the optimal biopower capacity in co firing plants an empirical analysis abstract biomass fuels carry appealing features in replacing traditional fossil fuels especially coal in power generation due to the bulk sparse and low energy density drawbacks of biomass many studies implicitly indicate small and limited scale in biopower generation this study contributes to the bioenergy literature by explicitly studying the optimal biopower capacity of biopower co firing technology in coal fired power plants which has practical implications for potential biopower practitioners investors and policymakers this study indicates that the optimal biopower capacity of biomass co firing in coal powered plants is intermediate i e 12 mw on average in order to take advantage of economies of scale without incurring high transportation cost regional variations are also found in the aspects of production cost and optimal capacity due to local characteristics local biomass availability plays a critical role in shaping biopower s generation cost optimal capacity and cost changing patterns

wind power regional development and benefit sharing the case of northern sweden this paper addresses the question of how investments in wind power can promote regional development and employment as well as how different benefit sharing instruments e g community funds etc

energy transitions in small scale regions what we can learn from a regional innovation systems perspective the prevalent theories in the debate on sustainability transitions have been criticised for not sufficiently addressing energy change processes at the local level this paper aims to enhance our understanding of local energy reorganisation processes drawing on the regional innovation systems ris approach we argue that local development dynamics result from the interaction of various subsystems science politics public administration industry finance intermediaries and civil society the analysis of the involved subsystems and their interaction shows how energy transitions are shaped by different individual and organisational actors as well as institutions on the local level empirical evidence from case studies on the german cities of emden and bottrop illustrates our theoretical conceptualisation of energy transitions we conclude by presenting characteristic interaction patterns for energy transition drawn from the two cases

who formulates renewable energy policy a swedish example a broad participation by stakeholders and an extensive reliance on expert advice are often seen as preconditions for a legitimate and successfully implemented renewable energy policy however we have lacked systematic data for testing this argument this article s contribution is to examine the actors who take part in the making of swedish energy policy with the help of data on the composition of various committees of inquiry over the last twenty years 1988 2009 swedish renewable energy policy is often characterised with words like pioneering and forerunner suggesting that the policy making process in this area engages many different experts and stakeholders our data give only some support to this argument results point to a noteworthy predominance of politicians civil servants and representatives of state agencies within the policy process producers of uranium and fossils based energy have been engaged more often than producers of renewable energy experts have played a prominent role but this is mostly due to the participation of expert bureaucrats rather than of scientists the study suggests that a better understanding of the making of energy policy both in sweden and elsewhere requires greater attention to the networks and role of various state employees

the effects of policy incentives in the adoption of willow short rotation coppice for bioenergy in sweden abstract the effect of policy incentives in the development of short rotation willow plantations for bioenergy is studied by using an aggregate adoption model based on sigmoidal curves for the swedish municipalities a total of 56 municipalities were studied with 891 farmers that planted willow during the period 1986 1996 the model included variables related to the subsidies applied the taxation on fossil fuels the development of the wood fuel consumption by the district heating systems and the geographical and socio economic characteristics of the municipality results of the simulations using the model show an increment of almost 70 of farmers planting willow during the period studied when the subsidy and tax incentives and the increments of the wood fuel capacity by the district heating system took place this study gives tools for future policy implementations in order to achieve the goals of the energy strategies

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

agro energy districts contributing to environmental and social sustainability in rural areas evaluation of a local public private partnership scheme in greece abstract the current economic downturn has put public budgets under pressure reducing investments and revenues for local stakeholders to cope among other things with contemporary demands of environmental protection local based partnerships may provide an efficient tool by adopting integrating and implementing actions based on awareness and participation of a set of different players this need is even more evident in rural areas in which a proposed decentralized bio energy production model established in agro energy districtscan provide incentive and create a comfortable ground for the development of an energy production plant based on a mixed public private partnership drawing on the implementation of a european co funded research project the paper presents the efforts being made to build a partnership at a local level in order to cover the lack of an institutional plan and public investment for handling biomass production our aim is not primarily to present the best technical solution to bio energy production but rather to illustrate the networking between different players the public consultation and the agreements being made under the form of public private partnerships as well as the levels of commitment and the risks taken the gist of this study is that despite the civic engagements the inconsistent administrative environment the dominance of the public sector and the state intervention through legislation and different political decisions makes it still difficult for local partnerships to exercise their power and turn from government to governance in order to cope with the environmental challenges and tackle inequalities faced in rural areas

evaluating natural resource investments notwithstanding impressive advances in the theory of finance over the past 2 decades practical procedures for capital budgeting have evolved only slowly the standard technique which has remained unchanged in essentials since it was originally proposed see dean 1951 bierman and smidt 1960 derives from a simple adaptation of the fisher 1907 model of valuation under certainty under this technique expected cash flows from an investment project are discounted at a rate deemed appropriate to their risk and the resulting present value is compared with the cost of the project this standard textbook technique reflects modern theoretical developments only insofar as estimates of the discount rate may be obtained from crude application of single period asset pricing theory but see brennan 1973 bogue and roll 1974 turnbull 1977 constantinides 1978 the inadequacy of this approach to capital budgeting is widely acknowledged although not widely discussed its obvious deficiency is its the evaluation of mining and other natural resource projects is made particularly difficult by the high degree of uncertainty attaching to output prices it is shown that the techniques of continuous time arbitrage and stochastic control theory may be used not only to value such projects but also to determine the optimal policies for developing managing and abandoning them the approach may be adapted to a wide variety of contexts outside the natural resource sector where uncertainty about future project revenues is a paramount concern

