delivering energy efficiency and carbon reduction schemes in england lessons from green deal pioneer places against a background of growing international and national carbon reduction legislation the uk government introduced the green deal to deliver a significant increase in housing energy efficiency and reduction in carbon emissions this paper reflects on one english local authority s experience delivering a programme intended to foster local interest in the green deal drawing on social surveys and pre and post green deal intervention interviews with five demonstrator homes households that applied to receive a green deal package fully funded by the scheme providing a test bed for the green deal recruitment and installation process this paper shows that awareness and understanding of the green deal scheme is low there is opposition to the cost of finance offered but a strong interest in improving household warmth and for funding improvements through payments added to the electricity bill demonstrator home residents perceived green deals had improved the warmth and quality of their home but saving money was the primary motivator for their involvement not increasing warmth whilst green deal has not delivered the level of success that was hoped much can be learned from the scheme to improve future energy efficiency schemes that will be necessary to deliver emission reduction commitments

financial incentives to mobilise local citizens as investors in low carbon technologies a systematic literature review abstract mobilising greater levels of private finance through local citizen investment in low carbon technologies can help bridge the capital shortfall to meeting climate objectives while also building societal support for the low carbon transition within this context we undertake a systematic review of literature assessing the impact of technology specific economic and financial incentives promoting greater levels of investment in low carbon technologies from local citizen investors both individuals and community groups we focus in particular on the impact of feed in tariffs compared to quota schemes grants tax incentives and soft loans the analysis suggests that local citizen investors do not necessarily act in an economically rational manner in response to these incentives it underscores the importance of understanding the preferences of target demographics the local context as well as the characteristics of the technologies in question and suggests interventions should be considered as part of wider policy packages while identifying challenges to be overcome through instrument design we find that feed in tariffs grants and tax incentives can be successful in mobilising greater levels of investment from local citizen investors but that soft loans tend to be less effective as a stand alone instrument the review identifies areas meriting further exploration in this emerging field of research

renewable micro generation of heat and electricity review on common and missing socio technical configurations abstract a widespread adoption of distributed generation dg technologies in energy systems can play a key role in creating clean reliable energy and support the targets of emission reduction a transition from current modes of production to a significant deployment of renewable energy technologies can fundamentally affect the structure of the industry and change the way energy is produced transmitted and sold the current paper provides an extended review of the socio technical configurations of micro generation based on journal publications and reports during the 21st century the paper analyses currently existing and missing configurations and discusses technology and policy implications to support proliferation of micro generation technology and local energy production from renewable sources the potential for new configurations can be found particularly in heat producing micro generation with solar heat heat pumps and biomass developing further the operations and maintenance of distributed generation technologies and business models appears an area that calls for further innovation and corresponding innovation policy measures third party service and community driven deployment models can aide the proliferation of distributed generation and further innovation therein justifying the introduction of feed in tariffs to attract such models during their early diffusion

household energy use applying behavioural economics to understand consumer decision making and behaviour household energy conservation has emerged as a major challenge and opportunity for researchers practitioners and policymakers consumers also seem to be gaining greater awareness of the value and need for sustainable energy practices particularly amid growing public concerns over greenhouse gas emissions and climate change yet even with adequate knowledge of how to save energy and a professed desire to do so many consumers still fail to take noticeable steps towards energy efficiency and conservation there is often a sizeable discrepancy between peoples self reported knowledge values attitudes and intentions and their observable behaviour examples include the well known knowledge action gap and value action gap but neither is household energy consumption driven primarily by financial incentives and the rational pursuit of material interests in fact people sometimes respond in unexpected and undesirable ways to rewards and sanctions intended to shift consumers cost benefit calculus in favour of sustainable behaviours why is this so why is household energy consumption and conservation difficult to predict from either core values or material interests by drawing on critical insights from behavioural economics and psychology we illuminate the key cognitive biases and motivational factors that may explain why energy related behaviour so often fails to align with either the personal values or material interests of consumers understanding these psychological phenomena can make household and community responses to public policy interventions less surprising and in parallel can help us design more cost effective and mass scalable behavioural solutions to encourage renewable and sustainable energy use among consumers

