Cost-effectiveness of renewable electricity policies

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

Heat pumps and renewable energies

As a mean to mitigate global humanlinked environmental pollution and to achieve sustainability, renewable energies must become not just a part but THE primary energy source for the world. Heat pumps, as a process recirculating environmental heat back into useful heat production, fit the environmental requirements of this global policy. They are very useful tools to reduce the need of fossil fuels combustion in building as well in industrial sectors. As such they have a role to play in the renewable energy panel.The paper will emphasize this role and give last trends in their technology.     

可再生能源政策建议

本件“可再生能源政策建议”是德国波恩2004年6月1～4日召开的可再生能源国际会议的主要成果之一。文件是以目前对发展可再生能源政策和决策的了解与以世界公私部门的计划、项目和其他创议的经验和教训为基础的。     

Future of renewable energies in Iran

The activities in field of renewable energy in Iran are focused on scientific and research aspects, and research part is aimed at reduction of capital required for exploitation of related resources. The second step is to work research results into scientific dimension of this field for practical means, i.e. establishing electricity power plants. Due to recent advancements in wind energy, many investors in the country have become interested in investing in this type of energy. At the moment, projects assuming 130 MW of wind power plants are underway, of which, 25 MW is operational. Based on the planning in the 4th Socioeconomic and Cultural Development Plan (2005–2010), private sector is expected to have a share of at least 270 MW in renewable energies. However, it is the government's duty to take the first step for investment in biomass and solar power plants; private sector may then play its part once the infrastructures to this end are laid out. At the moment, a 250 kW plant is under construction in Shiraz and two more geothermal units with 5 and 50 MW capacities will follow. Moreover, two biomass and solar energy plants, standing at 10 and 17 MW, respectively, are of other upcoming projects. The project of Iran's renewable energy, aims to accelerate the sustainable development of wind energy through investment and removal of barriers. This preparatory project is funded by the global environment facility (GEF) and will provide for a number of international and national consultant missions and studies. Once the studies are concluded, a project to develop 25 MW of wind energy in the Manjil region of Gilan will be prepared. It will be consistent with the national development frameworks and objectives and form part of 100 MW of wind-powered energy, which is expected to be developed under the government's third 5-year national development plan (started 21 March 2000).     

Iran atlas of offshore renewable energies

The aim of the present study is to provide an Atlas of IRAN Offshore Renewable Energy Resources (hereafter called ‘the Atlas’) to map out wave and tidal resources at a national scale, extending over the area of the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman. Such an Atlas can provide necessary tools to identify the areas with greatest resource potential and within reach of present technology development.To estimate available tidal energy resources at the site, a two-dimensional tidally driven hydrodynamic numerical model of Persian Gulf was developed using the hydrodynamic model in the MIKE 21 Flow Model (MIKE 21HD), with validation using tidal elevation measurements and tidal stream diamonds from Admiralty charts. The results of the model were used to produce a time series of the tidal stream velocity over the simulation period.Moreover, to assess the potential of the wave energy in this site, a model was developed based on six-hourly data from a third generation ocean wave model (ISWM-Iranian Sea Wave Model) covering the period 1992–2003.To ensure the information provided to the Atlas is managed and maintained most effectively, all the derived marine resource parameters have been captured in a structured database, within a Geographical Information System (GIS), so enabling effective data management, presentation and interrogation.     

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.     

Subsistence electricity renewable energies and development

This article suggests that the use of some new and renewable sources of energy (NRSE) in rural electrification may lead to ‘subsistence electrification’. Grid rural electrification, it is argued, contributes to development not by substituting for existing fuels and energy sources at lower cost but by transforming the marginal costs of supply. Techniques commonly used to evaluate NRSE do not capture the developmental implications.     

