oil price; Out-of-sample forecast; Real GDP |
| JEL: | C32 C53 Q43 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8980&r=ene |
| By: | Kip, Viscusi, W.; Zeckhauser, Richard Jay |
| Abstract: | The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill highlighted the glaring weakness in the current liability and regulatory regime for oil spills and for environmental catastrophes more broadly. This article proposes a new liability structure for deep sea oil drilling and for catastrophic risks generally. It delineates a two-tier system of liability. The first tier would impose strict liability up to the firm’s financial resources plus insurance coverage. The second tier would be an annual tax equal to the expected costs in the coming year beyond this damages amount. A single firm will be identified as responsible for generating the risk. It would be required to demonstrate substantial ability to pay in the first tier before being permitted to engage in the risky activity. This structure provides for efficient deterrence for environmental catastrophes, since the responsible party is bearing in expectation the risks it is imposing. It also addresses the challenges posed by the fat-tailed distributions of catastrophic environmental risks and provides for more assured and adequate compensation of potential losses than current liability and regulatory arrangements. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:5027954&r=ene |
| By: | Aldy, Joseph Edgar |
| Abstract: | The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill posed near-term economic risks to the Gulf of Mexico region and raised questions about appropriate policies to mitigate catastrophic oil spill risks. This essay reviews the Obama Administration’s assessment of the economic vulnerabilities to the spill, the Administration’s May 12, 2010 legislative proposal focused on minimizing the adverse economic impacts to workers and small businesses in the Gulf of Mexico, and the effort to secure an agreement with BP to ensure that those harmed by the spill will receive full compensation. Then, the essay discusses several of the policy reforms advanced by the Administration to reduce the risks of future catastrophic oil spills, including the value of an industry consortium to provide deepwater well containment resources and the need to remove the arbitrary limit on liability for economic damages from offshore drilling. The essay closes with a few policy lessons learned from the spill. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:5241379&r=ene |
| By: | O'Sullivan, Meghan L. |
| Abstract: | Iraq’s ability to reach its energy potential should be of broad regional and international concern. Iraq could be poised for a dramatic transformation, one in which it finally escapes the political and technical constraints that have kept it producing less than 4 percent of the world’s oil, despite having the third-largest conventional oil reserves in the world. Should Iraq meet its ambitions to bring nearly 10 million more barrels of oil on line by 2017, it would constitute the largest ever capacity increase in the history of the oil industry. Should Iraq, more probably, bring only half this capacity to market, it would still represent a massive achievement. Translating Iraq’s energy promise into reality is in the shared interest of Iraq, the United States, Japan, and the international community more broadly. At the highest level, the health of Iraq’s energy sector—currently the source of more than 90 percent of revenues accrued by the state—is a major determinant in setting Iraq’s overall trajectory. A booming energy economy is not a guarantee of a prosperous, democratic, and stable Iraq; it could also be the hallmark of an Iraq that has returned to authoritarianism or even tyranny. But it is difficult to imagine a prosperous, democratic, and stable Iraq that does not claim a thriving energy industry among its assets. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:5116451&r=ene |
| By: | Scherer, Frederic Michael |
| Abstract: | A century ago, in 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its path-breaking decision in the monopolization case against the Standard Oil Companies. Standard pleaded inter alia that its near-monopoly position was the result of superior innovation, citing in particular the Frasch-Burton process for refining the high-sulphur oil found around Lima, Ohio. This paper examines the role of Hermann Frasch in inventing and developing the desulphurization process, showing that Standard failed to recognize his inventive genius when he was its employee and purchased his rights and services only after he had applied the technique in his own Canadian company. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:4686409&r=ene |
| By: | Franz Hubert; Onur Cobanli |
