assessing the performance of renewable electricity support instruments abstract the performance of feed in tariffs and tradable certificates is assessed on criteria of efficacy efficiency equity and institutional feasibility in the early stage of transition to an energy system based entirely on renewable energy supplies renewable electricity can only thrive if support takes into account the specific technical economic and political problems which result from embedding this electricity in conventional power systems whose technology organizational structure environmental responsibility and general mission differ profoundly from the emerging renewable based system support schemes need to capture the diversity of power supplies the variable nature of some renewable supplies and their different attributes for the purposes of public policy they must take into account the variety of generators including small decentralized generation emerging in a renewable based system and the new relationships between generators and customers renewable energy policies need a clear point of reference because the incumbent power systems are not sustainable they must adapt to the requirements of the renewable ones not the other way round incumbent systems carry the responsibility of paying the transition something that corresponds best with the polluter pays principle

cost competitive incentives for wind energy development in china institutional dynamics and policy changes abstract this paper presents an overview of the development of wind power in china the factors that affect the directions of wind power development are analyzed it examines the economics of windfarm development and compares it with conventional energy sources the major constraints in wind technology development and defects of the current policies are discussed it points out that wind power development should be subject to rational policy change and institutional adjustment it discusses the incentive mechanisms and institutional frameworks for future development particular importance is attributed to market incentives for wind power to reach the objectives of industrialization and commercialization a number of cost competitive incentive measures and policies are recommended i introducing market based mechanisms through standard power purchase agreement ii establishing effective investment policies and regulations to attract private investment iii promoting localization of wind turbine production iv adjusting tax and subsidy policies and v reforming governmental institutions to make clear rules and responsibilities for policymaking and enhancing communication coordination between relevant government agencies in order to formulate uniform and effective policies

global wind power development economics and policies abstract existing literature indicates that theoretically the earth s wind energy supply potential significantly exceeds global energy demand yet only 2 3 of global electricity demand is currently derived from wind power despite 27 annual growth in wind generating capacity over the last 17 years more than 95 of total current wind power capacity is installed in the developed countries plus china and india our analysis shows that the economic competitiveness of wind power varies at wider range across countries or locations a climate change damage cost of us 20 tco 2 imposed to fossil fuels would make onshore wind competitive to all fossil fuels for power generation however the same would not happen to offshore wind with few exceptions even if the damage cost is increased to us 100 tco 2 to overcome a large number of technical financial institutional market and other barriers to wind power many countries have employed various policy instruments including capital subsidies tax incentives tradable energy certificates feed in tariffs grid access guarantees and mandatory standards besides climate change mitigation policies such as the clean development mechanism have played a pivotal role in promoting wind power despite these policies intermittency the main technical constraint could remain as the major challenge to the future growth of wind power

do deployment policies pick technologies by not picking applications a simulation of investment decisions in technologies with multiple applications abstract the role of deployment policies that aim to foster technological change has grown considerably especially in the fields of energy and climate however recent research has shown that the adoption of deployment policies carries the potential of locking in the technology that is most cost effective at the point of policy introduction but may be inefficient in the long term the present paper contributes to the emerging literature on the role of deployment policies in creating path dependency and eventually technology lock in while previous studies focused on the relationship between lock in and the technology specificity of deployment policies this paper introduces a new factor the existence of multiple applications for a technology we argue that this factor is highly relevant for technological lock in and should be considered by policy makers to support our argument we simulate the competition among four stationary battery technologies across energy system applications in an investment simulation model this simulation shows that the degree of competition among technologies differs strongly across applications which corresponds with a highly varying lock in probability hence selecting applications in deployment policies very likely corresponds to selecting technologies we discuss the implications of these results for both policy makers and for the academic debate on deployment policies and technological lock in as well as on technology assessment and governance more generally based on the notion that policies can have different technology specificity levels we develop the idea of the application specificity of policies and provide examples of currently enacted deployment policies that vary in terms of their technology and application specificity

international sanctions as international punishment much of the contemporary literature on the utility of international sanctions approaches the apparent riddle of why sanctions are embraced so eagerly when they are supposedly such an ineffective tool of statecraft by focusing on the instrumental and rational purposes of sanctions as a result one purpose that does not always lend itself to a rational means end calculus the purpose of punishment tends to be overlooked or more commonly dismissed outright this article explores punishment as both a useful and an effective purpose of international sanctions it argues not only that sanctions should be distinguished from other forms of hurtful statecraft but also that they are a form of international punishment for wrongdoing despite the difficulties of applying the term punishment in the context of international relations the article then examines the purposes of punishment and reveals that only some are understandable when a model of means end rationality is used suggesting that the element of the nonrational also plays an important role in international sanctions the argument is then applied to the case of u s sanctions imposed after the soviet union s invasion of afghanistan to demonstrate the different purposes of punishment at work in this case the article concludes that just as we cannot understand punishment as a purposive human activity solely by reference to a rational model of a means to a clearly delineated end so too we cannot entirely understand sanctions as a form of international punishment by an attachment to a rational model of policy behavior however some forms of punishment are exceedingly effective and this may explain why sanctions continue to be a popular instrument of statecraft

the development trajectories of wind power and solar pv power in china a comparison and policy recommendations wind power and solar pv power are the two major renewable energy technologies that are currently under rapid development in china in this paper the similarities and differences between the development trajectories of the two sectors are examined in terms of development status development policy and development trend five interesting findings from the comparison are obtained and several policy recommendations are made this paper contributes to the study on china s renewable energy policy from a new perspective

overcoming problems in turkey s renewable energy policy how can eu contribute abstract fossil fuels cover most of the energy demand in the world and this creates significant social economic and environmental problems many countries have taken measures to increase the share of renewable energy sources res especially in electricity generation and the review of literature shows that the success of a country in res diffusion depends on a comprehensive renewable energy policy which combines political commitment with stable and long term support measures that stimulate technological innovation as the largest economy in the world eu has also taken steps to increase res usage in electricity generation in member states similar to other developing countries turkey is learning lessons from eu experiences regarding res policies and turkey is also reforming its legal framework in line with acquis communautaire as a candidate country as a result eu has a multiway impact on turkey s renewable energy policy an overview of turkey s renewable energy policy showed that eu has significantly contributed to turkey in shaping its renewable energy policy and turkey should increase cooperation with eu in order to utilize its renewable energy potential

understanding cross national trends in high tech renewable power equipment exports to the united states we track us imports of advanced technology wind and solar power generation equipment from a panel of countries during 1989 2010 and examine the determining factors including country size sector specific us fdi outflow and domestic wind and solar power generation differentiating between the core high tech and the balance of system equipment we find us imports of both categories have grown at significantly higher rate from the relatively poorer countries and particularly china and india larger countries are found to be exporting significantly more and us fdi is found to play a significant positive role in the exports of high tech equipment for the poor countries for the core wind and solar high tech equipment we find domestic renewable power generation of the exporting countries also played a significant positive role

joint r d in low carbon technology development in china a case study of the wind turbine manufacturing industry abstract china faces the dual challenges of climate change and increased energy demand these challenges in turn increase the demand for wind energy development along with rapid growth in manufacturing capacity chinese companies have aspired to increase their innovation capacity in order to enhance their competitiveness in the market joint research and development r d is an attractive path for chinese companies striving to advance their r d capacity this paper examines joint r d between chinese wind turbine manufacturing companies and foreign design firms assessing the performance of joint r d activities in china using the structure conduct performance scp framework the study found that joint r d has improved chinese companies technical capacity human resources and financial growth however the effect on chinese companies innovation capacity is still limited because of unequal technical capacities of the two sides in collaboration as well as their preference for augmenting profits rather than technical capacity current joint r d mode is only the extension of licensing mode in wind turbine manufacturing industry

research of heat metering development situation and application effect evaluation model in china abstract in spite of over 10 years of heat metering promotion in china there still lays a certain gap between actual application and expectation in this paper the author conducts a comprehensive carding of china s current situation of heat metering in the aspects of policy price application area technical roadmap product quality and so on an application effect evaluation model is established based on the geometric mean weights method assignments and weighs of factors in the model are achieved via multi agent wide range of questionnaires comparisons are made among model results results published by liu xin and the results released from the ministry of housing and urban rural development of the people s republic of china mohurd which proves rationality and high accuracy of the model established in this paper evaluation results show that application of heat metering in 2012 requires improvement with the score pegged at 60 7 it is suggested that policy support from national government should be strengthened the impact of policies released by provincial government be curbed and heat metering pricing be increasingly reasonable application conditions of different metering techniques routes need to be clarified and relevant standards need to be revised to improve the operation

