diffusion of green power products in switzerland abstract as in many other european countries green electricity is an emerging product in switzerland as well although the market is yet to be liberalised more than 100 of the 1200 swiss electric utilities offer some sort of green electricity product to their customers successful companies like the municipal utilities of the cities of zurich and berne have reached customer response rates of up to 4 while still maintaining cost based pricing i e charging their customers price premiums of 400 700 per kwh while most of the products still rely on mainly photovoltaics some utilities have started to introduce mixed green electricity products also including wind power with a share of 60 in the swiss generation mix hydropower s role in the green electricity mix was also an issue to emerge causing controversial debate while being renewable hydropower is not considered environmentally benign by all the stakeholders and unlike new renewables solar wind biomass there is little room for new hydropower generation facilities in switzerland the green electricity labelling scheme naturemade tackles that issue the labelling organisation has evolved from a process with broad stakeholder involvement which included environmental ngos scientific institutions green electricity providers renewable energy advocates government bodies and consumer organisations the analysis in this paper is based on a diffusion theory framework it identifies and characterises different phases of past and future market development and stresses the importance of eco labelling as a tool to facilitate the transition from niche to mass market finally we also discuss conclusions that can be drawn from the swiss case towards market development and labelling on a european level

conceptualising environmental responsibility abstract downstream responsibility is rarely addressed in the academic literature and in corporate sustainability reporting we conceptualise downstream responsibility for the example of carbon emissions by establishing a terminology as well as a framework for quantifying downstream carbon footprints by extracting emissions intensive sales chains for a number of australian industry sectors and comparing these to emissions intensive supply chains we demonstrated the ability of input output analysis to quantify emissions responsibility in both directions we extend the definition of downstream responsibility beyond the product use and disposal phases to include what we call enabled emissions this term implies that whatever is sold downstream enables our customers to operate and emit irrespective of whether it is our product that is combusted or that directly combusts fuels or not our structural path analyses and threshold capture relationships reveal stark differences between industries with regard to the data collection efforts necessary to achieve a reasonably complete footprint assessment industries appear to have their own specific carbon footprint profiles and one cannot design generic relevance tests that tell which data to collect moreover we conclude that current completeness standards in carbon reporting cannot be satisfied using relevance thresholds input output analysis and structural path analysis are excellent tools that can help companies undertake screening exercises which in turn help prioritising and streamlining the collection of data needed to establish a corporate downstream carbon footprint compared to conventional manual approaches hybrid life cycle assessments assisted by input output analysis and structural path analysis achieve more complete results with substantially less staff money and time

undesired reinforcement of harmful self evident truths concerning the implementation of wind power abstract this viewpoint draws attention to a lingering simplistic and faulty interpretation of the complex phenomenon of acceptance of renewables and their implementation in concrete projects by all relevant actors namely the backyard theory during the last decade research that investigated nimby has provided support to disprove the two prime hypotheses proximity and decreasing property value the current mainstream trend in academic circles is clearly towards abandoning nimby explanations however in practice among developers and policymakers nimby thinking still prevails unfortunately there is also some academic writing that persists in recycling the backyard theory despite ample research to the contrary thus feeding this faulty interpretation of implementation problems a recent review of the state of the art of wind power implementation is taken as an example it presents nimby as a common sense self evident truth while to support this explanation it cites publications that actually refute this view and instead support the mainstream move towards abandoning nimby thinking this shift is important because further academic support for this concept would serve to hinder rapid deployment of wind power and also other renewables

electricity portfolio management optimal peak off peak allocations electricity purchasers manage a portfolio of contracts in order to purchase the expected future electricity consumption profile of a company or a pool of clients this paper proposes a mean variance framework to address the concept of structuring the portfolio and focuses on how to optimally allocate positions in peak and off peak forward contracts it is shown that the optimal allocations are based on the difference in risk premiums per unit of day ahead risk as a measure of relative costs of hedging risk in the day ahead markets the outcomes of the model are then applied to show i that it is typically not optimal to hedge a baseload consumption profile with a baseload forward contract and ii that under reasonable assumptions risk taking by the purchaser is rewarded by lower expected costs

a portfolio risk analysis on electricity supply planning abstract conventional electricity planning selects from a range of alternative technologies based on the least cost method without assessing cost related risks the current approach to determining energy generation portfolios creates a preference for fossil fuel consequently this preference results in increased exposure to recent fluctuations in fossil fuel prices particularly for countries heavily depend on imported energy this paper applies portfolio theory in conventional electricity planning with taiwan as a case study the model objective is to minimize the risk weighted present value of total generation cost both the present value of generating cost and risk variance of the generating cost are considered risk of generating cost is introduced for volatile fuel prices and uncertainty of technological change and capital cost reduction the impact of risk levels on the portfolio of power generation technologies is also examined to provide some valuable policy suggestions study results indicate that replacing fossil fuel with renewable energy helps reduce generating cost risk however due to limited renewable development potential in taiwan there is an upper bound of 15 on the maximum share of renewable energy in the generating portfolio in the meantime reevaluating the current nuclear energy policy for reduced exposure to fossil fuel price fluctuations is worthwhile

entrepreneurship education in the nineties abstract bringing entrepreneurship education into the community support infrastructure poses one of the more important economic development issue for the 1990s aspart of the new strategy for job creation entrepreneurship education holds promise as an integral component in a community s venture support system along with incubators innovation centers technology transfer offices science parks and venture capital operations since new venture success is foremost a function of entrepreneurial knowledge and know how entrepreneurship education may be the most promising of these economic development mechanisms unfortunately it may be the most difficult to implement generally the extent and nature of education required by modern aspiring entrepreneurs is not well understood many would see entrepreneurship education as strictly an add on to current education in management or engineering such is the option of minimal use the real promise or entrepreneurship education will be realized when it is strategically organized for economic development and job creation this article traces the recent history of entrepreneurship education before proceeding to deal with a number of questions facing those who would use entrepreneurship education as part of a modern economic development strategy 1 1 why is entrepreneurship education important 2 2 how should it be distinguished from related programs 3 3 how will success be measured 4 4 who will be the students 5 5 how will the subject be taught 6 6 what will be the curriculum 7 7 who will be the teachers

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

investment planning in electricity production under co2 price uncertainty the electricity markets have undergone significant changes during the last years on the one hand the market deregulation has increased significantly the uncertainty on future electricity prices on the other hand the kyoto protocol and the establishment of emission restrictions as well as the development of emission trading systems has added another expense stream for conventional fuel electricity producers and a potential income stream for renewable electricity producers the emission allowance prices are another source of uncertainty for electricity producers the scope of this work is to investigate the effect that various scenarios for emission allowance price evolution may have on the orders for new electricity generation technologies and therefore on the future electricity generation mix of greece the renewable energy generation targets are taken into consideration as a constraint of the system and the learning rates of the various technologies are included in the calculations the national electricity generation system is modelled for long term analysis and an optimisation method is applied in order to come up with the optimal generating mix that minimises electricity generation cost while satisfying the national emissions reduction targets and incorporating the uncertainty of emission allowance prices in addition an investigation is made to identify if a point should be expected when renewable energy will be more profitable than conventional fuel electricity generation the work is interesting for investment planning in the electricity market as it may provide directions on which technologies are most probable to dominate the market in the future and therefore are of interest to be included in the future power portfolios of related investors

the effect of globalisation on energy footprints disentangling the links of global value chains abstract this paper investigates the impact of global value chains on energy footprints energy footprints are consumption based indicators which record the energy used to produce a country s final demand in order to disentangle key characteristics of global value chains and their effects on the global energy footprint we employ structural decomposition analyses sda furthermore the analysis combines a retrospective with a prospective sda approach after an analysis of the global energy footprint for the period between 1995 and 2009 we discuss three scenarios of international integration and their implications for energy footprints for the period from 2009 to 2030 our results show that the global energy footprint has increased by 29 4 from 1995 to 2009 and the scenarios indicate that it will increase by another 23 5 until 2030 economic activity is the most important driver for the increase in energy footprints rising final demand alone would have increased the global energy footprint by 47 0 between 1995 and 2009 the composition of countries from where consumption and investment goods come adds another 12 6 sectoral energy intensity reductions are the most important decelerator of energy use 27 8 there is a substantial contribution of changing global value chains on the rise in the global energy footprint 7 5 stronger backward linkages in global value chains increased the global energy footprint by 5 5 between 1995 and 2009 changes in the regional composition of intermediate inputs raised it by another 1 8 the shift of the world economy towards east asia alone would have increased the global energy footprint by 3 0 the sectoral composition of global value chains on the other hand had a negligible effect on energy footprints

