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

financing renewable energy infrastructure formulation pricing and impact of a carbon revenue bond abstract renewable energy systems depend on large financial incentives to compete with conventional generation methods market based incentives including state level rec markets and international carbon markets have been proposed as solutions to increase renewable energy investment in this paper we introduce and formulate a carbon revenue bond a financing tool to complement environmental credit markets to encourage renewable energy investment to illustrate its use we value the bond by predicting future revenue using stochastic processes after analyzing historical price data three illustrative examples are presented for renewable energy development in three different markets europe australia and new jersey our findings reveal that the sale of a carbon revenue bond with a ten year maturity can finance a significant portion of a project s initial cost

support systems for the diffusion of renewable energy technologies an investor perspective concern over climate change impacts and the projected depletion of fossil fuels has urged more governments to adopt policies that stimulate the diffusion of renewable energy technologies ret with an increasingly diverse suite of support instruments the question emerges as to which instruments or combinations are able to achieve faster more substantial diffusion results although various support instruments were extensively addressed in policy studies there is still no consensus this is partly because many policy studies take a policy maker approach in comparing support instruments leaving relationships between policy design and policy results as a black box this paper proposes an investor oriented perspective to analyze the diffusion potential of support systems for ret the main argument is that it is not the type of support instrument but rather its risk profitability characteristics that influence investor behavior and the rate of diffusion the two instruments most frequently discussed and compared are the feed in tariff and the quota model the analysis in this paper concludes that policy design is crucial while often feed in tariffs are applauded and quota system feared feed in tariffs may also bring about disappointing diffusion results when poorly designed while quota systems may be also conceived as attractive instruments for independent power producers

european schemes for promoting renewables in liberalised markets abstract the paper describes possibilities and problems for penetration of supply systems based on renewable energy sources in liberalised markets the analysis is based on recent development in eu with different models for support of installations based on renewable energy these include feed in models with guaranteed minimum tariffs tender models for different bands of technologies and green certificates trading models with obligatory consumer quota the paper describes the market situation in selected european countries including germany the uk holland and denmark an eu directive from september 2001 has postponed the decision on a possible harmonisation of promotional models until at least 2005 in order to obtain more practical experience with the different support schemes a critical evaluation is given in this paper of the different models with proposals for a balanced development between environmental and trading concerns it is argued that too much emphasis is presently given to the side of free trade at the expense of long range planning for a sustainable energy development

making renewable energy competitive in india reducing financing costs via a government sponsored hedging facility abstract in india a significant barrier to market competitiveness of renewable energy is a shortage of attractive debt domestic debt has high cost short tenors and variable interest rates adding 30 to the cost of renewable energy compared to renewable energy projects elsewhere foreign debt is as expensive as domestic debt because it requires costly market based currency hedging solutions we investigate a government sponsored foreign exchange facility as an alternative to reducing hedging costs using the geometric brownian motion gbm 2 as a representative stochastic model of the inr usd foreign exchange rate we find that the expected cost of providing a currency hedge via this facility is 3 5 percentage points 50 lower than market this leads to an up to 9 reduction in the per unit cost of renewable energy however this requires the government to manage the risks related to unexpected currency movements appropriately one option to manage these risks is via a capital buffer for the facility to obtain india s sovereign rating the capital buffer would need to be almost 30 of the underlying loan our findings have significant policy implications given that the indian government can use this facility to make renewable energy more competitive and therefore hasten its deployment

analytical evaluation of lead time demand in polytree supply chains with uncertain demand lead time and inter demand time abstract in a stochastic supply chain network knowing the exact distribution of lead time demand ltd for each node allows determining inventory policy parameters service levels and optimal costs to determine the ltd distributions a stochastic analytical model has been developed for a multi echelon supply chain organised into an arbitrary polytree network where the variables demand quantity lead time and inter demand time are uncertain and can follow any probability distribution the model is based on a conventional nq batch policy for each node with discrete time and continuous demand any network can be broken down into four basic elements which represent root and leaf node topologies the model derives key convolutions for the four basic elements and then follows the same technique for evaluating resulting ltd distributions for each node in the network the paper presents the formulation in seven steps that can be used to obtain exact ltd distributions either in the two dimensional form or as a compound one dimensional ltd distribution per variable lead time for each node in any polytree supply chain the ltd distributions can be calculated either analytically for smaller networks or using numerical integration for larger networks the validation of the developed framework has been conducted by comparing the obtained formalism based ltd distribution for two test networks against simulation the pairs of simulated and formalism based distributions have been plotted against each other as well as subjected to various goodness of fit tests and error analysis the results suggest that the formalism based and simulated probability distributions are consistent

