Grappling with a half-hearted policy: The case of renewable energy and the environment in South Africa

Integrated resource planning (IRP) of power generation and delivery characterized by higher penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) has taken the 21st century world by storm. It promises power markets that are more resilient to resource and capital cost uncertainties as well as environmental sustainability. The success of this new paradigm has been largely anchored by decisive support policy mechanisms and good implementation. But while the developed and emerging economies are registering phenomenal growth in their renewable energy industries, South Africa would appear to be caught in a time warp with a weak environment policy and a power sector that continues to plan its future in the traditional way. The consequences are continued environmental degradation and a high-energy intensive economy with intermittent power supplies.     

Improving the institutional structures for disseminating energy efficiency in emerging nations: a case study for energy agencies in South Africa

Emerging nations are typically characterised by highenergy intensities despite significant energy efficiency potentials and numerous project oriented efforts to introduce energy-efficient technologies. The paper argues that successful technology dissemination needs appropriate institutional structures to reduce the related transaction cost. While a project-by-project approach risks to evaporate after completion, an energy agency would allow to bundle the know-how and information gained, ease access to funding and thus reduce information search cost and increase availability of efficient technologies. In a case study for South Africa, we examine the appropriateness of this concept for emerging nations. We discuss the underlying incentive problem from a new institutional economics perspective and suggest an approach to the design and implementation of operable energy agencies.     

Renewable energy and the environment in South Africa: A way forward

The need to mitigate the adverse environmental impacts of fossil fuel usage, the volatility of fuel prices and enhancement of national energy security, have largely driven a phenomenal growth, around the world, in renewable energy (RE) generation (particularly grid-connected), over the past two decades. The necessity to apply policy support instruments to promote the dissemination of these technologies is now a universally accepted norm. Different countries and societies depending on the prevailing socio-economic environment draft and apply their policy frameworks differently and debates abound as to which mechanisms should have been most suitable under which circumstance. Most of these debates, however, assume the existence of an intrinsic political environment in favour of the process. In South Africa the current political environment is not very conducive to the development of a sustainable RE industry. This paper explores some of the anomalies and barriers and suggests possible options for a way forward to a viable RE industry in the country.     

Energy security,efficiency and carbon emission of Chinese industry

For the Chinese industry as the mainstay of the national economy and dominant energy user and carbon emitter, an integrative assessment is performed from major energy policy perspectives of energy security, energy efficiency and carbon emission. Extensive systems indicators, including oil dependence ratio, average oil growth rate; indices of energy diversity, of carbonization and of oil growth risk; ratios of energy use to output, to value added and to compensation for laborers; ratios of carbon emission to output, to value added and to compensation for laborers, are devised to assess the Chinese industry 2002–2007 with most recent statistics availability. Combined indicators are identified by sparse principle component analysis to characterize sector performances. The industrial sectors are classified into five clusters and the main features of each cluster are pinpointed using fuzzy clustering algorithm. Concrete results facilitate comparisons of sectors to enable more accurate policy recommendations.     

The security of energy infrastructure and supply in North Africa: Hydrocarbons and renewable energies in comparative perspective

While security risks to energy infrastructure and supply are frequently cited as a source of concern in the public debate on Europe’s energy relationships with North Africa, few academic publications have addressed the issue to date. This article focuses on two potential threats to energy security in the North African context: first, intenational disruption of energy supplies by governments; second, attacks by non-state actors on energy infrastructure. Based on an analysis of North African security and energy geopolitics, the article provides an assessment of these threats as they have materialized with regard to existing energy industries, particularly oil and gas. The article then seeks to apply the findings to renewable energy schemes that are currently being discussed and developed, gauging the likelihood and impact of such threats materializing in respect to various technologies, and differentiating between different states of the region. Finally, the article provides recommendations for policy and further research needs for a successful common European–North African energy future.     