| Abstract: | We use cooperative game theory to analyze the strategic impact of three controversial pipeline projects. Two of them, Nord Stream and South Stream, allow Russian gas to bypass transit countries, Ukraine and Belarus. Nord Stream’s strategic value turns out to be huge, justifying the high investment cost for Germany and Russia. The additional leverage obtained through South Stream, in contrast, appears small. The third project, Nabucco, aims at diversifying Europe’s gas imports by accessing producers in Middle East and Central Asia. The project has a large potential to curtail Russia’s power, but the benefits accrue mainly to Turkey, while the gains for the EU are negligible. |
| Keywords: | Bargaining Power, Transport Network, Natural Gas |
| JEL: | L5 L9 O22 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wsr:wpaper:y:2012:i:093&r=ene |
| By: | Nobuyuki Ito (Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University); Kenji Takeuchi (Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University); Shunsuke Managi (Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates potential demand for infrastructure investment for alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) by using a stated preference survey of 1,531 Japanese citizens. The potential demand is estimated on the basis of how much people are willing to pay for AFVs under different refueling scenarios. By using the estimated parameters, the economic efficiency of establishing battery exchange stations for electric vehicles is examined. The result indicates that infrastructural development of battery exchange stations can be socially efficient when the percentage of electric vehicle purchasers out of the total number of new vehicle purchasers exceeds 5.63%. Furthermore, in contrast to intuitive prediction, we found a complement relationship between the cruising ranges of AFVs and the infrastructures established. The result suggests that people with AFVs might change their total trip distance depending on the sufficiency of infrastructure investment. |
| Keywords: | Alternative fuel vehicle, infrastructure investment, stated preference method, choice experiment, discrete choice, nested logit model, cost-benefit analysis |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:koe:wpaper:1207&r=ene |
| By: | Lee, Henry; Grant, Lovellette |
| Abstract: | For the past forty years, United States Presidents have repeatedly called for a reduction in the country's dependence on fossil fuels in general and foreign oil specifically. Stronger efficiency standards and higher taxes on motor fuels are a step in this direction, but achieving even greater reductions in oil consumption will require changing the way Americans power their transportation system. Some officials advocate the electrification of the passenger vehicle fleet as a path to meeting this goal. The Obama administration has, for example, embraced a goal of having one million electric-powered vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015, while others proposed a medium-term goal where electric vehicles would consist of 20% of the passenger vehicle fleet by 2030—approximately 30 million electric vehicles. The technology itself is not in question—many of the global automobile companies are planning to sell plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and/or battery electric vehicles (BEVs) by 2012. The key question is, will Americans buy them? The answer depends on four additional questions: 1. Is the cost of purchasing and operating an electric vehicle more or less expensive than the cost of a comparable conventional gasoline-powered vehicle? 2. Are the comparative costs likely to change over the next twenty years? 3. Do electric vehicles provide the same attributes as conventional cars, and if not, do the differences matter? 4. Will electric car owners be able to access the electricity needed to power their vehicles? This paper attempts to answer these four questions. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:5116458&r=ene |
| By: | Eva Valeri (University of Trieste); Amanda Stathopoulos (University of Trieste); Edoardo Marcucci (University of Roma Tre) |
| Abstract: | In the last years Energy Efficiency (EE) has become an important issue in the public policy makers’ agenda due to ambitious objectives of the European Commission to reduce energy consumption by 20% in 2020. Many countries have adopted state-level EE programs targeted to include Energy Saving (ES) policy mixes in different sectors including transportation that is among the most energy intensive ones. The aims of this paper are to: i) report briefly the macro-areas of state-level transport EE policies related to the transport sector, ii) verify the level of implementation of these policies among some European countries, iii) highlight, for each country considered, the EE measures adopted up to 2007 and compare the results obtained, iv) evaluate the implementation of EE transport successful measures adopted by each respective National Energy Agency (NEAs), and finally v) compare the main results deriving from EE policy implementation. In particular, in this last objective we adapted the good practice policy mix framework for car passenger transport proposed by the AID-EE Project at the information obtained from countries’ National Energy Programmes (NEPs) updated to 2007. |
| Keywords: | Transport Sector, Energy Sector, Energy Efficiency, Energy Saving, Energy Policy mix |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rcr:wpaper:03_12&r=ene |