solar energy market developments in india abstract considering india s ambition to ensure energy security renewable energy sources like solar wind biomass and small hydro can play crucial role in the energy mix of the country solar has been identified as one of the key renewable sources to supplement the conventional energy sources and reduce carbon footprint in india authors review solar energy potential market developments capacity additions actual production and component manufacturing industry trade status and economics of solar energy in the country recently the government revised target for solar power capacity installation from 20 gw to100 gw by 2022 however the solar industry faces a significant level of challenges in the areas of grid connectivity and evacuation infrastructure regulatory policy developments capacity utilization initial capital investment lack of innovative financing models consumer awareness and acceptance authors suggest that by taking key strategic steps like creating attracting investment climate making easy access to financing developing transmission and distribution infrastructure skill development and developing domestic component manufacturing industry the challenges can be addressed such progressive steps would enable india to achieve the objective of industrialization through clean energy

estimating the lead time demand distribution when the daily demand is non normal and autocorrelated hon shiang lau abstract this paper develops convenient formulas for estimating the probability distribution of lead time demand when the inventory item s daily demand follows a probability distribution of any arbitrary shape and when simple univariate models can be found for the autocorrelated daily demand series numerical examples are presented to illustrate the use of these formulas the numerical results also indicate that significant error may be incurred when inventory decisions are made without proper consideration of the autocorrelations or the arbitrary distribution shapes of daily demands

renewable energy finance and project ownership the impact of alternative development structures on the cost of wind power abstract this paper uses traditional financial cash flow techniques to examine the impact of different ownership and financing structures on the cost of renewable energy specifically wind power most large non hydroelectric renewable energy projects are developed owned and financed by private non utility generators recently however us utilities have begun to consider owning and financing their own wind power facilities rather than purchasing power from independent renewable energy suppliers utilities in other countries have also expressed interest in direct renewable energy investments a primary justification for utility ownership of wind turbine power plants is that utility self financing and ownership is cheaper than purchasing wind energy from non utility renewable energy suppliers the results presented in this paper support that justification although some of the estimated cost savings associated with utility ownership are a result of suboptimal utility analysis procedures and implicit risk shifting financing terms and variables are shown to significantly impact wind power costs

perception of risks in renewable energy projects the case of concentrated solar power in north africa the world needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to prevent climate change while meeting the energy needs of developed and developing economies recent studies suggest that generation of electricity from concentrated solar power in north african countries and its transmission to europe could provide european and north african partners with low carbon electricity the private capital will be likely required to achieve the scale of new investment and yet the north african region experience difficulties with sustaining high levels of foreign direct investment from the private sector the literature identifies a number of risks as barriers to investment and we examine these in the particular context of renewable energy development we conducted three stages of interviews with stakeholders to learn their perceptions of the risks most likely to affect renewable energy projects three class of risks regulatory political and force majeure which includes terrorism stand out as being of high concern of these regulatory risks are perceived as being the most consequential and the most likely to occur this suggests that attention to building the capacities of north african countries to develop implement and enforce sound regulations in a transparent manner could be an important step in promoting renewable energy cooperation with europe

capital budgeting technological innovation and the emerging competitive environment of the electric power industry abstract for most of this century the electric utility industry has operated as a regulated natural monopoly which produced a commodity product in an environment of low technological progress and sold it to a homogeneous captive market given these conditions the primary capital budgeting issues involved the timing of capacity additions and the mix of base load and peaking capacity this relatively simple and stable situation however has been eroded by market regulatory and technological changes as a consequence old embedded capital budgeting approaches are hindering the pursuit of efficiency with respect to the production and distribution of electric energy our purpose in this paper is to assess traditional utility capital budgeting procedures and to explore possibilities for improvement we begin with a review of traditional capital budgeting decision processes next we overview the changes that have emerged over the last two decades and explore capital budgeting processes more appropriate to this early competitive environment finally we project the changes a bit further and explore the capital budgeting techniques that may be useful in an advanced competitive environment

integrating replenishment decisions with advance demand information there is a growing consensus that a portfolio of customers with different demand lead times can lead to higher more regular revenues and better capacity utilization customers with positive demand lead times place orders in advance of their needs resulting inadvance demand information this gives rise to the problem of finding effective inventory control policies under advance demand information we show that state dependent s s and base stock policies are optimal for stochastic inventory systems with and without fixed costs the state of the system reflects our knowledge of advance demand information we also determine conditions under which advance demand information has no operational value a numerical study allows us to obtain additional insights and to evaluate strategies to induce advance demand information

towards a sustainable electrification in ghana a review of renewable energy deployment policies abstract ghana has been facing perennial power rationing over the years due to fuel supply challenges the country s energy system is likely to suffer additional strain from rising energy demand fueled by population growth rapid urbanization and economic development fortunately there are enormous renewable energy resources which can provide sustainable electrification as backbone to socioeconomic development while curbing global warming ghana s energy strategy targets 100 access to electricity and 10 share of sustainable power in national generation mix by 2020 despite the existence of numerous policies and a renewable energy act current contribution of non conventional renewable energy to electricity generation is less than 1 the right mix of policies to address the unique domestic conditions and achieve its specific development goals remains insufficient this study reviews the regulatory framework financing incentives and other provisions of ghana s renewable energy act it critically examines the policy s strengths weaknesses opportunities and treats based on comparative analysis and lessons drawn from failed and successful implementation of similar policies around the world the study also assesses the impact of policy on project development it was found that the performance of ghana s renewable energy policy on grid connected electricity has been poor compared to its target the fundamental reasons for this unsatisfactory performance may be attributed to partial implementation of policies lack of market driven support schemes lack of pricing policy framework weak grid network limited access to funds and inconsistencies in renewable energy development strategies this study proposes the following countermeasures i ghana should comprehensively harmonize renewable energy regulatory and fiscal policies with domestic electricity pricing regime ii market driven support schemes should be prioritized for cost effectiveness and minimum governmental influence these reforms can help eliminate some of the major barriers to sustainable electrification in ghana while the lessons provide a learning curve for other african countries