envisaging feed in tariffs for solar photovoltaic electricity european lessons for canada abstract while it is widely agreed that support schemes need to be put in place to promote the use of renewable electricity there is less consensus as to what are the best kinds of strategies to use what is attracting increasing attention in canada is a system of renewable portfolio standards in this all power suppliers are under an obligation to ensure that a certain percentage of the electricity they generate is from renewable resources they can either generate that electricity themselves or purchase green certificates from those who have used renewables to generate electricity recent experience from europe however suggests that a whole hearted commitment to this single strategy could be premature and potentially damaging for the development of all kinds of renewable electricity in canada solar photovoltaics included on the other side of the atlantic ocean the use of so called feed in tariffs that is an obligation for utilities to purchase at a set price the electricity generated by any renewable energy resource is widely credited with accelerating the development of renewable electricity in many countries the purpose of this article is to reflect upon this european experience with feed in tariffs to stimulate discussions regarding what promise they might hold for the development of solar photovoltaic electricity in canada the article is divided into three main sections in the first section policies to promote renewable electricity presently in place in different parts of canada are reviewed attention is then focused more specifically in the second section of this article upon feed in tariffs after defining and describing this alternative system experiences in the countries of the european union are reviewed the main strengths and weaknesses of feed in tariffs in the european experience are also examined the focus then moves back to canada in the third section of the article in this a system of feed in tariffs is proposed for the province of ontario in order to provide just one example of the kind of support that could be forthcoming

between fragmented authoritarianism and policy coordination creating a chinese market for wind energy abstract the chinese grid connected wind energy sector has undergone a number of fundamental changes during its 20 years of existence the scope of this article is to track the reforms of the energy bureaucracy and its policy approach on the one hand and changes in wind energy installations on the other by comparing three historically distinct phases of wind energy in china it is shown how policy reforms have changed largely from a state of fragmented authoritarianism towards policy coordination in the initial phase 1986 1993 wind energy was expanding very slowly with disjointed policy making and in the incremental phase 1994 1999 the energy authorities were in dispute over the strategy and launched conflicting policy initiatives with poor results in wind energy output the latest coordinated phase 2000 2006 however developed a coherent renewable energy agenda and policy regime for the wind power sector it is found that this phase with coordinated market regulations and incentives has helped give birth to a take off in chinese wind energy installations and substantial cost reductions although the latter is threatening the profitability of wind farms the article contributes to the academic debate over the role of policy making in renewable energy development and argues that china should continue and improve the coordination of regulations and incentives

renewable energy gathers steam in south africa abstract south africa s renewable energy independent power producers procurement programme the rei4p is an extensive initiative to install 17 8 gw of electricity generation capacity from renewables wind solar biomass biogas and hydropower over the period 2012 2030 although at the outset the rei4p seemed an expensive option designed only to deflect criticism of south africa s high carbon footprint and excessive dependence on coal based electricity generation the escalating costs of the latter the rapidly falling costs of photovoltaic and wind power and the increasingly competitive bidding process of the rei4p have changed this prospect at the conclusion of round three the weighted cost of energy has reached a 23 discount to the cost of new coal based generation and a 28 discount to global renewable energy prices the bidders commitments to local employment creation have similarly increased from 11 to 18 jobs mw the programme is now well placed to deliver on a broad range of objectives including regional development and black economic empowerment however maximum benefit from the rei4p will not be secured without some revision to aspects of the bidding and procurement process more specifically the local content provisions need to be tightened to drive higher levels of local manufacturing

policies and market factors driving wind power development in the united states abstract in the united states there has been substantial recent growth in wind energy generating capacity with growth averaging 24 percent annually during the past five years about 1700 mw of wind energy capacity was installed in 2001 while another 410 mw became operational in 2002 during 2003 development activity has remained strong with an estimated 1600 mw of capacity installed with this growth an increasing number of states are experiencing investment in wind energy projects currently about half of all states host at least one wind power project this paper explores the key factors at play in the 12 states in which a substantial amount of wind energy capacity has been developed or planned some of the factors that are examined include policy drivers such as renewable portfolio standards rps federal and state financial incentives as well as market drivers such as consumer demand for green power natural gas price volatility and wholesale market rules

the critical role of informed political direction for advancing technology the case of swedish marine energy marine energy technologies can contribute to meeting sustainability challenges but they are still immature and dependent on public support this paper employs the technological innovation systems tis framework to analyze the development and diffusion of swedish marine energy up until 2014 while there were promising device developers relevant industrial capabilities and world class research the system suffered from weaknesses in several important innovation processes finally the analysis identifies the lack of informed political direction as a critical blocking factor and highlights its connection to domestic market potential

from lagging to leading technological innovation systems in emerging economies and the case of chinese wind power there is increasing attention for the contribution of emerging economies to global innovation including innovation of renewable energy technologies the technological innovation systems tis framework presents a list of system functions for the analysis of the development of a technology it has often been applied to renewable energy technologies but with a strong focus on advanced economies in this paper we elaborate on emerging economy innovation system formation structured according to tis functions rather than analysing development of the technology we analyse the development of the chinese tis vis a vis the global forefront key to this notion is that tis especially for clean tech are transnational phenomena lagging tis depend on the global tis whereas leading tis contribute to its formation it is concluded that china has reduced its dependence on foreign knowledge and investment but the outward contribution remains limited the main challenge to foreign market expansion lies in reforming the domestic tis to focus on turbine quality rather than cost reduction demonstration projects are needed especially for large capacity and offshore turbine models in order to build up operational history and get quality certification

comparing the innovation effects of support schemes for renewable electricity technologies a function of innovation approach abstract the aim of this paper is to provide a comparative assessment of the innovation effects of instruments which support the diffusion of renewable electricity technologies with a functions oriented technological innovation system perspective the paper provides a link between two major streams of the literature the functions of innovation systems and the literature on renewable electricity support schemes we show that when a functional perspective is adopted feed in tariffs are likely to be superior to other policy instruments quotas with tradable green certificates and tendering although they still need to be complemented with other instruments most importantly direct r d support furthermore those innovation effects are affected by the specific design elements of the instruments chosen

alternatives to coal and candles wind power in china china is in a unique position to be able to exploit her vast wind resources to satisfy both the rapidly growing energy demand which fuels her economy as well as needs of approximately 72 million people who live in rural areas and have no access to conventional electricity services china mainly through the e orts of the inner mongolia autonomous region has already successfully disseminated over 150 000 small scale wind electric generators which power households in rural areas through a well coordinated combination of local research and development technology transfer industry support end user incentives and an infrastructure for information dissemination and technical training in this paper we review china s utilization of wind energy and discuss how it can be increased for both rural electri cation and the rapidly growing power sector we nd that novel approaches in technical implementation of wind power use may help to better meet china s needs use of hybrid systems may help to provide higher quality more reliable power for rural households and villages than is currently provided through wind only systems grid connected wind power which currently is more costly and less reliable than coal power can become cost competitive and more reliable through local mass production of wind turbines combined with storage systems we examine governmental support through policy infrastructure development and nancial incentives that have fostered the successes of dissemination of small scale wind turbines and also the support or lack thereof that has hindered commercial development of large scale wind power we nd that a better policy and regulatory framework is the most important measure that china can take to increase the use of this indigenous clean resource 2000 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

political competition and renewable energy transitions over long time horizons a dynamic approach abstract climate change mitigation requires sustainable energy transitions but their political dynamics are poorly understood this article presents a general dynamic model of renewable energy policy with long time horizons endogenous electoral competition and techno political path dependence we calibrate the model with data on the economics of contemporary renewable energy technologies in doing so we discover transition dynamics not present in economy energy models which ignore politics or in formal political economy models which ignore long term technological dynamics we show that the largest effects of partisan ideology on policy occur when the competing parties disagree on the importance of energy policy in these cases the less ideological party appeases the more ideological one while the more ideological party attempts to appease the electorate the results demonstrate that political dynamics could have large effects on the development of renewable energy and carbon dioxide emissions over time influencing the ability of countries to reach various climate mitigation trajectories

taiwan s renewable energy strategy and energy intensive industrial policy abstract since taiwan is a densely populated island with almost no fossil energy resources the development of renewable energy is an important issue in the past industries with low energy productivity were encouraged for economic development but this structure of low energy productivity industries should now be adjusted to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency by analyzing the gross domestic product together with the energy consumption and co2 emissions for major industries in taiwan this paper considers what kinds of industries should be encouraged or discouraged for taiwan s future development in addition the recommendations for taiwan s renewable energy and energy intensive industrial policy are presented