| By: | Thureson, Disa (VTI – The Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute) |
| Abstract: | In some cost benefit analysis (CBA) applications, as for example valuation of climate change damages, distributional weights are used to account for diminishing utility of marginal income. This is usually done by intratemporal distributional weights, which are combined with discounting to account for intertemporal equity and efficiency. Here, I show that this approach may introduce some inconsistencies in terms of path dependence. In short, this inconsistency means that regional economic growth is double counted. This is because income weighting is performed both through the discount rate and through the distributional weights, so that growth shows up twice in the weighting process. Using the PAGE2002 model it is found that the inconsistency problem in the original model erases the influence of distributional weights on the social cost of carbon dioxide (SCCO2), compared to a standard CBA approach. The proposed alternative approaches yield about 2040% higher values of SCCO2 than the old approach. |
| Keywords: | Distributional weights; Equity weights; Discounting; Cost benefit analysis; Marginal utility; Integrated assessment model; PAGE2002; Social cost of carbon; Climate change |
| JEL: | C69 H23 H43 Q54 |
| Date: | 2012–05–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:oruesi:2012_008&r=ene |
| By: | Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID); Fundación Chile |
| Abstract: | Este documento presenta el caso exitoso de la optimización de centrales térmicas en edificios residenciales bajo el modelo ESCO. La ESCO (empresa de servicios energéticos) Energy Traking ha implementado un programa para el ahorro de energía en sistemas de agua caliente y calefacción, denominado Building Energy Programme (BEP) actualmente en vías de patentamiento. Energy Traking mediante los aportes del BID-FOMIN - a través del "Programa de promoción de oportunidades de energías limpias" - ejecutado por Fundación Chile, logró ahorros anuales del 25% en gas natural, ahorros anuales de hasta el 10% en consumo de agua, un retorno de la inversión entre uno y dos años, y un ahorro de emisiones de CO2 de 40 a 80 toneladas al año. En el documento se explican los pormenores financieros y técnicos del proyecto. |
| Keywords: | Energía y minería :: Eficiencia energética, Energía y minería :: Petróleo, carbón y gas natural, Sector privado, Ciencia y tecnología :: Nuevas tecnologías, Infraestructura y transporte :: Suministro de agua y saneamiento, Desarrollo rural y urbano :: Desarrollo urbano, Lecciones aprendidas, lessons learned, case study, caso de estudio |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:69018&r=ene |
| By: | Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID); Fundación Chile |
| Abstract: | Este documento presenta el caso exitoso de implementación de la integración de sistemas solares en Faenadora Entre Montes. Esta empresa, mediante los aportes del BID-FOMIN - a través del "Programa de promoción de oportunidades de energías limpias" - ejecutado por Fundación Chile, logró ahorros anuales de $ 700 mil, un retorno de la inversión en cuatro años y ahorro de emisiones de CO2 de 5 toneladas al año. En el documento se explican los pormenores financieros y técnicos del proyecto. |
| Keywords: | Energía y minería :: Eficiencia energética, Energía y minería :: Energía renovable, Energía y minería :: Electricidad, Economía :: Inversión, Sector privado, Energía y minería :: Mercados de energía, Ciencia y tecnología :: Transferencia de tecnología, Ciencia y tecnología :: Nuevas tecnologías, Lecciones aprendidas, lessons learned, case study, caso de estudio |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:68898&r=ene |
| By: | Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID); Fundación Chile |
| Abstract: | Este documento presenta el caso exitoso de implementación de un sistema de recuperación de calor en Frutícola Dosal. Esta empresa, mediante los aportes del BID-FOMIN - a través del "Programa de promoción de oportunidades de energías limpias" - ejecutado por Fundación Chile, logró ahorros anuales de $ 90 millones, un retorno de la inversión entre uno y cuatro años, y un ahorro de emisiones de CO2 de 540 toneladas al año. En el documento se explican los pormenores financieros y técnicos del proyecto. |
| Keywords: | Energía y minería :: Eficiencia energética, Energía y minería :: Electricidad, Energía y minería :: Energía renovable, Energía y minería :: Petróleo, carbón y gas natural, Economía :: Inversión, Sector privado, Energía y minería :: Mercados de energía, Ciencia y tecnología :: Nuevas tecnologías, Ciencia y tecnología :: Transferencia de tecnología, Lecciones aprendidas, lessons learned, case study, caso de estudio |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:68938&r=ene |
| By: | Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID); Fundación Chile |