demand pull technology push and government led incentives for non incremental technical change abstract rising expectations about future demand for new technologies increase the incentives for investments in innovation by enlarging payoffs to successful innovations how well does this notion of demand pull apply to non incremental technological change when demand is largely attributable to actions by governments in this case inventors of the most important inventions did not respond positively to strong demand pull policies filing of highly cited patents declined precipitously just as demand for wind power created a multi billion dollar market three explanations for this apparent inconsistency with the demand pull hypothesis played a role 1 the rapid convergence on a single dominant design limited the market opportunity for non incremental technical improvements 2 even though the policies implemented were stringent enough to stimulate demand uncertainty in their longevity dampened the incentives for inventions that were likely to take several years to pay off and 3 alternative explanations such as declining r d funding and weakening presidential engagement on energy appear to have been important

a cost benefit analysis of generating electricity from biomass abstract a key challenge internationally is the design of future electricity systems which will bring about emissions savings and fuel security at least cost peat is used to generate electricity in several eu countries mainly to take advantage of indigenous resources and increase fuel mix diversity the irish government has introduced a target of 30 cofiring of peat and biomass by 2015 this paper assesses the feasibility of achieving this target by calculating the available indigenous biomass resource capable of being cofired the cost of meeting the target the benefits in terms of carbon abatement and finally the present value in economic terms of meeting the target results demonstrate that ireland has only half the necessary resource to meet the 30 target and that the net cost of doing so is greater than the cost of what is currently being paid for peat in all of the scenarios considered thus it is concluded that while it may be technically possible to meet the target by combining national resources with imported biomass this is never the least cost option and as a result the targeted focus of government policy may need to be reconsidered

wind power an assault on local landscapes or an opportunity for modernization abstract wind power development has produced controversies in many places some people see wind power as a sustainable source of energy others see it as destroying nature and landscapes the opposition to wind power is often asserted to be from local forces and nimbyism and support to be based on the national and global benefits of increased supply of renewable energy in this paper i challenge this view by analyzing how local communities with established or planned wind power parks went through the process of developing wind power what arguments they used and how they think about the wind power technology and its expected local effects i found that most of the arguments in favor of wind power development addressed local concerns regarding the economy modernization and employment opportunities and not a need for sustainable energy the opposition to wind power development was not based on nimbyism rather many different arguments were used and the features of the controversies were distinct to each community

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

strategic analysis of diffusion of renewable energy in the nordic countries abstract today there are concerns related to security of energy supply growing energy demands limitations of fossil fuels and threats of disruptive climate changes to overcome the challenges diversification and utilization of renewable energy resources are defined as the main strategies however successful diffusion of renewable energy requires consideration to many factors including social economic and technical ones nordic countries are among the leading countries on successful development of renewable energy and energy efficiency this research in the frame of a strategic conceptual analysis studies the policies and achievements of the nordic region in their development of renewable energy the framework consists of four layers including dimensions characters objectives and key schemes

bioenergy policy and market development in finland and sweden abstract the use of biomass in finland and sweden has steadily increased over the past 25 years up to approximately 20 of the primary energy supply in 2001 in both countries most biomass originates from forests forest biomass is now an integral part of modern energy systems although primarily in industry and in the heating sector for example biomass accounts for 7 9 and 53 of the fuel mix in district heating in finland and sweden respectively the general energy policy of both countries has supported biomass for energy over the entire period although specific policies have changed with time research development and demonstration has been continuously supported and some subsidy schemes have been applied in particular for district heating systems dhs and combined heat and power heavy taxation of competing fossil fuels seems to have been the most effective policy instrument although this has been directed mainly at the heat and transportation fuel markets electricity taxes are imposed on consumption industry is largely exempt and do not discriminate significantly between the sources of electricity starting in 2003 sweden will have a quota based system a renewable portfolio standard which is expected to increase biomass based electricity production both countries possess vast and not fully exploited biomass resources in the form of forests and have a history of rational and large scale forestry strong actors exist both with regard to forest ownership and the industrial processing of forest products the user side in particular represented by dhs can also be characterised by strong and professional management over time structures have developed that facilitate an increased use of biomass for energy for example the forest industry infrastructure and extensive district heating actors within these structures have had the ability to react to policies resulting in a stable growth in biomass use

renewable energy policy evaluation using real option model the case of taiwan abstract this study presents a policy benefit evaluation model that integrates cost efficiency curve information on renewable power generation technologies into real options analysis roa methods the proposed model evaluates quantitatively the policy value provided by developing renewable energy re in the face of uncertain fossil fuel prices and re policy related factors the economic intuition underlying the policy making process is elucidated while empirical analysis illustrates the option value embedded in the current development policy in taiwan for wind power in addition to revealing the benefits that re development provides when considering real options analytical results indicate that roa is a highly effective means of quantifying how policy planning uncertainty including managerial flexibility influences re development in addition to assessing the policy value of current re development policy this study also compares policy values in terms of internalized external costs and varying feed in tariff fit simulation results demonstrate that the re development policy with internalized co2 emission costs is appropriate policy planning from sustainability point of view furthermore relationship between varying fit and policy values can be shown quantitatively and appropriate fit level could be determined accordingly

wind power policy in complex adaptive markets abstract this paper aims to advance research into the effectiveness of policies for encouraging technological transition in the energy sector in general and wind power in particular it contends that the ineffectiveness of wind power development policy in most nations stems from a linear approach to policy design that is unsuited to complex adaptive markets the paper argues that in complex adaptive markets policies are required that foster competition on a level playing field insights are extracted from complexity theory to advance four principles for effective wind power policy in such markets these principles include establishing policy initiatives to encourage technological diversity establish clear and progressive short to medium term targets enhance environmental monitoring systems and establish a malleable policy regime that directly resolves emergent challenges while simultaneously sustaining market momentum to ensure long term targets are met in order to demonstrate the applied relevance of these principles the paper applies these concepts to a historical analysis of denmark s wind power development policies