the renewables portfolio standard in texas an early assessment texas has rapidly emerged as one of the leading wind power markets in the united states this development can be largely traced to a well designed and carefully implemented renewables portfolio standard rps the rps is a new policy mechanism that has received increasing attention as an attractive approach to support renewable power generation though replacing existing renewable energy policies with an as of yet untested approach in the rps is risky early experience from texas suggests that an rps can effectively spur renewables development and encourage competition among renewable energy producers initial rps targets in texas were well exceeded by the end of 2001 with 915 mw of wind installed in that year alone rps compliance costs appear negligible with new wind projects reportedly contracted for well under 3 us cent k wh in part as a result of a 1 7 us cent kwh production tax credit an outstanding wind resource and an rps that is sizable enough to drive project economies of scale obliged retail suppliers have been willing to enter into long term contracts with renewable generators reducing important risks for both the developer and the retail supplier finally the country s first comprehensive renewable energy certificate program has been put into place to monitor and track rps compliance c 2002 published by elsevier science ltd less

public policy supports and export performance of bioenergy technologies a dynamic panel approach abstract this study investigates the effects of public policy supports on the export performance of bioenergy technologies it uses panel data from 18 countries from the 1992 to 2008 period panel unit root and cointegration tests are applied taking into account the results of structural break tests for each time series and testing for the presence in the panel of cross sectional dependence time series data on public supports and exports are integrated and cointegrated the results of dynamic ordinary least squares indicate that in the long term public r d expenditures have a positive effect on the exports the contribution of bioenergy to the total energy supply has a negative effect on the exports and gdp has a positive effect on the exports the contribution of bioenergy to total energy supply responds to deviations in the previous period from the long term equilibrium additionally blundell bond system generalized methods of moments estimations are made to determine dynamic causality in a panel vector error correction mechanism setting evidence of a positive strong and short term relationship from exports to r d expenditures and of a positive short term causality from exports to the contribution of bioenergy to total energy supply is found a positive strong bidirectional relationship between gdp and exports is also uncovered there is a positive strong bidirectional and short term relationship between gdp and the contribution of bioenergy to total energy supply finally some policy implications based on the results of this study are offered

transforming the energy sector the evolution of technological systems in renewable energy technology this paper analyses the development and diffusion of technologies that utilize renewable energy sources in germany sweden and the netherlands the analysis enlarges the life cycle model of industry evolution to one where the focus is on the formation and evolution of new technological systems particular focus is on explaining success and failures in shifting from a formative phase into one characterized by positive feedbacks a set of challenges is identified for policy makers attempting to influence the process of transforming the energy sector

changing sunshine analyzing the dynamics of solar electricity policies in the global context abstract although solar costs have been dropping in recent years solar power is still more expensive than conventional and other renewable energy options and in most applications solar power still needs continuing government policy support however the need to achieve multiple objectives and ensure sufficient political support for solar power makes it difficult for policy makers to design an optimal solar power policy the dynamic and uncertain nature of the solar industry combined with the constraints imposed by broader economic political and social conditions further complicates the task of policy making in this paper we present a framework to critically analyze the objectives behind different country policies how factors such as macro economic conditions and development paradigms affect the policy outcomes and finally how these outcomes affect the overall cost reduction of solar energy we find that while the extent of cost reduction through creation of large demand remains to be seen it is essential for governments to provide adequate support for leapfrog rd d and exploit real comparative advantages across countries for effective solar cost reduction policy makers need to optimally design their policies by balancing national objectives and paying capacity with the global objective of solar power cost reduction in order to realize its full potential

comparative productivity the ussr eastern europe and the west this paper compiles comparative measures of output per worker in 1975 in four socialist and seven western market economy wme countries and explores sources of observed differences between the two groups of countries in that regard such differences seem explicable only partially by reference to differences in per worker capital stock and farm land a residual disparity of 25 to 34 percent in favor of wme countries appears to testify to superior efficiency in the latter copyright 1987 by american economic association

a historical review of promotion strategies for electricity from renewable energy sources in eu countries abstract the core objective of this paper is to elaborate on historically implemented promotion strategies of renewable energy sources and the associated deployment within the european electricity market hence at a first glance the historic development of renewable energy sources in the electricity res e sector is addressed on member state and on sectoral level as well as consequently discussed according to available res e potentials and costs the specific focus of this paper are promotion strategies for res e options as they are the key driver of an efficient and effective res e deployment therefore the paper depicts the main types of different promotion schemes and their properties additionally several cases studies of different european member states show an in depth analysis of the different res e promotion schemes in this context special emphasises are put on the question of effective and efficient promotion scheme designs of different res e technologies generally conducted research led to the conclusion that technology specific financial support measures of res e performed much more effective and efficient than others did hence it is not all about the common question of feed in tariffs vs quota systems based on tradable green certificates but more about the design criteria of implemented res e support schemes

the political realities of african management abstract amidst the outburst of concern for public management in africa there is frequently a failure to distinguish among its components policy making leadership general internal administration and bureaucratic hygiene accounting procurement the merit system etc each of these four areas is different in the importance that it has for project performance the knowledge base that is available for improving it and the way in which it is affected by african political and social structures as a consequence those seeking to improve public management on the continent frequently are mistaken in the priorities that they establish and import inappropriate management technologies

renewable energy and the environment in south africa a way forward the need to mitigate the adverse environmental impacts of fossil fuel usage the volatility of fuel prices and enhancement of national energy security have largely driven a phenomenal growth around the world in renewable energy re generation particularly grid connected over the past two decades the necessity to apply policy support instruments to promote the dissemination of these technologies is now a universally accepted norm different countries and societies depending on the prevailing socio economic environment draft and apply their policy frameworks differently and debates abound as to which mechanisms should have been most suitable under which circumstance most of these debates however assume the existence of an intrinsic political environment in favour of the process in south africa the current political environment is not very conducive to the development of a sustainable re industry this paper explores some of the anomalies and barriers and suggests possible options for a way forward to a viable re industry in the country

fixed feed in tariff versus premium a review of the current spanish system a b s t r a c t since 1998 the spanish government established a feed in system where res e generators could choose between two alternatives fixed feed in tariff and premium nowadays all res e 1 can be sold in the electricity market getting an additional premium except for solar photovoltaic one important novelty established in 2007 is a cap and floor system for facilities under the premium option the aim of this paper is to analyze and compare these two alternative options fixed fit and premiums which coexist at the same time in spain describe the evolution of both systems and evaluate its performance the introduction of this support system in spain led to very good results in terms of res e deployment the main advantage of the premium option is that it is a scheme integrated in the electricity market one disadvantage is that it can occasionally lead to overcompensation one way to try to avoid it is to set a cap value in order to evaluate the performance of this dual support system not only res e deployment has been assessed but also the policy stability the adequacy of res e production to the electricity demand pattern and the changes in the investors behaviour

energy security in china a quantitative analysis and policy implications abstract this study aims to examine how china s energy security has changed over 30 years of reform and the opening period it constructs a 4 as quantitative evaluation framework the availability of energy resources the applicability of technology the acceptability by society and the affordability of energy resources the quantitative results show that china s energy security was at its best during the sixth fyp period 1981 1985 but then deteriorated until it hit higher levels between 1995 and 2005 however it was still lower than the level reached during the sixth fyp period during the eleventh fyp period 2006 2010 the energy security situation deteriorated again differences in policy priority over the study period appear to affect the country s energy security status this study suggests that china needs to develop renewable energy resources on a large scale and pay more attention to emissions control to reverse the downward trend in energy security

non price rationing and the choice of medical care providers in rural cote d ivoire this paper investigates the role of travel time in rationing medical care services in a developing country where monetary prices are zero a nested multinomial logit model of provider choice is estimated using 1985 data from rural cote d ivoire unlike previous studies of health care demand in developing countries our results indicate that travel time plays an important role in rationing health care and that medical care demand for poorer individuals is substantially more travel time elastic than for richer individuals

integrating finance into the multi level perspective technology niche finance regime interactions and financial policy interventions abstract any major socio technical transition requires a fundamental re direction of financial capital from incumbent to new technologies and practices while the transitions literature conceptually covers financial markets the role of finance is marginalized and has scarcely been analysed empirically to address this gap here we build on the multi level perspective mlp which considers financial markets as part of the existing regime we argue that the role of finance is highly relevant for the niche regime interaction redirecting finance towards new niche technologies requires that either the niche is fit for and conforms to the financial regime s expectations or the financial regime is stretched and transformed in order to accept and finance niche technologies based on 56 interviews we identify factors that determine interactions between the financial regime and technology niches these include acceptable risk and transaction size an abundance of knowledge and heuristics in both the regime and niche and an extensive existing industry network we further analyse how state investment bank sib interventions in germany the uk and australia aimed to mobilise private finance into low carbon project development affect the interaction between the technology niche and financial regime i e whether they resulted in fitting and conforming the technological niche for the financial regime or stretching and transforming the financial regime our results point to several important effects of sib interventions with most effects fitting the niche to the regime however we also detect effects that stretch and transform the financial regime through evolutionary processes importantly some effects occur as a consequence of the primary effects based on our findings we discuss policy implications on how to accelerate transitions through policies aiming at finance as well as theoretical insights gained through our analysis