evaluating the robustness of lead time demand models abstract this paper examines the robustness of lead time demand models for the continuous review r q inventory policy a number of classic distributions e g normal lognormal gamma poisson and negative binomial as well as distribution selection rules are examined under a wide variety of demand conditions first the models are compared to each other by assuming a known demand process and evaluating the errors associated with using a different model then the models are examined using a large sample of simulated demand conditions approximation results of inventory performance measures ready rate expected number of backorders and on hand inventory levels are reported results indicate that distribution selection rules have great potential for modeling the lead time demand

a comparative analysis of the costs of onshore wind energy is there a case for community specific policy support abstract there is growing policy interest in increasing the share of community owned renewable energy generation this study explores why and how the costs of community owned projects differ from commercially owned projects by examining the case of onshore wind in the uk based on cross sectoral literature on the challenges of community ownership cost differences are attributed to six facets of an organisation or project internal processes internal knowledge and skills perceived local legitimacy of the project perceived external legitimacy of the organisation investor motivation and expectations and finally project scale these facets impact not only development costs but also project development times and the probability that projects pass certain critical stages in the development process using survey based and secondary cost data on community and commercial projects in the uk a model is developed to show the overall impact of cost time and risk differences on the value of a hypothetical 500 kw onshore wind project the results show that the main factors accounting for differences are higher pre planning costs and additional risks born by community projects and suggest that policy interventions may be required to place community owned projects on a level playing field with commercial projects

preliminary evaluation of the section 1603 treasury grant program for renewable power projects in the united states this article evaluates the first year of the section 1603 treasury cash grant program which enables renewable power projects in the u s to elect cash grants in lieu of the federal tax credits that are otherwise available to date the program has been heavily subscribed particularly by wind power projects which had received 86 of the nearly 2 6 billion in grants that had been disbursed as of march 1 2010 as of that date 6 2 gw of the 10 gw of new wind capacity installed in the u s in 2009 had applied for grants in lieu of production tax credits roughly 2 4 gw of this wind capacity may not have otherwise been built in 2009 absent the grant program this 2 4 gw may have supported approximately 51 600 short term full time equivalent fte gross job years in the u s during the construction phase of these wind projects and 3 860 longterm fte gross jobs during the operational phase the program s popularity stems from the significant economic value that it provides to renewable power projects relative to the otherwise available tax credits although grants reward investment rather than efficient performance this evaluation finds no evidence at this time of either widespread gold plating or performance problems

biomass power exploring the diffusion challenges in spain the use of biomass resources for power generation offers numerous benefits of interest for political decision makers fuel security rural and industrial development ecological benefits in spain policy instruments have been used since 1980 to stimulate biomass power generation however the diffusion outcome by 2007 was very disappointing only 525 mw this paper argues that two factors lie at the core of this the conceptualization of biomass resources by political decision makers in the instruments used and the desire that policy instruments be in line with market liberalization principles these generated a persistent economic obstacle for biomass power generation and impeded the development of markets for the supply of biomass resources the policy learning regarding the heterogeneity of biomass resources and the investors expectations on risks profitability and resource markets was very slow among political decision makers the paper contributes to the understanding of diffusion outcomes by proposing to analyse diffusion by means of five indicators types of resources technologies developers motivations to invest and project sizes besides the paper shows the usefulness of investigating policy instruments in terms of their risk and profitability characteristics this enables a better understanding of the diffusion patterns and outcomes

factors influencing buying behaviour of green energy consumer green energy has gained significant research attention across the globe due to its ability to reduce environmental damage however for complete acceptance of green energy only government regulations are not enough the willingness to use green energy and contribute to the wellbeing of the environment should spring from within consumers such willingness may be developed by enhancing consumers perceived value of green energy however in order to do so it is necessary to assess existing levels of consumers perceived value towards green energy the present study develops a multidimensional green perceived value scale to measure existing levels of consumers perceived value the scale considers green perceived value as a multidimensional second order construct comprising functional value social value conditional value and emotional value dimensions such an attempt has not been made before which highlights the originality value of the present study the scale can be used to assess consumers perception towards green energy such information would help in formulating strategies that encourage consumers to voluntarily adopt green energy the study also reveals that it is not only the financial aspects that lead consumers to decide on adoption of green energy consumers are also driven by emotional and social considerations thus policy makers could formulate pro green energy programmes and mass messages that appeal to consumers sense of responsibility to voluntarily adopt green energy without having to rely on financial incentives researchers could examine the considered dimensions of the scale further with respect to other constructs related to consumer behaviour