valuation of projects for power generation with renewable energy a comparative study based on real regulatory options abstract this comparative study evaluates an investment project on renewable energy based on wind power we have conducted the study in three european union countries denmark finland and portugal we have modelled the main uncertainties that affect this kind of project such as the cost and production of electric power investment costs and consumer price index for each of these countries we have analysed the mechanisms of public support for wind energy we have identified the real options included in the regulatory frameworks of these three countries and assessed how they affect the expanded net present value of the project to this end we have used two different methods of option valuation the monte carlo method and the binomial method we have proved that the obtained results using both methods are quite similar finally we have evaluated the public incentives for wind energy offered in each of these three countries and concluded that in economic terms finland is the country with the strongest support for this kind of energy followed by denmark and in the last place portugal

who should buy long term bonds according to conventional wisdom long term bonds are appropriate for conservative long term investors this paper develops a model of optimal consumption and portfolio choice for infinite lived investors with recursive utility who face stochastic interest rates solves the model using an approximate analytical method and evaluates conventional wisdom as risk aversion increases the myopic component of risky asset demand disappears but the intertemporal hedging component does not conservative investors hold assets to hedge the risk that real interest rates will decline long term inflation indexed bonds are most suitable for this purpose but nominal bonds may also be used if inflation risk is low

the fuelwood market in greece an empirical approach abstract wood has been since ancient times the basic household heating medium nowadays wood remains the primary energy source in rural areas of developing countries mainly in africa in greece the domestic demand of fuelwood is relied mainly on the fuelwood domestic supply especially during the post war period the domestic supply satisfies adequately the domestic demand eliminating the role of imports the present study surveys the long run relationship between the fuelwood prices of different forest species in order to determine the role of the special market conditions in their price formation in addition the error correction model is estimated in order to survey the direction of the granger causality among the prices of the fuelwood forest species the implementation of the impulse response analysis and the variance decomposition confirmed that coniferous and beech fuelwood producer price may account for the volatility of the oak fuelwood producer price this result may contribute greatly to the conservation of oak forest an important carbon storage forest ecosystem

danish and norwegian wind industry the relationship between policy instruments innovation and diffusion this article compares the role of policy instruments in stimulating long term technological change in danish and norwegian wind industry it concludes that although predictability has periodically been low denmark s broad portfolio of policies and measures has been well adapted to the different stages in the development of its wind industry this has contributed to a high degree of innovation successful establishment in niche markets high degree of diffusion and establishment of domestic and international mass markets and in recent years an increasingly successful replacement of senescent technology with new the motivation of norway s wind energy policies and measures at least up until the late 1990s has been to increase power supply rather than to stimulate industrial development and technological change policies and measures have been weaker than in denmark have been less stable over time and stimulated the demand side much less they have not sufficiently covered the wind industry s perceived needs on different stages in the development of new technology and have not sufficiently stimulated continuous improvement learning and new product development dynamic efficiency in industry this has been part of the reason why there has been only a limited extent of innovation and diffusion of wind technology in norway

global technology learning and national policy an incentive scheme for governments to assume the high cost of early deployment exemplified by norway abstract in this paper it is argued that technology learning may be both a barrier and an incentive for technology change in the national energy system the possibility to realize an ambitious global emission reduction scenario is enhanced by coordinated action between countries in national policy implementation an indicator for coordinated action is suggested targeted measures to increase deployment of nascent energy technologies and increasing energy efficiency in a small open economy like norway are examined the measures are evaluated against a set of baselines with different levels of spillover of technology learning from the global market it is found that implementation of technology subsidies increase the national contribution to early deployment independent of the level of spillover in a special case with no spillover for offshore floating wind power and endogenous technology learning substantial subsidy or a learning rate of 20 is required combining the high learning rate and a national subsidy increases the contribution to early deployment enhanced building code on the other hand may reduce norway s contribution to early deployment and thus the realization of a global emission reduction scenario unless sufficient electricity export capacity is assured

building a wave energy policy focusing on innovation manufacturing and deployment abstract the irish government has set a goal to make ireland a world leader for research development and deployment of ocean energy technologies ireland has a wave energy resource of 21 twh and an ambition is to achieve at least 500 mw installed generating capacity from ocean energy by 2020 this paper investigates what is required to move from ambition to delivery a successful wave energy strategy will require focused policies that will stimulate innovation to develop the technologies manufacturing to produce the devices and deployment to build the required wave power plants the paper draws on the successful policies in ireland that have stimulated each of these dimensions albeit for different sectors from 2004 to 2008 successful policies in ict and biotech innovation led to an increase in ireland s innovation index score from 0 48 to 0 53 the policy focus on food and pharmaceuticals manufacturing in ireland resulted in high levels of economic growth over the period 1998 2002 reaching 10 gdp growth levels per annum and full employment successful wind energy policies deployment has accelerated rapidly since 2003 and reached 1 2 gw installed capacity in 2009 representing 15 of ireland s total installed capacity the paper draws on appropriate elements of these policies to build a successful wave energy policy for ireland it also draws on the successful policies adopted in denmark for innovation manufacturing and deployment of wind energy the danish wind turbine manufacturers hold a world market share of approximately 40 the paper proposes establishing a wave energy strategy group to develop an action plan to deliver the 500 mw it also proposes a novel extension of corporate tax specifically for wave energy companies an initial 30 capital grant scheme for wave energy developers a grid code for wave energy devices and fast tracking of planning decisions through an amended approach to strategic infrastructure