promoting renewable energy sources for heating and cooling in eu 27 countries abstract in addition to public policies aimed at improving the energy efficiency of buildings eu authorities have also promoted the use of renewable energy sources for heating and cooling uses res h c this paper analyses the main policy measures implemented in eu 27 countries up to 2009 i e subsidies tax incentives financial support and feed in tariffs twenty three member states mss have developed some of these policy measures the most widespread measure is the subsidy 22 mss have implemented these because from a political point of view subsidies provide a straightforward approach to promote the use of res h c secondly tax incentives have been used for reducing investment costs and making renewable energy profitable thirdly financial incentives and feed in tariffs have been used sparingly while financial incentives might be used more extensively for promoting res h c if they are accompanied by other policy measures feed in tariffs are not likely to be implemented significantly in the future because this measure is not designed for household heat producers

evolutionary competition in a mixed market with socially concerned firms abstract in this paper we study an oligopoly market where profit maximizing firms and socially concerned firms compete in quantities confronting remarks by milton friedman and gary becker we are using an evolutionary setting to investigate the endogenous choice of the proper objective of business firms and the influence of product differentiation on the long run survival of firms which pursue non profit motives we find that firms which consider a combination of profit and consumer welfare can indeed have larger market shares and profits than their profit maximizing rivals one insight is that it might pay off for shareholders to consider stakeholder welfare but that the level of social concern should not be too high based on a strategy s profitability we consider asynchronous evolutionary updating with firms selecting nash quantities or choosing best replies to the expected market quantity here we observe that the consumers willingness to pay a price premium for products is crucial for the long run survival of socially concerned firms depending on the degrees of product differentiation and social concern long run outcomes consist either of both types of firms or only one type of firm if the firms propensity to switch between a social or a profit maximizing strategy is sufficiently large steady states are unstable and even complicated dynamics can occur

the impact of environmental policy instruments on innovation a review of energy and automotive industry studies various types of policy instruments have been implemented to reduce local and global emissions but the impact on innovation of different instruments has received less attention this paper reviews empirical studies of the innovation impact of four main types of policy instruments in two high emitting sectors the conclusions are threefold 1 policy plays a key role for the development and diffusion of environmental innovation in the studied sectors 2 different types of instruments promote different types of innovations general economic instruments has primarily encouraged incremental innovation general regulatory instruments has enforced improvements based on modular innovation and technology specific instruments appears to have been needed to support the development and deployment of radically new technologies 3 all types of policy instruments face challenges in design and implementation understanding the selection impact of the chosen instruments implementing increasing stringency levels committing to an appropriate scale and safeguarding policy stability

valuation of environmental and societal trade offs of renewable energy sources abstract use of renewable energy sources is one solution to decrease green house gas emissions and the use of polluting fossil fuels renewables differ in their environmental and societal impacts and to design sound renewable energy policy societies need to assess the trade offs between alternative sources to enable the evaluation and comparison of renewable energy production alternatives in finland this paper applies the choice experiment to elicit the monetary information on people s preferences for four renewable energy sources wind power hydro power and energy from crops and wood and considers four impacts of energy production effects on biodiversity local jobs carbon emissions and household s electricity bill the nested logit analysis reveals that higher income male gender young age and pro environmental attitude increase the probability to choose renewable energy instead of the current energy mix wind power is on average the most popular renewable energy technology but regional differences exist biodiversity deterioration should be avoided the national aggregate willingness to pay based on stated preferences rather than preferences revealed by actual market behavior for a combination of renewable energy technologies that corresponds to finland s climate change and energy policy is over 500 million euros

strategic choices for renewable energy investment conceptual framework and opportunities for further research this paper introduces the special issue on strategic choices for renewable energy investment which is a collection of best papers presented at an international research conference held in st gallen switzerland in february 2010 substantial private investment is needed if public policy objectives to increase the share of renewable energy and prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change are to be achieved the aim of this paper and the entire special issue is to draw scholarly attention to the processes underlying strategic choices for renewable energy investment and how they are influenced by energy policy we disentangle the role of risk return perceptions portfolio effects and path dependence in explaining energy investment decisions and suggest that the heterogeneous universe of investors requires a segmentation of policies the paper outlines some of the rich opportunities for further research in this emerging area