| Abstract: | Este documento presenta el caso exitoso de la instalación de un sistema solar en Hogares Alemanes S.A. La empresa mediante los aportes del BID-FOMIN - a través del "Programa de promoción de oportunidades de energías limpias" - ejecutado por Fundación Chile, logró ahorros anuales del 7,5 millones, un retorno de la inversión de 7 años, y un ahorro de emisiones de CO2 de 30 toneladas al año. En el documento se explican los pormenores financieros y técnicos del proyecto. |
| Keywords: | Energía y minería :: Energía renovable, Energía y minería :: Petróleo, carbón y gas natural, Energía y minería :: Electricidad, Sector privado, Ciencia y tecnología :: Nuevas tecnologías, Lecciones aprendidas, lessons learned, case study, estudio de caso |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:69498&r=ene |
| By: | Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID); Fundación Chile |
| Abstract: | Este documento presenta el caso exitoso de la recuperación de calor en hornos en Feltrex S. A. La empresa mediante los aportes del BID-FOMIN - a través del "Programa de promoción de oportunidades de energías limpias" - ejecutado por Fundación Chile, logró ahorros anuales del 45 millones, un retorno de la inversión de 7 meses, y un ahorro de emisiones de CO2 de 220 toneladas al año. En el documento se explican los pormenores financieros y técnicos del proyecto. |
| Keywords: | Energía y minería :: Eficiencia energética, Energía y minería :: Petróleo, carbón y gas natural, Energía y minería :: Electricidad, Sector privado, Ciencia y tecnología :: Nuevas tecnologías, Lecciones aprendidas, lessons learned, case study, caso de estudio |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:69458&r=ene |
| By: | Bell, William; Foster, John |
| Abstract: | The International Energy Association has observed that nearly all countries now offer or are planning feed-in tariffs (FiTs) for solar PV but debate has shifted from ‘if or how to implement a FiT’ to ‘how to move to a self-sustaining market post FiT’. The aim of this paper is to explain how a sustainable FiT can be designed for residential solar PV installations, focusing on the case of ‘solar rich’ Australia. Solar PV is approaching price parity at the retail level where the electricity price charged includes both transmission and distribution costs, in addition to the wholesale price. So the economic rationale for paying a FiT premium above market rates to achieve dynamic efficiency is no longer warranted. Socially, FiTs can be a problem because they tend to exacerbate social inequality by providing a transfer of wealth from poorer to richer households. Environmentally, FiTs can also fall short of their full potential to cut emissions if they lack ‘time of day’ price signals that reflect movements in the wholesale price. In this paper, we provide a framework in which a sustainable FiT can be designed that positively addresses all three areas of concern: social, environmental and economic. This framework identifies the market failures that exist in the residential solar PV electricity market, which include exacerbating inequity, poorly targeting myopic investment behaviour, inadequate transmission and distribution investment deferment price signals and inappropriate infant industry assistance. We argue that these market failures require addressing before the market can operate in an allocatively efficient manner. The sustainable FiT that we propose would lead to improvements in environmental, social and economic factors. The resultant transmission and distribution investment deferment would meet both environmental and economic objectives. Directly providing finance for solar PV installations would address both social equity and investment myopia. We argue that introducing appropriate pricing signals for solar PV installations via would be in the ongoing interest of all stakeholders. It is time to progress from FiTs focused on dynamics efficiency to a sustainable FiT that emphasises allocative efficiency as an explicit goal. |
| Keywords: | Feed-in tariffs; FiT; solar PV; residential solar PV; reverse auction FiT; parity; Levelised cost of energy; LCOE; Diffusion of innovations; dynamic efficiency; allocative efficiency; Sustainable; Social progress; Environmental protection; Social inequity; DUOS; TUOS; smart meters |
| JEL: | R22 O13 Q3 Q01 Q2 Q4 Q5 L94 R38 |
| Date: | 2012–03–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:38861&r=ene |
| By: | Sunghoon Chung (Southern Methodist University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how environmental regulation plays a role in shaping the pattern of outward foreign direct investment, and thereby assesses the pollution haven hypothesis. Empirical evidence for the pollution haven hypothesis has been inconsistent in the literature, possibly due to data aggregation across industries, clean technology innovation in advanced countries, factor endowment effects, unobserved heterogeneity, or endogeneity of environmental policies. To circumvent these problems, we exploit highly disaggregated industry-level panel data from South Korea along with an identification and estimation strategy that has been rarely used in prior studies. After dealing with such issues, we find strong evidence that polluting industries tend to invest more in countries with laxer environmental regulations. As a complementary evidence, we also find that environmentally lax countries tend to specialize in polluting industries when the same strategy is applied to South Korean import data covering the same sample countries, industries, and time periods. Theoretically, our findings are in line with a chain proposition of comparative advantage, also called the Quasi-Heckscher-Ohlin prediction. |