distinguishing characteristics of degrees of success and failure in economic sanctions episodes this paper uses 104 episodes from the hufbauer et al 1985 1990 dataset to examine the correlates of classes of outcomes of economic sanctions the parsimonious equations presented identify the characteristics of sanctions episodes conducive to success rather than marginal success and the characteristics productive of failure rather than marginal failure failure is most likely if there is significant third party assistance to the target and if the pre existing trade linkage between sender and target is small success is most easily achieved when the objective is not classified as modest and when pre sanction relations between sender and target are cordial or neutral the equations presented overcome data and methodological flaws of earlier studies exhibit reasonable predictive accuracy and satisfy a battery of tests of statistical significance hypothesized coefficient sign goodness of fit high likelihood and informational efficiency

when are sanctions effective a bargaining and enforcement framework although a considerable literature identifies the conditions under which sanctions are more likely to be successful few studies examine the question of when sanctioning states or senders are willing to enforce their sanctions laws against their firms using a game theoretic model we argue that imposing sanctions creates a strategic dilemma for senders we demonstrate that senders often have disincentives to enforce their sanctions policies given that the restriction on economic transactions with targeted states may undermine their firms competitiveness the model indicates that sanctions are more likely to succeed when the sender s firm retains a moderate share of the target s market relative to its foreign competitors however the model also demonstrates that sanctions are likely to be imposed only when the conditions do not favor their success the empirical implications of the model are tested using the threat and imposition of economic sanctions ties data set

learning from experience the development of the renewables obligation in england and wales 2002 2010 abstract the uk has enviable renewable resources both onshore wind and offshore wind wave and tidal the offshore valuation group 2010 the government has had policy mechanisms in place since 1990 to encourage these resources to be developed the current mechanism the renewables obligation ro was specifically designed to emphasise competition and therefore to fit in with the uk s overall strategic approach to energy policy however as yet it has not delivered the capacity that it was designed to do and as a result the uk faces a difficult challenge in attempting to meet european wide renewable energy targets for 2020 as well as longer term decarbonisation targets this paper explores some of the major reasons why the ro has performed so poorly to date and considers the prospects for improvement up to 2020 it concludes that the strategic emphasis on competition in the support mechanisms has played a key role in limiting renewables development but that the mechanism has changed significantly since it was introduced however these changes together with proposals for electricity market reform still do not address important elements of risk in comparison with a standard feed in tariff

enabling frameworks for low carbon technology transfer to small emerging economies analysis of ten case studies in chile abstract technology transfer is crucial to reduce the carbon intensity of developing countries enabling frameworks need to be in place to allow foreign technologies to flow to be absorbed and to bring about technological change in the recipient country this paper contributes to identifying these enabling factors by analysing 10 case studies of low carbon technology transfer processes based in chile our findings show the importance of strong economic and institutional fundamentals a sound knowledge base a sizable and stable demand and a functioning local industry policy recommendations are derived to improve the penetration of foreign low carbon technologies in developing countries focusing on the particularities of small and medium emerging economies

is the answer blowin in the wind auctions an assessment of the italian support scheme abstract this article proposes a quantitative data based assessment of the onshore wind auctions conducted in italy from 2012 to 2016 our objective is to provide new insights in the ongoing debate on policy measures to promote renewable energy sources italian wind auction design is examined by firstly investigating its overall outcomes in terms of cost efficiency and policy effectiveness determinants affecting awarded tariffs are then empirically analysed further to explore the role of project related and firm specific factors as well as different auction design elements the extreme simplicity of the auction design undoubtedly has promoted competition encouraging many project developers to bid and reducing support both in static and dynamic terms results provide evidence that localisation factors did not constitute a competitive constraint from a policy perspective the administratively setting of ceiling prices is a major issue when wind resources are widely available and auctioned capacity is not sufficiently high while not limiting competition the effects of pre qualification criteria on the realisation rate deserve further analysis however doubts emerge on the policy effectiveness of the current support scheme which makes difficult to control the total amount of support provided thus likely causing stop and go cycles of financing and potentially favouring distorted bidding behaviour

fostering a renewable energy technology industry an international comparison of wind industry policy support mechanisms this article examines the importance of national and sub national policies in supporting the development of successful global wind turbine manufacturing companies we explore the motivations behind establishing a local wind power industry and the paths that different countries have taken to develop indigenous large wind turbine manufacturing industries within their borders this is done through a cross country comparison of the policy support mechanisms that have been employed to directly and indirectly promote wind technology manufacturing in 12 countries we find that in many instances there is a clear relationship between a manufacturer s success in its home country market and its eventual success in the global wind power market whether new wind turbine manufacturing entrants are able to succeed will likely depend in part on the utilization of their turbines in their own domestic market which in turn will be influenced by the annual size and stability of that market consequently policies that support a sizable stable market for wind power in conjunction with policies that specifically provide incentives for wind power technology to be manufactured locally are most likely to result in the establishment of an internationally competitive wind industry

devising renewable heat policy overview of support options renewable energy sources of heat offer the substantial economic environmental and social benefits associated with renewable electricity but policy to support their expansion is considerably less advanced the potential for applying various support instruments to renewable heat is considered with advantages and disadvantages discussed c 2012 published by elsevier ltd

uk innovation systems for new and renewable energy technologies drivers barriers and systems failures abstract a better understanding of the systemic processes by which innovation occurs is useful both conceptually and to inform policy making in support of innovation in more sustainable technologies this paper analyses current innovation systems in the uk for a range of new and renewable energy technologies and generates policy recommendations for improving the effectiveness of these innovation systems although incentives are in place in the uk to encourage innovation in these technologies system failures or gaps are identified in moving technologies along the innovation chain preventing their successful commercialisation sustained investment will be needed for these technologies to achieve their potential it is argued that a stable and consistent policy framework is required to help create the conditions for this in particular such a framework should be aimed at improving risk reward ratios for demonstration and pre commercial stage technologies this would enhance positive expectations stimulate learning effects leading to cost reductions and increase the likelihood of successful commercialisation

interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy a critical analysis of china s policy approach to renewable energies this paper analyzes china s policy approach to renewable energies and assesses how effectively china has met the ideal of appropriate interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy first we briefly discuss the interactions between these two policies then we outline china s key renewable energy and renewable industrial policies and find that china s government has well recognized the need for this policy interaction after that we study the achievements and problems in china s wind and solar pv sector during 2005 2012 and argue that china s policy approach to renewable energies has placed priority first on developing a renewable energy manufacturing industry and only second on renewable energy itself and it has not effectively met the ideal of appropriate interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy lastly we make an in depth analysis of the three ideas underlying this policy approach that is the green development idea the low carbon leadership idea and indigenous innovation idea we conclude that chinas policy approach to renewable energies needs to enhance the interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of china s policy strategy toward renewable energies

government funded renewable energy innovation in china abstract with the rapid development of the economy china is facing pressures caused by traditional energy deficiency and environmental pollution in recent years which has forced the chinese government to start to pay attention to the development and utilization of renewable energy re this article based on data and statistics available up to 2008 studies features of china s re technology innovation and problems thereof it finds that national science and technology programs are the main aspect of china s re technology innovation and most of r d funds for the re technology come from china s three main national programs besides the overall expenditures on re technology innovation constitute only a small proportion of china s total domestic r d funding and seem not enough this paper also finds that compared with research and development stages of re technology the demonstration and diffusion of re technology in china are given less attention and thus are relatively less sufficient furthermore influenced by china s traditional scientific research system there appears lack of sufficient incentives and opportunities for private sectors to fully participate in re technology innovation because most national programs are undertaken by universities or research institutes

policy as a porter of re component export or import evidence from pv wind energy in oecd and brics abstract seeking empirical support for the porter hypothesis ph applied to the trade of photovoltaic pv and wind energy components this study examines effects of the interaction between innovative capacity and two kinds of renewable energy re policies feed in tariff fit and renewable portfolio standards rps on export in oecd and brics countries meanwhile the effect of such policies in import countries is estimated given prominent growth in re component export by emerging economies and trade disputes with developed countries the result reveals exporter innovative capacity as negatively correlated with their export when it is interacted with rps dummy suggesting inverse evidence for ph on the other hand importer annual pv share which proxies demand for components was positively associated with their import provided the presence of fit rps overall policies in importer countries exert a robust influence over their import growth while those in exporter countries may not facilitate or have a negative effect on their export the result above is in line with the theoretical implication on the effect of re policy while it contradicts to the narrowly strong version of ph this indicates that positive effect of the interaction between policy and innovative capacity on export performance might depend on the distribution of the additional surplus from fit rps