investment timing and optimal capacity choice for small hydropower projects this paper presents a method for assessing small hydropower projects that are subject to uncertain electricity prices we present a real options based method with continuous scaling and we find that there is a unique price limit for initiating the project if the current electricity price is below this limit it is never optimal to invest but above this limit investment is made according to the function for optimal size the connection between the real option and the physical properties of a small hydropower plant is dealt with using a spreadsheet model that performs a technical simulation of the production in a plant based on all the important choices for such a plant the main results of the spreadsheet are simulated production size and the investment costs which are in turn used for finding the value of the real option and the price limit the method is illustrated on three different norwegian small hydropower projects

residential energy demand for space heating in the nordic countries accounting for interfuel substitution abstract reliable estimation of fuel consumption in residential sector is crucial for the future development of fuel supply system three approaches are compared in this study to capture climate impact as well as and interfuel substitution between fuels on residential fuel consumption for space heating in the nordic countries the first approach aims at directly estimating the demand for each energy carrier as a function of explanatory variables including heating degree days fuels price and gdp per capita the second approach is a two stage model combing an econometric model for total energy use for space heating and the market share for energy carriers based on cross price elasticities while in the third approach a set of simultaneous equations models were estimated based on the results of the mean average error and root mean square error criteria for three approaches across the nordic countries it was found that the second and third approaches were able to capture the complementary and substitution effects between fuels this finding confirms our hypothesis that the interfuel substitution is a key factor for estimating changes in fuel demand and should be accounted for when residential energy demand is projected the results additionally have important implications for climate change policy by exploring the impact of fuel price on residential energy demand for space heating

path renewal in old industrial regions possibilities and limitations for regional innovation policy coenen l moodysson j and martin h path renewal in old industrial regions possibilities and limitations for regional innovation policy regional studies this paper analyses the potential barriers and limitations for regional innovation policy to facilitate industrial renewal in old industrial regions it draws on a case analysis of the policy programme biorefinery of the future geared to promote renewal of the forest industry in northern sweden it is shown that infusion of radical emergent technology is necessary for new regional path development but not sufficient to avoid a singular focus on technology push policy should pay more attention to complementary experimentation processes in relation to demand side characteristics firm strategies and business models as well as regulatory aspects moreover coordination between regional innovation policy and adjacent domains and levels of policy making is needed as some of the most pressing obstacles for renewal are not specific to the region but i

tax incentives to promote green electricity an overview of eu 27 countries this paper provides a comprehensive overview of the main tax incentives used in the eu 27 member states mss to promote green electricity sixteen mss use tax incentives to promote green electricity simultaneously with other promotion measures especially quota obligations and price regulation however not all available technologies are promoted for example six mss germany romania slovak republic denmark sweden and poland have included an exemption on the payments of excise duties for electricity when the electricity is generated from renewable energy sources res this tax incentive is the most widely used limited tax incentives in personal income tax are available in belgium france czech republic and luxembourg in corporate tax tax incentives consist mainly of a deduction in the taxable profit belgium greece czech republic and spain lower tax rates in vat are applied in three mss france italy and portugal only spain and italy use effective tax incentives in property tax as a great diversity of tax incentives has been used to promote green electricity this adds another difficulty to the eu objective of providing a renewable energy policy framework but also it offers a useful set of case studies which can be used to inform eu policy development

a comparison of bioenergy policies and institutional frameworks in the rural areas of emilia romagna and norway abstract this paper explores the relationship between bioenergy rural development and related innovation processes in two case studies emilia romagna in italy and norway for a better understanding of the impacts of different policy regimes on bioenergy innovation regional innovation systems theory is used to explain the results emerging from the case studies and to identify the presence of potential elements for innovation we used policy and relevant literature analysis and a grounded approach based on semi structured interviews of relevant actors involved in the local bioenergy system the main findings show that the case studies present consistent differences in terms of policy instruments and socio political dynamics emilia romagna has major weaknesses and threats that hinder innovation but some positive potential elements for the future norway presents stronger local elements for innovation within local bioenergy systems such as the employment of local resources and knowledge but critical market and policy features that threaten further innovation developments the conclusion draws on the comparative analysis to discuss policy implications of the study

competition between biomass and food production in the presence of energy policies a partial equilibrium analysis abstract bioenergy has several advantages over fossil fuels for example it delivers energy at low net co 2 emission levels and contributes to sustaining future energy supplies the concern however is that an increase in biomass plantations will reduce the land available for agricultural production the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of taxing conventional electricity production or carbon use in combination with subsidizing biomass or bioelectricity production on the production of biomass and agricultural commodities and on the share of bioelectricity in total electricity production we develop a partial equilibrium model to illustrate some of the potential impacts of these policies on greenhouse gas emissions land reallocation and food and electricity prices as a case study we use data for poland which has a large potential for biomass production results show that combining a conventional electricity tax of 10 with a 25 subsidy on bioelectricity production increases the share of bioelectricity to 7 5 under this policy regime biomass as well as agricultural production increase a carbon tax that gives equal net tax yields has better environmental results however at higher welfare costs and resulting in 1 to 4 reduction of agricultural production