Connecting political economies of energy in South Africa

The South African energy debate is and will remain a heated one. Given South Africa's history of racial inequality and contemporary concerns around sustainability, much of it rightly focuses on the links between energy, poverty and the environment. Yet, many contributions to the (mainstream) debate seem to have a somewhat one-sided focus that might hamper rather than stimulate the understanding of these links. They either display a strong technical, quantitative bias and/or lean towards rather simplistic ideas about policy processes and dynamics. The article argues that many of these analyses could benefit greatly from a critical focus on the political economy of energy: the political–economic power structures that influence both many energy policies and the issues of energy equality and sustainability. Two major global developments emphasise the importance of this focus: the recent financial crisis and South Africa's role in the increasingly tense geopolitics of energy in Africa. The article concludes with some suggestions on how currently disparate political economies of energy could be better connected.     

Energy supply security and geopolitics: A European perspective

The security of energy supply to the EU is examined in the context of two storylines. Markets and Institutions exemplifies an economically and politically integrated, multilateral world with effective institutions and markets. Regions and Empires involves a world broken up in rival political and economic blocks, competing for resources and markets via political, economic and military power. It is shown that these storylines have a significant impact on the development of the energy market, on the way in which energy supply may be secured and on the effect and applicability of the several types of instruments available. The current EU is geared towards enlargement and a deepening of economic integration, based on the tenets of the post-1945 multilateral world system. The present world tends towards Regions and Empires and suggests that the EU may have to reorient its energy security policy. Energy policy must become an integral part of EU external trade and foreign relations and security policy. The EU should develop its own strategy, actively investing in dialogues with producer countries in the Persian Gulf and Africa and with Russia. Sustainable prosperity and governance in these regions will support EU energy security.     

Struggling to wean a society away from a century-old legacy of coal based power: Challenges and possibilities for South African Electric supply future

The challenges faced by the socio-political economy of South Africa when attempting to diversify away from a legacy of over a century of near exclusive dependence on cheap and abundant coal for its energy needs, particularly electricity, are discussed in this paper. Existing government policy documentation would appear to advocate for energy resource diversification. In addition the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) published renewable energy feed-in-tariffs (REFIT) for renewable energy generation (during the first quarter of 2009) which were billed by the media as well as a range of stakeholders as very promising. Notwithstanding these seemingly appropriate measures there is still a near total lack of real progress on the ground in terms of serious renewable energy (RE) investments. The authors subsequently attempt to make some recommendations as to what might have probable chance of success in terms of overcoming the barriers to the adoption of a more diversified energy resource environment, in particular renewable energy (RE).     

Energy demand and supply,energy policies,and energy security in the Republic of Korea

The Republic of Korea (ROK) has enjoyed rapid economic growth and development over the last 30 years. Rapid increases in energy use—especially petroleum, natural gas, and electricity, and especially in the industrial and transport sectors—have fueled the ROK's economic growth, but with limited fossil fuel resources of its own, the result has been that the ROK is almost entirely dependent on energy imports. The article that follows summarizes the recent trends in the ROK energy sector, including trends in energy demand and supply, and trends in economic, demographic, and other activities that underlie trends in energy use. The ROK has been experiencing drastic changes in its energy system, mainly induced by industrial, supply security, and environmental concerns, and energy policies in the ROK have evolved over the years to address such challenges through measures such as privatization of energy-sector activities, emphases on enhancing energy security through development of energy efficiency, nuclear power, and renewable energy, and a related focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The assembly of a model for evaluating energy futures in the ROK (ROK2010 LEAP) is described, and results of several policy-based scenarios focused on different levels of nuclear energy utilization are described, and their impacts on of energy supply and demand in the ROK through the year 2030 are explored, along with their implications for national energy security and long-term policy plans. Nuclear power continues to hold a crucial position in the ROK's energy policy, but aggressive expansion of nuclear power alone, even if possible given post-Fukushima global concerns, will not be sufficient to attain the ROK's “green economy” and greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals.     