prospects for global market expansion of china s wind turbine manufacturing industry abstract emerging economies are increasingly contributing to global innovation including clean tech innovation the development of china s wind power sector has often been used to illustrate this point china s domestic wind power market is the largest in the world and is largely supplied by domestic manufacturers competition for market share in the domestic market may pressure firms to innovate which consecutively improves prospects for global expansion this paper reviews developments in china s domestic wind turbine market using the technological innovation system framework we analyze the pressure to innovate arising from market competition and assess the prospects for global expansion of chinese wind turbine manufacturers we conclude that domestic customers are not pressured or incentivized to perform with respect to power output such that turbine manufacturers are not pressured to perform with respect to turbine efficiency or maintenance needs pressure to innovate is further reduced by formalizing connections between wind farm developers and turbine manufacturers chinese turbine manufacturers cannot yet compete with leading global brands in technological leadership the prospects for exports are improved however by the preferential supply of project financing from institutional investors such as the china development bank from chinese utilities that seek global expansion and from the manufacturers themselves

exploring technology diffusion in emerging markets the role of public policy for wind energy abstract this study challenges the implicit assumption of homogeneity in national institutional contexts made in past studies of renewable energy policy we propose that institutional differences matter by focusing on several technology specific and generic policy factors that can foster technology diffusion through private sector activity more specifically we explore perceptions of early adopters in emerging economy contexts using wind park project developers as an example by applying a parsimonious method for our questionnaire as well as qualitative data we make several contributions methodologically we introduce maximum difference scaling to the energy policy domain empirically we identify several public influences on private investment and assess their relative importance this leads to new insights challenging findings from industrialized economies we identified additional institutional barriers to diffusion hence the requirement of a combination of technology specific and generic policy measures

on the causal dynamics between emissions nuclear energy renewable energy and economic growth this paper examines the causal relationship between co2 emissions nuclear energy consumption renewable energy consumption and economic growth for a group of 19 developed and developing countries for the period 1984 2007 using a panel error correction model the long run estimates indicate that there is a statistically significant negative association between nuclear energy consumption and emissions but a statistically significant positive relationship between emissions and renewable energy consumption the results from the panel granger causality tests suggest that in the short run nuclear energy consumption plays an important role in reducing co2 emissions whereas renewable energy consumption does not contribute to reductions in emissions this may be due to the lack of adequate storage technology to overcome intermittent supply problems as a result electricity producers have to rely on emission generating energy sources to meet peak load demand

institutional factors influencing strategic decision making in energy policy a case study of wind energy in france and quebec canada abstract this article studies the different institutional factors that influence a strategic wind energy decision making process through a comparative transnational study of quebec canada and france research confirms that political choices are dynamic and vary with a change in the wind energy context the balance of power between pressure groups supranational influences energy evaluation approaches and social acceptance until the 90 s an initially unfavorable national energy context combined with a neocorporatist culture as defined by szarka 2004 1 limited the place of wind energy in both jurisdictions in the 2000 s a political window opened when the private sector penetrated the market with the deregulation of the electricity sector exogenous pressure from the european union in france endogenous pressure from social actions in quebec and a more favorable energy context in both cases however this political window was short lived due to social acceptance issues in quebec political will was stronger until 2013 now the social controversy surrounding wind energy has shifted from the local to the national level projects are better accepted locally because of local financial involvement but an anticipated electricity surplus questions the relevance of new energy projects in france political support depends on the government in power between 2005 and 2013 the reduction in annual wind power installations from 1246 mw to 621 mw was due to the major influence of the anti wind lobby on a right wing government after 2013 the left wing government s arrival coincided with a phasing out of several regulatory and financial uncertainties today both jurisdictions are at a crossroads and the future energy mix will depend on the relative influence of the institutional components identified in our opinion key solutions to more sustainable political choices are conditioned by an improvement in the way projects and policies plans and programs are assessed

wind turbine manufacturing in china a review abstract domestic wind turbine manufacturing sector in china has experienced development stages starting from scratch to mass production during the 11th fyp period 2006 2010 the main goal of wind power policy in china is to promote the commercialization of wind power by large scale deployment of wind farms this goal has been realized to a great extent and now the cost of wind power generation is nearly comparable to coal fired power generation in china the industry policy which devotes to mass production of domestic wind turbines is also largely successful the purpose of the paper is to provide an overview on wind turbine manufacturing sector in china the policy evolution in different stages achievements and challenges pertinent to the sector are addressed in the paper key findings are that the misleading industry policy which provides strong incentive to blind entrance and competition for scale and price and restrains innovation as well is the key obstacle for the sustainable development of the sector deficient technology standard and qualification system and the misplaced franchise bidding system also indulge vicious competition and oversupply creating a level playground for all turbine supplies providing strong incentive to innovative manufacturers establishing thorough and practicable standard and qualification system and fine tuning the directive of the franchise bidding system towards technology and service are the primary policy implications proposed by our study

assessing and managing regulatory risk in renewable energy contrasts between canada and the united states abstact a challenge for energy firms when considering new investments is to balance expected financial gains against potential risks however while investment opportunities in different jurisdictions are often straightforward to identify the policy or regulatory risks for investors are more difficult to accurately ascertain here i provide a novel conceptual framework for how firms can assess regulatory risk that focuses on the institutional processes governing policy making risks are lower and policies will subsequently be more stable in jurisdictions where regulatory agencies have greater autonomy from politicians and where policies are formulated through more rigid policy making processes the contrasting development patterns of renewable energy policies in ontario and texas offer support for the framework i further develop strategies for how firms can successfully manage regulatory risks in different types of environment

the renewable portfolio standard design considerations and an implementation survey renewables have social and environmental bene ts compared to conventional electricity sources but are rarely competitive on a strict nancial cost basis this is because conventional sources are sometimes subsidized their full pollution costs are ignored and renewables involve newer higher cost technologies whose relative costs will fall with commercialization governments use several mechanisms to support renewables including direct nancial support grants loans indirect support r d demonstrations reform of nancial costs of conventional sources subsidy removal pollution taxes and the renewable portfolio standard rps the rps requires a minimum share of electricity from renewable energy sources its use is spreading because it maintains an incentive for renewable producers to reduce costs links the regulated market outcome to an environmental target and reduces government involvement although it is too early to evaluate fully its e ectiveness the survey for this study explored implementation issues in three european countries nine us states and australia and found the following the rps target is usually set to have environmental bene ts without causing signi cant price increases cost caps are sometimes used most jurisdictions limit eligibility to gridconnected domestic renewables the rps is usually applied to producers rather than consumers and to energy output not capacity flexibility mechanisms are desired but a challenge to implement administration in the us and australia is by government with delegation to independent utility regulators while in europe it is more the responsibility of government everywhere the rps is applied alongside other mechanisms of renewables support 2001 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

policies to accelerate the growth of offshore wind energy sector in india abstract india s power generation capacity needs to be augmented to support the growing demands for electricity india which has predominantly used fossil fuels to power its generators need to make a switch to clean energy fuels but renewable sources form a miniscule portion 26 gw 12 of india s overall installed power capacity 210 gw there is no contribution from offshore wind farms to the energy basket for india as there is no policy framework to encourage the development of offshore wind farms several european countries have tapped the offshore wind energy potential to reduce their dependence on adopted by these countries to identify the core components 21 of them of robust policy intervention a detailed questionnaire was administered to 181 stakeholders of wind energy in india to seek their feedback on these building blocks these core components variables in research parlance are then subjected to factor analysis to understand the underlying structure of the variables the factor analysis logically reduces these 21 variables into five factors government support fiscal and quota based incentives availability of local expertise capital for investments and building an enabling r d ecosystem which are then fed into a logistic regression model as independent variables to predict the probability of growth of offshore wind energy dependent variable in the country the logistic regression model gives the weight the impact of these independent variables in influencing the growth of offshore wind energy in india it emerges that government support fiscal and quota based incentives and building an enabling r d ecosystem have a much higher impact on the growth of offshore wind energy for india this paper fills the gap of absence of an empirically tested framework on offshore wind energy policy for india