conceptualizing the acceptance of wind and solar electricity drawing from research interviews and the academic literature this article conceptualizes the conditions that promote investor confidence and the social acceptance of wind and solar sources of electricity it explores the factors influencing the acceptance of commercial wind turbines in denmark and india and residential solar panels in germany and the united states the article begins by justifying its selection of case studies and explaining the methodology behind its research interviews and field visits it then summarizes some of the key findings in recent surveys of public attitudes and market acceptance concerning renewable energy with a focus on why some investors and communities reject wind and solar systems whereas others rapidly approve and adopt them the article proposes that acceptance has multiple dimensions socio political community and market that must be met holistically in order for investors and users to embrace renewable energy the article argues that acceptance hinges upon the prevalence of nine factors the lack of such factors creates environments where they are rejected the theory is tested against four case studies that explore the forces driving renewable energy in denmark germany india and the united states

social acceptance of renewable energy innovation an introduction to the concept this paper introduces the special issue on social acceptance of renewable energy innovation it is a collection of best papers presented at an international research conference held in tramelan switzerland in february 2006 while there are ambitious government targets to increase the share of renewable energy in many countries it is increasingly recognized that social acceptance may be a constraining factor in achieving this target this is particularly apparent in the case of wind energy which has become a subject of contested debates in several countries largely due to its visual impact on landscapes this paper introduces three dimensions of social acceptance namely socio political community and market acceptance factors influencing socio political and community acceptance are increasingly recognized as being important for understanding the apparent contradictions between general public support for renewable energy innovation and the difficult realization of specific projects the third dimension market acceptance has received less attention so far and provides opportunities for further research particularly from management scholars

real balances the exchange rate and indexation real variables in disinflation the paper shows first that real exchange rate appreciation typically reduces but may increase the output costs of disinflation the direct favorable effects of cheaper imports on consumer prices on the prices of imported inputs on wage demands and on the demand for money may be outweighed by the unemployment caused by the trade deficit second the effects of wage indexation on the costs of disinflation are reexamined ex ante indexation speeds up disinflation ex post indexation the type observed in practice automatically increases the real wage at the start of a disinflation and may therefore increase the sacrifice ratio

do subsidies work better in low income than in high income families survey on domestic energy efficient and renewable energy equipment purchase in china abstract domestic energy efficient and renewable energy eere equipment shows a great energy saving potential in household energy consumption two rounds of large scale financial subsidy programs have been developed in china since 2010 to promote the adoption of green equipment however how these subsidies attract chinese families of different income levels is not fully explored given this knowledge gap we conducted a self completion questionnaire survey in 2012 to ask 526 respondents about their purchase of domestic eere equipment we explored the effects of subsidy incentives and family incomes on the purchase attitudes and intentions of individuals toward the seven categories of eere equipment we find that family income positively moderates the relationship between eere equipment purchase attitude and behavioral intention and subsidy incentives positively affect the moderating effect of family income in other words a higher family income and better familiarization with subsidy incentives can promote the transformation of green attitudes into eere equipment purchasing intention the results may indicate that the subsidized prices are still high in the view of the low income families this study contributes to the understanding of the effects of chinese subsidy incentives and of the economic concerns of people about the purchase of domestic eere equipment

consumer responses towards home energy financial incentives a survey based study abstract residential energy efficient and renewable energy eere products play an important role in energy conservation and carbon emissions reduction various financial incentive programs have been developed to promote the adoption of these products however their effectiveness in attracting consumers is not very well understood in this study we investigated impacts of financial incentives on homeowner s decision making towards six eere products two forms of incentives tax credits and interest free loans were examined through a household mailing survey in florida the united states results showed that although half of the respondents were interested in eere products the high investment cost was a major concern that hindered their purchase activities homeowners were attracted to financial incentives and valued tax credits much higher than interest free loans the current federal home energy tax credit levels were found to attract only 2 12 percent of homeowners to buy eere products the willingness of participation was especially low for the costly products such as solar panels the participation rate was also very low for lower income i e annual household income below 50 000 families living in older residences this study contributes to the understanding of economic and social aspects of consumer decision making on energy efficiency and alternative energy