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

applying real options analysis to assess cleaner energy development strategies abstract the energy industry accounts for the largest portion of co 2 emissions is facing the issue of compliance with the national clean energy policy the methodology for evaluating the energy mix policy is crucial because of the characteristics of lead time embedded with the power generation facilities investment and the uncertainty of future electricity demand in this paper a modified binomial model based on sequential compound options which may account for the lead time and uncertainty as a whole is established and a numerical example on evaluating the optional strategies and the strategic value of the cleaner energy policy is also presented it is found that the optimal decision at some nodes in the binomial tree is path dependent which is different from the standard sequential compound option model with lead time or time lag concept the proposed modified binomial sequential compound real options model can be generalized and extensively applied to solve the general decision problems that deal with the long lead time of many government policies as well as capital intensive investments

a real options evaluation model for the diffusion prospects of new renewable power generation technologies this study presents a policy planning model that integrates learning curve information on renewable power generation technologies into a dynamic programming formulation featuring real options analysis the model recursively evaluates a set of investment alternatives on a year by year basis thereby taking into account that the flexibility to delay an irreversible investment expenditure can profoundly affect the diffusion prospects of renewable power generation technologies price uncertainty is introduced through stochastic processes for the average wholesale price of electricity and for input fuel prices demand for electricity is assumed to be increasingly price sensitive as the electricity market deregulation proceeds reflecting new options of consumers to react to electricity price changes such as time of use pricing unbundled electricity services and choice of supplier the empirical analysis is based on data for the turkish electricity supply industry apart from general implications for policy making it provides some interesting insights about the impact of uncertainty and technical change on the diffusion of various emerging renewable energy technologies

technological learning in offshore wind energy different roles of the government offshore wind energy is a promising source of renewable electricity even though its current costs prevent large scale implementation technological learning has improved the technology and its economic performance already and could result in significant further improvements this study investigates how technological learning takes place in offshore wind energy and how technological learning is related to different policy regimes offshore wind energy developments in denmark and the united kingdom have been analysed with a technology specific innovation systems approach the results reveal that the dominant forms of learning are learning by doing and learning by using at the same time learning by interacting is crucial to achieve the necessary binding elements in the technology specific innovation system generally most learning processes were performed by self organizing entities however sometimes cultural and technical barriers occurred excluding component suppliers and knowledge institutes from the innovation system danish policies successfully anticipated these barriers and removed them therefore the danish policies can be characterized as pro active british policies shaped stable conditions for learning only therefore they can be characterized as active in the future barriers could hinder learning by interacting between the oil and gas industry the offshore wind industry and academia based on this study we suggest national and international policy makers to design long term policies to anticipate these barriers in order to contribute to technological learning

exploring a pioneering bioenergy system the case of enkoping in sweden in order to contribute to knowledge on how to expand bioenergy this paper examines an example of success from sweden the idea is to identify factors that can explain the difference between success and failure of bioenergy systems in the aftermath of the oil crises in the 1970s the local government in the town of enkoping in sweden was cautioned by the local swedish military regiment to shift towards domestic energy supplies rather than imported fossil fuels during the decades that followed the local energy companies developed a pioneering bioenergy system there are 3 important conditions relevant to explain the success 1 the introduction of the carbon tax in sweden provided market conditions making bioenergy sufficiently competitive with fossil fuels 2 the know how developed by the local energy companies through experimentation and collaboration with research institutions encouraged investments in local opportunities and 3 the formation of partnerships in a regional network of actors including private companies providing biofuels and technology research institutions and local government helped to co ordinate the development of the bioenergy system less

an overview of the biomass resource potential of norway for bioenergy use this paper provides an overview of the norwegian biomass resources for bioenergy use bioenergy market and frame conditions through a comparison with denmark finland and sweden which have a leading role in bioenergy production in the european union although the contribution of renewable energy in norway is among the highest in europe 58 mainly due to hydroelectricity bioenergy has a low contribution to norwegian energy supply 6 as the experience from the other eu member states showed long term stable policies and relatively strong incentives are needed to initiate and build up a bioenergy market in norway there is still a significant available potential for increasing the bioenergy contribution to the energy supply the abundance and relatively low prices of energy i e fossil fuels and electricity in connection with the need of high investment costs did not favour so far bioenergy production additional forest biomass may be mobilized in norway by more intensive management of currently exploited forests however there are several limitations related to topography accessibility and economics the biomass resources and the full range of technologies available for heat or electricity generation both at small and large scale that can provide good opportunities for increased bioenergy production the experience gained in denmark finland and sweden may be relevant for norway as well as for other eu member states where there is a deficit of mobilization of biomass resources and insufficient industrial integration of bioenergy with other forest based sectors

overcoming the club dilemma of village scale bioenergy projects the case of india small scale decentralised electricity generation at village level based on locally available biomass is a promising solution for providing electricity access in remote rural areas as it can supply villages with an independent reliable high quality and environmentally friendly energy source however despite such systems technological feasibility they are often discontinued research so far has not studied the reasons for discontinuation this article analyses a case of biomass based gasification in india by studying the type of goods the village system provides and the distribution of benefits within the system in this case the infrastructural and social system provide electricity as a club good given fluctuating numbers of service users the club faced the decision to either expand the system to new members or to reduce the services provided the focus on the village community hampered the extension of the club a reduction in the quality and quantity of services however decreased the comfort provided by the system the system faced what here is called a club dilemma to avoid the club dilemma and for a sustained energy provision policy needs to find means to secure feedstock i e by the means of subsidies or collaboration with agricultural departments

mapping the cost risk of agricultural residue supply for energy application in rural china this research aims to shed light on the interaction mechanism of cost risks for biomass material supply in power generation especially for biomass coal dual fuel systems firstly a game model is established to analyze interactions among factors including unit procurement cost unit transportation cost basic price and coal price for crop residue collection secondly a monte carlo simulation is implemented to compare the profit increase under material competition with that under price alliance the methodology is illustrated with a case study in a biomass power plant in shandong province china it shows that developing a price alliance will benefit both the allied enterprises and the local collection area in most circumstances thirdly a risk tolerance area approach is applied in mapping the cost risk and in explaining the risky circumstances of the case study