Energy and water tradeoffs in enhancing food security: A selective international assessment

Rice is the major staple food in most Asian countries. However, with rapidly growing populations, sustained high productivity and yields through improving water productivity is critically important. Increasingly complex energy–agriculture relationships require an in-depth understanding of water and energy tradeoffs. This study contributes to energy and food policies by analysing the complex energy, water and economics dynamics across a selection of major rice growing countries.The results show that tradeoffs exist between yield and energy inputs with high yield attributed to higher levels of energy input. The selected developed countries show higher energy productivity, relative to all other energy inputs, compared to the selected developing counties, owing to enhanced mechanisation, on-farm technology and improved farm management. Among all countries, China has the highest water productivity due to water-saving irrigation practices. These practices offer opportunities for developed and developing countries to increase water productivity at the same time taking advantage of economic and energy benefits of reduced pumping.Sustained production from agriculture is vital to food security. Improved irrigation practices can offset environmental footprints in the short run but their large-scale implementation remains an issue. In the long run, investments are needed to buffer the negative impacts of food production on the environment. Investments to boost water productivity and improved energy use efficiency in crop production are two pathways to reduce energy dependency, enhanced natural resource sustainability and ensuring future food security.     

Refrigerator efficiency in Ghana: Tailoring an appliance market transformation program design for Africa

In some cases, a simple replication of developed country appliance efficiency labels and standards may not be completely feasible in Ghana, Africa. Yet by creatively modifying the developed country appliance efficiency market transformation model, it should be possible to achieve dramatic energy use reductions. As was true in developed countries in the previous two decades, refrigeration efficiency improvements provide the greatest energy savings potential in the residential electricity sector in Ghana. Although Ghana, like many African countries may impose standards on imports since Ghana does not have manufacturing facilities for appliances in country. This approach may hurt some consumers who patronize a very diverse market of used appliances imported from Europe. We discuss how meeting the challenges of the Ghanaian market will require modification of the usual energy efficiency labeling and standards paradigm. But once a refrigerator market transformation is accomplished in Ghana, we estimate an average energy savings potential of 550 kWh/refrigerator/year, and a monetary savings of more than $35/refrigerator/year. We discuss how this modified refrigerator efficiency market transformation may occur in the Ghanaian context. If successful, this market transformation is likely to be an example for many other African countries.     

Energy efficiency supervision strategy selection of Chinese large-scale public buildings

This paper discusses energy consumption, building development and building energy consumption in China, and points that energy efficiency management and maintenance of large-scale public buildings is the breakthrough point of building energy saving in China. Three obstacles are lack of basic statistics data, lack of service market for building energy saving, and lack of effective management measures account for the necessity of energy efficiency supervision for large-scale public buildings. And then the paper introduces the supervision aims, the supervision system and the five basic systems’ role in the supervision system, and analyzes the working mechanism of the five basic systems. The energy efficiency supervision system of large-scale public buildings takes energy consumption statistics as a data basis, Energy auditing as a technical support, energy consumption ration as a benchmark of energy saving and price increase beyond ration as a price lever, and energy efficiency public-noticing as an amplifier. The supervision system promotes energy efficiency operation and maintenance of large-scale public building, and drives a comprehensive building energy saving in China.     

Lignite industry in Greece within a world context: Mining,energy supply and environment

Today coal covers 38% of global production and roughly 30% of the EU-25 power output.     

Energy access in Africa: Challenges ahead

This paper presents a review of the current situation and projections for energy access in Africa. The paper also presents several sets of ambitious energy access targets as agreed by the regional groupings within the region. The paper argues that achieving between 50% and 100% access to modern energy services by 2030 in Africa will require more effective mobilization and use of both domestic and external funding, and the development and implementation of innovative policy frameworks. The paper suggests that greater emphasis will need to be placed on productive uses of energy and energy for income generation in order to break the vicious circle of low incomes leading to poor access to modern energy services, which in turn puts severe limitations on the ability to generate higher incomes. The paper further suggests that if anything near the ambitious targets set by African organisations are to be achieved then it will be advisable to tap into the full menu of energy resource and technology options, and there will be the need for significant increases in the numbers of various actors involved together with more effective institutions in the energy sector.     

