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

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

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

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

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

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

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

macroeconomic imbalances a multiregional general equilibrium analysis this article analyzes regional and sectoral consequences of recent federal budget and trade deficits a multiregional computable general equilibrium mcge model is developed in which regions differ in technology factor endowments tax rates government expenditure patterns and trade relationships an application to virginia and the rest of the united states indicates that traditional sectors agriculture forestry basic wood products mining textiles and apparel bear a greater burden of adjustment to macroeconomic imbalances than do other sectors the analysis demonstrates that seemingly aspatial national policies may shift the geographic distribution of national output and income

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

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

a transaction cost analysis of the land development process the production of our built environment involves many transaction costs we want to avoid unnecessary transaction costs nevertheless we hardly take account of transaction costs when considering different ways of organising the development process the most important reason is probably the difficulty in identifying them this paper shows why transaction costs are important and offers a method for identifying them with this method it is possible to compare the efficiency of different institutional arrangements

common interest development and the changing roles of government and market in planning world wide common interest development cid and its governance homeowners associations hoas are developing rapidly however numerous conflicts have given rise to the need to redefine govern

renewable energy support mechanisms in the gulf cooperation council states analyzing the feasibility of feed in tariffs and auction mechanisms renewable energy will be a crucial ingredient in the transition to a more sustainable future the renewable energy sector requires a variety of financial support mechanisms in order to further consolidate and expand currently the most prominent renewable energy support mechanisms are feed in tariffs and renewable energy auctions although these mechanisms have been used and analyzed extensively in western countries and more recently economies in transition they have rarely been examined in the arab gulf region yet particularly the gulf cooperation council gcc states have undertaken important steps towards renewable energy adoption which could be greatly facilitated with the use of financial support mechanisms this paper analyzes the feasibility of feed in tariffs and renewable energy auctions adoption in gcc based on an extensive meta analysis of the literature on these two mechanisms in both developed and developing countries the paper identifies a set of conditions necessary for success and evaluates the presence of favorable these conditions in the gcc context our findings reveal that while conditions that would ensure political feasibility are largely absent for both types of mechanisms auctions could be a more successful strategy at the moment

unobserved ability efficiency wages and interindustry wage differentials interindustry wage differentials in wage regressions estimated for individuals have been interpreted as evidence consistent with efficiency wage models a principal competing explanation is that these differentials are generated by differences across workers in unobserved ability this paper tests the unobserved ability hypothesis by incorporating test scores into standard wage regressions as error ridden indicators of unobserved ability the results indicate that differences in unobserved ability explain relatively little of interindustry or interoccupation wage differentials this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

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

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

an analysis of the housing redevelopment process in korea through the lens of the transaction cost framework this paper applies the transaction cost framework to the analysis of the housing redevelopment process in korea the housing redevelopment process involves various identifiable transactions and cos

a general equilibrium perspective on structural change in the rural economy a research study explored innovative methods for constructing computable general equilibrium cge models for rural structural change and development policy analysis these are the make matrix the personal consumption goods industrial goods matrix the occupation industry matrix and the map distance matrix modeling the cge for rural areas requires particular attention to the results of econometric tests on economics theories especially since rural communities are demographically and economically different from urban regions

the farm retail price spread in an imperfectly competitive food industry in a previous article in this journal gardner investigated the effects of three distinct forces affecting food system equilibria shifts in retail demand shifts in farm commodity supply and shifts in marketing input supply he derived comparative static predictions about how the quotient of retail and farm prices the retailfarm price ratio would adjust to changes in each of these exogenous effects the investigation was conducted within a framework that

factors that influence transaction costs in development offsets who bears what and why abstract environmental policy instruments generate transaction costs to public and private parties there is a growing literature reporting on the size of transaction costs produced by environmental policy instruments this paper extends that literature through an analysis of the factors that influence transaction costs in environmental policy and how this influence occurs the theory based factors that influence transaction costs are categorised as 1 transaction characteristics 2 transactor characteristics 3 nature of the institutional environment and 4 nature of the institutional arrangements we examined how these factors influenced transaction costs through the analysis of two australian based development offset schemes with different policy designs we found evidence of all four theory based categories of influence in the policy case studies the degree of influence and how each factor influenced transaction costs varies across the two policies and between parties policy design as a component of the institutional environment had a particularly large bearing on transaction costs of offset buyers and the policy administrator an important contribution to transaction cost theory assumes the institutional environment as given

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

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

a theory of career mobility this paper analyzes theoretically and empirically the role and significance of occupational mobility in the labor market focusing on individuals careers it provides additional dimensions to the analysis of investment in human capital wage differences across individuals and the relationships among promotions quits and interfirm occupational mobility it is shown that part of the returns to education is in the form of higher probabilities of occupational upgrading within or across firms given an origin occupation schooling increases the likelihood of occupational upgrading furthermore workers who are not promoted despite a high probability of promotion are more likely to quit