when does a carbon tax on fossil fuels stimulate biofuels a carbon tax is an efficient economic instrument to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide released from fossil fuel burning if designed properly it could also help significantly to promote renewable energy using a multi sector multi country computable general equilibrium model this study investigates under what circumstances a carbon tax would help stimulate penetration of biofuels into the energy supply mix for road transportation in various countries and regions around the world this study shows that a carbon tax cum biofuel subsidy policy where a carbon tax is introduced to fossil fuels and part of the tax revenue is used to finance the biofuel subsidy would significantly help stimulate market penetration of biofuels on the other hand a carbon tax alone policy where the entire tax revenue is recycled to households through a lump sum transfer does not help stimulate biofuels significantly even at higher tax rates although the carbon tax cum subsidy policy would cause higher loss in economic output at the global level as compared to the carbon tax alone policy the incremental loss is relatively small the key policy insight drawn from the study is that if a carbon tax were to be implemented in an economy for the purpose of climate change mitigation recycling part of its revenue to finance biofuel subsidies would significantly help stimulate biofuels

re regulating district heating in sweden abstract the electricity market reform in sweden has had great but little discussed consequences for the district heating industry formerly regulated municipal district heating companies are now obliged to operate in a commercial manner and pricing previously regulated by the local authority act is now free the swedish competition authority has on several occasions mentioned to the government that a price regulation ought to be reinstated since district heating is a natural monopoly and in many cases in a dominant market position on local heating markets the competition authority also believes that cross subsidies occur in multi service utilities i e between monopolistic district heating and competitive electricity production and sales municipal district heating is often organised together with electricity sales and production in a municipally owned limited company many municipalities have recently sold their energy utilities to private or state owned commercial actors thus creating private monopolies exempt from price regulations in 1999 the national energy administration stem was given the task to monitor the district heating market and to suggest means to come to terms with these issues stem does not favour a price regulation as the first measure stem also has an operative goal of increasing the use of district heating as a means of reducing electricity dependence in the heating of premises here an interesting conflict of interest exists between the two government authorities we argue that the differences in opinion go beyond the actual tasks given to the authorities but rather depend on perspectives economics and consumer perspective versus an engineering environmental and production perspective we would also like to encourage a broad discussion about the state of district heating and its regulatory condition and that neither economical models nor energy models are taken for granted

small streams diverse sources who invests in renewable energy in finland during the financial downturn this article addresses the investment gap in renewable energy sources identified by several authors examining the case of a country finland which introduced policy measures to diversify its renewable energy portfolio we analyse the development of investments in renewable heat and power in response to new policy measures and contextual factors during the downturn period 2009 2013 we investigate investor heterogeneity i e the diversity of logics employed by different types of res investors in spite of a severe financial recession we find an emergence of new sources of investment among these new investor types we find diversity in investment drivers and available options these include investors mobilized by the feed in tariff to seek profitable targets and investors such as real estate owners investing in heat pumps for their own use and benefiting from low interest rates we find that the diversification of investors supports the diversification in res sources and brings in new investors undeterred by the financial downturn our findings imply that policy makers should recognize that the responses to distinct incentives and pressures vary by investor types this also means that a mix of policies is required to maximize the contribution of different sectors to filling the renewable energy investment gap

environmental taxes on fuels and electricity some experiences from the nordic countries in economic theory environment based energy taxation provides a direct financial incentive for environmentally sound economic behaviour in the energy field in practice only a few countries have implemented such taxes unilaterally in the 1990s to be effective environment based energy taxes seem to need international implementation the eu commission has made three proposals in 1992 1995 and 1997 but so far none of them has proceeded in the negotiations in this article we focus on implemented environmental taxes on fuels and electricity in the nordic countries firstly the idea of environment based taxes as a part of sustainable energy policy is presented secondly we review the impacts of this kind of taxes on the environment energy production and consumption income distribution and competitiveness via estimates presented in the literal sources thirdly we review comparative studies of environmental taxes on energy from a methodological perspective and finally we analyse the use of energy tax comparisons in political decision making a recent energy tax reform in finland is used as an example

can the regulated market help foster a free market for wind energy in brazil abstract wind energy has been negotiated in brazil s regulated market through auctions organized by the government bilateral negotiations in the free market have been scarce in 2011 wind farms were allowed to bid in a minus 5 a 5 auctions for energy with first delivery date 5 years ahead this new design was expected to stimulate negotiations in the free market as the 20 year contract in the regulated market eases financing while the 5 year grace period grants wind farms the option to sell whatever energy is generated beforehand in the free market we modeled bidders price decision in a 5 auctions as real options and concluded that given the low prices averaging usd 50 mw h winners are tempted to defer investment expecting more favorable equipment and energy prices or a better knowledge of the wind site construction is likely to begin in 2 3 years with little time left for the free market bidders that consider the option of eventually abandoning the project are more price competitive increasing chances that some wind farms will never materialize therefore this attempt to foster the free market may not pay off and moreover it may have the unfavorable effect of turning brazil s energy expansion planning a more difficult task

supply chain and logistics issues of bio energy production abstract within the concert of renewable energy technologies bio energy can play a decisive role during the next decades when smartly designed and applied under favorable conditions in this respect efficient and effective supply chain and logistics management represent one key parameter this paper presents a literature review of articles published in english speaking peer reviewed journals from 2000 to 2009 which cover the interface of bio energy production and issues of logistics and supply chain management first the articles are assessed according to descriptive criteria such as journal year of publication and research design applied then issues and challenges of designing and operating biomass chains that secure stable and competitively priced feedstock supply for bio energy plants have been classified 1 into the operations harvesting and collection storage transport and pre treatment techniques as well as 2 into overall supply system design although biomass supply chains for energy use are manifold in terms of size design and functioning most relevant issues regarding supply chain management and logistics of bio energy production are identified the findings are discussed against the backdrop of bio energy as sustainable renewable energy option