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

economic modelling of price support mechanisms for renewable energy case study on ireland abstract the irish government is considering its future targets policy and programmes for renewable energy for the period beyond 2005 this follows a review in 2003 of policy options that identified a number of different measures to stimulate increased deployment of renewable energy generation capacity this paper expands this review with an economic analysis of renewable energy price support mechanisms in the irish electricity generation sector the focus is on three primary price support mechanisms quota obligations feed in tariffs and competitive tender schemes the green x computer model is utilised to characterise the res e potential and costs in ireland up until and including 2020 the results from this dynamic software tool are used to compare the different support mechanisms in terms of total costs to society and the average premium costs relative to the market price for electricity the results indicate that in achieving a 20 res e proportion of gross electricity consumption by 2020 a tender scheme provides the least costs to society over the period 2006 2020 but only in case there is limited or no strategic bidding considering however strategic bidding a feed in tariff can be the more efficient solution between the other two support mechanisms the total costs to society are highest for feed in tariffs fit until 2013 at which point the costs for the quota system begin to rise rapidly and overtake fit in 2014 2020 the paper also provides a sensitivity analysis of the support mechanism calculations by varying default parameters such as the interim 2010 target the assumed investment risk levels and the amount of biomass co firing this analysis shows that a 2010 target of 15 rather than 13 2 generates lower costs for society over the whole period 2006 2020 but higher costs for the res e strategy over the period 2006 2010

is there a case for community based equity participation in scottish on shore wind energy production gaps in evidence and research needs abstract this paper considers the potential rural development benefits of community ownership or co ownership or equity participation of on shore wind energy developments and argues for further research to assess the case for enhanced policy support for such ownership structures previous authors have argued that if communities are given a stake in renewables enterprises this will support the scottish government s community empowerment agenda increase economic activity in rural scotland and provide substantial benefits to rural communities others have argued that community ownership schemes may decrease community resistance to on shore wind developments and set beneficiary communities on a low carbon development pathway through stimulating energy citizenship however empirical evidence to support all of these claims remains limited focussing on scotland where the growth of on shore wind has been strong in recent years the paper reviews the current policy environment and governance context before reviewing evidence in relation to the various arguments for community ownership or shared equity in the case of on shore wind energy it identifies several areas where further research is urgently required to guide policy makers so as to ensure that both rural development objectives and renewable energy targets are met

subsidy programs on diffusion of solar water heaters taiwan s experience abstract financial incentives are essentially one of the key factors influencing diffusion of solar water heaters in many countries two subsidy programs were initiated by the government of taiwan in 1986 1986 1991 and 2000 2000 present respectively those long term national programs are considered to be the driving force on local market expansion in 2008 the regional subsidy programs for solar water heaters were announced by kaohsiung city and kiemen county which resulted in the growth in sales a revised subsidy was also initiated by the government of taiwan in 2009 the subsidy is 50 more however the tremendous enlargement of market size with a high level ratio of subsidy over total installation cost might result in a negative impact on a sustainable swh industry and long term development of the local market which is associated with system design and post installation service this paper aims to address the relative efficiency and pitfalls of those national and regional programs

the simple economics of motor vehicle pollution a case for fuel tax the volume of pollution produced by an automobile is determined by driver s behavior along three margins i vehicle selection ii kilometers driven and iii on road fuel economy the first two margins have been studied extensively however the third has received scant attention how significant is this intensive margin what would be the optimal policies when it is taken into account the paper develops and analyzes a simple model of the technical and behavioral mechanisms that determine the volume emissions produced by a car the results show that an optimal fuel tax would provide drivers with appropriate incentives along all three margins and that only public information is needed for a fuel tax to be set optimally in contrast an optimal distance tax would require private information lastly relative to the optimal fuel tax a simple uniform fuel tax is shown to be progressive thus being already deployed worldwide a uniform fuel tax is an attractive second best policy these findings should be accounted for when designing new mechanisms to alleviate motor vehicle pollution

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

financing instruments and channels for the increasing production and consumption of renewable energy lithuanian case the growing demand for energy commitments taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions fossil fuel depletion and other issues enforced to accept the decision to analyze financing issues of renewable energy sector worldwide this paper addresses two financing issues financing channels and instruments and their impact on energy cost the analysis revealed that the governmental support in the form of tax reductions and subsidies and international funds are important renewable energy sector financing channels in developing countries availability of private resources increases under the established public private partnership agreements economically advanced countries use a greater variety of financing channels and instruments because of high growth of renewable energy sector some new financing channels are available the experience of lithuania revealed that governmental policy encourages investment into the renewable energy sector banks found attractive renewable energy technologies after feed in tariffs increased eu structural funds and tax incentives are available especially in subsidizing combined cycle electricity and heat generation innovative financing instruments provided under the jessica and jeremie initiatives as well as investment subsidies are favorable to develop solar energy sector in lithuania seeking to expedite solar sector development in lithuania it is essential to review a feed in tariff which currently is too low and impedes implementation of solar pv technologies solar collectors could compete in the district heating sector even without a support