takeover motives during the conglomerate merger wave this article examines the stock market response to acquisition announcements during and immediately after the conglomerate merger wave of the late 1960s the main finding is that acquirer shareholders benefited from diversification acquisitions which implies that diversification was not driven by managerial objectives it is also shown that the market responded positively to bidders who retained the management of target companies and negatively to bidders who replaced target management this is consistent with the hypothesis that the market favored acquisitions intended to exploit managerial synergies it suggests that the market disliked takeovers that were motivated to discipline target management evidence on buyer and target price earnings ratios is presented that is inconsistent with the conjecture that conglomerates were able to mislead investors by earnings per share manipulation

integrating financial theory and methods in electricity resource planning decision makers throughout the world are introducing risk and market forces in the electric power industry to lower costs and improve services incentive based regulation ibr which replaces cost of service ratemaking with an approach that divorces costs from revenues exposes the utility to the risk of profits or losses depending on their performance regulators also are allowing for competition within the industry most notably in the wholesale market and possibly in the retail market two financial approaches that incorporate risk in resource planning are evaluated risk adjusted discount rates radr and options theory ot these two complementary approaches are an improvement over the standard present value revenue requirement pvrr however each method has some important limitations by correctly using radr and ot and understanding their limitations decision makers can improve their ability to value risk properly in power plant projects and integrated resource plans

analysis of the effectiveness of national renewable energy policies a case of photovoltaic policies abstract although fossil fuels are the main sources of power generation they are losing their advantages because of their limitations and environmental and economic concerns as an alternative the development of renewable energy technologies is one of the important strategies therefore governments have been encouraging the deployment of renewable energy resources however there are gaps between achievements and targets as most of the national renewable energy development policies are formulated in the entire country equally the outputs and achievements are different depending on the geographical characteristics social and economic capabilities of the regions the purpose of the present study is the analysis and the evaluation of the effectiveness of the equal national renewable energy policy in the different regions of a country this research focuses on the idea that whether the codification of energy policies according to the local circumstances of each region can result in a greater efficiency of such policies an innovative framework is presented to categorize the government policies based on the geographical technical and socio economic indicators to examine the presented framework it is implemented as a case study

a study of existing solar power policy framework in india for viability of the solar projects perspective a decade before conversion of solar energy into electricity was quite expensive compare with other renewable energy or conventional fossil fired generated power for making solar energy as a main stream source of power generation indian government has taken several initiatives in last 5 6 years presently the deployment of the solar power project in india is governed by both central and state government under the various schemes these schemes are mainly includes feed in tariff fit renewable purchase obligation rpo long term power purchase agreements ppas renewable energy certificates rec accelerated depreciation ad benefit and reverse bidding auctions etc as an effect of this competitive market environment the tariff of solar power has come down from inr 17 or us 0 271 year 2010 to less than inr 6 or us 0 0922 year 2015 this decremented solar tariff may achieve grid parity soon but also has raised the question of sustainability of the solar power project as well additionally this multi policy environment of both central and state government has created lots of confusion among the solar power project developers to select scheme and make their investment viable as per other power generation business this paper summarizes various schemes under the current policy framework in terms of viability of the solar power projects in india it also includes issues related with the sustainability of the solar power project taken under the competitive bidding process with remarkable lowered tariff than benchmarked tariff ceiling price in india i e inr 7 or us 0 107 this study will help project developers and other stakeholders to understand the issues related with viability of the project in current multi policy environment for better planning before investing in the field of solar power business

renewable deployment in india financing costs and implications for policy india s ambitious goals for renewable energy raise many questions regarding the nature of investment required we conduct financial modeling of actual renewable projects in india and derive the following insights first the high cost of debt is the most pressing problem higher cost and inferior terms of debt in india may raise the cost of renewable energy by 24 32 compared to the u s second even if cost of debt goes down loan terms including short tenors and variable interest rates will become significant impediments given that they add 13 14 to the cost of renewable energy in india compared to the u s finally due to the high cost of debt policy lessons from the u s and europe which focus on finer instruments such as duration of revenue support revenue certainty investor risk perception and completion cost certainty are not likely to be as effective with potential impacts on the cost of renewable energy in the 3 11 range in fact we find that an interest rate subsidy which reduces the cost of debt reduces the overall subsidy burden by 13 16 this suggests that indian policymakers need to prioritize the provision of low cost long term debt and take a closer look at the successful efforts by china and brazil 2013 elsevier ltd