business models for sustainable biofuel transport the potential for intermodal transport the use of solid wood biofuels for energy production in heating plants has increased drastically during the last decades great interest has been shown in replacing unsustainable road transport of wood fuel with more sustainable intermodal transport this paper maps the common business models for biofuel transport in sweden and suggests how these models may be developed to accommodate intermodal transport a view of the biofuel supply chain as five overlapping networks industry material operations transport and infrastructure connected by four transaction markets sourcing operations transport and traffic have been used four typical business models have been found regional national biofuel company local biofuel company heating plant own account and wood processing industry cooperation and vertical integration among the actors are important to reach the large transport volumes required for intermodal transport key issues to increase the intermodal potential are increased vertical integration and cooperation sharing of transport resources and infrastructure joint purchases outsourcing to expert actors building trust and open communication and not underestimating the complexity of intermodal transport the results have implications for any actor interested in developing intermodal transport or policy measures the contribution includes the new approach of developing business models by using the five layer network market model

centralisation and decentralisation in strategic municipal energy planning in denmark denmark s future energy system is to be entirely based on renewable energy sources municipalities will play an important role as local energy planning authorities in terms of adopting and refining this vision in different local contexts based on a review of 11 municipal energy plans this paper examines to what extent municipal energy planning matches national 100 renewable energy strategies the results indicate a willingness among danish municipalities to actively carry out energy planning and the plans reveal a large diversity of new activities at the same time however there is a strong need for better coordination of municipal energy planning activities at the central level it is suggested that the role of municipalities as energy planning authorities needs to be outlined more clearly in e g strategic energy planning which integrates savings efficiency and renewable energy in all energy sectors this requires the state to provide municipalities with the necessary planning instruments and establish a corresponding planning framework consequently there is a need for a simultaneous centralisation and decentralisation during the implementation of the 100 renewable energy vision the paper outlines a basic division of tasks between the central and the local level within such a strategic energy planning system

the american economic association dues structure because consumers have an incentive to misrepresent their incomes and accurate information about consumers incomes is costly for sellers to obtain income based pricing of goods or services seems unlikely to survive for long indeed income based pricing is extremely rare however the american economic association s dues structure in which members voluntarily pay dues according to income has survived for twenty years the authors survey results reveal that while some cheating does occur there is substantial compliance with the income based dues structure they offer several explanations for their findings

space for innovation for sustainable community based biofuel production and use lessons learned for policy from nhambita community mozambique abstract this paper provides insights and recommendations for policy on the opportunities and constrains that influence the space for innovation for sustainable community based biofuel production and use promoted by the mozambican government nhambita community established jatropha trials in 2005 initial results were promising but crop failure and the absence of organized markets led to scepticism amongst farmers we start from the idea that the promotion of community based biofuel production and use requires taking interactions between social cultural biophysical economic political and legal subsystems across different scales and levels of analysis through time into account our analysis demonstrates that heterogeneous farming strategies and their synergies at community level should be carefully assessed furthermore national and international political and legal developments such as the development of biofuel sustainability criteria influence the local space in which community based biofuel developments take place we conclude that ex ante integrated assessment and creating an enabling environment can enhance space for sustainable community based biofuel production and use it may provide insights into the opportunities and constraints for different types of smallholders and promote the development of adequate policy mechanisms to prevent biofuels from becoming a threat rather than an opportunity for smallholders

factors affecting wood energy consumption by u s households about 23 of energy derived from woody sources in the u s was consumed by households of which 70 was used by households in rural areas in 2005 we investigated factors affecting household level wood energy consumption in the four continental u s regions using data from the u s residential energy consumption survey to account for a large number of zero observations i e households that do not burn wood left censored tobit models were estimated urban rural location is a key determinant of level of household wood energy consumption wood energy consumption elasticity with respect to non wood energy price changes was 1 55 at the u s level and a much higher 2 30 among rural households while household wood energy consumption was affected primarily by non wood energy price in rural areas it was influenced mainly by household size and level of income in urban areas elasticity of wood energy consumption with respect to income can be positive or negative depending on household urban rural location region and income level newer houses were found to use less wood energy than older ones and greater urbanization was found to have negative effect on wood energy use our findings suggest that policies reducing relative wood energy cost or increasing non wood energy prices in the residential sector will result in greater wood energy consumption in the u s the effect of policies may vary by region and are likely to be more effective in u s rural areas and in the u s midwest in particular

wind power generation an impact analysis of incentive strategies for cleaner energy provision in brazil brazil has adopted various strategies to encourage alternative renewable energy sources in pursuit of cleaner and sustainable energy production to this end strategies should support the reduction of the financial risk for potential investors in the renewable energy market therefore this study aims to analyze the impact of incentive strategies on the financial risk of wind power generation projects in brazil in different marketing environments from a quantitative approach using monte carlo simulation in three scenarios we evaluate the impact of funding from the national development bank and participation in the clean development mechanism in the financial returns of the investor in a regulated contracting environment and free contracting environment measured by the net present value we conduct a statistical analysis to find out if there were statistically significant differences in investor risk in each scenario the main results of the study are as follows the wind speed the selling price of energy and disbursement for the investment have the most significant impact on the financial return the project viability probability is greater than 85 in all scenarios regardless of the marketing environment the regulated market is less risky for the producer than the free market since there is a statistically significant difference in net present value variances for all scenarios in the regulated contracting environment funding is critical to reducing risk and carbon credit trading is not a suitable policy for providing financial security to renewable energy producers thus we conclude that in brazil the contracting of projects from auctions in the regulated contracting environment with the support of the national development bank has been important for neutralizing the producer s financial risks