Energy efficiency trends and policy in Slovenia

The energy dependency of Slovenia is high (52.1%), but it is a little lower than the average energy dependency in the EU 27 (53.8%). Slovenia imports all its petroleum products and natural gas and partly coal and electricity. The energy intensity of Slovenia is higher by about 50% than the average in the EU 27. The target of the EU Directive on energy end-use efficiency and energy services adopted in 2006 is to achieve a 9% improvement of EE (energy efficiency) within the period 2008-2016. The new target of the EU climate and energy package “20-20-20 plan” is a 20% increase in EE by 2020. Since 1991 the Slovenian government has been supporting energy efficiency activities. The improvement of EE was one of the targets of strategic energy documents ReSROE (Resolution on the Strategy of Use and Supply of Energy in Slovenia from 1996 and ReNEP (Resolution on the National Energy Programme) from 2004 adopted by the Slovenian National Assembly (Parliament) in previous years. The Energy Act adopted in 1999 defines the objective of energy policy as giving priority to EE and utilization of renewable energy sources. The goals of the “National Energy Action Plan 2008-2016 (NEEAP)” adopted by the Slovenian government in 2008 include a set of energy efficiency improvement instruments in the residential, industrial, transport and tertiary sectors. The target of the NEEAP is to save final energy in the 2008-2016 period, amounting to at least 4261 GWh or 9% of baseline consumption. The indicators of energy efficiency trends show considerable improvement in the period from 1998 to 2007. The improvement of EE was reached in all sectors: manufacturing, transport and households. The paper analyses the structure, trends of energy consumption and energy efficiency indicators by sectors of economic activity. A review of energy efficiency policy and measures is described in the paper.     

Renewable energy in South Africa: Potentials,barriers and options for support

The challenge of transforming entire economies is enormous; even more so if a country is as fossil fuel based and emission intensive as South Africa. However, in an increasingly carbon constrained world and already now facing climate change impacts South Africa has to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity soon and decidedly. The South African electricity sector is a vital part of the economy and at the same time contributes most to the emissions problem. First steps have been taken by the South African government to enhance energy efficiency and promote renewable energy, however, they fail to show large-scale effects. This paper seeks to identify the relevant barriers to renewable energy investments and, based on experience from other countries, provide policy recommendations.     

Energy policy and standard for built environment in China

Trends in China's energy future will have considerable consequences for both China and the global environment. Though China's carbon emissions are low on a per capita basis, China is already ranked the world's second largest producer of carbon, behind only America. China's buildings sector currently accounts for 23% of China's total energy use and is projected to increase to one-third by 2010. Energy policy plays an important role in China's sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to provide a broad overview of energy efficiency issues in the built environment in China. This paper, firstly briefly, reviews the key national policies related to the built environment and demonstrates the government's environmental concern. Secondly, the authors introduce recent energy policies in the built environment. Energy efficiency and renewable energy in the built environment, which are the key issues of the national energy policy, have been reviewed. Discussion of the implementation of energy policy has been carried out.     

Energy in West Africa Issues and policy approaches

The West African Subregion, consisting of 16 member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), is one of the poorest regions in the world and its energy problems are formidable. It is currently confronted with a double energy squeeze — high costs of both traditional energy and imported commercial energy. This paper identifies some of the community's energy problems and the necessary policy measures required to tackle them. It argues that the best strategy for an effective solution to these energy problems is through a combination of regional cooperative effort and more vigorous country level effort at energy resource development and utilization. Fortunately, the institutional framework for such a regional strategy has been established in the articles setting up the community in 1975. The need for energy institution building and strengthening at country and regional level in ECOWAS is also emphasized as this is critical for meaningful energy policymaking.     

Energy efficiency in the transport sector

The distribution of energy use in the transport sector in the United States of America is presented and analysed in terms of the efficient use of energy in various applications. Comparisons are drawn with other modelling efforts.     

Energy security and sustainability in Northeast Asia

“Energy Security” has typically, to those involved in making energy policy, meant mostly securing access to oil and other fossil fuels. With increasingly global, diverse energy markets, however, and increasingly transnational problems resulting from energy transformation and use, old energy security rationales are less salient, and other issues, including climate change and other environmental, economic, and international considerations are becoming increasingly important. As a consequence, a more comprehensive operating definition of “Energy Security” is needed, along with a workable framework for analysis of which future energy paths or scenarios are likely to yield greater Energy Security in a broader, more comprehensive sense. Work done as a part of the Nautilus Institute's “Pacific Asia Regional Energy Security” (PARES) project developed a broader definition of Energy Security, and described an analytical framework designed to help to compare the energy security characteristics – both positive and negative – of different quantitative energy paths as developed using software tools such as the LEAP (Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning) system.