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

financing investments in renewable energy the impacts of policy design abstract the costs of electric power projects utilizing renewable energy technologies rets are highly sensitive to financing terms consequently as the electricity industry is restructured and new renewables policies are created it is important for policymakers to consider the impacts of renewables policy design on ret financing this paper reviews the power plant financing process for renewable energy projects estimates the impact of financing terms on levelized energy costs and provides insights to policymakers on the important nexus between renewables policy design and financing we review five case studies of renewable energy policies and find that one of the key reasons that ret policies are not more effective is that project development and financing processes are frequently ignored or misunderstood when designing and implementing renewable energy policies the case studies specifically show that policies that do not provide long term stability or that have negative secondary impacts on investment decisions will increase financing costs sometimes dramatically reducing the effectiveness of the program within u s electricity restructuring proceedings new renewable energy policies are being created and restructuring itself is changing the way rets are financed as these new policies are created and implemented it is essential that policymakers acknowledge the financing difficulties faced by renewables developers and pay special attention to the impacts of renewables policy design on financing as shown in this paper a renewables policy that is carefully designed can reduce renewable energy costs dramatically by providing revenue certainty that will in turn reduce financing risk premiums

federal tax effects on the financial attractiveness of renewable versus conventional power plants abstract in this paper we examine the effects of federal tax laws on the financial attractiveness of seven renewable and four conventional electric power generating technologies adopted by investor owned utilities ious and non utility electricity generators nugs the results show that federal income tax laws applicable to renewable generating technologies generally provide very attractive financial incentives for the adoption of these technologies by ious and nugs if an iou or nug is subject to the alternative minimum tax however it may not be able to take full advantage of these financial incentives

new directions in electric power financing this paper argues that it is necessary to raise the eyes from the current focus on independent power projects buttressed by guarantees to the longer horizon of electric power financing in open markets transitional strategies will need to move beyond the commonly seen ipp activity that occurs without fundamental sector reform and demand side incentives that introduce further market distortions these efforts will have to focus on macroeconomic stabilization removal of price distortions as well as sector and corporate reform mobilization of domestic capital will be essential for sustainable sector financing although guarantees to encourage power sector investment can be designed to selectively cover risks their elimination through fundamental sector reform should be the ultimate goal over the longer term traditional corporate finance should become a more common financing strategy than project finance innovations in performance risk management and consumer credit will be crucial to the financing of energy efficiency

a review of renewable energy investment in the brics countries history models problems and solutions abstract this paper reviews the history of renewable energy development in the brics countries the financing models for renewable energy development of brics countries include bank financing institutional loans industry funds and international financing this paper identified several problems with financing in brics countries including a lack of financing channels investment shortage for small and medium sized enterprises and imperfect government policies the solutions to these problems include expanded capital markets the financing of leasing services and build operate transfer and build own operate projects further a financial citizen participation model should be employed similar to that as germany and european union emissions trading system eu ets a financial citizen participation model means that legal entities private individuals and agricultural enterprises invest in renewable energy infrastructure through equity a regional reserve ratio monetary policy is suggested to allow regions to develop renewable energy

modeling renewable energy company risk abstract the renewable energy sector is one of the fastest growing components of the energy industry and along with this increased demand for renewable energy there has been an increase in investing and financing activities the tradeoff between risk and return in the renewable energy sector is however precarious renewable energy companies are often among the riskiest types of companies to invest in and for this reason it is necessary to have a good understanding of the risk factors this paper uses a variable beta model to investigate the determinants of renewable energy company risk the empirical results show that company sales growth has a negative impact on company risk while oil price increases have a positive impact on company risk when oil price returns are positive and moderate increases in sales growth can offset the impact of oil price returns and this leads to lower systematic risk

electricity demand and supply scenarios for maharashtra india for 2030 an application of long range energy alternatives planning abstract forecasting of electricity demand has assumed a lot of importance to provide sustainable solutions to the electricity problems leap has been used to forecast electricity demand for the target year 2030 for the state of maharashtra india holt s exponential smoothing method has been used to arrive at suitable growth rates probable projections have been generated using uniform gross domestic product gdp growth rate and different values of elasticity of demands three scenarios have been generated which include business as usual bau energy conservation ec and renewable energy ren subsequent analysis on the basis of energy environmental influence and cost has been done in the target year 2030 the projected electricity demand for bau and ren has increased by 107 3 per cent over the base year 2012 and ec electricity demand has grown by 54 3 per cent the estimated values of green house gas ghg for bau and ec in the year 2030 are 245 2 per cent and 152 4 per cent more than the base year and for ren it is 46 2 per cent less sensitivity analysis has been performed to study the effect on the total cost of scenarios policy implications in view of the results obtained are also discussed

the effect on firm output after its acquisition by a pure conglomerate abstract this paper explores the question of whether the optimal output of a competitive firm will be affected if it is acquired as an operating subsidiary of a pure conglomerate the demand curves faced by all the subsidiaries vary randomly the acquired firm s managers adapt their optimizing behavior in recognition of the fact that the firm s post acquisition profits constitute only one locus of contribution to the parent company s aggregate profits four propositions are derived collectively they establish the conditions that apply to determine the difference between the firm s ante acquisition output and its post acquisition counterpart

renewables and the privatization of the uk esi a case study abstract the privatization of the uk electricity supply industry esi was expected to be likely to improve the commercial prospects of at least some renewable energy technologies especially given the introduction in parallel of a protected market cross subsidy for renewables via the non fossil fuel obligation although some projects have benefited from the new arrangements this paper suggests that on balance the institutional and strategic uncertainties and the tight contract conditions imposed had a negative impact at least initially alternative more interventionist support policies are discussed drawing on examples from the usa and denmark