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

keep it local and fish friendly social acceptance of hydropower projects in switzerland hydropower is the largest source of renewable electricity in the world but despite being a mature and clean energy technology it has also been the subject of ecological and social conflict literature suggests that the social acceptance of renewable energy can be increased by respecting procedural justice fair participatory planning processes and distributional justice fairly allocating costs and benefits however empirical evidence about how justice considerations are related to the expansion of hydropower is scarce pre existing studies being mostly qualitative in nature we contribute to filling the gap in the current literature by describing in this paper how choice experiments with 1004 swiss residents were undertaken to explore the influence of procedural and distributional justice on acceptance relative to other attributes of hydropower projects we find that while considerations about justice do play a role in decisions to accept respondents in switzerland care most about ecological impacts and secondly about local ownership

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

social problems of green buildings from the humanistic needs to social acceptance abstract in the past few decades scholars have conducted research and held discussions on green building to highlight their vital significance in addressing environmental economic and social challenges it is recognized that public attitudes and views towards green building may affect its application in daily lives although studies on consumers cognition are rarely carried out the social problems related to green building such as consumers basic understanding purchase intention social and humanistic needs public attitudes and behaviors rebound effects and furthermore social acceptance are therefore studied based on three research methods including literature review questionnaire and inductive analysis through the analysis following results can be obtained i green building s sustainable design has quite important influence over consumers decision making process the general public maintains a high regard for the advantages of green building where better ventilation and lighting is a major benefit saving energy and water are the second rated and then land and construction material saving ii although the general public is not being familiar with the concept of green building the majority of participants would pay more for green buildings over the standard building when they know the environmental impacts of them iii green building should not only be limited to energy performance oriented but also be user oriented the social and humanistic needs model is thus well established based on maslow s hierarchy of needs in the life cycle of green building social and humanistic needs show a trend of dynamics which means social processes with consumer engagement and participation needs to be considered in aspects of conceptual design planning and design operation and maintenance to improve users happiness and productivity iv current user oriented solutions to green building are always based on a hypothesis that consumers are readily motivated or prefer expensive goods for reducing energy use to really reflect preference and influenced actions social acceptance should be analyzed to fully gauge interest and perspective of the people v rebound effects of post occupant building performance including energy performance human comfort indoor environmental quality greenhouse gas emission and workplace productivity can be divided into two stages at present it is necessary to establish appropriate samples methods and parameters for an unbiased and valid post occupant evaluation system in addition the social acceptance of green building framework is established based on wustenhagen et al triangular model for renewable energy innovation all the explorations to social problems of green building in this article are expected to provide a healthy social basis for the development of this green strategy

time dependent opportunities in energy business a comparative study of locally available renewable and conventional fuels this work investigates and compares energy related private business strategies potentially interesting for investors willing to exploit either local biomass sources or strategic conventional fuels two distinct fuels and related power production technologies are compared as a case study in terms of economic efficiency the biomass of cotton stalks and the natural gas the carbon capture and storage option are also investigated for power plants based on both fuel types the model used in this study investigates important economic aspects using a real options method instead of traditional discounted cash flow techniques as it might handle in a more effective way the problems arising from the stochastic nature of significant cash flow contributors evolution like electricity fuel and co2 allowance prices the capital costs have also a functional relationship with time thus providing an additional reason for implementing real options as well as the learning curves technique the methodology as well as the results presented in this work may lead to interesting conclusions and affect potential private investment strategies and future decision making this study indicates that both technologies lead to positive investment yields with the natural gas being more profitable for the case study examined while the carbon capture and storage does not seem to be cost efficient with the current co2 allowance prices furthermore low interest rates might encourage potential investors to wait before actualising their business plans while higher interest rates favor immediate investment decisions

a closer look at small hydropower projects in india social acceptability of two storage based projects in karnataka abstract associated with being green clean and small scale small hydroelectric power shp projects generally enjoy a positive image in india shp promises answers to issues such as meeting a growing electricity demand facilitating lucrative investment opportunities and climate change considerations the features of being green clean and small scale have contributed to the assumption of shp as an essentially uncontested technology empirical studies questioning this assumption are scarce research on shp has so far remained rather hypothetical and policy level focused this article investigates the social acceptability of small hydroelectric plants in india by empirically looking at how people engage with these plants it thereby underlines the importance of studying technologies in their local context based on a detailed case study analysis of two shp projects in karnataka india the article shows how shp projects are contested on the local level the engagement of local people played a crucial role in the contestation of the plants and led to significant and unexpected outcomes and effects the article highlights the importance of having a broader perspective in the development of shp that goes beyond a mindset of technological fixes this includes taking account of existing water infrastructure and a broader range of water users the article shows that the implementation of shp projects does not take place in a void rather complex existing physical and social realities on the ground matter for the development and performance of shp

evaluating options for the future energy mix of japan after the fukushima nuclear crisis the fukushima nuclear accident in march 2011 has increased social and political reluctance to embrace nuclear power in japan and elsewhere the japanese government has thus been considering four possible future energy mixes including a nuclear free pathway and three others with 10 35 nuclear supply coupled with a larger proportion of renewable energy and fossil fuels to replace nuclear here we use multi criteria decision making analysis mcdma to assess the potential negative economic levelised cost of electricity and energy security environmental greenhouse gas emissions land transformation water consumption heated water discharge air pollution radioactive waste and solid waste and social safety issues impacts of the four proposed pathways to determine which scenario most holistically minimises adverse future outcomes the nuclear free pathway has the highest overall potential for adverse outcomes score 2 49 out of 3 and the 35 nuclear power supply option yielding the lowest negative impact score 0 74 without weightings despite some sensitivity to the choice of criterion weights our analyses demonstrate clearly that from an empirical perspective a nuclear free pathway for japan is the worst option to pursue we recommend that mcdma methodology we used for japan can be applied to other countries to evaluate future electricity generation scenarios

co2 emissions embodied in china us trade input output analysis based on the emergy dollar ratio to gain insight into changes in co2 emissions embodied in china us trade an input output analysis based on the emergy dollar ratio edr is used to estimate embodied co2 emissions a structural decomposition analysis sda is employed to analyze the driving factors for changes in co2 emissions embodied in china s exports to the us during 2002 2007 the results of the input output analysis show that net export of co2 emissions increased quickly from 2002 to 2005 but decreased from 2005 to 2007 these trends are due to a reduction in total co2 emission intensity a decrease in the exchange rate and small imports of embodied co2 emissions the results of the sda demonstrate that total export volume was the largest driving factor for the increase in embodied co2 emissions during 2002 2007 followed by intermediate input structure direct co2 emissions intensity had a negative effect on changes in embodied co2 emissions the results suggest that china should establish a framework for allocating emission responsibilities enhance energy efficiency and improve intermediate input structure

energy perspective of sino us trade imbalance in global supply chains abstract the unprecedented global supply chain fragmentation brings an ever increasing trade imbalance in terms of monetary flows between china and the united states associated with the bilateral trade imbalance is the reallocation of resources utilization and environmental stress in this regard this study presents an embodied energy model to investigate impacts of sino us trade imbalance on global energy use during 2000 2014 distinguished from previous studies that only evaluate the sino us trade based on specific bilateral perspective this study probes into overall impacts of the sino us trade on global primary energy use pattern from the perspective of global supply chains for the first time a boost to eastbound trade and distinct export industrial structures fuel the unprecedented growth of sino us embodied energy trade imbalance accounting for more than half of the total energy transfers embodied in sino us trade such imbalance firstly increases sharply from 1956 0 pj in 2000 to 5265 3 pj in 2006 followed by a short term decrease to hit a low point at 3267 7 pj in 2009 because of financial crisis and then a gradual resuscitation with a slower pace in the following years the exported energy embodied in manufacturing products dominates eastbound flows whereas energy embodied in agricultural products technology intensive products and primary energy commodities constitute majority of westbound flows due to the dispersed production process in global value chains more than half of primary energy use embodied in the bilateral trade is geographically exploited in other economies along the supply chain i e europe the middle east and south asia furthermore security of energy supply is evaluated for the two economies the results can help predict potential influences of trade conflicts on global energy extraction illustrating policy implications to make sino us trade in line with global energy conservation goals considering sino us trade s impacts along complex supply chains distinctive domestic energy conservation measures should give way to global collective and inclusive governance

