an analysis of feed in tariff remuneration models implications for renewable energy investment recent experience from around the world suggests that feed in tariffs fits are the most effective policy to encourage the rapid and sustained deployment of renewable energy there are several different ways to structure a fit policy each with its own strengths and weaknesses this paper presents an overview of seven different ways to structure the remuneration of a fit policy divided into two broad categories those in which remuneration is dependent on the electricity price and those that remain independent from it this paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of these different fit models and concludes with an analysis of these design options with a focus on their implications both for investors and for society

assessing the performance of renewable electricity support instruments abstract the performance of feed in tariffs and tradable certificates is assessed on criteria of efficacy efficiency equity and institutional feasibility in the early stage of transition to an energy system based entirely on renewable energy supplies renewable electricity can only thrive if support takes into account the specific technical economic and political problems which result from embedding this electricity in conventional power systems whose technology organizational structure environmental responsibility and general mission differ profoundly from the emerging renewable based system support schemes need to capture the diversity of power supplies the variable nature of some renewable supplies and their different attributes for the purposes of public policy they must take into account the variety of generators including small decentralized generation emerging in a renewable based system and the new relationships between generators and customers renewable energy policies need a clear point of reference because the incumbent power systems are not sustainable they must adapt to the requirements of the renewable ones not the other way round incumbent systems carry the responsibility of paying the transition something that corresponds best with the polluter pays principle

levelized cost of electricity lcoe of renewable energies and required subsidies in china newhuadu business school research fund china sustainable energy program g 1305 18257 national social science foundation of china 12zd059 ministry of education 10 jbg 013

demand response with locational dynamic pricing to support the integration of renewables abstract electricity production from centralised and decentralised renewable energy resources in europe is gaining significance resulting in operational challenges in the electricity system although these challenges add to the locational and time dependency of the underlying cost of operating the system this variability in time and location is not reflected in residential tariff schemes consequently residential users are not incentivised to react to varying system conditions and to help the integration of renewable energy resources therefore this paper provides a theoretical framework for designing a locational dynamic pricing scheme this can be used to assess existing tariff structures for consumption and injection and can serve as a theoretical background for developing new tariff schemes starting from the underlying costs this paper shows that the potential for locational dynamic pricing depends on the locational and time dependency of its cost drivers when converting costs into tariffs the tariff design should be determined this includes the advance notice of sending tariffs to users and the length of price blocks and price patterns this tariff design should find a balance between tariff principles related to costs practicality and social acceptability on the one hand and the resulting demand response incentive on the other

diverting indirect subsidies from the nuclear industry to the photovoltaic industry energy and financial returns nuclear power and solar photovoltaic energy conversion often compete for policy support that governs economic viability this paper compares current subsidization of the nuclear industry with providing equivalent support to manufacturing photovoltaic modules current u s indirect nuclear insurance subsidies are reviewed and the power energy and financial outcomes of this indirect subsidy are compared to equivalent amounts for indirect subsidies loan guarantees for photovoltaic manufacturing using a model that holds economic values constant for clarity the preliminary analysis indicates that if only this one relatively ignored indirect subsidy for nuclear power was diverted to photovoltaic manufacturing it would result in more installed power and more energy produced by mid century by 2110 cumulative electricity output of solar would provide an additional 48 600 twh over nuclear worth 5 3 trillion the results clearly show that not only does the indirect insurance liability subsidy play a significant factor for nuclear industry but also how the transfer of such an indirect subsidy from the nuclear to photovoltaic industry would result in more energy over the life cycle of the technologies

the role of decentralized distributed generation in achieving universal rural electrification in south asia by 2030 this study is motivated by the goal of achieving universal energy access by 2030 and looks at electricity access for rural households in the south asian region the message access model is employed to assess the cost effectiveness of centralized and decentralized distributed generation ddg technologies delivery mechanisms are modelled to include mini grid and stand alone systems and the analysis includes an estimation of rural household electricity demand from lighting and appliances we assume two future demand scenarios with a minimum threshold and a higher threshold of electricity consumption of 65 and 420 kw h per household per year respectively we find that the cost of delivering electricity by centralized generation and grid distribution is up to four times the cost of stand alone and mini grid ddg options in the case of minimum threshold demand scenario these results are robust to alternate assumptions regarding costs of technologies we also estimate that public subsidy bill for kerosene can be substantially reduced if all households switch to electricity as their primary source of lighting thus promoting ddg options can reduce capital investments needed to meet access goals significantly and have an important role to play in meeting the goal of universal electrification by 2030