which renewable energy policy is a venture capitalist s best friend empirical evidence from a survey of international cleantech investors governments around the world have adopted ambitious targets to increase the share of renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions they pursue a variety of policy approaches to achieve these targets it has been a popular theme for contributions in energy policy to investigate the effectiveness of such policies this article adds a new perspective to the debate namely looking at the policy preferences of private investors in innovative clean energy technology firms we surveyed 60 investment professionals from european and north american venture capital and private equity funds and asked them to assess the effectiveness of various policies in terms of stimulating their interest to invest in innovative clean energy technologies in addition to quantitative rankings we use qualitative interview data to capture additional information on why investors prefer some policies over others the combined analysis compensates for the inherent limitations of a quantitative ranking using generic policy types the results of this exploratory analysis demonstrate that all other things being equal investors in our sample perceived feed in tariffs to be the most effective renewable energy policy the overall preference for feed in tariffs is even more pronounced among investors based in europe and with higher exposure to clean energy

mobilizing private finance to drive an energy industrial revolution abstract while uptake of renewable energies as a solution to climate change is widely discussed the issue of public vs private financing is not yet adequately explored the debates over the kyoto protocol and its successor culminating in the cop15 climate change conference in copenhagen in december 2009 maintained a strong preference for public over private financing yet it is also clear to most observers that the energy revolution will never happen without the involvement of private finance to drive private investment in this viewpoint we discuss the ways in which private financing could be mobilized to drive the energy industrial revolution that is needed if climate change mitigation is to succeed

the effectiveness of federal renewable policies in india abstract the government of india has set ambitious targets for renewable energy however unsubsidized renewable energy is still at least 50 more expensive than fossil fuel power and requires policy support at federal as well as state levels in this context a comparative evaluation of the effectiveness of these policies becomes important using financial models we provide a framework to compare existing federal policies generation based incentive viability gap funding and accelerated depreciation for wind and solar technologies with a new class of debt related federal policies our main finding is that debt related policies offer the most potential for cost effectiveness in the long term they also perform well across other criteria a particularly attractive policy is reduced cost extended tenor debt which compared to existing policies would reduce total subsidies by up to 78 have 100 viability gap coverage potential and provide 76 of subsidy recovery

internalizing co2 emissions via central banks financials evidence from the world researchers and policy makers have suggested tools to mitigate co2 emissions worldwide however there appears to be uncertainty in terms of policy effectiveness the objective of this paper is to develop an innovatively effective co2 internalizing mechanism worldwide which builds on currency in circulation as its core operational tool the study is based on a large sample of countries findings show that urbanization electric power consumption and trade positively impact on co2 emissions no evidence is found in favour of the environmental kuznets curve while the use of renewable energy reduces the level of co2 emissions the paper proposes a central bank carbon dioxide emissions internalizing fund which rests on quantitative and qualitative tools to ensure a truly effective mechanism in co2 emissions abatement quantitatively this implies the use of a direct tax on currency in circulation and a conversion penalty in the fund qualitatively there is the need to establish a global institution which would ensure that funds flow to the most polluting sectors in each country in view of unleashing the strongest decline in co2 emissions

on the variance of intermittent demand estimates intermittent demand occurs at random with many time periods showing no demand at all forecasting such demand patterns constitutes a challenging exercise because of the associated dual source of variation demand intervals and demand sizes research in this area has developed rapidly in recent years with new results implemented into supply chain software solutions because of its practical implications in an inventory context both the accuracy of the forecasts and their variability sampling error of the mean have equal importance in terms of service level achievement and or inventory cost minimisation although the former issue has been studied extensively mainly building upon croston s model 1972 the latter has been largely ignored the purpose of this paper is to analyse the most well cited intermittent demand estimation procedures in terms of the variance of their estimates detailed derivations are offered along with a discussion of the underlying assumptions as such we hope that our contribution may constitute a point of reference for further analytical work in this area as well as facilitate a better understanding of issues related to modelling intermittent demands

did accelerated depreciation result in lower generation efficiencies for wind plants in india an empirical analysis abstract india ranks fifth in wind energy installations in the world with an installed wind capacity is 22 gw at the end of 2014 this has been made possible by a combination of federal financial incentives and state level feed in tariffs the federal policies are accelerated depreciation which allows for higher depreciations in earlier years and generation based incentive which provides a premium for each unit of generation accelerated depreciation appears to be more effective from deployment and cost perspectives whereas generation based incentive is said to be more effective in incentivizing generation in this paper using multivariable linear regressions on a sample of approximately 40 wind plants while controlling for wind regime and wind turbine technology we investigate the incremental impact of generation based incentive compared to accelerated depreciation we find that generation based incentive results in at least 3 percentage points higher plant load factors than accelerated depreciation this indicates that if higher generation is the goal of renewable policies generation based incentive should be preferred to accelerated depreciation this would be similar to the move from investment tax credit to production tax credit in the u s