is small beautiful a multicriteria assessment of small scale energy technology applications in local governments in its 2003 white paper the uk government set ambitious renewable energy targets local governments and households have an increasing role in the overall energy system as consumers suppliers of smaller scale applications and citizens discussing energy projects in this paper we consider if small scale or large scale approaches to renewable energy provision can achieve energy targets in the most socially economically and environmentally see effective way we take a local case study of renewable energy provision in the metropolitan borough of kirklees in yorkshire uk and apply a multi criteria decision analysis methodology to compare the small scale schemes implemented in kirklees with large scale alternatives the results indicate that small scale schemes are the most see effective despite large scale schemes being more financially viable the selection of the criteria on which the alternatives are assessed and the assigned weights for each criterion are of crucial importance it is thus very important to include the relevant stakeholders to elicit this information

from malthus to sustainable energy theoretical orientations to reforming the energy sector abstract the main purpose of this article is to consider macro level theories for understanding the urge for reform as well as the process of societal change both in general terms and more specifically within the energy sector the aim is also to consider the energy sector in a wider context and analyse its recent development as a potential part of this reform the scope and logical framework of this article is the following the state of the global environment is approaching a point where the whole of humankind is in danger the article reviews and discusses humankind s limits of existence and dialectics of the human nature relationship by contrasting malthusian and boserupian theoretical views this creates both practical and scientific needs the long societal process of change is discussed according to the three layer 3l model of societal chance the production of energy has traditionally been one of the core issues concerning the effect humankind has on the environment and with regards to potential change related to it reforming the energy sector is in a key position this article reviews and discusses the way the already established renewal of the energy sector corresponds to the 3l model and the diverse potentials of the anticipated further progress

review of the economic viability of investing and exploiting biogas electricity plant case study vizelj serbia construction and operation of plants that produce energy from renewable energy sources is the subject for discussion in all the countries that have accepted the sustainable development concept and kyoto protocol as their own development direction enlargement of the renewable energy production is clearly an imperative but only economically viable construction and operation can result in long term sustainability which is initially the goal when deciding upon such investments in line with this goal this paper presents the estimation of the economic viability of constructing and operating biogas electricity plant on the farm vizelj in serbia the timeframe for this estimation is from 2011 until 2020 this paper also presents all parameters which are necessary for performing this estimation respectively analysis of revenues and expenditures projection of economic and financial flow ratio analysis dynamic and static analysis and analysis of sensitivity of the project i e impact of the changes in prices and raw material on the overall performance of the project the observed investment is predicted to be financed from the ebrd s credit line for renewable energy in western balkans while the total investment is estimated at euro 958 000 00 after the performed economic assessment the conclusion is that the observed investment in biogas electricity plant is very acceptable and it can serve as a role model for similar investments in the region

sustainable management of waste to energy facilities abstract in 1995 porter and van der linde defined pollution as a manifestation of economic waste currently incorrect information and conflicting theories among scientists hinder the diffusion of sustainable practices in waste management 1 new industrial market research reports highlight that the value of the global waste incineration market has increased in recent years 1 3 billion dollars from 2008 to 2012 and this sector will continue to grow 6 8 billion dollars from 2012 to 2022 2 the paper focuses on the italian situation on which urgent actions are required because more than 50 of waste is landfilled 3 the correct environmental management increases the financial performance because waste investments offer both environmental and economic benefits the problem to solve is related to both waste management and high levels of recycling where an unsorted fraction of waste will remain based on a thorough review of the topic a national waste management plan nwmp for energy recovery is herein proposed for evaluating all the aspects of sustainability of waste to energy wte plants the reduction of greenhouse gases ghgs with respect to landfill the estimation of financial net present value fnpv and the economic net present value enpv and finally the estimation of new employment opportunity

energy investment economic growth and carbon emissions in china empirical analysis based on spatial durbin model abstract the international community has reached a consensus on preventing the global climate from deterioration by stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere energy industry is a key field for greenhouse gas emission and investment in the energy industry plays a crucial part in promoting the low carbon development of china s energy industry energy investment can effectively break the high carbon lock in effect of energy industry and achieve the low carbon development of energy industry by guiding regulating and gathering social funds into the field of cleaner production and the field of low carbon technology based on the unified framework of energy economy and environment this article takes 30 provinces in china as the research object and constructs a spatial econometric model to investigate the impact of energy investment and economic growth on carbon emission reduction the results indicate that both energy investment and economic growth are responsible for the increase of china s provincial co2 emissions but their driving mechanisms are significantly different furthermore the increase of carbon emissions in adjacent provinces will bring about the increase of local carbon emissions through spatial spillover effects based on these findings the corresponding countermeasures and policy suggestions are put forward

going beyond best technology and lowest price on renewable energy investors preference for service driven business models abstract renewable energy is becoming increasingly important for economies in many countries but still in an emerging industry renewable energy requires supportive energy policy helping firms to develop and protect competitive advantages in global competition as a guideline for designing such policy we consult well informed stakeholders within the renewable energy industry investors their preferences serve as explorative indicator for assessing which business models might succeed in competition to contribute to only limited research on renewable energy investors preferences we ask which business models investment managers for renewable energy prefer to invest in we report from an explorative study of 380 choices of renewable energy investment managers based on the stated preferences we modelled three generic business models to calculate the share of investors preferences we find exiting evidence a customer intimacy business model that proposes best services is much more preferred by investors than business models that propose lowest price or best technology policy makers can use those insights for designing policy that supports service driven business models for renewable energy with a scope on customer needs rather than technology or price additionally we state important implications for renewable energy entrepreneurs managers and research

global overview for energy use of the world economy household consumption based accounting based on the world input output database wiod abstract globalization has integrated nations into a world economy based on the world input output database wiod this paper explored the energy use of the world economy under a household consumption based mrio multi region input output accounting scheme pertaining to normative economics the household consumption based mrio accounting scheme corresponds to the value judgement of household consumption being the ultimate driver of the economy which complements existing accounting methods based on different viewpoints the energy use associated with the internationally traded products is calculated to be around one fifth of the global total energy consumption for china as the largest exporter and also the biggest deficit economy in terms of energy use its trade imbalance is nearly the summation of that of the united states the united kingdom japan and germany energy self sufficiency rates by supply and by demand are respectively proposed while the united states economy as the largest importer maintains the majority of the energy welfare denoted by the onsite energy use at home china exports large quantities of energy use abroad for economies like germany south korea and taiwan they could be regarded as hubs that export a considerable amount of energy use abroad and absorb massive energy use from outside simultaneously for sustainable use of energy resources economies are suggested to carefully identify their roles in the global trading network of energy use

community perspectives of wind energy in australia the application of a justice and community fairness framework to increase social acceptance decisions concerning the siting of infrastructure developments or the use of natural resources have the potential to damage a community s social well being if the outcomes are perceived to be unfair justice is accepted as central to the well functioning of society with fairness being an expectation in day to day interactions outcomes that are perceived to be unfair can result in protests damaged relationships and divided communities particularly when decisions are made which benefit some sections of the community at the perceived expense of others through empirical research using a wind farm pilot study community perceptions of a community consultation process are explored using procedural justice principles to evaluate fairness findings from the pilot study indicate that perceptions of fairness do influence how people perceive the legitimacy of the outcome and that a fairer process will increase acceptance of the outcome a key research finding was that different sections of a community are likely to be influenced by different aspects of justice namely by outcome fairness outcome favourability and process fairness based on this finding a community fairness framework was developed which has potential application in community consultation to increase social acceptance of the outcome

tracing co2 emissions in global value chains abstract this paper integrates two lines of research into a unified conceptual framework trade in value added and embodied emissions in trade this allows both value added and emissions to be systematically traced at the country sector and bilateral levels through various routes in global value chains by combining value added and emissions accounting in a consistent way the potential environmental cost along global value chains can be estimated from different perspectives like production consumption and trade using this unified accounting framework we trace value added and co 2 emissions in global production and trade networks among 41 economies in 35 sectors from 1995 to 2009 based on the world input output database and show how they improve our understanding of the impacts of cross border production sharing on the environment

toward a new conception of the environment competitiveness relationship accepting a fixed trade off between environmental regulation and competitiveness unnecessarily raises costs and slows down environmental progress studies finding high environmental compliance costs have traditionally focused on static cost impacts ignoring any offsetting productivity benefits from innovation they typically overestimated compliance costs neglected innovation offsets and disregarded the affected industry s initial competitiveness rather than simply adding to cost properly crafted environmental standards can trigger innovation offsets allowing companies to improve their resource productivity shifting the debate from pollution control to pollution prevention was a step forward it is now necessary to make the next step and focus on resource productivity