the solar photovoltaic feed in tariff scheme in new south wales australia solar photovoltaic pv electricity systems are part of australia s energy supply matrix in the case of new south wales nsw the state government has had to deal with a complex policy problem in order to play its role in the federal small scale renewable energy scheme the nsw government initiated the 7 year solar bonus scheme in 2010 however in attempting to maximise community investment in small scale solar pv systems it relied on faulty financial modelling that applied a generous feed in tariff fit and underestimated the level of investor participation and installed capacity consequently the scheme has resulted in very high public costs that will require policy changes that bring investors and energy retailers into conflict and unpopular electricity retail price adjustments this paper uses a structured case and stakeholder analysis to critically analyse the fit policy while also highlighting important lessons for policymakers engaging in fit design

investment under uncertain climate policy a practitioners perspective on carbon risk this paper introduces the concept of payment probability as an important component of carbon risk the financial risk associated with co2 emissions under uncertain climate policy in modeling power plant investment decisions most existing literature uses the expected carbon price e g the price of traded permits or carbon tax as a proxy for carbon risk in contrast this paper identifies expected carbon payment as a more accurate measure of carbon risk as perceived by industry practitioners this measure of carbon risk incorporates both expected price and the probability that this price would actually be faced in the case of a particular investment this concept helps explain both the surge of activity in 2005 2006 and the subsequent decline in interest in coal fired power plant development in the u s the data for this case study comes from an extensive online survey of 700 u s energy professionals completed in 2006 as well as interviews conducted with industry representatives from 2007 to 2009 by analyzing industry views on policy uncertainty and future carbon legislation we gain a better understanding of investor attitudes toward carbon risk this understanding will help policy makers design better incentives for investing in low carbon technologies

public policy influence on renewable energy investments a panel data study across oecd countries this paper examines the impact of public policy measures on renewable energy re investments in electricity generating capacity made by institutional investors using a novel combination of datasets and a longitudinal research design we investigate the influence of different policy measures in a sample of oecd countries to suggest an effective policy mix which could tackle failures in the market for clean energy the results call for technology specific policies which take into account actual market conditions and technology maturity to improve the conditions for institutional investments advisable policy instruments include economic and fiscal incentives such as feed in tariffs fit especially for less mature technologies additionally market based instruments such as greenhouse gas ghg emission trading systems for mature technologies should be included these policy measures directly impact the risk and return structure of re projects supplementing these with regulatory measures such as codes and standards e g rps and long term strategic planning could further strengthen the context for re investments

analysis of tax incentives for energy efficient durables in the eu climate change is one of the most significant challenges faced by societies this century energy consumption is directly associated with co2 emissions and climate change the european commission has set out emission reduction targets that require a great deal of energy consumption savings in the next 10 years in european countries this paper presents the results of an analysis of the potential cost effectiveness of different policy options aimed to foster the production and consumption of energy efficient appliances in different european countries our results suggest that incentives to promote the use of energy efficient appliances can be cost effective but whether or not they are depends on the particular country and the options under consideration from the cases considered tax credits on boilers appear to be a cost effective option in denmark and italy while subsidies on cfli bulbs in france and poland are cost effective in terms of ton of co2 abated comparing the subsidies against the energy tax options we find that the subsidies are in most cases less cost effective than the energy tax

comparing the feed in tariff incentives for renewable electricity in ontario and germany the development of feed in tariff fit programs to support green electricity in ontario the green energy and green economy act of 2009 and germany the erneuerbare energien gesetz of 2000 is compared the two policies are highly comparable offering similar rates for most renewable electricity technologies major differences between the policies include the level of differentiation found in the german policy as well as the use of a price degression strategy for fit rates in germany compared to an escalation strategy in ontario the german renewable electricity portfolio is relatively balanced compared to ontario where wind power dominates the portfolio at the federal level canada does not yet have a policy similar to the european directive on renewable energy and this lack may impact decisions taken by manufacturers of renewable technologies who consider establishing operations in the province ontario s green energy and green economy act could be benefit from lessons in the german system especially with regard to degression of feed in tariff rates over time which could significantly reduce payments to producers over the course of a contract and in turn encourage greater competitiveness among renewable power providers in the future

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