cost effectiveness of renewable electricity policies we analyze policies to promote renewable sources of electricity a portfolio standard rps raises electricity prices and primarily reduces gas fired generation a knee of the cost curve exists between 15 and 20 goals for 2020 in our central case and higher natural gas prices lower the cost of greater reliance on renewables a renewable energy production tax credit lowers electricity price at the expense of taxpayers which limits its effectiveness in reducing carbon emissions and it is less cost effective at increasing renewables than a portfolio standard neither policy is as cost effective as a cap and trade policy for achieving carbon emission reductions

feed in tariff design for domestic scale grid connected pv systems using high resolution household electricity demand data abstract the advent of large samples of smart metering data allows policymakers to design feed in tariffs which are more targeted and efficient this paper presents a methodology which uses these data to design fits for domestic scale grid connected pv systems in ireland a sample of 2551 household electricity demand data collected at 1 2 hourly intervals electricity output from a 2 82 kwp pv system over the same time interval as well as pv system costs and electricity tariffs were used to determine the required fit to make it worthwhile for the households to invest in the pv system the methodology shows that it is possible to design single multiple and continuous fits continuous fits are the most efficient and result in no overcompensation to the housholder while single and multiple fits are less efficient since they result in different levels of overcompensation in the pv case study considered it was shown that the use of three fits 0 3170 0 3315 and 0 3475 kw h resulted in a 59 6 reduction in overcompensation compared to a single fit of 0 3475 kw h assuming immediate and complete uptake of the technology this would result in npv savings of over 597 m to the irish government over a 25 year lifetime

the relationships among acquiring and acquired firms product lines this study develops detailed information on the relationships among the activities of acquiring and acquired firms at and near the time of merger for a sample of 94 takeovers undertaken between 1977 1982 we focus on takeovers for two reasons first takeovers are an important and controversial phenomenon second takeovers allow us to look at marginal changes admittedly large ones in the firm s boundaries thus they provide a useful way of examining relationships among activities of the firm without having to go into great detail regarding the historical decisions that generated the firm s current structure while the individual establishment is our basic data unit in this study we aggregate the activities of the firm to the line of business lob level each lob of an acquired firm is classified as to its relationship horizontal vertical upstream or downstream and conglomerate to the lobs of the acquiring firm using these categorizations we aggregate the lob level information to the firm level to investigate the degree to which our sample of mergers is specialized to particular types of relationships while we find a significant group of unspecialized takeovers most appear to fit a specific category we also look at the pattern of closed operations immediately following the takeover closings are generally concentrated in operations involving horizontal relationships finally we consider the pattern of relationships between hostile and friendly takeovers and whether takeover premiums vary by type of merger merger premiums are not related to the type of relationship between the acquiring and acquired firm but they are tied to whether the takeover is friendly or hostile this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

financing the energy sector in developing countries context and overview abstract traditional business as usual financing methods will no longer be adequate to meet the unprecedented demands for capital to finance energy sector expansion in the developing countries in recognition many countries are opening up their power sectors to private investment initially through the establishment of independent power projects but in some cases through sector privatization project financing has many advantages but further sectoral reorganization including tariff reform will be needed to attract resources on the scale required especially from domestic investors in oil and gas in contrast to power private capital from the international oil companies has always played a major role in the developing countries however sharply increasing investment requirements require a growing role for external finance there should in principle be no shortage of investible funds to finance energy sector expansion in developing countries so long as host countries establish conditions which are attractive to private investors the augmented role of private finance requires a continuing if different role for the public sector in both host countries and official aid agencies

inventory service level measures convexity and approximation we argue that standard approximations for two often used inventory service level measures may perform poorly in many situations then we confirm the long standing conjecture that the relatively exact formulas for these quantities are convex functions of the relevant control variables both results suggest the exact expressions should be seriously considered in practical work

project finance risk evaluation of the electric power industry of serbia abstract from the aspect of the development of a country the energy sector represents a domain of strategic interest generation and use of energy resources most often belongs to the public sector and are most often under the influence of the government in most countries this paper analyzes the risks that are characteristic to the business of the public enterprise electric power industry of serbia eps eps has started its restructuring and is adjusting to changes and challenges imposed by the launched reforms in the energy sector however due to certain limitations it is still not possible to implement its complete restructuring and modernization the paper aims to point at the risks a potential strategic partner faces the risks have been identified as commercial financial and political classification immanent for project finance and their evaluation was done using failure mode and effects analysis fmea risk analysis was performed based on current conditions for two potential scenarios that predict different types of changes in the analyzed period the results of the analysis show that the potential strategic partner should pay special attention to price risks estimation investments project activity neglect quasi risks and debt collection

financing large scale wind and solar projects a review of emerging experiences in the indian context renewable energy can play a strategic role in india in meeting the country s growing energy demands as well as combating climate change policymakers have recognized this potential and over the last decade have intensified their efforts towards creating a conducive regulatory and policy framework policy instruments such as renewable obligations feed in tariffs and generation based incentives have specially aided the transformation towards large scale generation enabling higher efficiency and lower costs of generation however financing has emerged as a significant barrier for sustaining the momentum gained in recent years given this background this paper provides an overview on the evolution of large scale generation and the consequent changes in financing requirements it further reviews the emerging trends and barriers in the financing landscape and analyses the impact of policy performance in this context finally it considers the design of a national renewable finance framework complete with targeted finance push instruments that can complement existing demand pull policies in facilitating investment