new venture development the costs and benefits of public sector assistance abstract in recent years there has been an extraordinary level of entrepreneurial activity occurring in the united states venture start ups new incorporations even bankruptcies are reaching record numbers concurrent with the increase in entrepreneurial activity has been an effort within the reagan administration to privatize public sector programs designed to aid new and small ongoing business ventures the premise behind this movement is that private sector initiatives can better and more efficiently serve the needs of entrepreneurs and small business managers and can also offer new business opportunities for some entrepreneurs at the same time however privatization could reduce the assistance programs currently targeting fledgling ventures many of which are unable to afford a private consultant the purpose of this article is to examine the economic impact of one public sector assistance program the small business development center sbdc in terms of its contributions to new venture initiation in georgia and south carolina the focus on the sbdc program is appropriate since over 50 of the counseling activities of most of the centers is devoted to pre venture clients i e individuals or groups considering starting a business this study is important and timely not only in respect to assessing the effectiveness of public sector assistance programs for pre ventures but also for assessing whether it is worthwhile from an economic perspective to offer assistance to such individuals in the first place although it is difficult to be precise in attributing cause to effects in dynamic business ventures our study indicates that the small business development center s client sample experienced a greater than expected number of business starts and a higher than expected rate of survival the results suggest that the net taxable sales generated by these new ventures in 1984 was approximately 20 million in georgia and 10 million in south carolina results also suggest that almost 500 new jobs were created in georgia and 600 new jobs were created in south carolina between 1981 and 1984 as a result of successful business starts among sbdc pre venture clients while such figures are impressive the bottom line of this study is that the new tax revenues generated by client firms exceeded the cost of delivering the services specifically our conservative estimates suggest a 3 80 to 1 00 and 1 50 to 1 00 benefit to cost ratio for the center s pre venture consulting services in georgia and south carolina respectively furthermore the value attached to the assistance received by the entrepreneurs themselves closely paralleled our estimates lending additional validity to our conclusions resource constrained entrepreneurs can obtain effective business assistance from the sbdc free of charge and the benefits to society accruing from this service far outweigh the cost of providing them

a participatory approach to sustainable energy strategy development in a carbon intensive jurisdiction the case of nova scotia the need for governments to reduce the exposure of energy consumers to future increases in fossil fuel prices places urgent pressure on policy makers to deliver fundamental transformations in energy strategies particularly in jurisdictions with high dependency on fossil fuel sources dorian et al 2006 this transformation is unlikely without a high level of stakeholder engagement in the policy development process this paper describes two policy development processes recently undertaken in nova scotia in which the inclusion of stakeholder views was central to the approach the first delivered a new institutional framework for electricity energy efficiency involving the inception of an independent performance based administrator the second required the delivery of a strategy to significantly increase renewable energy generation in the province it involved recommendations for changes in institutional arrangements financial incentives and technological options this process was followed by new commitments to renewable energy developments new infrastructure for the importation of hydro electricity and the announcement of fits for ocean energy in both cases recommendations were made by an independent academic institution and the government responded directly to a majority of recommendations the paper concludes with a discussion of lessons learned and the implications for future energy policy making in carbon intensive jurisdictions

an overview of energy consumption of the globalized world economy abstract for the globalized world economy with intensive international trade an overview of energy consumption is presented by an embodied energy analysis to track both direct and indirect energy uses based on a systems input output simulation in 2004 the total amounts of energy embodied in household consumption government consumption and investment are 7749 874 and 2009 mtoe million tons of oil equivalent respectively the united states is shown as the world s biggest embodied energy importer 683 mtoe and embodied energy surplus receiver 290 mtoe in contrast to china as the biggest exporter 662 mtoe and deficit receiver 274 mtoe energy embodied in consumption per capita varies from 0 05 uganda to 19 54 toe rest of north america based on a forecast for 2005 2035 china is to replace the united states as the world s leading embodied energy consumer in 2027 when its per capita energy consumption will be one quarter of that of the united states

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

incorporating life cycle external cost in optimization of the electricity generation mix the present work aims to examine the strategic decision of future electricity generation mix considering together with all other factors the effect of the external cost associated with the available power generation technology options not only during their operation but also during their whole life cycle the analysis has been performed by integrating the life cycle assessment concept into a linear programming model for the yearly decisions on which option should be used to minimize the electricity generation cost the model has been applied for the case of greece for the years 2012 2050 and has led to several interesting results firstly most of the new generating capacity should be renewable mostly biomass and wind while natural gas is usually the only conventional fuel technology chosen if externalities are considered wind energy increases its share and hydro power replaces significant amounts of biomass generated energy furthermore a sensitivity analysis has been performed one of the most important findings is that natural gas increases its contribution when externalities are increased summing up external cost has been found to be a significant percentage of the total electricity generation cost for some energy sources therefore significantly changing the ranking order of cost competitiveness for the energy sources examined

a review of international green power markets recent experience trends and market drivers green power marketing the act of differentially selling electricity generated wholly or in part from renewable sources has emerged in more than a dozen countries around the world almost two million customers worldwide buy green power today this paper reviews green power marketing activity in australia canada japan the us and in a number of countries in europe to gain an understanding of consumer demand for electricity generated from renewable sources it also examines key factors that influence market penetration of green power products such as product designs pricing incentives marketing strategies policies and product certification 2002 elsevier science ltd all rights reserved

public attitudes to biofuel use in aviation evidence from an emerging tourist market abstract aviation generates substantial carbon footprint which is projected to increase due to the continuous growth in international tourism especially in emerging markets this carbon footprint should be mitigated to bring the tourism industry towards its sustainability goals within a portfolio of prospective carbon mitigation measures biofuels represent a technological innovation which holds substantial potential to reduce the carbon significance of aviation the success of technological innovations often depends on public opinion the role of public opinion is particularly relevant in the aviation context where safety considerations of technological innovations may determine consumer choice focusing on poland an emerging tourist market in europe this study explored public opinion on biofuel use in aviation it found that public understanding of the perspectives of aviation biofuel technology including its safety is limited and needs to be reinforced public distrust in the national institutions of power and the industry sector representatives in poland calls for educational and public awareness raising campaigns to be delivered by the third sector organisations

deregulation and restructuring of the global electricity supply industry and its impact upon power plant suppliers abstract this paper analyses the deregulation and restructuring of the global electricity supply industry and its impact upon fuel usage generation technologies and suppliers of power plant deregulation encouraged the growth of new independent power producers whose business requirements transformed the power plant industry the plant suppliers had to develop new capabilities and services to compete in the global market economies of scale and scope became crucial given the cost of developing the new technologies and providing the services required by the operators this led to the global consolidation of the power plant industry because only large integrated power engineering companies had the necessary resources and capabilities to compete in the new global environment

an overview of mercury emissions by global fuel combustion the impact of international trade abstract this study provides an overview of mercury emissions by global fuel combustion by compiling the detailed inventory as well as elaborating the impact of international trade based on the global fuel related mercury emissions inventory covering 26 sectors in 186 economies for the year of 2010 systems multi region input output analysis is employed for the first time to investigate international trade s impact on mercury emissions induced by each economy the estimated mercury emissions mainly contributed by coal burning are 859 12 t approximately 30 of which are embodied in commodities transported to consumers in other economies via international trade the emerging economies such as mainland china and india are the prominent net exporters of embodied mercury emissions while developed economies like japan germany and the usa are the net importers indicating that developed economies avoided a large amount of direct mercury emissions by transferring the production of emission intensive commodities to developing economies by integrating the direct emissions and the net trade effect mainland china has the largest embodied mercury emissions followed by the usa and india this study verifies the significant role of international trade in drawing a holistic picture of global fuel related mercury emissions the findings also suggest that focusing on the atmospheric mercury pollution directly emitted by local producers in isolation may result in an absurd situation of regional reduction at the cost of global rise it is anticipated that the current study provides insights for forming a reasonable emission responsibility sharing mechanism and facilitating comprehensive abatement strategies

carbon market risks and rewards firm perceptions of cdm investment decisions in brazil and india the carbon market experiences of brazil and india represent policy success stories under several criteria a careful evaluation however reveals challenges to market development that should be addressed in order to make the rollout of a post 2012 cdm more effective we conducted firm level interviews covering 82 cdm plants in the sugar and cement sectors in brazil and india focusing on how individual managers understood the potential benefits and risks of undertaking clean development mechanism cdm investments our results indicate that the cdm operates in a far more complex way in practice than that of simply adding a marginal increment to a project s internal rate of return our results indicate the following first although anticipated revenue played a central role in most managers decisions to pursue cdm investments there was no standard practice to account for financial benefits of cdm investments second some managers identified non financial reputational factors as their primary motivation for pursuing cdm projects and third under fluctuating regulatory regimes with real immediate costs and uncertain cdm revenue managers favored projects that often did not require carbon revenue to be viable the post 2012 cdm architecture can benefit from incorporating these insights and in particular reassess goals for strict additionality and mechanisms for achieving it