| Keywords: | pollution haven hypothesis, environmental regulation, comparative advantage, foreign direct investment, South Korea. |
| JEL: | F18 F23 Q56 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:smu:ecowpa:1203&r=ene |
| By: | Stavins, Robert Norman; Aldy, Joseph Edgar |
| Abstract: | Because of the global commons nature of climate change, international cooperation among nations will likely be necessary for meaningful action at the global level. At the same time, it will inevitably be up to the actions of sovereign nations to put in place policies that bring about meaningful reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases. Due to the ubiquity and diversity of emissions of greenhouse gases in most economies, as well as the variation in abatement costs among individual sources, conventional environmental policy approaches, such as uniform technology and performance standards, are unlikely to be sufficient to the task. Therefore, attention has increasingly turned to market-based instruments in the form of carbon-pricing mechanisms. We examine the opportunities and challenges associated with the major options for carbon pricing: carbon taxes, cap-and-trade, emission reduction credits, clean energy standards, and fossil fuel subsidy reductions. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:5347069&r=ene |
| By: | Alberto Gago (Rede (Universidade de Vigo) and Economics for Energy); Michael Hanemann (Arizona State University and University of California at Berkeley); Xavier Labandeira (Rede (Universidade de Vigo) and Economics for Energy); Ana Ramos (Rede (Universidade de Vigo) and Economics for Energy) |
| Abstract: | Buildings are crucial to control present and future energy demand and, therefore, greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. In this chapter we suggest that, due to a number of general and specific barriers to the implementation of energy efficiency in buildings, energy prices and conventional energy and environmental policy instruments may not achieve the desired outcomes. Instead, we suggest a novel package of complementary measures that can simultaneously tackle the problems of imperfect information, split incentives among agents, uncertainty about cost and limited access to capital. The proposed policy package is defined around energy certification of buildings, uses flexible building codes, smart metering and employs a new tax on energy inefficiency to foster continuous incentives towards energy efficiency improvements and to provide revenues for an energy efficiency fund that provides capital to firms and poor households. |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:efe:wpaper:fa04-2012&r=ene |
| By: | Geir H. Bjertnæs, Marina Tsygankova and ThomasMartinsen (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | This study tests whether the strong double dividend hypothesis holds within a setting where a uniform tax on green house gas emissions is raised above the international quota price within the Norwegian economy. The hypothesis does not hold within a framework where detailed technology choices contribute to lower the revenue recycled back to households. The hypothesis, however, holds when local external effects connected to cuing and accidents etc. within the transport sector are taken into consideration. The hypothesis also holds when the international quota price is increased, and oil prices drop in the long run |
| Keywords: | Doublel dividend; emissions |
| JEL: | F41 H21 Q43 Q48 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:691&r=ene |
| By: | Alessio D'Amato (Faculty of Economics, University of Rome "Tor Vergata"); Amanda Spisto (Faculty of Economics, University of Rome "Tor Vergata") |
| Abstract: | We model an environmental policy problem with two representative firms in two countries (one for each country). Firms are subject to environmental taxation, aimed at reducing CO2 emissions, and a unilateral technological spillover takes place: one of the two countries (innovating country) is responsible for generating the technological spillover while the other country is the one benefiting from the spillover e¤ect. Two different scenarios are analysed: one where countries do not cooperate and one where a single supranational authority is in charge of setting environmental policy. At first, both countries feature emissions taxation aimed at reducing CO2 emissions. In such a case, we show that the standard international externality applies, i.e. a suboptimal emission tax rate is set, leading to larger than efficient pollution. However, the tax rate is larger than marginal national damages in the innovating country due to the need to provide incentives towards technical change. Then we present a setting where the two countries are both subject to a national tax on emissions but the innovating country introduces a tax credit which is directly proportional to the innovative effort. In such a setting, we obtain counterintuitive results: interestingly, for a sufficiently large spillover, the tax rate in the non cooperative setting might exceed the one arising under cooperation. |