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

institutions in theories of land markets illustrated by the dutch market for agricultural land theories of land markets should be intellectually sound and should be able to explain and predict market outcomes such as price and volume of transactions changes in these and locations of different land uses theories based on neo classical economics which largely ignore the role of institutions are not intellectually sound because it is known that markets cannot work without institutions nor do these theories predict outcomes satisfactorily moreover they assume market mechanisms and do not investigate them critically this paper explores how institutions may be taken into account in theories of land markets and whether that leads to better theories both of market outcomes and of market processes new institutional economics provides the tools to investigate how the interactions between market actors are influenced by institutions and the old institutional economics emphasises how institutions influence the motivations and preferences of those actors the conclusion is that there cannot be a general theory of land markets only theories with a limited applicability and scope such theories can be used to explain the effects of small changes and to predict the effects of marginal changes in institutions in that latter use these theories can be used for designing land policy how institutions can be incorporated into theory is illustrated by analysing the dutch market for agricultural land this shows how institutions affect the outcomes in that market and the consequences for the transformation of land from agriculture to urban use

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

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

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

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

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

land price volatility in a geographically dispersed market historical evidence and theory lead to a hypothesis that land price variation increases with distance to market this hypothesis is tested with county data from five cornbelt states during the period 1969 to 1987 when price changes were unusually large our data support the hypothesis in the 70s prices increased more in the western cornbelt than in the eastern cornbelt in the 80s the western cornbelt experienced the more precipitous price declines our hypothesis explains why great plains farmers have experienced greater financial problems during times of stress than have many other farmers

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 economics of product variety a survey demand for variety may arise from a taste for diversity in individual consumption and or from diversity in tastes even when each consumer chooses a single variant the full degree of variety potentially demanded will not in general be supplied because scale economies even to a small degree mean that the potential welfare or revenue gain from greater variety must be balanced against the lower unit production costs with fewer variants the economics of product variety consists essentially in analysing the effect of this balance in different situations and comparing the degree of product variety for different market structures with each other and with the optimum the survey commences with the work on market structures with single product firms generalized monopolistic competition tracing modern developments in both the chamberlinian and hotelling traditions the latter has been particularly fruitful due to the expansion of the original locational ideas into virtual spaces in product characteristics the emphasis in recent work on product variety has been on multiproduct firms in both monopolistic and oligopolistic structures including strategic market preemption although most work has been in a full information context there have been advances in product variety under imperfect information either by consumers to properties of the firms products or firms as to consumers demands

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

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

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

did the expiration of retail price caps affect prices in the restructured texas electricity market on january 1 2007 the electric reliability council of texas ercot market became the first restructured market in the us to completely remove caps on the prices which could be charged to residential energy consumers by the retailers associated with the traditional or incumbent utility service providers our analysis suggests that the expiration of the price to beat ptb price caps may have led to a reduction in the average prices charged by competitive retail electric providers reps

state renewable energy electricity policies an empirical evaluation of effectiveness over the past decade state governments have emerged as us energy policy leaders across the country states are adopting policy instruments aimed at carbon mitigation and renewable energy deployment one of the most prevalent and innovative policy instruments is a renewable portfolio standard rps which seeks to increase the share of renewable energy electrification in the electricity market this analysis evaluates the effectiveness of state energy programs with an empirical investigation of the linkage between state rps policy implementation and the percentage of renewable energy electricity generation across states we use a variant of a standard fixed effects model referred to as a fixed effects vector decomposition with state level data from 1998 to 2006 results indicate that rps implementation is not a significant predictor of the percentage of renewable energy generation out of the total generation mix yet for each additional year that a state has an rps policy they are found to increase the total amount of renewable energy generation these findings reveal a potentially significant shortcoming of rps policies political institutions natural resource endowments deregulation gross state product per capita electricity use per person electricity price and the presence of regional rps policies are also found to be significantly related to renewable energy deployment

the impact of regulatory governance and privatization on electricity industry generation capacity in developing economies this article assesses whether a regulatory law and higher quality regulatory governance are associated with superior outcomes in the electricity industry the analysis for 28 developing economies over 1980 2001 draws on theoretical and empirical work on the impact of telecommunications regulators in developing economies controlling for privatization and competition and allowing for country specific fixed effects both regulatory law and higher quality regulatory governance are positively and significantly associated with higher per capita generation capacity this positive impact increases for more than 10 years as experience develops and regulatory reputation grows the results are robust to estimating alternative dynamic specifications including error correction models to inclusion of economy governance political risk indicators and to controlling for possible endogeneity biases the article concludes with a short discussion of causality in panel data modeling of governance models and the policy