nonconventional renewable energy governance in brazil lessons to learn from the german experience abstract this paper presents a comparative analysis of energy governance regarding nonconventional renewable energy sources ncres in brazil and germany brazil is a world leader in the use of conventional renewable energy sources such as hydro power while germany has been achieving outstanding results in fostering ncres the focus is on two critical issues the legal and regulatory framework and the institutions created to support the ncres market development the comparison shows that despite the very different energy situations and policy drivers valuables lessons can be extracted from the german experience the main lesson for brazil is to think ncres as a strategic opportunity to rely less on fossil fuel and large hydroelectric power plants to decentralize the electric power sector to use the huge solar biomass and wind power potential available in the country and to create a environment friendly ncres industry to this end three critical points were identified 1 the legal and regulatory framework should be improved 2 long term energy planning taking into account social economic and climate issues and 3 the current institutions supporting ncres in brazil should be upgraded and or new ones such as more specific energy agencies should be created

evaluating public policy mechanisms for climate change mitigation in brazilian buildings sector abstract this paper applies a multi criteria analysis mca and marginal abatement cost curves macc to evaluate public policies mechanisms to promote the dissemination of energy efficiency ee and on site renewable energy sources res technologies in brazilian buildings sector the objective here is to bring together the advantages of both methods in order to provide more valuable insights to policy makers the mca results show that in the case of more integrative policies which considers for instance potential of jobs creation the mechanisms to foster distributed res and solar water heaters are better ranked than in macc analysis where only cost effectiveness of each option is evaluated other key finding is that 1 there is a significant cost effective potential that could be reached through alternative mechanisms not implemented yet in the country such as public procurement regulation and building codes and 2 minimum energy performance standards meps could be broader in scope and more stringent and include the use of energy in standby mode and tubular fluorescent lamps in particular some important appliances such as large air conditioning devices should have more aggressive meps

japan s post fukushima challenge implications from the german experience on renewable energy policy the japanese electricity sector is facing serious challenges in the aftermath of the fukushima nuclear disaster the government has responded to the crisis with a new feed in tariff to promote increased utilization of renewable energy and proposed to reduce the dependence on nuclear power in this viewpoint we liken the transition implied by recently updated goals for the diffusion of renewables in japan to the transition in germany in the last decade we argue that some of the lessons learned in germany might prove valuable for the steps japan considers taking in particular we focus on the new japanese feed in tariff for solar photovoltaics in view of the recent developments in germany we emphasize the importance of the scheme s political legitimacy which needs to be maintained through adequate design of both policy instrument and political process we conclude with policy implications and a targeted research agenda

synergies and trade offs between governance and costs in electricity system transition affordability and costs of an energy transition are often viewed as the most influential drivers conversely multi level transitions theory argues that governance and the choices of key actors such as energy companies government and civil society drive the transition not only on the basis of costs this paper combines the two approaches and presents a cost appraisal of the uk transition to a low carbon electricity system under alternate governance logics a novel approach is used that links qualitative governance narratives with quantitative transition pathways electricity system scenarios and their appraisal the results contrast the dominant market led transition pathway market rules with alternate pathways that have either stronger governmental control elements central co ordination or bottom up proactive engagement of civil society thousand flowers market rules has the lowest investment costs by 2050 central co ordination is more likely to deliver the energy policy goals and possibly even a synergistic reduction in the total system costs if policies can be enacted and maintained thousand flowers which envisions wider participation of the society comes at the expense of higher investment and total system costs the paper closes with a discussion of the policy implications from cost drivers and the roles of market government and society

the negative impacts of the global economic downturn on funding decentralised energy in the uk abstract over the years a number of governmental policies have been developed in the uk that offer grants for the installation of distributed energy technologies or financial rewards per unit of electricity heat generated from renewable and sustainable sources the current economic climate however has meant that budget cuts have affected almost all government departments consequently such policies have been adversely impacted the alterations modifications to many schemes have resulted in either a reduction in the funding available through these changes to the eligibility of certain technologies or scales of generation or policy cancellations the programmes affected include the feed in tariff scheme renewable heat incentive and low carbon buildings programme among others the adjustments for these are detailed herein followed by the impacts these have had on the deployment rates of decentralised energy especially microgeneration since costs are often one of the most significant factors constraining deployment of these technologies reductions in funding opportunities have made these less financially viable whilst there are still applications for funding under the available schemes there has been considerably reduced levels of requests for financial support thus future deployment rates will most likely be negatively affected the prospects of these technologies in this context are then considered