| Keywords: | tax credit policy, transboundary pollution, international technological spillover, cooperative vs non-cooperative behaviour |
| JEL: | Q58 H23 |
| Date: | 2012–05–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtv:ceisrp:237&r=ene |
| By: | Stowe, Robert C; Stavins, Robert Norman; Chan, Gabriel Angelo; Sweeney, Richard Leonard |
| Abstract: | The introduction of the U.S. SO2 allowance-trading program to address the threat of acid rain as part of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 is a landmark event in the history of environmental regulation. The program was a great success by almost all measures. This paper, which draws upon a re¬search workshop and a policy roundtable held at Harvard in May 2011, investigates critically the design, enactment, implementation, performance, and implications of this path-breaking application of economic thinking to environmental regulation. Ironically, cap and trade seems especially well suited to addressing the problem of climate change, in that emitted greenhouse gases are evenly distributed throughout the world’s atmosphere. Recent hostility toward cap and trade in debates about U.S. climate legislation may reflect the broader political environment of the climate debate more than the substantive merits of market-based regulation. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:8160721&r=ene |
| By: | Stephen P. Holland; Michael R. Moore |
| Abstract: | Cap and trade programs have considerable heterogeneity in permit validity and compliance timing. For example, permits have different validity across time (e.g., banking, borrowing, and seasons) and space (e.g., zonal restrictions), and compliance timing can be annual, in overlapping cycles, or in multi-year periods. We compare and contrast nine prominent cap and trade programs along these dimensions and construct a general model of permit validity and compliance timing. We derive sufficient conditions under which abatement is invariant to compliance timing, i.e., compliance timing cannot smooth abatement cost shocks. Under these conditions, i) expected compliance costs are invariant, ii) the variance of compliance costs increases with delayed compliance, iii) equilibrium prices may not be unique, and iv) the delayed compliance equilibrium may rely upon non-unique, “degenerate” prices not determined by marginal abatement costs. Degenerate prices are unlikely to be discovered by market forces. We then present two examples which are not invariant to compliance timing. If permit allocation is delayed or if a price cap is implemented with a reserve fund, abatement may depend on compliance timing. We demonstrate the model’s broad applicability by illustrating different types of temporal and spatial permit validity. |
| JEL: | H4 Q4 Q5 |
| Date: | 2012–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18098&r=ene |
| By: | Aldy, Joseph Edgar; Pizer, William |
| Abstract: | The pollution haven hypothesis suggests that unilateral domestic emission mitigation policies could cause adverse “competitiveness†impacts on domestic manufacturers as they lose market share to foreign competitors and relocate production activity – and emissions – to unregulated economies. We construct a precise definition of competitiveness impacts appropriate for climate change regulation that can be estimated exclusively with domestic production and net import data. We use this definition and a 20+ year panel of 400+ U.S. manufacturing industries to estimate the effects of energy prices, which is in turn used to simulate the impacts of carbon pricing policy. We find that a U.S.-only $15 per ton CO2 price will cause competitiveness effects on the order of a 1.0 to 1.3 percent decline in production among the most energy-intensive manufacturing industries. This amounts to roughly one-third of the total impact of a carbon pricing policy on these firms’ economic output. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:5688779&r=ene |
| By: | Karp, Larry (University of California, Berkeley. Dept of agricultural and resource economics); Stevenson, Megan (University of California, Berkeley. Dept of agricultural and resource economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the reality and the potential for green industrial policy. We provide a summary of the green industrial policies, broadly understood, for five countries. We then consider the relation between green industrial policies and trade disputes, emphasizing theBrazil-US dispute involving ethanol and the broader US-China dispute. The theory of public policy provides many lessons for green industrial policy. We select four of these lessons, involving the Green Paradox, the choice of quantities versus prices with endogenous investment, the coordination issues arising from emissions control, and theability of green industrial policies to promote cooperation in reducing a global public bad like carbon emissions. |