robust incentives and the design of a climate change governance regime in building a governance regime to address climate change should we prioritize the development of global institutions or national ones this paper focuses on two neglected characteristics to inform the governance problem the incentives for investment in low carbon energy technology and the influence of historical policy volatility examining a case study of an important low carbon energy technology wind power this study finds 1 policy volatility has been substantial 2 policy changes were uncorrelated across jurisdictions suggesting that 3 investors could have substantially reduced their exposure to the risk of policy volatility by operating globally while it also has downsides a poorly coordinated international policy regime has the advantage of reducing the risk associated with a global policy failure beyond this case study the importance of this positive effect depends on the probability of policy failures in each country the correlations among them and the probability of a global policy failure

governance and renewable energy investment in mena countries how does trade matter abstract the middle east and north africa mena countries have recently developed renewable energy re markets however their rate of investment in renewable energy remains small compared to other regions in the world despite their relatively abundant endowments particularly in wind and solar while the literature identifies some barriers to investment in renewable energy we assume that the investment of mena countries could be impeded by specific governance factors furthermore we consider recent literature showing that trade openness reduces the negative effects of weak governance in this paper we empirically investigate the link between governance openness and renewable energy investment in the mena region using panel data for 15 mena countries over the period 1996 2013 our results prove that high institutional quality is associated with re investment in mena countries in addition this relationship seems to be conditional on the trade regime our results are robust to several measures of renewable energy investment and governance as well as to an alternative econometric set up

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

the role of regulatory uncertainty in certificate markets a case study of the swedish norwegian market abstract price volatility in green certificate markets reflects uncertainty over future prices representing a major source of risk for renewable energy generators price risk is considered the principal deficiency of this market based policy since it causes investors to require higher returns moreover investors are exposed to regulatory risk namely the risk that a change in the regulation will materially impact the certificate price regulatory uncertainty is reflected in market volatility exacerbating certificate price risk using an econometric approach we investigate the role of regulatory changes on price volatility in the swedish certificate market the results of our analysis indicate that regulatory changes strongly affect certificate markets resulting in periods of higher volatility moreover we analyze whether certificate price volatility has changed after creating a joint swedish norwegian market results indicate that the ambivalence surrounding the creation of this bigger market led to a period of increased price volatility between 2010 and 2011 overall this article brings a better understanding of the role of regulatory uncertainty on certificate markets and gives evidence for its negative impact in terms of increased price volatility

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

impact of public policy uncertainty on renewable energy investment wind power and the production tax credit abstract it is generally understood that the pattern of repeated expiration and short term renewal of the federal production tax credit ptc causes a boom bust cycle in wind power plant investment in the us this on off pattern is detrimental to the wind industry since ramp up and ramp down costs are high and players are deterred from making long term investments it is often assumed that the severe downturn in investment during off years implies that wind power is unviable without the ptc this assumption turns out to be unsubstantiated this paper demonstrates that it is not the absence of the ptc that causes the investment downturn during off years but rather the uncertainty over its return specifically it is the dynamic of power purchase agreement ppa negotiations in the face of ptc renewal uncertainty that drives investment volatility with contract negotiations prevalent in the renewable energy industry this finding suggests that reducing uncertainty is a crucial component of effective renewable energy policy the ptc as currently structured is not the only means existing or potential for encouraging wind power investment using data from a survey of energy professionals various policy instruments are compared in terms of their perceived stability for supporting long term investment

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

a positive theory of agricultural protection the present paper analyses the political economy of agricultural protection in a general equilibrium framework rational politicians offer protectionist policies in return for political support from their constituency individuals in the economy have different factor endowments politicians exploit these differences in establishing redistributive policies when maximizing political support changes in economic variables such as the urban rural income gap capital intensity the share of agriculture in total output and total employment and the share of food in consumer expenditures affect the political equilibrium policy the analysis concludes that the observed correlation between economic development and agricultural protection is caused by a multiplicity of factors

the role of energy technology innovation in reducing greenhouse gas emissions a case study of canada abstract understanding the influence of energy technology innovation in reducing a country s greenhouse gas emissions requires a systematic review to characterize the existing system a comprehensive data review of available financing mechanisms and investments by government and industry is undertaken for the case of canada coupled with an organized examination of existing international federal and regional climate policies that advance innovation results indicate that investments from early research and development through to capital expenditures are heavily weighted towards fossil fuels though federal efforts to meet international commitments have been unsuccessful regions implementing high carbon fuel phase out renewable portfolio standards and feed in tariffs were found to be successful in reducing emissions financing for clean energy projects is readily available however there is no complete database available for investors to discover these opportunities to enhance clean energy innovation in canada and enable success in emissions reductions we suggest that investments from research and development to capital expenditures and regional policies should be aligned with federal commitments along with clear communication of available financing to attract clean energy investors our approach to a systematic review is broadly applicable to other regions where there is interest in understanding and improving the role of innovation in reducing greenhouse gas emissions particularly in countries with federalist political systems and large fossil fuel reserves

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

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