the expansion of renewable energies and employment effects in germany the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy is a high priority of the european union as well of its member states the german government wants to increase the share of renewable energies from about 5 to 12 by 2010 to attain this goal the german government has introduced compulsory compensation schemes for electricity produced from renewable energy fed into the public grid this paper examines the economic impact of this policy employing an econometric model particular emphasis was given to employment effects in general we distinguish two effects 1 an expansive effect resulting from additional investments and 2 a contractive effect resulting from an increase in the production cost of power the first effect will dominate during the first years and lead to an increase in employment of approximately 33 000 new jobs however the contractive effect will offset these gains and lead to a slightly negative employment balance by 2010

pros and cons of exposing renewables to electricity market risks a comparison of the market integration approaches in germany spain and the uk abstract the article examines how renewable electricity res e producers are integrated into the electricity market under the support legislations and regulatory frameworks of germany spain and the uk focus is on wind power which faces the highest market integration challenge of all res e the analysis shows that the three countries follow contrasting approaches of exposing res e producers to the market risks of forward electricity markets balancing markets and system planning requirements risk exposure is highest in the uk and lowest in germany from a policy maker s perspective there is a trade off between a high risk and a low risk approach when res e face high market risks a higher level of financial support is required to stimulate res e development than in a low risk environment but the exposure to market risks may also give an incentive to make efficient use of the respective market thus limiting the indirect costs to society the special characteristics of wind energy however put natural limits to the response of wind power plants to market prices and locational price signals and will increasingly influence electricity markets and grid infrastructure these interdependencies should be recognised in the design of res e policies and market regulations

long term climate policy implications of phasing out fossil fuel subsidies abstract it is often argued that fossil fuel subsidies hamper the transition towards a sustainable energy supply as they incentivize wasteful consumption we assess implications of a subsidy phase out for the mitigation of climate change and the low carbon transformation of the energy system using the global energy economy model remind we compare our results with those obtained by the international energy agency based on the world energy model and by the organization for economic co operation and development oecd model env linkages providing the long term perspective of an intertemporal optimization model the results are analyzed in the two dimensions of subsidy phase out and climate policy scenarios we confirm short term benefits of phasing out fossil fuel subsidies as found in prior studies however these benefits are only sustained to a small extent in the long term if dedicated climate policies are weak or nonexistent most remarkably we find that a removal of fossil fuel subsidies if not complemented by other policies can slow down a global transition towards a renewable based energy system the reason is that world market prices for fossil fuels may drop due to a removal of subsidies thus low carbon alternatives would encounter comparative disadvantages

can environmental quality spread through institutions spatial relationships are known phenomena in ecological studies that refer to the relationships between certain variables observed in different localities different mechanisms have been suggested to explain this phenomenon such as the pollution displacement hypothesis foreign direct investment international trade and strategic response of countries to transboundary pollution flows this paper develops a new mechanism in the sense that environmental quality of countries spreads spatially to their neighbors through the spillover of the institutional quality of countries to test this hypothesis a panel data model is constructed that estimates the impact of the institutional quality of countries and their neighbors on their co2 emission intensity of energy use using data for 129 countries over the period 1980 2007 the findings prove the existence of this mechanism at the global and regional levels

gamson s law versus non cooperative bargaining theory we compare gamson s law a popular empirical model of legislative bargaining with two noncooperative bargaining models in three players divide the dollar games in which no player has enough votes to form a winning coalition on their own both of the game theoretic models better organize the comparative static data resulting from changes in nominal bargaining power than does gamson s law we also identify deviations from the point predictions of the non cooperative bargaining models namely proposer power is not nearly as strong as predicted under the baron ferejohn model and a significant number of bargaining rounds tend to take more than two steps under demand bargaining and more than one stage under baron ferejohn counter to the models predictions regressions using the experimental data provide results similar to the field data but fail to do so once one accounts for predictions regarding coalition composition under gamson s law