modeling technology adoption as an irreversible investment under uncertainty the case of the turkish electricity supply industry this paper studies energy conversion technology adoption in the electricity supply sector from the perspective of irreversible investments under uncertainty and with a particular interest in environmental sustainability we develop a dynamic technology adoption model that is firmly rooted in economic theory and that takes important determinants of optimal investment in available technologies e g life cycle capital and operation cost explicitly into account uncertainty is introduced for the demand for peak load capacity unit generation costs and for the average electricity price we test the model empirically by applying it to data for the turkish power supply industry the model guided optimal investment schedule based on net present value considerations exhibits significant deviations from the actual investment outcome we find that the increased adoption of natural gas fired power generation technologies in turkey in recent years while contributing to environmental sustainability has had doubtful merits from an investor s perspective

individual acceptance of the biogas innovation a structural equation model abstract the rapid spread of biogas production in germany has resulted in an increased public debate over this new business branch today the production of biogas is much more controversially debated than several years ago at the same time it could be proven that even among farmers themselves the acceptance of biogas production in some regions is somewhat dampened due to accompanying collateral damages therefore the goal of this paper is to identify relevant influencing factors that determine the acceptance of the innovation biogas among farmers by applying a causal analysis initial results among the five investigated determinants show that not only an individual attitude toward biogas but also the farmers personal innovativeness strongly and significantly influences an individual s acceptance of the innovation biogas

distributed energy infrastructure paradigm community microgrids in a new institutional economics context abstract this paper provides a theoretical framework based on new institutional economics nie concepts to guide the development of community microgrids given limited application thus far of such energy systems this paper also draws on empirical studies and experiences from the planning and development of other public community infrastructure and utility services in the development of this framework it links an efficient ownership and governance structure with transactional characteristics such as asset idiosyncrasy frequency and uncertainty defined in section 3 1 the key role of the customers and the microgrid service provider and more specifically their bilateral monopoly relationship and its effects on the choice of institutional structure is highlighted the paper examines the optimum conditions for public private or hybrid financial ownership and for unified or network governance through long term contracting this allows ex ante investment uncertainty and ex post appropriation risks to be efficiently managed the analysis suggests that long term contract completeness future demand for electricity and level of uncertainty are the determining factors in the selection of institutional structure this has significant real world implications for the communities seeking to achieve electricity self sufficiency and environmental benefits through community microgrids service providers and other private or public actors

assessing economic value added by university based new venture outreach programs abstract a new venture development office was set up in a university to solicit screen and allocate community ventures into upper level undergraduate and graduate project courses innovative ventures in the early stages of development were allocated according to 1 the project requirements of different courses and 2 the assessed needs of the ventures themselves during 1984 89 different projects with a weighted average of 125 manhours per project were run through the new venture office students who conducted the projects included law students industrial design students and a few undergraduate commerce students although the majority of the work was done by second year mba students most of the mba students were parttime students holding middle management positions and having five or more years of relevant business experience projects were run through twelve different courses and a seed capital conference the program was conceptualized and coordinated by a number of professors teaching within an entrepreneurship concentration in an mba program early in 1985 a telephone survey of 50 of the 63 entrepreneurs who had projects in the program was completed these people were asked to systematically and realistically assess the resulting net benefits to their ventures along a number of different prespecified dimensions the total value added was computed to be 1 75 million cdn which stands in contrast to the direct out of pocket cost of the program which was only 75 000 cdn the individual dimensions of value added that were measured included time gained or saved in advancing their new venture knowledge understanding gained of new venture development information added of use in pursuing their new venture contacts made in support of their new venture strategic changes made and overall value of the experience additionally respondents were asked to report whether or not they had secured new capital injections increased or decreased employee levels or made structural advances in their ventures rather than assume that the program was the primary instigator of all such changes the respondents were asked to assess the relative impact of the program along appropriate dimensions the program was perceived to have had a significant influence on most of the dimensions measured a summary of the major results includes average value added of time saved or gained 6 097 50 average valeu added of new knowledge about venture development 9 389 47 average value added of new information added 6 293 48 average value added of new contracts made 7 238 89 average value added of strategy changes 16 937 50 average value added of overall involvement in the program 37 269 00 net employment generated 20 4 fte and new capital raised 5 1 million certain shortcomings of the research are discussed including the validity and reliability of the value added measures research is continuing to validate the findings and refine the program

global water transfers embodied in mainland china s foreign trade production and consumption based perspectives abstract water resources are embodied in global trade although china is the largest water withdrawal economy in the world 50 of its direct water withdrawal is embodied in chinese imports and exports due to an increasing division of activities between different production units economies such as mainland china mainly import intermediate products for further processing and then export final goods to other economies overall mainland china is a net embodied water supplier not only in final consumption based trade relations but also in intermediate production based ones china s total per capita water use is much lower than the global average but yet china exports embodied water through trade activities pakistan myanmar and india are china s largest embodied water suppliers and hong kong the united states and japan are its largest net recipients the main water exporting sectors in mainland china are electrical and machinery sector 9 and textiles and wearing apparel sector 5 respectively and the main importing sector is agriculture sector 1 with imports coming mainly from myanmar pakistan the united states and north korea this analysis of china s global embodied water transfers can inform policies to increase china s water use efficiency and can be generated to build embodied water budgets for a systematic allocation of water resources on the globe especially from the production and consumption based perspectives

planning of renewables schemes deliberative and fair decision making on landscape issues instead of reproachful accusations of non cooperation abstract the main issues related to successful implementation policies concern the socio economic institutions that are conditional to planning in the energy policy domain but also in the domain of spatial planning successful investments and the siting of renewable power plants eventually determine the success rate of national efforts in establishing renewable capacity central planning usually has several objectives and these often have a detrimental effect on the goal of renewable energy application current problems related to implementation decisions concerning wind power schemes are an example to those who will be faced by other renewable power plants notably biomass regarding community acceptance of wind power schemes the visual evaluation of the impact of wind power on the values of the landscape is by far the most dominant factor in explaining opposition or support type of landscape fully overshadows other attitudinal attributes as well as other visual and scenic factors such as the design of wind turbines and wind farms and the number and the size of turbines planning regimes and decision making practices that really enhance the implementation processes of renewable energy require strong ecological modernization this means institutional changes that create involvement and trust of actors at the actual implementation level local opposition cannot be explained by the egotistical motives of local residents when the inclination to behave according to supposed backyard motives is investigated the scale to measure this phenomenon appears to indicate commitment to equity issues and fairness of decision making hence for wind power local involvement to represent the local values of site specific landscapes is crucial for other renewables the source specific features are different but conflicts can be expected as well because the fairness of implementation decisions will be equally significant

a design of experiments response surface methodology approach to study the economic sustainability of a 1 mwe photovoltaic plant abstract to obtain a rigorous investment analysis for photovoltaic power generation plants a dynamic business plan has been studied it allows us to determine in real time the investment parameters net present value internal rate of return return on investment etc starting from the technical economical financial and positional data the business plan provides as output the exact values of the parameters dependent variables or objective functions basing on the exact values of the input variables independent variables by suitably varying the independent variables it is possible to obtain a sensitivity analysis on the dependent variables due to which different evaluations about the investment in multiple pre set scenarios can be obtained on the other hand by using the business plan as data creator and then applying the response surface methodology techniques it has been possible to obtain mathematical functions regression meta models which are able to explain the link among dependent and independent variables in the definition range this approach allows to generate a sort of k dimensional state equation of order n for the different investigated economic parameters these equations provide in the chosen dimensional space two or three dimensional a view of the dependent variable behaviour e g net present value internal rate of return while changing one or two independent variables e g government incentives discount rate the descriptive ability of this approach has a higher level in terms of quality and reliability than a traditional sensitivity analysis in this paper a case study about a 1 mwe photovoltaic plant located in liguria north italy and a comparison with a similar plant located in sicily south italy are also presented

what drives people s opinions of electricity infrastructure empirical evidence from ireland abstract across the eu significant infrastructure investment is needed in both generation from renewable energy sources res and the electricity grid to meet the european targets on emission reduction and res expansion experiences show however that citizens may object to new energy infrastructure in their localities which may cause delays in achieving the targets to avoid delays it is crucial to understand what drives people s opinions to explore people s opinions of different electricity generation and transmission technologies in ireland we conducted a nationally representative survey concerning the drivers we distinguish between socio demographics technology specific perceptions and energy policy preferences our results show that people generally have positive views of res technologies while this indicates that irish citizens agree to move towards cleaner electricity sources we find reluctance amongst people to have these technologies located close to their places of residence we find that across most technologies the tradeoff people make between economic and environmental policy objectives drives their opinions of and their tendencies to oppose technology developments the significance of most socio demographic variables however is largely technology dependent this highlights that policy makers need to understand how people make tradeoffs between policy objectives and how these tradeoffs relate to their opinions of different technologies