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

risk based assessment of the cost efficiency and the effectivity of renewable energy support schemes certificate markets versus feed in tariffs the introduction of renewable energy sources in the electricity generation mix has the potential to reduce power sector s emissions and countries dependence on imported oil climate change concerns and highly volatile oil prices have attracted governments interest and support to sustain investments in renewable energy capacity and different support policies have been implemented in many countries around the world this paper analyzes the effects of investors risk aversion on the performance of support schemes the analysis compares two policy options a feed in tariff mechanism with a certificate market system results show that while a tariff mechanism could obtain better results than a certificate market its performance is strictly dependent on regulator choices a certificate market instead permits to obtain the desired level of renewable energy market share with good cost efficiency as long as investors risk aversion is moderate moreover discounting future cash flows with higher social discount rates further benefits a certificate system making it preferable to feed in tariffs

renewable financial support systems and cost effectiveness abstract this paper analyses the performance of market based and feed in tariff systems of renewable energy procurement and comments on the impact of different procurement systems on investment in renewable energy the market based british renewables obligation ro is not more cost effective compared to the german feed in tariff although the nominal rates of payment per kwh of renewable energy are higher in germany this is more than offset by lower wind speeds in germany producing a lower return on investment compared to the uk a harmonised eu wide market based system would not improve cost effectiveness and may serve to reduce rather than increase local investment in renewable energy on the other hand nationally based green electricity certificate systems like the ro are not intrinsically biased against locally owned or co operative ventures systems are needed which encourage a diversity of investment in renewable energy from local as well as institutional sources

overcoming barriers to wind project finance in australia the wind power industry in australia is expected to grow rapidly over the next decade primarily due to a forthcoming expanded national renewable energy target ret which will mandate that renewable sources provide approximately 20 of australia s electricity production by 2020 however development of new wind generation in australia has stalled as a result of several barriers to project finance the mechanism through which most wind farms have been developed historically this paper provides an overview of wind power financing in australia in light of recent political and financial trends drawing upon existing literature and a series of stakeholder interviews it identifies three primary barriers to project finance regulatory risk surrounding legislation of the ret semi privatization of electricity retailers in new south wales and limited capital availability resulting from the recent global credit crisis the paper concludes that the confluence of these barriers limits the availability of long term contracts that provide revenue certainty for pre construction wind projects while simultaneously making these contracts a necessity in order to obtain project finance in an attempt to mitigate these effects this paper identifies four alternative development strategies that can be pursued

enabling mini grid development in rural india summary rural electrification rates in india lag behind government goals in part due to the inability of distribution companies discoms to fund central grid expansion in the absence of central grid electrification mini grids offer significant potential for an immediate pathway toward rural electrification and the attendant gains in economic growth and productivity yet private investment in mini grids has been virtually absent in india using a comprehensive life cycle cost analysis we find that mini grids based on solar pv power and storage are more economical than incumbent energy services available to households without central grid connection under current law a prospective entrepreneur in india does not require a license or certification in order to build a mini grid and subsequently provide electricity services in the area covered by said installation conversely there is no legal or regulatory framework that specifies what is to happen if the central grid were to be extended to an area that is already covered by a mini grid we report detailed survey evidence from interviews with entrepreneurs analysts and policymakers whose assessments converge on the same point mini grid investments would be jeopardized in the event of central grid extension precisely because discoms would by regulatory order provide electricity services at highly subsidized rates well below their full economic cost our fieldwork suggests that the threat of central grid extension is a gateway barrier preventing mini grid development in india the issues associated with the gateway barrier have common elements with the so called holdup problem as identified in the economics of organizations there have been two recent federal policy guidelines and one actual state level policy addressing the regulatory status of mini grids we examine the effectiveness of these policies proposals in terms of an entrepreneur s willingness to develop mini grids in the future

who invests in renewable electricity production empirical evidence and suggestions for further research transforming energy systems to fulfill the needs of a low carbon economy requires large investments in renewable electricity production res e recent literature underlines the need to take a closer look at the composition of the res e investor group in order to understand the motives and investment processes of different types of investors however existing energy policies generally consider res e investments made on a regional or national level and target investors who evaluate their res e investments according to least cost high profit criteria we present empirical evidence to show that res e investments are made by a heterogeneous group of investors that a variety of investors exist and that their formation varies among the different types of renewable sources this has direct implications for our understanding of the investment process in res e and for the study of motives and driving forces of res e investors we introduce a multi dimensional framework for analyzing differences between categories of investors which not only considers to the standard economic dimension which is predominant in the contemporary energy literature but also considers the entrepreneurship innovation adoption and institutional dimensions the framework emphasizes the influence of four main investor related factors on the investment process which should be studied in future research motives background resources and personal characteristics