| Keywords: | green industrial policy, trade conflicts, green paradox, asymmetric information, coordination games, participation games |
| JEL: | F13 F18 H21 H23 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:are:cudare:1126&r=ene |
| By: | Viscusi, Kip W.; Zeckhauser, Richard Jay |
| Abstract: | Catastrophic risks differ in terms of their natural or human origins, their possible amplification by human behaviors, and the relationships between those who create the risks and those who suffer the losses. Given their disparate anatomies, catastrophic risks generally require tailored therapies, with each prescribed therapy employing a specific portfolio of policy strategies. Given that catastrophic risks occur rarely, and impose extreme losses, traditional mechanisms for controlling risks – bargaining, regulation, liability – often function poorly. Commons catastrophes arise when a group of actors collectively impose such risks on themselves. When the commons is balanced, that is, when the parties are roughly symmetrically situated, a range of regulatory mechanisms can perform well. However, unbalanced commons – such as exist with climate change – will challenge any control mechanism with the disparate parties putting forth proposals to limit their own burdens. When humans impose catastrophic risks predominantly on others – as with deepwater oil spills – the risks are external. For those risks, the analysis shows, a single responsible party should be identified. Primary emphasis should then be placed on a two-tier liability system. Parties engaged in activities posing such catastrophic risks would be subject to substantial minimum financial requirements, strict liability for all damages, and a risk-based tax for expected losses that would exceed the responsible party’s ability to pay. Utilizing the financial incentives of this two-tier liability system would decrease the current reliance on regulatory policy, and would alter the role of regulators with a tilt toward financial oversight efforts and away from direct control. Catastrophic risks will always be with us. But as rare, extreme events, society has little experience with them, and current mechanisms are poorly designed to control them. Only a tailored therapy approach offers promise of significant improvement. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:5688700&r=ene |
| By: | Libelula |
| Abstract: | El escaneo climático o climate screening es una herramienta que sirve para evaluar una política, programa o proyecto de desarrollo, a la luz de los impactos del cambio climático (actuales o potenciales). Su objetivo es identificar la vulnerabilidad de determinada(s) política(s), proyecto(s), programa(s) o iniciativa(s) ante los riesgos climáticos, y sugerir medidas de adaptación que permitan reducir el riesgo y aprovechar las oportunidades del cambio climático. |
| Keywords: | Medio ambiente y recursos naturales :: Cambio climático |
| JEL: | F0 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:66718&r=ene |
| By: | Mehdi Abbas (LEPII - Laboratoire d'Économie de la Production et de l'Intégration Internationale - CNRS : FRE3389 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II); Federico Sindico (Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy - University of Dundee) |
| Abstract: | L'article aborde la question de l'intégrité de la politique climatique européenne dans le contexte de concurrence globalisée. Il s'interroge sur la faisabilité institutionnelle et juridique d'une mesure d'ajustement aux frontières et de sa compatibilité avec le système commercial multilatéral. L'article présente la proposition d'une régulation climat-compatible du commerce international au travers d'un système de gouvernance CCNUCC-OMC. |
| Keywords: | POLITIQUE CLIMATIQUE ; UNION EUROPEENNE ; MESURE D'AJUSTEMENT AUX FRONTIERES |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00698497&r=ene |
| By: | Garth Heutel (University of North Carolina Greensboro) |
| Abstract: | Technical appendix for the Review of Economic Dynamics article |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:append:10-62&r=ene |
| By: | Emilio Calvo (ERI-CES); Santiago J. Rubio (ERI-CES) |
| Abstract: | This article provides a survey of dynamic models of international environmental agreements (IEAs). The focus is on environmental problems that are caused by a stock pollutant as are the cases of the acid rain and climate change. For this reason, the survey only reviews the literature that utilizes dynamic state-space games to analyze the formation of international agreements to control pollution. The survey considers both the cooperative approach and the noncooperative approach. In the case of the latter, the survey distinguishes between the models that assume binding agreements and those that assume the contrary. An evaluation of the state of the art is presented in the conclusions along with suggestions for future research. |