generation scheduling in a deregulated system the norwegian case the paper gives an overview of the deregulated electricity supply system in norway with emphasis on the generation scheduling approach procedures and tools for long medium and short term scheduling are described scheduling is carried out by each individual utility since scheduling is based on profit maximizing the spot market price is a very important factor this price is varying and uncertain however a part of the paper describes how to deal with this by considering the spot market price as an exogenously given stochastic variable it is shown how to extend the common water value computations so as to handle this case implications to the medium and short term scheduling are also discussed

financial subsidies to the australian fossil fuel industry abstract a common claim during international greenhouse gas reduction negotiations has been that domestic emissions cuts will harm national economies this argument fails to consider the distorting effect of existing financial subsidies and associated incentives to fossil fuel production and consumption provided by governments in most developed countries these subsidies support a fossil fuel energy sector that is the major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions and conflict with attempts to expand the role of sustainable energy technologies reform of these types of subsidies has the potential to provide substantial gains in economic efficiency as well as reductions in carbon dioxide emissions a no regrets outcome for the economy and the environment this paper examines financial subsidies to fossil fuel production and consumption in australia and estimates the magnitude of the subsidies subsidies and associated incentives to fossil fuel production and consumption in australia are similar to those in the united states and the other countries that have pushed for increased flexibility during international negotiations

an energy pricing scheme for the diffusion of decentralized renewable technology investment in developing countries the purpose of this paper is to investigate price support for market penetration of renewable energy in developing nations through a decentralized supply process we integrate the new decentralized energy support renewable premium tariff to analyze impacts of tariff incentives on the diffusion of renewable technology in senegal based on photovoltaic and wind technologies and an assessment of renewable energy resources in senegal an optimization technique is combined with a cash flow analysis to investigate investment decisions in renewable energy sector our findings indicate that this support mechanism could strengthen the sustainable deployment of renewable energy in remote areas of senegal although different payoffs emerged profits associated with a renewable premium tariff are the highest among the set of existing payoffs moreover in analyzing impacts of price incentives on social welfare we show that price tariffing schemes must be strategically scrutinized in order to minimize welfare loss associated with price incentives finally we argue that a sustainable promotion of incentive mechanisms supporting deployment of renewable technology in developing nations should be carried out under reliable institutional structures the additional advantage of the proposed methodology is its ability to integrate different stakeholders producers investors and consumers in the planning process

supergrid or smartgrid competing strategies for large scale integration of intermittent renewables this paper defines and compares two strategies for integrating intermittent renewables supergrid and smartgrid while conventional energy policy suggests that these strategies may be implemented alongside each other the paper identifies significant technological and socio economic conflicts of interest between the two the article identifies differences between a domestic strategy for the integration of intermittent renewables vis a vis the smartgrid and a cross system strategy vis a vis the supergrid policy makers and transmission system operators must understand the need for both strategies to evolve in parallel but in different territories or with strategic integration avoiding for one strategy to undermine the feasibility of the other a strategic zoning strategy is introduced from which attentive societies as well as the global community stand to benefit the analysis includes a paradigmatic case study from west denmark which supports the hypothesis that these strategies are mutually exclusive the case study shows that increasing cross system transmission capacity jeopardizes the feasibility of smartgrid technology investments a political effort is required for establishing dedicated smartgrid innovation zones while also redefining infrastructure to avoid the narrow focus on grids and cables smartgrid investment trusts could be supported from reallocation of planned transmission grid investments to provide for the equitable development of smartgrid strategies

uk innovation systems for new and renewable energy technologies drivers barriers and systems failures abstract a better understanding of the systemic processes by which innovation occurs is useful both conceptually and to inform policy making in support of innovation in more sustainable technologies this paper analyses current innovation systems in the uk for a range of new and renewable energy technologies and generates policy recommendations for improving the effectiveness of these innovation systems although incentives are in place in the uk to encourage innovation in these technologies system failures or gaps are identified in moving technologies along the innovation chain preventing their successful commercialisation sustained investment will be needed for these technologies to achieve their potential it is argued that a stable and consistent policy framework is required to help create the conditions for this in particular such a framework should be aimed at improving risk reward ratios for demonstration and pre commercial stage technologies this would enhance positive expectations stimulate learning effects leading to cost reductions and increase the likelihood of successful commercialisation