value generation of future csp projects in north africa this paper discusses the value generation potential for local and international industry in different development scenarios of the concentrating solar power csp market in north africa until 2030 it analyzes the economic impact resulting from the participation of north african and european companies during construction and operation of csp plants the assessment is based on a self developed solar technologies market development model stmd that includes economic and technical requirements and constraints for the creation of a local csp market in depth interviews with industry stakeholders provide specific input validate the calculations and complement the quantitative model results and conclusions long term potential for locally generated revenues from csp plant construction are modeled and lead to a share of local revenues of up to 60 potential market size of solar power plants in north africa could reach total revenues of 120 billion euros and thus demand for components and services contribute to national gross domestic products significantly recommendations are given for regional industry cooperation and policy actions for the support of local and international csp industry in north africa in order to improve the investment environment and growth of renewable energies in the region

innovation in the energy sector the role of fossil fuels and developing economies abstract this paper analyzes the effects of fossil fuel rents on r d expenditures and patent grants in the field of energy related technology we argue that an increasing share of fossil fuel rents lessens the innovation of new energy technologies we consider a sample of countries beyond the common selection of oecd members and investigate innovation efforts in the energy sector of 116 countries from 1980 to 2012 we observe the gradually growing influence of resource abundant countries on global r d expenditures and find that increasing fossil fuel rents have a negative effect on patent grants this study contributes to the ongoing debate concerning the potential effects of resource abundance more importantly it increases our understanding of innovation activities within the energy sector and further underscores the need to extend future research to countries that have not been taken into account thus far

do production subsidies have a wage incidence in wind power employment in electricity generation from renewable resources has expanded rapidly in the us and in texas during the last decade availability of the production tax credit ptc has been an important driver of this growth using establishment level employment and payroll data for texas at the north american industrial classification system naics 6 level we analyse the differences in average wages between firms generating electricity from fossil fuels and those generating electricity from wind power we compare relative average wages before and after the rapid expansion of wind power development that followed the ex ante renewal of the ptc in 2006 our main finding using both the parametric and nonparametric estimation techniques proposed by racine and li 2004 is that average payrolls for wind power generators increased relative to fossil fuel based electricity generators after 2006

historic paths and future expectations the macroeconomic impacts of the offshore wind technologies in the uk abstract offshore wind power osw plays a key role within the uk strategy for a transition towards a low carbon economy offering vast potential for establishing a high tech manufacturing industry previous experiences in the onshore sector owp suggest the uk might fail in fully capturing these macroeconomic benefits in this work we investigate the history of uk renewable policies comparing its national strategy to those of other major osw export countries through the use of a numerical general equilibrium model we quantify the macroeconomic impacts under three scenarios a baseline which relies on previous estimates and foresee limited local content a contamination scenario where the uk content reaches the same levels of owp and a non myopic scenario where investors expect governmental support to decrease or disappear replicating a common path of past renewable policies we identify the uk as a fdi oriented country our results suggest that increasing the share of locally sourced capital goods in osp to owp level could generate larger income and employment effects in the uk economy we find that under forward looking investors the economic benefits are significantly lower than the case of myopic agents our results show an inherent conflict with stated purposes of uk policy for osw

assessing the strength and effectiveness of renewable electricity feed in tariffs in european union countries in the last two decades feed in tariffs fit have emerged as one of the most popular policies for supporting renewable electricity res e generation a few studies have assessed the effectiveness of res e policies but most ignore policy design features and market characteristics e g electricity price and production cost that influence policy strength we employ 1992 2008 panel data to conduct the first econometric analysis of the effectiveness of fit policies in promoting solar photovoltaic pv and onshore wind power development in 26 european union countries we develop a new indicator for fit strength that captures variability in tariff size contract duration digression rate and electricity price and production cost to estimate the resulting return on investment we regress this indicator on added res e capacity using a fixed effects specification and find that fit policies have driven solar pv development in the eu however this effect is overstated without controlling for country characteristics and is concealed without accounting for policy design we do not find robust evidence that fit policies have driven wind power development overall we show that the interaction of policy design electricity price and electricity production cost is a more important determinant of res e development than policy enactment alone

what drives renewable energy development abstract this viewpoint reviews renewable energy development in 14 markets that differ in market structure restructured vs not restructured use of feed in tariff fit yes vs no transmission planning anticipatory vs reactive and transmission interconnection cost allocated to a renewable generator high vs low we find that market restructuring is not a primary driver of renewable energy development renewable generation has the highest percent of total installed capacity in markets that use a fit employ anticipatory transmission planning and have loads or end users paying for most if not all of the transmission interconnection costs in contrast renewable developers have been less successful in markets that do not use a fit employ reactive transmission planning and have generators paying for most if not all of the transmission interconnection costs while these policies can lead to higher penetration of renewable energy in the short run their high cost to ratepayers can threaten the economic sustainability of renewable energy in the long run

sanctions in networks abstract in this paper we contribute to the sender target models of sanctions by explicitly incorporating the linkages social political or economic that bind the sender and target to other agents given any network model and architecture we draw attention to two factors that play a key role in determining the efficacy of sanctions in reducing the frequency of violations these are respectively strategic complementaritiesbetween the sanctioning action deleting link with target and number of direct links of the sender and the externalities imposed on the sender by third parties we examine the role played by these factors both in the short run when links can only be deleted and the long run when links can also be added as well as when sanctions are unilateral the sender can only delete own links or multilateral the sender can impose on common allies to sever links to the target our analysis allows an active role to the target to build an opposing coalition to deflect sanctions and to third parties to engage in sanction busting it also extends to multiple senders and targets existence of interest groups within sender and target with dissimilar objectives and signed networks allowing both antagonistic and cordial bilateral relationships

investigating the real situation of greek solar water heating market solar thermal applications have been acknowledged among the leading alternative solutions endeavouring to face the uncontrollable oil price variations the gradual depletion of fossil fuel reserves and the chain environmental consequences caused by its excessive usage almost 30 years after the initial emergence of the commercial domestic solar water heating system dswhs in the european market the corresponding technology is qualified as quite mature on top of this the european commission expects that 100 000 000 m2 of solar collectors are to be installed in europe by the year 2010 to facilitate durable and environment friendly heat in this context the greek dswhss market is highly developed worldwide having a great experience in this major energy market segment the present study is devoted to an extensive evaluation of the local dswhss market including a discerning analysis of its time variation taking seriously into account the corresponding annual replacement rate accordingly the crucial techno economic reasons limiting the dswhss penetration in the local heat production market are summarized and elaborated subsequently the national policy measures aiming to support the dswhss in the course of time are cited in comparison with those applied in other european countries next the financial attractiveness of a dswhs for greek citizens is examined in the local socio economic environment the present work is integrated by reciting the prospects and mustering certain proposals that if applied could stimulate the local market as a general comment the outlook for penetration of new dswhss in the local market is rather grim as the current techno economic situation of solar heat cannot compete with oil and natural gas heat production unless the remarkable social and environmental benefits of solar energy are seriously considered hence the greek state lacks stimulus to further dswhss installations being strongly in support of the imported natural gas as a result the future of domestic solar thermal market and the survival possibilities of the local manufacturers are at stake

the political economy of health services provision in brazil abstractwe examine the impact of local politics and voter preferences on the allocation of publicly subsidized the unified and decentralized health care system sus health services across 4 338 counties in brazil sus clinics doctors and nurses per capita are higher in counties with a higher share of uninsured in the population and with higher per capita incomes as is consistent with a probabilistic voting model political participation i e the fraction of the poor who vote and the political power of the mayor his vote share in the last election are associated with more visible health inputs namely clinics and consultation rooms but not with more doctors and nurses

mobilizing private finance for low carbon innovation a systematic review of barriers and solutions this paper analyses the field of innovation studies regarding barriers to low carbon innovation and consequences for finance investment and divestment and contributes to a more holistic understanding of the underlying mechanisms a combination of technological barriers combined with economic barriers institutional and political barriers contribute to sub optimal low carbon investment all along the innovation cycle policy makers need to take a systemic approach to enable the redirection of diverse private financial sources instruments range from cutting dirty r d subsidies and support for clean technology innovation and diffusion levelling the institutional playing field and making risks of high carbon and low carbon technologies transparent to providing a consistent but adaptive long term transition strategy this would allow financiers to gradually shift their investments away from high carbon mainstream markets and scale low carbon technology niche markets however financiers also need to sharpen their competencies with regard to new clean technologies and markets

quality of medical care and choice of medical treatment in kenya an empirical analysis underutilization of medical facilities in african countries is widely believed to be a result of consumer disappointments with quality of care this paper uses data from a randomized household survey enriched with exogenous information on health facility attributes to examine more deeply the quality factor in health care demand in rural kenya we find that broad availability of drugs in a medical facility is positively related to medical care use contrary to intuitive expectations lack of prescription drugs is also positively related to medical care demand while lack of aspirin reduces demand we explain this counter intuitive result by noting that any measure of availability of a consumable input is evidence of both demand and supply demand may be positively correlated with lack of drugs for example precisely because there is excess demand for available supplies the results indicate the importance of selecting truly exogenous indicators of service quality for demand analysis we also find that health care demand decreases with user fees and with greater distance to the provider but increases with income gender is not a significant determinant of the choice of medical care in this dataset whether considered separately or interacted with service variables