guiding the future energy transition to net zero emissions lessons from exploring the differences between france and sweden abstract despite similarities in their current energy mixes france and sweden s pathways have been very different since the 1970s when both systems were highly dependent on fossil fuels after the oil crisis both countries chose to reduce their oil consumption by developing nuclear power however sweden pursued a more diversified energy policy that has subsequently allowed it to reduce its co2 emissions today both countries have committed to a carbon neutrality goal by 2045 for sweden and 2050 for france in order to understand the key factors that can drive energy transition toward a carbon neutrality goal we propose to compare the past energy transitions in france and sweden two countries that have significantly reduced their co2 emissions and fossil fuel dependency to assess the impacts of the current energy system and its regulations on the feasibility of meeting carbon neutrality we use times bottom up energy system optimization models the results show that france faces more challenges in transforming its energy system than sweden i e an increase in power production a decrease in gas consumption the replacement of heating systems in buildings and the electrification of industry thus confirming that its energy policy has to be driven with a long run perspective

implementation of wind power in the norwegian market the reason why some of the best wind resources in europe were not utilised by 2010 abstract norway has some of the best wind resources in europe in 1999 the norwegian parliament committed to attain an annual onshore wind power production goal of 3 0 twh by 2010 however in 2010 onshore wind power production measured only 1 0 twh this article discusses the reasons that this goal was not achieved the analysis addresses the key figures on the strategic tactical and operational levels this model is combined with a time line that seeks to define when different actors should have secured concessions 1 and funding to achieve the goal after introducing the time line a list of questions is introduced for these key actors the three level model the time line and the questions constitute the analytical framework explanations for the failure to achieve the goal may be identified on all three levels however the primary explanatory factors were political uncertainty in the support scheme and wind power s role in the energy market in general both of these factors are identified on the strategic level uncertainty on the strategic level influenced the lower levels which led to bottlenecks in the concession process and jittery investors who thought that the risk of investment in wind power was too high

valuation for renewable energy a comparative review abstract environmental cost benefit analysis is applied for the evaluation of renewable energy projects since some benefits and costs do not have monetary values economic valuation techniques are applied to estimate them this paper reviews the literature on the valuation evaluation of renewable energy resources and summarizes the methods used in them it discerns four main streams of valuation in renewable energy the first is economic welfare oriented and comprises stated and revealed preference methods the second is the financial option analysis with a financial background the third is emergy analysis which is mostly an ecological engineering based method with capable economic links and the fourth is again economic but not welfare based the paper discusses the main directions discerned in these studies and recognizes first that proper valuation takes place only in the first method while the other methods describe only evaluation procedures and second that there is a research gap that has yet to be filled in as compared to other areas of environmental resource and energy economics

decentralised bioenergy systems a review of opportunities and threats decentralised bioenergy systems are receiving increasing attention due to the potential ability to support local development create local employment and contribute to climate change mitigation these issues along with other bioenergy sustainability issues are reviewed through eighteen international case studies with the objective of identifying opportunities and threats to decentralised bioenergy systems the case studies were selected based on feedstock type bioenergy type production capacity synergistic alliances ownership structure and physical locations this variation was used to provide a basis for evaluating opportunities and threats from different contexts commercial viability remains the primary concern for the sustainability of decentralised bioenergy systems there are however opportunities for compounding benefits through integrating small scale decentralised bioenergy systems with other production systems integrated production including closed loop models allow waste materials from one process to be used as inputs in other production processes and thereby increasing economic social and environmental outcomes synergistic opportunities along the bioenergy production chain which include feedstock production bioenergy marketing and distribution could also be exploited by communities and other investors to minimise decentralised production risk

inventor networks in renewable energies the influence of the policy mix in germany technological change and gains in efficiency of renewable power generation technologies are to a large extent driven by governmental support various policy instruments that can broadly be categorized as technology push demand pull or systemic constitute part of the policy mix for renewable energies our goal is to gain insights into the influence of this policy mix on the intensity and organization of inventive activities for wind power and photovoltaics in germany since the 1980s we examine the effect of different instruments on the size and structure of co inventor networks based on patent data our results indicate notable differences between the technologies the network size for wind power is driven by technology push and systemic instruments while in photovoltaics demand pull is decisive for network growth by and large the instruments complement each other and form a consistent mix of policy instruments the structure of the networks is driven by demand pull for both technologies systemic instruments increase interaction especially in the wind power network and are complementary to demand pull in fostering collaboration

dynamics of energy technologies and global change technological choices largely determine the long term characteristics of industrial society including impacts on the natural environment however the treatment of technology in existing models that are used to project economic and environmental futures remains highly stylized based on work over two decades at iiasa we present a useful typology for technology analysis and discuss methods that can be used to analyze the impact of technological changes on the global environment especially global warming our focus is energy technologies the main source of many atmospheric environmental problems we show that much improved treatment of technology is possible with a combination of historical analysis and new modeling techniques in the historical record we identify characteristic l such network e ects yield high barriers to entry even for superior competitors these simple observations allow three improvements to modeling of technological change and its consequences for global environmental change one is that the replacement of long lived infrastructures over time has also replaced the fuels that power the economy to yield progressively more energy per unit of carbon pollution from coal to oil to gas such replacement has d they also include endogenous generation of s we show that doing so can yield projections with lessened environmental impacts without necessarily incurring negative e ect on the economy arriving on that path by the year 2100 depends on intervening actions such as incentives to promote greater diversity in technology and lower barriers to entry for new infrastructures that could accelerate historical trends of decarbonization 1999 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

choice of nuclear power investments under price uncertainty valuing modularity this work aims at examining how to compare two investment projects in the electricity market the first project is a flexible sequence of small nuclear power plants whereas the second is a nuclear power plant of large capacity we measure the option value generated by the modularity of the first project given the uncertain future competitive price of electricity using a realistic calibration of the model we show that the option value of modularity has a sizeable effect on the optimal dynamic strategy of the producer in particular in terms of the optimal timing of the decision to invest in the first module