Photovoltaics and renewable energies in Europe

Photovoltaics and renewable energies are growing at a much faster pace than the rest of the economy in Europe and worldwide. This and the dramatic oil price increases in 2005 have led to a remarkable re-evaluation of the renewable energy sector by politics and financing institutions. Despite the fact that there are still discrepancies between the European Union and the USA, as to how to deal with climate change, renewable energies will play an important role for the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and the worldwide introduction of tradable Green Certificates. Apart from the electricity sector, renewable energy sources for the generation of heat and the use of environment friendly biofuels for the transport sector will become more and more important in the future.     

Utilization of renewable energies in Turkey's agriculture

Agriculture is still the occupation of the majority of Turkish people, despite the share of industry and services rising constantly. In terms of agricultural lands, Turkey is also one of the largest countries in the world. Fruits and field crops make up for the most of vegetable products, wheat being the leading crop. Turkey has a high trade surplus with the EU-27 (1.5 billion Euros in 2009) mainly due to exports of edible fruits and nuts, preparations of fruit and vegetables.The aim of this study is to investigate the utility of renewable energies for agricultural activities. In this concept, solar energy, biomass energy, wind energy, geothermal energy and hydropower are discussed by application examples performed in Turkey. In conclusion, proposals and recommendations are given as alternative energy instead of fossil energy sources.     

Historic background of desalination and renewable energies

It is interesting to travel through the centuries re-discovering inventions that brilliant pioneers achieved though they lacked technological means. An historical overview may help to understand or even re-discover useful ideas that, with today’s technology, can find applications. In this paper we will try to traverse historical paths by highlighting the most important ideas and features developed from antiquity until today on desalination of sea and brackish water as well as of renewable energy utilization with special reference to the use of solar energy for desalination.     

The feasibility of renewable energies at an off-grid community in Canada

Three renewable energy technologies (RETs) were analyzed for their feasibility for a small off-grid research facility dependent on diesel for power and propane for heat. Presently, the electrical load for this facility is 115 kW but a demand side management (DSM) energy audit revealed that 15–20% reduction was possible. Downsizing RETs and diesel engines by 15 kW to 100 kW reduces capital costs by $27 000 for biomass, $49 500 for wind and $136 500 for solar.The RET Screen International 4.0^® model compared the economical and environmental costs of generating 100 kW of electricity for three RETs compared to the current diesel engine (0 cost) and a replacement ($160/kW) diesel equipment. At all costs from $0.80 to $2.00/l, biomass combined heat and power (CHP) was the most competitive. At $0.80 per liter, biomass’ payback period was 4.1 years with a capital cost of $1800/kW compared to wind's 6.1 years due to its higher initial cost of $3300/kW and solar's 13.5 years due to its high initial cost of $9100/kW. A biomass system would reduce annual energy costs by $63 729 per year, and mitigate GHG emissions by over 98% to 10 t CO₂ from 507 t CO₂. Diesel price increases to $1.20 or $2.00/l will decrease the payback period in years dramatically to 1.8 and 0.9 for CHP, 3.6 and 1.8 for wind, and 6.7 and 3.2 years for solar, respectively.     

Environmental,economic, social and political drivers for increasing use of woodfuel as a renewable resource in Britain

Present woodfuel usage in Britain is negligible. Historically, Britain has been fortunate in having abundant coal, oil and gas.At an EU level, biomass is seen as an important element of energy, environment and agriculture/forestry policy. In the European context, biomass is taken to include agricultural and industrial wastes in addition to forest woodfuel, and it is regarded as a potential source of heat, fuels and electricity. In the UK, energy policy as a whole is based on four considerations—environment, energy reliability and security, affordability for the poorest in society and competitive pricing for businesses, industries and households. Within UK policy, the dominant driver for greater use of biomass as a renewable source of energy is climate change mitigation; energy security is an emerging driver; all other potential benefits of biomass as a renewable resource are of limited significance. At the moment, the UK focus is narrower than in Europe. National targets are set only for electricity generation. Furthermore, expansion of energy crops, which are defined in the major regulations as ‘crops planted since 1989 and grown primarily for the purpose of being used as a fuel’ and, therefore, do not include material from extant forests, is seen as the main way to ensure energy security and minimise carbon expended to transport the raw material to the point of end use. Nevertheless, woody biomass from forests, sawmills, urban areas and transportation corridors is already available in vastly greater quantities than ‘energy crops’.At a regional and local scale, global environmental issues are of lower relative importance and a much wider range of potential benefits tend to be taken into consideration. For example, the economic benefits of woodfuel heating in areas without connections to the gas grid have been an important consideration in the steady increase in woodheat developments. In other areas where there is a less obvious financial driver, rural development is a powerful determinant of support for woodfuel projects.     