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

the challenging economics of energy security ensuring energy benefits in support to sustainable development abstract energy is a key resource to economic development and is required to be available continuously and in adequate amounts also it is expected to be affordable and environmentally friendly ensuring this is a challenge yet strategic to maintain economies running under a sustainable pattern energy security is neither a new concept nor a new concern however because of new issues it requires a novel broader approach such an approach should address both demand security of supply and supply security of demand sides as well as take into account energy scarcity situations and surplus opportunities in addition it should allow for both private markets and public policies and regulations initiatives this paper presents a theoretical and practical basis for the economics of energy security energy security is defined in this context as the ability of an economy to provide sufficient affordable and environmentally sustainable energy services so as to maintain a maximum welfare state even when issues would press it otherwise we introduce the notion of energy security gap to represent the economy s failure to show such ability additionally we also propose a framework to support the evaluation planning and implementation of energy security in an economy this framework relies on the concepts of resilience adaptability and transformability walker et al 2004 to prescribe indicators to assess the energy security of an economy furthermore it proposes mechanisms to enhance energy security as well as a continuous process to increasingly achieve this

publics knowledge attitudes and behavioral toward the use of solar energy in yemen power sector abstract this paper presents the information of the public s views on the solar energy use in yemen it examines the public knowledge of attitudes and behavioral intentions that include the variables willingness to pay willingness to change and willingness to invest and then compare them a personal interview with 348 urban household and 258 rural household was performed the descriptive statistics chi square for independence odds ratios mann whitney and kruskal wallis tests were the statistical tools employed in the analysis the results showed that the citizens in both areas have a moderate level of knowledge about renewable energy resources the benefits and drawbacks of solar energy use in the power sector and the solar power technologies despite that they have highly positive attitudes towards the use of renewable energy particularly solar energy and its technologies they also accept to engage in the renewable energy activities which aim to improve the quality of the electrical service provided in the country the findings also indicate 66 55 7 and 78 4 of urban citizens are willing to pay to change and to invest compared to 70 55 4 and 75 6 of rural citizens the place of residence factor affected significantly the citizens knowledge level about renewable energy wind biomass and geothermal energy renewable energy resources the drawbacks of solar energy use in the power sector and the solar power technologies it also affected significantly the citizens attitudes towards the use of solar power technologies at home the implications for the policymakers are that elevating the knowledge and awareness of the citizens by formal and informal education and enacting effective supportive policies assists in encouraging the citizens to use renewable energies in their daily lives would lead to achieve the country s renewable energy targets for 2025

nimby or not exploring the relevance of location and the politics of voiced opinions in renewable energy siting controversies local protests against renewable energy facilities have added fuel to the debate about the so called nimby not in my back yard effect this paper identifies six variables that can hamper the comparison between different public perception studies and offers two broad conclusions on aggregate proximity does have strong influence on public attitudes to proposed projects but the nature strength and spatial scale of this effect may vary according to local context and value of the land residents of stigmatised places are more likely to welcome facilities that are relatively green while people who derive a more positive sense of identity from particular rural landscapes are likely to resist such potential developments especially if they also live there secondly the fear of being branded a nimby and the positive ethics associated with the notion of renewable are both likely to colour the responses of many interviewees these aspects need to be clarified and accounted for in analyses of elicited responses both quantitative and qualitative if we are to improve our understanding of the social construction of individual attitudes in siting conflicts

wind farm externalities and public preferences for community consultation in ireland a discrete choice experiments approach abstract in ireland the deployment of onshore wind turbines has become progressively more difficult in some areas because of the potential negative externalities associated with their operation using a discrete choice experiment dce we employ a willingness to accept framework to estimate the external effects of wind turbines on local residents with the inclusion of community consultation and to quantify the compensation required to permit wind farms to be built in ireland our findings reveal that the majority of respondents are willing to make monetary tradeoffs to allow for wind power initiatives and we find that respondents require less compensation if provision is made for a community representative and setback distance is increased

when households go solar determinants of uptake of a photovoltaic scheme and policy insights abstract the need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels has resulted in escalating interest in renewable energy generation yet few countries have seriously tested household potential to produce energy from pv panels propelled by mandatory eu targets for renewable energy and constrained with limited territory the government of malta launched a subsidy scheme with a view to encouraging pv installation by households the scheme reached the desired adoption levels within a very short period of time the study takes an entire country dimension to assess the determinants of household investment in pv panels a unique dataset is specifically constructed for this study we find that the prevalence of younger households higher incomes dwelling ownership and unshared roof space results in higher rates of uptake neither higher educational levels nor the participation in other environmental schemes recycling contribute any explanatory power to uptake of pv panels pro government sentiment captured by voting outcomes significantly and positively influences the take up of the grant and installation of pv panels we conclude by identifying some pointers for policy makers interested in harvesting the potential of households

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

solar energy markets economics and policies abstract solar energy has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years due to both technological improvements resulting in cost reductions and government policies supportive of renewable energy development and utilization this study analyzes the technical economic and policy aspects of solar energy development and deployment while the cost of solar energy has declined rapidly in the recent past it still remains much higher than the cost of conventional energy technologies like other renewable energy technologies solar energy benefits from fiscal and regulatory incentives including tax credits and exemptions feed in tariff preferential interest rates renewable portfolio standards and voluntary green power programs in many countries the emerging carbon credit markets are expected to provide additional incentives to solar energy deployment however the scale of incentives provided by the existing carbon market instruments such as the clean development mechanism of the kyoto protocol is limited despite the huge technical potential the development and large scale deployment of solar energy technologies world wide still has to overcome a number of technical financial regulatory and institutional barriers the continuation of policy supports might be necessary for several decades to maintain and enhance the growth of solar energy in both developed and developing countries

calculation of embodied energy in sino usa trade 1997 2011 abstract in order to find efficient trade measures to reduce china s energy consumption and to provide theoretical support for the climate talks between china and america we investigate the impact of sino usa trade on energy consumption from the perspective of embodied energy an environmental input output life cycle assessment eio lca model was established to calculate the total energy consumption coefficient the direct consumption coefficient and the complete consumption coefficient of the sectors of the national economies of china and america after taking into consideration the data of every sector of the national economy in sino usa trade energy embodied in the import and export trade between china and america was calculated to verify the real energy flows in sino usa trade the research results suggest the following china is the net exporter of embodied energy in sino usa trade and coal crude oil and natural gas are the major components in 1997 2011 the net exports of china s embodied energy totaled 1523 082 200 t of standard coal the amount of china s energy consumption increased by 895 527 900 t of standard coal and america s energy consumption decreased by 11 871 200 t of standard coal as a result of sino usa trade on this basis corresponding policies and recommendations are proposed

fuel mix diversification incentives in liberalized electricity markets a mean variance portfolio theory approach monte carlo simulations of gas coal and nuclear plant investment returns are used as inputs of a mean variance portfolio optimization to identify optimal base load generation portfolios for large electricity generators in liberalized electricity markets we study the impact of fuel electricity and co2 price risks and their degree of correlation on optimal plant portfolios high degrees of correlation between gas and electricity prices as observed in most european markets reduce gas plant risks and make portfolios dominated by gas plant more attractive long term power purchase contracts and or a lower cost of capital can rebalance optimal portfolios towards more diversified portfolios with larger shares of nuclear and coal plants

bioenergy transition in rural china policy options and co benefits abstract this paper reviews the current situation of bioenergy development in china particularly on its relationship to sustainable rural development it argues that the current government strategy investment policy and industrial interest are over emphasized on biomass burning power generation as part of the clean energy development trajectories which may not lead to the most cost effective outcomes in terms of investments resource use and social development objectives it points out that there are large potentials in developing and disseminating household based biomass technologies in rural areas especially with energy efficient modern biomass stoves which can produce far more economic social and environmental benefits than biomass power plants it is a decentralized solution to use renewable energy resources for meeting multi objectives it is suggested that key incentive policies be provided by the government to encourage this technological transition or the leapfrogging from using traditional household stoves towards modern biomass stoves which will lead to a win win situation in global regional and local environmental protection sustainable resource management and related social benefits particularly for the poor in remote communities six policy recommendations are made 1 financial schemes development 2 preferable tax and carbon tax 3 regulatory policy reform 4 service industry support 5 market research training and capacity building for key stakeholders 6 development of methodologies and standards for cdm projects the potential co benefits brought up by this massive biomass technology transition will bring new perspectives to realizing millennium development goals mdgs and global co2 emissions reduction targets in china and also set an example to other developing countries