the politics of renewable energy policies the case of feed in tariffs in ontario canada designing and implementing a renewable energy policy involves political decisions and actors yet most research on renewable energy policies comparatively evaluates instruments from an economic or technical perspective this paper presents a case study of ontario s feed in tariff policies between 1997 and 2012 to analyze how the political process affects renewable energy policy design and implementation ontario s policy although initially successful has met with increasing resistance over time the case reveals key political tensions that arise during implementation first high level support for a policy does not necessarily translate into widespread public support particularly for local deployment second the government often struggles under asymmetric information during price setting which may weaken the policy s legitimacy with the public due to higher costs third there is an unacknowledged tension that governments must navigate between policy stability to spur investment and adaptive policymaking to improve policy design fourth when multiple jurisdictions pursue the same policies simultaneously international political conflict over jobs and innovation may occur these implementation tensions result from political choices during policy design and present underappreciated challenges to transforming the electricity system governments need to critically recognize the political dimension of renewable energy policies to secure sustained political support

the role of transnational dimensions in emerging economy technological innovation systems for clean tech the technological innovation system tis framework and its system functions have become a popular analytical tool for the study of clean tech innovation there is increasing attention for the role of emerging economies in global clean tech innovation but the applicability of tis to emerging economies cases is not entirely straightforward a key issue is the limited geographical considerations in particular transnational dimensions in tis whereas earlier perspectives on innovation in emerging economies have stressed the role of such transnational dimensions this paper elaborates transnational tis actor networks and institutions categorizes these in relation to tis functions and describes their potential to induce or block tis development in emerging economies we draw on insights from the perspectives of national learning systems international technology transfer and global production networks for this purpose we conclude that the potential effects of these transnational dimensions may be accurately grasped by the existing list of system functions lending credence to its further application of the tis framework on emerging economy case studies policy makers in emerging economies should recognize these transnational dimensions and seek to optimize their potential effect on domestic tis development taking in to consideration a realistic assessment of its role in the global tis

identifying barriers in the diffusion of renewable energy sources abstract rapid diffusion of renewable energy sources res in the electricity power sector is crucial if the eu wants to fulfill its 2050 co2 reduction commitments for this reason identifying and alleviating all barriers that hinder the development of res is necessary to the successful deployment of these technologies this paper discusses the main barriers in the diffusion of wind and photovoltaic pv solar power in the greek electricity sector by drawing on the literature of technological innovation systems and system functions furthermore we provide an explanation of the different diffusion rates between the two technologies inadequate financial resources low grid capacity delays in the issuance of building permits opposition from local communities to the construction of wind farms and the lack of a stable institutional framework are among the most important barriers that inhibit the diffusion of the wind and pv solar power the nature of the barriers identified in this study calls for policy intervention

understanding china s renewable energy technology exports abstract china became a major player in renewable energy re technology during the 2000s chinese solar pv cell and module makers quickly dominated global sales in that industry while the country s wind turbine producers became poised for significant exports after capturing their rapidly growing home market in countries like the us chinese re technology strength has been met with claims of excessive governmental support of exports this study examines to what extent chinese firms solar pv and wind technology successes have been enabled by policy supports and whether those policies appear to have been driven by broader goals versus re export promotion per se the evidence suggests that governmental policy toward both wind and solar originated in a push for export competitive chinese companies but the specifics differed substantially due to the particular requirements of building technological capabilities in each export readiness necessitated substantial support for domestic installation of wind but not solar pv power the findings also suggest that as the decade of the 2000s progressed environmental goals played an increasing role alongside export promotion in motivating and shaping chinese re technology policies

local demand pull policy and energy innovation evidence from the solar photovoltaic market in china abstract market demand is an important driver for inducing innovation with many empirical studies supporting the demand induced innovation hypothesis critiques of such studies however emphasize that new empirical evidence that can address existing empirical challenges is needed furthermore existing literature disagrees about whether the locus of demand pull policy matters in this paper we use empirical evidence from the distributed solar photovoltaic pv market in china to address the following questions 1 is there evidence of demand induced innovation 2 does the effect of local demand pull policy differ from the effect of non local demand pull policy on demand induced innovation to address these questions we develop and analyze an original database of pv balance of system bos patents in the distributed pv market filed between 2005 and 2014 in china our results support the demand induced innovation hypothesis and suggest that only local demand significantly induces pv bos innovations in the distributed pv market in china the different effects of local demand and non local demand emphasize the importance of local markets and local policies lending some support to bottom up approaches to clean energy governance

what lessons have been learned in reforming the renewables obligation an analysis of internal and external failures in uk renewable energy policy abstract despite operating a delivery programme for res e since 1990 uk targets and policy goals have not been achieved in response the government reformed the ro this article re examines uk renewable energy policy by analysing the internal and external failures of the various mechanisms to determine if government has learnt from previous experience in reforming the ro government did not learn from their own actions during the nffo ro transition evidenced by high levels of similarity in internal external failures the reformed ro is expected to significantly increase deployment has provided a renewables package by comprehensively addressing both internal external failures but major internal failures price financial risk still remain resulting in contiguous failures over two decades and two mechanism changes nffo ro ro reformed ro success will again be heavily dependent on a select few technologies and new untested measures to combat external failures mechanism extension to 2037 is probably the single most important factor underlying potential deployment increases however introducing a fit like system via the sheer number of bolt on reforms to counter policy failures indicates loss of direction and clarity overall although government appears to have learnt some of its lessons from the past two decades significant doubt remains whether renewable energy policy objectives will be met via the latest mechanism change

the impact of economic sanctions in the 1990s the end of the cold war served as a strating point for a true proliferation in the use of economic sanctions as an instrument of foreign policy diplomacy is increasingly resorting to economic sanctions

export orientation and domestic electricity generation effects on energy efficiency innovation in select sectors abstract why are some countries developing many energy efficiency innovations while others are lagging behind i argue that export orientation and electricity at low variable cost from nuclear and hydropower plants have an interactive effect on energy efficiency innovation export oriented countries have strong incentives to invest in energy efficiency innovation as they are in a position to export these technology innovations for global markets but if inexpensive electricity is supplied in a country the domestic demand for energy efficiency innovation is missing and so the home market cannot serve as a springboard for international commercialization i test this theory against international patent data on energy efficiency innovation in insulation heating and lighting for 22 oecd countries 1991 2007 the statistical analysis indicates that export orientation has large positive effects on energy efficiency innovation in countries that do not rely on nuclear and hydroelectricity

the political economy of improving health care for the poor in rural africa institutional solutions to the principal agent problem both governments and private for profit markets have been disappointing in meeting the needs of the african poor for health care ngo services provide a much more attractive alternative for this clientele despite the fees they charge they do so because they represent an institutional solution to the imperfect information problem in health care through simulations based on data from cameroon we demonstrate that if fee charging ngos replace the highly subsidised but poorly managed facilities operated by african governments the poor would be better off those ngos that are decentralised in their financial and personnel management are most effective the politics of making the recommended changes are assessed

wind farm investment risks under uncertain cdm benefit in china abstract china has set an ambitious target to increase its wind power capacity by 35 gw from 2007 to 2020 the country s hunger for clean power provides great opportunities for wind energy investors however risks from china s uncertain electricity market regulation and an uncertain energy policy framework mainly due to uncertain clean development mechanism cdm benefits prevent foreign investors from investing in china s wind energy the objectives of this paper are to 1 quantify wind energy investment risk premiums in an uncertain international energy policy context and 2 evaluate the impact of uncertain cdm benefits on the net present values of wind power projects with four scenarios this study simulates possible prices of certified emissions reductions cers from wind power projects project net present values npvs have been calculated the project risk premiums are drawn from different and uncertain cer prices our key findings show that uncertain cdm benefits will significantly affect the project npvs this paper concludes that the chinese government needs revising its tariff incentives most likely by introducing fixed feed in tariffs fits and re examining its cdm granting policy and its wind project tax rates to facilitate wind power development and enable china to achieve its wind energy target