The transition towards renewable energies: Physical limits and temporal conditions

The perspectives of the depletion of fossil energy resources, together with the consequences of climate change, have provoked the development of numerous national and pluri-national energy policies. However, there have been few overall studies on the evolution of these resources. This paper uses a dynamic model to study the exhaustion patterns of world fossil and nuclear fuels and their possible replacement by renewable energy sources. The results show that peak oil will be the first restriction and it will not be easily overcome. Electric vehicles can produce some interesting savings, but they are insufficient to avoid the decline in oil. Biofuels are even more limited, due to the enormous extensions of fertile land they require and their low productivity. This shows that overcoming the decline in oil will need much more ambitious policies than the mere substitution of technology. If the “oil–economy” relationship does not change substantially, world economic growth may be seriously limited or even negative. In contrast, the production of electrical energy is not such a worrying problem in the short and middle-term.     

Heterogeneous policies,heterogeneous technologies: The case of renewable energy

This paper investigates empirically the effect of market regulation and renewable energy policies on innovation activity in different renewable energy technologies. For the EU countries and the years 1980 to 2007, we built a unique dataset containing information on patent production in eight different technologies, proxies of market regulation and technology-specific renewable energy policies. Our main finding is that, compared to privatisation and unbundling, reducing entry barriers is a more significant driver of renewable energy innovation, but that its effect varies across technologies and is stronger in technologies characterised by potential entry of small, independent power producers. In addition, the inducement effect of renewable energy policies is heterogeneous and more pronounced for wind, which is the only technology that is mature and has high technological potential. Finally, ratification of the Kyoto protocol, which determined a more stable and less uncertain policy framework, amplifies the inducement effect of both energy policy and market liberalisation.     

The profitability of electricity generating firms and policies promoting renewable energy

Using a cross-country firm-level dataset this study empirically analyses how the implemented renewable electricity promotion systems – Tradable Green Certificates vs. Feed-in-Tariffs – affected the profitability of the electricity production sector in Europe during the 2002–2010 period. In particular, it tests the hypothesis that due to market imperfections, namely because of higher investment risk, higher capital constraints and higher transaction costs, TGC schemes will be associated with excess profits for renewable electricity generating firms. The results somewhat support this hypothesis, showing that electricity generating firms, operating in EU countries that implemented TGC, were more profitable compared to FIT firms.     

Design limitations in Australian renewable electricity policies

Renewable electricity is pivotal to the medium and long-term reduction of Australia’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, if deep cuts in them are eventually implemented. This paper examines the effectiveness of the principal existing policies that could potentially promote the expansion of renewable electricity (RElec) in Australia: the expanded Renewable Energy Target (RET); the proposed emissions trading scheme (ETS); and the state and territory-based feed-in tariffs. We find the effectiveness of RET is severely eroded by the inclusion of solar and heat pump hot water systems; by the inclusion of ‘phantom’ tradable certificates; and by high electricity consumption growth. We also find that the ETS will not produce a high enough carbon price to assist most RElec technologies before 2020; and that most of the feed-in tariffs exclude large-scale RElec and will give little assistance to small-scale RElec because they are mostly net tariffs. Unless there is a major revision of its RElec policy mechanisms, Australia will fail to reach its renewable electricity target and in particular will fail to build up its solar generation capacity which could be a major source of future deep cuts in the country’s electricity generation emissions.