the effects of emission trading on production and inventories in the arrow karlin model abstract the paper deals with the effect of introduction of tradable permits on the production inventory strategy of a firm it is assumed that the firm will minimize its costs the cost function consists of linear holding and convex production costs after introducing emission trading the cost function will contain a linear emission procurement selling cost we will compare the optimal production inventory strategy before tradable permits and thereafter the mathematical investigation is based on the well known dynamic arrow karlin model

long run marginal electricity generation costs in israel abstract this paper presents two methods for calculating long run marginal electricity generation costs based on the techniques used for long term expansion planning according to the first method long run marginal costs are calculated as incremental costs required to supply additional demands peak shoulder and off peak demands to each hourly demand group separately these costs include the present value of capital fuel and operation and maintenance o m costs throughout the planning period in the second method the long run marginal capacity cost element is calculated as an additional reduced cost resulting from bringing forward postponing generation capacity investments in order to supply incremented decremented demands in every hour throughout the planning period the annualized marginal capacity cost is allocated among the hours according to the distribution of the unsupplied energy and is added to the energy marginal cost to obtain the long run marginal cost both methods are implemented through models used for long term optimal generation system expansion planning in addition the second method uses a chronological simulation of generation system operation a detailed case study of the israeli electric generation system is also presented

planning siting and the local acceptance of wind power some lessons from the french case abstract after some years of trifling development under a system of public tenders 1995 2000 french politicians progressively changed the national policy framework for feed in tariffs december 2000 and wind power development zones july 2005 the new policy framework has triggered a beginning of takeoff in wind power capacity the paper examines french wind power development in the light of two key dimensions and concepts related to wind power policy planning and siting part 1 we particularly focus on the recent french legislative debate which led to the adoption of the new policy framework part 2 the french case shows that the recourse to planning tools was not tailor made for siting issues but resulted from a political fight over the decentralization of energy policy the policy outcome which we call flexible decentralized planning is both interesting and ambiguous it is interesting in that it develops interfaces between planning tools and siting institutions it is ambiguous in that it is potentially very hierarchical the final decision power is left in state planners hands making it unpredictable the extent to which room will genuinely be provided for siting processes to take place

time of use based electricity cost of manufacturing systems modeling and monotonicity analysis traditionally manufacturing enterprises pay flat rates for each kilowatt hour kwh of electricity consumed newly available electric tariffs that charge both energy consumption in kwh and peak demand in kilowatts i e kw with varying time of use tou rates have started to gain popularity in this paper the per product electricity cost as a function of manufacturing system parameters and the tou rates is modeled the contributions of both electricity energy consumption and peak demand are combined to formulate the electricity cost of manufacturing systems with multiple machines and buffers new knowledge of the effects of various modeling parameters on the electricity cost is acquired through monotonicity analysis the formulated model is utilized to answer the following two questions facing manufacturers with the availability of tou rates in mind is switching from the flat rates to the tou rates economically sound what changes can be made on electric use routines to take advantage of the tou rates the findings based on case studies show that with appropriate adjustment of production routines a significant saving of up to 24 8 of the per product electricity cost can be achieved by adopting the tou rates

impact of inter sectoral trade on national and global co2 emissions an empirical analysis of china and us abstract this paper attempts to discuss the co2 emissions embodied in sino us international trade using a sector approach based on an input output model established in this study we quantify the impact of sino us international trade on national and global co2 emissions our initial findings reveal that in 2005 the us reduced 190 13 mt co2 emissions through the consumption of imported goods from china while increasing global co2 emissions by about 515 25 mt similarly china reduced 178 62 mt co2 emissions through the consumption of us goods while reducing global co2 emissions by 129 93 mt sino us international trade increased global co2 emissions by 385 32 mt as a whole of which the chemical fabricated metal products non metallic mineral products and transportation equipment sectors contributed an 86 71 share therefore we suggest that accelerating the adjustment of china s trade structure and export of us advanced technologies and experience related to clean production and energy efficiency to china as the way to reduce the negative impact of sino us trade on national and global co2 emissions this behavior should take into account the processing and manufacturing industries as a priority especially the chemical fabricated metal products non metallic mineral products and transportation equipment sectors

cost function estimates scale economies and technological progress in the turkish electricity generation sector abstract turkish electricity sector has undergone significant institutional changes since 1984 the recent developments since 2001 including the setting up of a regulatory agency to undertake the regulation of the sector and increasing participation of private investors in the field of electricity generation are of special interest this paper estimates cost functions and investigates the degree of scale economies overinvestment and technological progress in the turkish electricity generation sector for the period 1984 2006 using long run and short run translog cost functions estimations were done for six groups of firms public and private the results indicate existence of scale economies throughout the period of analysis hence declining long run average costs the paper finds empirical support for the averch johnson effect until 2001 i e firms overinvested in an environment where there are excess returns to capital but this effect was reduced largely after 2002 technological progress deteriorated slightly from 1984 1993 to 1994 2001 but improved after 2002 overall the paper found that regulation of the market under the newly established regulating agency after 2002 was effective and there are potential gains from such regulation

effects of a cut off in feed in tariffs on photovoltaic capacity evidence fromgermany abstract we analyze the effects of feed in tariff fit adjustments on installed photovoltaic capacity in germany we find that the current system temporarily accelerates installments and does not countervail over investment therefore we design three alternative fit regimes i constant fits ii linearly decreasing fits and iii fit adjustments related to the changes of photovoltaic panel prices simulations of installed capacities indicate that alternative adjustment mechanisms could be more appropriate to meet the government s installation target moreover we calculate the consumers burden induced by the fits and find that it might be reduced by alternative mechanisms

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

energy overview for globalized world economy source supply chain and sink abstract energy use of the globalized world economy is comprehensively overviewed by means of a systems input output analysis based on statistics of 2010 emphases are put on the sources of primary energy exploitation inter regional trade imbalance of energy use via global supply chains and sinks of energy use in final demand the largest final user turns out to be the united states compared with china as the leading energy exploiter the global trade volume of energy use is shown in magnitude up to about 90 of the global primary energy exploited the united states is recognized as the world s biggest energy use importer in contrast to russia as the biggest exporter approximately one third of global primary energy exploited is shown to be embodied in inter regional net trade japan and russia are respectively illustrated to be the world s leading net importer and leading net exporter of energy use for china as the leading energy exploiter about 30 of its exploited energy is for foreign regions final use and 70 for its own final use for the european union as the largest sink region nearly 80 of the energy required in its final use is from foreign regions led by russia as reflected in the results the conventional perspective based only on the direct energy consumption by region inevitably leads to inter regional energy grabbing and carbon leakage which raises a serious concern of regional decrease at the expense of global increase in current context of energy shortage and climate change this global energy overview can provide essential strategic implications at the international national and regional scales for sustainable energy policy making

an optimization methodology for identifying robust process integration investments under uncertainty uncertainties in future energy prices and policies strongly affect decisions on investments in process integration measures in industry in this paper we present a five step methodology for the identification of robust investment alternatives incorporating explicitly such uncertainties in the optimization model methods for optimization under uncertainty or stochastic programming are thus combined with a deep understanding of process integration and process technology in order to achieve a framework for decision making concerning the investment planning of process integration measures under uncertainty the proposed methodology enables the optimization of investments in energy efficiency with respect to their net present value or an environmental objective in particular as a result of the optimization approach complex investment alternatives allowing for combinations of energy efficiency measures can be analyzed uncertainties as well as time dependent parameters such as energy prices and policies are modelled using a scenario based approach enabling the identification of robust investment solutions the methodology is primarily an aid for decision makers in industry but it will also provide insight for policy makers into how uncertainties regarding future price levels and policy instruments affect the decisions on investments in energy efficiency measures

complex biofuels related scenarios generated by qualitative reasoning under severe information shortages a review abstract there is a broad spectrum of br biofuel related models however the models are highly specific such models cannot flexibly support complex decision making activities to identify feasible trade offs among many objective functions they represent just one point of view e g engineering company economics therefore cbrms complex biofuel related model are studied in this paper cbrms must cover additional aspects e g macroeconomic ecology sociology and politics such models are inevitably unique partially subjective inconsistent vague and multidimensional ai artificial intelligence has developed a number of tools to solve such problems qualitative reasoning is one of them it is based on the least information intensive quantifiers i e trends there are just three trend qualitative values plus increasing zero constant negative decreasing there are many cbrm items related to soft aspects e g politics taxation etc which cannot be quantified by numbers they are too vague for example if the political sociological sensitivity of land ownership is increasing then the cost of biofuels is increasing such verbal knowledge item cannot be incorporated into a traditional numerical model the paper describes developments of cbrms based on expert knowledge and common sense a consensus among experts is often not reached because of substantial subjectivity of experts knowledge a qualitative intersection of cbrms developed by several experts is simple the case study presents a model based on integration of 10 heuristics using 9 variables e g refinery capacity cost of biofuel production and biofuel demand the result is represented by 13 scenarios the paper is self contained no a prior knowledge of qualitative models is required