lessons learned in france and quebec regarding financial and legal mechanisms to develop renewable energy a hybrid model as an acceptable solution for onshore wind abstract this article shows that the unfavorable context of emergence as well as neo corporatism limited the weight of wind energy in france and quebec and delayed the project development and the wind industry as a whole indeed the level of political will to wind energy development in both jurisdictions is fluctuating and characterized by a lack of continuity in policy or regulatory instruments the efficiency of the pricing mechanisms depends on its political design while the french feed in tariff is inefficient in terms of installed capacity and is deemed too expensive by opponents the first two calls for tenders in quebec fare quite well on that front however they are perceived as unacceptable due to the multinational companies involved and the implantation of large scale wind farms in inhabited areas the third community call for tender while generally better accepted locally is poorly regarded among the cooperative movement and at the national level because of the competition with the municipal sector and higher costs to society in both cases a hybrid pricing model would achieve a better balance between costs to society and local development thus promoting social acceptance through a greater diversity in ownership types and wind farms size

german energiewende and the heating market impact and limits of policy the german energiewende envisages achieving a climate neutral building stock in 2050 by means of two major pillars of regulation first residential buildings should consume 80 less primary energy and second the remaining energy demand should be covered primarily with renewables this paper simulates the future german heating market under different policy scenarios in order to evaluate the impact and limits of recent and conceivable policies the investigation is based upon a dual model approach linking a residential heating model to a discrete choice model the major finding is that current regulations are not suitable for the achievement of governmental targets scenario calculations show that additional carbon emission reductions triggered by the current regulatory regime are falling short of expectations in terms of economic efficiency all calculated policy alternatives outperform the regulation currently in place this allows to draw the conclusion that carbon emission reductions can be achieved without a major increase in cost the model results highlight two policy implications first a rising mandatory share of renewables in the heating market is needed for target achievement and can be cost effectively second renewable obligations for heating systems must include the existing building stock to achieve the postulated political targets

review of china s wind power firms internationalization status quo determinants prospects and policy implications abstract in recent years an increasing number of chinese wind power firms have been going international in search of global market for development channels by employing qualitative research and case study methods this paper examines the export scale and markets of china s wind turbines the market entry modes and location choices of china s outward foreign direct investment fdi in the wind power sector identifies the determinants and prospects of chinese wind firms internationalization as well as provides policy implications it is found that chinese wind power firms has chosen to internationalize very differently from the uppsala model in that the exports and fdi of chinese wind power firms both took place around 2008 and the exports and fdi of chinese wind power firms are closely linked the determinants of chinese wind firms internationalization are the competitive advantages of leading chinese wind firms and the intensified domestic market competition followed by chinese government support for internationalization and the attractive overseas market the prospects of chinese wind firms internationalization are bright but challenging drawn on this analysis conclusions and three policy implications are provided at the end of the paper this paper contributes to the study of china s wind power sector from a new perspective

an affinity to commons model of public support for environmental energy policy abstract as atmospheric co 2 continues to rise above 450 ppm policymakers struggle with uncertainty concerning predictors of citizen support for environmental energy policies eeps and preferences for their design topics which have received limited attention in empirical literature we present an original model of policy support based on citizens affinity to commons pathways by which individuals enjoy natural public goods that in turn shape preferences between alternative policy mechanisms we evaluate this model using a survey of southern california electricity customers with results indicating the model s utility in predicting public support of eep stronger community ties are associated with preferences for pull type subsidies whereas stronger connections to natural commons are linked to support for both pull and push type sanctions findings have implications for coalition building as advocates may engender support for green energy policy by framing sanctions as protecting natural commons and framing subsidies either in this same way and or as producing benefits for communities

political and institutional analysis of the successes and failures of china s wind power policy this paper identifies and explains how political and institutional factors have determined the relative successes and failures of china s wind power policy over the period 2005 2011 it finds that china has made significant progress in pursuing its wind power policy in terms of cumulative installed capacity wind turbine manufacturing industry development and wind turbine cost and argues that these achievements can be attributed to the political motives and institutional arrangements of the chinese government as well as to institutional changes on the other hand the paper finds that there are two prominent policy failures namely the low proportion of grid connected capacity and the rising trend of wind turbine incidents these have undermined the efficiency and effectiveness of china s wind power program the paper holds that the institutional sources for the first policy failure lies in the preference for setting wind power development targets in terms of installed capacity rather than generation and in coordination problems while the second policy failure lies in the lack of state technical codes for wind power integration and the unfair competition from the large state owned power companies the paper contributes to the academic literature on the political and institutional roles in china s wind power policy

energy policymaking in denmark implications for global energy security and sustainability denmark is arguably the most energy secure and sustainable country in the organization of economic cooperation and development oecd the country has reduced its dependence on foreign sources of energy to zero and become self sufficient in its own energy production and use offering important lessons for other nations around the world this study explores the core of denmark s successful approach a commitment to energy efficiency prolonged taxes on energy fuels electricity and carbon dioxide and incentives for combined heat and power chp and wind turbines through these commitments the study shows how denmark transitioned from being almost 100 percent dependent on imported fuels such as oil and coal for their power plants in 1970 to becoming a net exporter of fuels and electricity today the country leads the world in terms of exportation of wind energy technology with a hold on roughly one third of the world market for wind turbines it was able to phase out the use of virtually all oil fired power plants in less than five years and implemented a progressive moratorium on future coal fired power plants in the 1990s their most recent strategy seeks to achieve 30 percent of total energy supply from renewable energy by 2025

constructing china s wind energy innovation system abstract the rapid rise of china as the largest wind energy market worldwide with several global leaders in turbine manufacturing received much attention from both scholarly and policy analytical work however little attention has been given to the innovation activities of the chinese wind industry in our paper we aim to address this gap based on second hand sources and over 50 personal interviews with wind energy related experts we argue that china s wind industry has made great progress in terms of manufacturing and installing but is confronted with various challenges and problems regarding the development of its indigenous innovation capabilities using innovation systems approaches as an analytical tool and focusing on institutions actors technology and their interaction in supporting innovation activities we decompose the elements of china s wind energy innovation system and their role in developing the domestic wind industry against this backdrop we identify and discuss challenges and obstacles in the development of an innovation driven wind industry in china the paper strongly argues that more attention should be paid to improve the coordination and cooperation among the various actors of the wind energy innovation system to the build up of a market oriented education and training system as well as to intellectual property protection

the theory of international economic sanctions a public choice approach comment william kaempfer and anton lowenberg in this review september 1988 have developed an engaging model of the sanctions process grounded in public choice they identify potentially influential private forces that might affect the nature of a sanctions package while the spirit of their effort is laudable the model fails to incorporate some absolutely essential information about the legal institutional and strategic framework in which sanctions decisions are made as a consequence they reach a conclusion that flies in the face of existing facts contrary to what is suggested by kaempfer and lowenberg kl and contrary to the implications of their model the evidence clearly indicates there is an unequivocal bias against the use of import restrictions in favor of export controls the recent history of economic sanctions shows that only somewhat more than one third of sanction episodes involved both export and import controls further gary hufbauer and jeffrey schott 1985 observe that in instances where only one or the other is invoked export controls are almost always preferred to restrictions on imports 2 an almost exclusive reliance on export controls in economic foreign policy measures is particularly evident in the actions of the united states in the 1970s 3 the purpose of this comment is to explore the causes of this asymmetry there are at least three reasons why export controls have been favored over import controls reasons that play no part in the kl model first the general agreement on tariffs and trade gatt has institutionalized a bias against import barriers in favor of export controls second in the united states domestic legal constraints favor export controls and discourage import controls third as will be argued export controls are more easily reversed than import controls and reversibility is a desirable component in any foreign policy based trade intervention consider these points in turn in the 1946 1948 period during which time the gatt was first negotiated trade barriers were identified most often with those artificial impediments to trade that restrict foreign access to domestic markets especially tariffs for this reason gatt rules and actions have sought primarily to dismantle import barriers john jackson 1969 p 502 notes that despite the fact that extensive export controls do exist there has been only one complaint with respect to such controls reflected in gatt documents this is the czechoslovakian complaint against the united states in 1949 for the imposition of discriminatory export controls 4 jackson p 502 observes that there is very little if any effective gatt policing of export control policy and he comments later p 539 that insofar as any gatt obligations can be avoided without consequences this avoidance operates in effect as an exception this suggests that those foreign policy export controls that are pro department of economics university of arizona tucson az 85721 i thank alan deardorff bernard hoekman and robert stem for helpful discussions on work related to this note my thanks also to two anonymous referees for their constructive comments see p 28 and tables 4 1 4 5 pp 70 77 hufbauer and schott 1985 2ibid p 28 3see for example richard cooper 1987 pp 301 302 and p 305 and kenneth abbott 1981 p 741 4this is confirmed more recently by barry carter 1988 p 97 the only other event involving export restrictions challenged before the gatt was the u s embargo against nicaragua in 1985 which involved both import and export restrictions