| Keywords: | Externalities; public goods; pollution; international environmental agreements; state-space dynamic games; differential games; cooperative and noncooperative games; trigger strategies |
| JEL: | C73 D62 H41 Q50 |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dbe:wpaper:0112&r=ene |
| By: | Karp, Larry (University of California, Berkeley. Dept of agricultural and resource economics); Simon, Leo (University of California, Berkeley. Dept of agricultural and resource economics) |
| Abstract: | We examine the size of stable coalitions in a participation game that has been used to model international environmental agreements, cartel formation, R&D spillovers, and monetary policy. The literature to date has relied on parametric examples; based on these examples, a consensus has emerged that in this kind of game, the equilibrium coalition size is small, except possibly when the potential benefits of cooperation are also small. In this paper, we develop a non-parametric approach to the problem, and demonstrate that the conventional wisdom is not robust. In a general setting, we identify conditions under which the equilibrium coalition size can be large even when potential gains are large. Contrary to previously examined leading special cases, we show that reductions in marginal abatement costs in an international environmental game can increase equilibrium membership, and we provide a measure of the smallest reduction in costs needed to support a coalition of arbi- trary size. |
| Keywords: | stable coalitions, participation games, international environmental agreement, climate agreement, trans-boundary pollution, investment spellovers |
| JEL: | C72 H4 Q54 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:are:cudare:1127&r=ene |
| By: | Bosetti, Valentina; Frankel, Jeffrey A. |
| Abstract: | A new climate change treaty must plug three gaps: the absence of emission targets extending far into the future, the absence of participation by the United States, China, and other developing countries, and the absence of reason to expect compliance. To be politically acceptable, it must obey certain constraints regarding country-by-country economic costs. We offer a framework to assign quantitative emission allocations, across countries, one budget period at a time. The two-part plan: (i) China and other developing countries accept targets at BAU in the coming budget period, the same period in which the US first agrees to cuts below BAU; (ii) all countries are asked in the future to make further cuts in accordance with a formula which sums a Progressive Reductions Factor, Latecomer Catch-up Factor, and Gradual Equalization Factor. An earlier proposal for specific parameter values in the formulas achieved the environmental goal that CO2 concentrations plateau at 500 ppm by 2100. It obeyed our political constraints: keeping the economic cost for every country below thresholds of Y=1% of income in Present Discounted Value, and X=5% of income in the worst period. In this paper we attain a concentration goal of 460 ppm CO2, but only by loosening political constraints. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:4735391&r=ene |
| By: | Christopher, Robert; Zeckhauser, Richard Jay |
| Abstract: | Policy analyses frequently clash. Their disagreements stem from many sources, including models, empirical estimates, and values such as who should have standing and how different criteria should be weighted. We provide a simple taxonomy of disagreement, identifying distinct categories within both the positive and values domains of normative policy analysis. Using disagreements in climate policy to illustrate, we demonstrate how illuminating the structure of disagreement helps to clarify the way forward. We conclude by suggesting a structure for policy analysis that can facilitate assessment, comparison, and debate by laying bare the most likely sources of disagreement. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:4669672&r=ene |
| By: | Aldy, Joseph Edgar; Stavins, Robert Norman |
| Abstract: | Emissions of greenhouse gases linked with global climate change are affected by diverse aspects of economic activity, including individual consumption, business investment, and government spending. An effective climate policy will have to modify the decision calculus for these activities in the direction of more efficient generation and use of energy, lower carbon-intensity of energy, and – more broadly – a more carbon-lean economy. The only approach to doing this on a meaningful scale that would be technically feasible and cost-effective is carbon pricing, that is, market-based climate policies that place a shadow-price on carbon dioxide emissions. We examine alternative designs of three such instruments – carbon taxes, cap-and-trade, and clean energy standards. We note that the U.S. political response to possible market-based approaches to climate policy has been and will continue to be largely a function of issues and structural factors that transcend the scope of environmental and climate policy. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hrv:hksfac:5241378&r=ene |