societal acceptance of an emerging energy technology how is geothermal energy portrayed in australian media the media shapes and is shaped by public sentiment of emerging technologies one way to gauge the societal acceptance levels of an emerging technology such as geothermal energy technology in australia is to analyse how the technology is reported in the media this study identified the benefits and risks that have been reported and the social actors represented informed by extant research of factors that impact societal acceptance a total of 451 australian news items on geothermal energy technology published between july 1st 2011 and june 30th 2012 were used for this content analysis which encompassed the release of the australian government s clean energy plan consistent with geothermal technology being an emerging technology in australia economic feasibility and uncertainty about the technology were the most frequently reported risks industry was one of the most cited social actors in geothermal news media and it was more likely to be cited in articles reporting the economic feasibility and uncertainty about the technology reflecting the current state of the industry in australia renewable and low emission energy were the most frequently cited benefits which were often reported as part of the australian government clean energy plan overall this emerging technology has maintained a restricted profile in the media to date with limited controversy or politicisation this profile is likely to remain in particular the focus on the technology economic feasibility which remains the main challenge to the technology entering large scale development in australia c 2014 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

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

photovoltaic energy systems with battery storage for residential areas an economic analysis abstract the global energy market is characterized by the strong growth of photovoltaic pv energy this renewable source contributes to sustainable development and is a strategic player in the electricity market the profitability of pv systems is determined by incentive tariffs in developing markets and by the share of self consumption in developed markets this paper aims to evaluate i the profitability of pv systems in the residential sector without subsidies and ii the profitability of energy storage in a mature market italy in this way it is possible to define the economic results of integrated pv battery systems and the indicator used is the net present value furthermore a sensitivity analysis is conducted on the critical variables the mathematical model proposed in this paper defines the break even point of the increase of self consumption at which residential pv battery systems become economically viable in a mature market energy storage systems are useful only when the relationship between supply and demand permits them to induce a significant increase of energy self consumption

energy consumption in china and underlying factors in a changing landscape empirical evidence since the reform period abstract in recent decades the phenomenal growth in the chinese economy has created increasing energy consumption this is the first study analysing energy consumption in china considering economic social and political dimensions of globalisation along with the effects from trade and financial sectors the time period covers the full trajectory since the start of economic reform until recent times in this respect we use the konjunkturforschungsstelle kof globalisation index to explore the dynamic link between economic growth financial development trade and various dimensions of globalisation and energy consumption modern time series econometric techniques are used in establishing stationarity long run dynamics and causality of the series the findings suggest that globalisation decreases energy consumption in the short run but increases it in the long run however the effect of financial development on energy consumption in china is opposite to the globalisation effect on energy consumption granger causality reveals a feedback effect between economic globalisation and financial development globalisation in china can only reduce energy consumption if china develops its financial sector to a greater extent in future china should invest in its financial sector and low carbon energy alternatives to achieve sustainable development prevention of energy shortfalls and cleaner environment would assist in bridging the gap both from social and political aspects to ensure china benefits significantly with high economic growth in this asian century

role of renewable energy investment in india an alternative to co2 mitigation abstract this paper discusses the potential of renewable energy investment and co2 mitigation by renewable energy technologies currently india s per capita emissions are around one tonne of co2 year the present energy scene offers india a window of opportunity to invest in renewable energy the annual turnover of renewable energy industry has reached 12 3 billion in 2011 which is 36 higher than 2010 investment of 7 5 billion increasing the share of renewable energy in overall energy mix is an effective option to mitigate co2 emission presently the share of renewable energy is around 12 in the energy mix the present study estimated co2 mitigation potential of indian renewable energy sector about 203 million tonnes with an installed capacity of 24 gw in 2012 however enormous potential identified in renewable energy sector with favorable co2 mitigation the government is compromising with limited financial resources however policy efforts need to be strengthened to encourage a massive scale up of renewable technologies to build sustained low carbon economy

monetary or environmental appeals for saving electricity potentials for spillover on low carbon policy acceptability abstract the acceptability of low carbon policies is an important precondition for energy system transitions such as the german energiewende this long term experimental study examines the potential for behavioural spillover on the acceptability of low carbon policies caused by a framed intervention to promote electricity saving behaviour clients of a german energy provider were randomly assigned to continuously receive electricity saving tips with either monetary framing saving potential in or environmental framing saving potential in co2 the control group did not receive any information in two follow up surveys four n 333 and nine months n 258 later participants rated the acceptability of several low carbon policies a pre survey assessed the personal ecological norm for saving electricity participants with strong personal ecological norms reported generally higher policy acceptability after environmental framing they also indicated higher acceptability compared to the monetary framing or control group these results indicate that information campaigns should be designed carefully in order to promote positive spillover effects environmental framing of private sphere behaviour can increase the disposition for further pro environmental behaviour in the public sphere e g policy acceptability when appealing to monetary benefits in pro environmental behaviour there is a risk of inhibiting positive spillover effects

local mobilisation against windfarm developments in spanish rural areas new actors in the regulation arena the region of valencia has a marked territorial duality an urbanised populated and high income coastal line and mountain and depressed inland rural areas this territorial duality also derives in a functional duality so that market and regulation drivers seem to assign rural areas specific roles for the provision of raw materials energy water and the like one of the clearest examples can be found in the design and development of the wing energy plan passed by the regional government in 2001 which designated areas for the installation of windmills however this regulation has resulted in an outstanding emergence of associations that have organised at several levels from the local to the national as a strong opposition movement to the local developments of the plan with this background the objective of this paper is to analyze from a set of case studies the processes of emergence and the evolution of collective actors associations which have been arising in many rural areas as a response to the local applications of the wind energy plan attention will be paid to understand the tactics used the process of adaptation to the participation mechanisms and the role played by local and non local networks

does green consumerism increase the acceptance of wind power abstract in this paper we discuss what might be termed an action based learning approach to promoting important pro environmental actions such as support for or acceptance of environmental policy such an approach involves promoting simple and easy behaviours as entry points for more radical steps towards sustainability referred to as catalytic or wedge behaviours despite the obvious need for innovative approaches to promote important pro environmental behaviour and sound theoretical backing for such concepts there is a lack of research testing the key propositions of this approach in a survey study based on a random sample of residents of the state of maine usa we find that both everyday green behaviour and the acceptance of an expansion of wind power are rooted in environmental concern and that everyday green behaviour gives a significant contribution to predicting acceptance of wind power when controlling for environmental concern hence the promotion of everyday green behaviours may prepare the grounds for increasing acceptance of more far reaching changes in the population such as an expansion of wind power

indicators for energy security the concept of energy security is widely used yet there is no consensus on its precise interpretation in this research we have provided an overview of available indicators for long term security of supply sos we distinguished four dimensions of energy security that relate to the availability accessibility affordability and acceptability of energy and classified indicators for energy security according to this taxonomy there is no one ideal indicator as the notion of energy security is highly context dependent rather applying multiple indicators leads to a broader understanding incorporating these indicators in model based scenario analysis showed accelerated depletion of currently known fossil resources due to increasing global demand coupled with increasing spatial discrepancy between consumption and production international trade in energy carriers is projected to have increased by 142 in 2050 compared to 2008 oil production is projected to become increasingly concentrated in a few countries up to 2030 after which production from other regions diversifies the market under stringent climate policies this diversification may not occur due to reduced demand for oil possible benefits of climate policy include increased fuel diversity and slower depletion of fossil resources

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

energy regulation in china objective selection potential assessment and responsibility sharing by partial frontier analysis to cope with the excessive growth of energy consumption the chinese government has been trying to strengthen the energy regulation system by introducing new initiatives that aim at controlling the total amount of energy consumption a partial frontier analysis is performed in this paper to make a comparative assessment of the combinations of possible energy conservation objectives new constraints and regulation strategies according to the characteristics of the coordination of existing regulation structure and the optimality of regulation strategy four scenarios are constructed and regional responsibilities are reasonably divided by fully considering the production technology in the economy the relative importance of output objectives and the total amount controlling is compared and the impacts on the regional economy caused by the changes of regulation strategy are also evaluated for updating regulation policy