荷兰绿色电力政策

荷兰自上世纪90年代中期发展起来本国的绿色电力市场机制后,取得了令人瞩目的营销经验。在绿色电力政策实施期间,荷兰电力公司之间自发建立一个绿色证书交易系统,并且从2001年开始运行政府管理的绿色认证系统。在荷兰实施绿色电力市场机制期间的经验之一是政府支持,在强制性能源配额及自愿认购方式的争论中,该国的绿色电力政策经历了长期的摸索,分三个阶段不断发展自身的绿色电力政策。     

Green electricity policies in the United States: case study

While there has been interest in promoting the use of renewable energy in electricity production for a number of years in the United States, the market share of non-hydro renewable energy sources in electricity production has remained at about 2 percent over the past decade. The paper reviews the principal energy resources used for electricity production, considers the changing regulatory environment for the electricity industry, and describes government policies that have been used to promote green electricity in the United States, with an emphasis on measures adopted by state governments. Factors influencing the development of green power markets are also discussed, including underlying economic issues, public policy measures, the regulatory environment, external costs, and subsidies. Without significant increases in fossil fuel prices, much more stringent environmental regulations, or significant changes in electricity customer preferences, green electricity markets are likely to develop slowly in the United States.     

Green electricity market development: Lessons from Europe and the US

This study compares the development and implementation of green electricity policies in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States, a set of countries applying a range of policy instruments to encourage electricity from renewable energy sources. A general tendency is identified that policies shift emphasis from R&D stimulation towards dissemination and market application of renewable energy technologies. We argue that in light of the long term nature of policy goals on energy security, mitigation of climate change, and environmental protection, the applied range of policy instruments may be lacking in providing incentives for the long term development of new technologies. Clarifying policy objectives would allow careful selection of policy instruments, including support for R&D. Improved capacity building for policy implementation is also important.     

Renewable electricity in Sweden: an analysis of policy and regulations

This study aims to analyse the developments in renewable energy policy making in Sweden. It assesses the energy policy context, changes in the choice of policy instruments, and provides explanations behind policy successes and failures. Swedish renewable energy policy has been developing in a context of uncertainty around nuclear issues. While there has been made a political decision to replace nuclear power with renewables, there is a lack of consensus about the pace of phasing out nuclear power due to perceived negative impacts on industrial competitiveness. Such uncertainty had an effect in the formulation of renewable energy policy. Biomass and wind power are the main options for renewable electricity production. Throughout 1990s, the combined effect of different policy instruments has stimulated the growth of these two renewable sources. Yet, both biomass and wind power are still a minor contributor in the total electricity generation. Lack of strong government commitment due to uncertainty around nuclear issues is a crucial factor. Short-term subsidies have been preferred rather than open-ended subsidy mechanisms, causing intervals without subsidies and interruption to development. Other factors are such as lack of incentives from the major electricity companies and administrative obstacles. The taxation system has been successful in fostering an expansion of biomass for heating but hindered a similar development in the electricity sector. The quota system adopted in 2003 is expected to create high demand on biomass but does not favour wind power. The renewable energy aims are unlikely to be changed. Yet, the future development of renewable energy policies especially for high-cost technologies will again depend strongly on nuclear policies, which are still unstable and might affect the pace of renewable energy development.     

Interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy: A critical analysis of China's policy approach to renewable energies

This paper analyzes China's policy approach to renewable energies and assesses how effectively China has met the ideal of appropriate interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy. First we briefly discuss the interactions between these two policies. Then we outline China's key renewable energy and renewable industrial policies and find that China's government has well recognized the need for this policy interaction. After that, we study the achievements and problems in China's wind and solar PV sector during 2005–2012 and argue that China's policy approach to renewable energies has placed priority first on developing a renewable energy manufacturing industry and only second on renewable energy itself, and it has not effectively met the ideal of appropriate interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy. Lastly, we make an in-depth analysis of the three ideas underlying this policy approach, that is, the green development idea, the low-carbon leadership idea and indigenous innovation idea. We conclude that Chinas' policy approach to renewable energies needs to enhance the interactions between renewable energy policy and renewable energy industrial policy. The paper contributes to a deeper understanding of China's policy strategy toward renewable energies.     

Green energy market development in Germany: effective public policy and emerging customer demand

This paper reviews the development of renewable energy in Germany from 1973 to 2003. It investigates the relative importance of energy policy and green power marketing in shaping the renewable energy market. More than a decade of consistent policy support for renewables under the feed-in law (StrEG) and its successor (EEG) has been an important driver for increasing renewable electricity generation to date, putting the country in a better position than most of its peers when it comes to achieving European Union targets for renewable energy. Green power marketing driven by customer demand, on the other hand, is growing, but has had limited measurable impact so far. We discuss potential intangible benefits of green power marketing and scenarios for future market development. The paper concludes with lessons that can be learned from the German case for policy design and market development in other countries.     

Renewable electricity policies in The Netherlands

Many analysts agree that the support system for renewable electricity (RE) in the Netherlands has been opaque, confusing and lacking long-term security, due to the numerous instruments and to the several changes in the details of the policies. However, most analysts fail to notice that these factors per se are hardly responsible for the uncertainty observed in the Dutch market. This paper surveys the policies introduced in the last decade or so and discusses their effectiveness in facilitating the diffusion of RE. Although the government brought about a remarkable increase in demand for RE, the creation of domestic supply has lagged behind. This relatively slack expansion can be ascribed to the uncertainty in the Dutch framework, caused by the lack of a clear relation between policies stimulating demand and supply for RE. This also hindered the development of national industry and delayed the debate on the removal of planning and administrative bottlenecks.     

ASEAN towards clean and sustainable energy: Potentials,utilization and barriers

This paper reports the outcome of the project on “Capacity building in formulating harmonized policy instruments for the promotion of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in the ASEAN member countries”. With the growing concerns about green house gas (GHG) emission and consequent climate change, renewable energy sources have become more attractive option for electricity generation around the world. Studies have been made on the status of renewable energy potential and utilization, major barriers in promoting renewable energy in ASEAN countries, major energy policies to overcome barriers, and existing renewable energy and energy efficiency policies in ASEAN countries. Paper concludes that ASEAN has not utilized its renewable energy resources anywhere near to the potential. Analysis found that the key factor that has to be amended is “policies and regulations in renewable energy and energy efficiency” at both country level and regional level. But, ASEAN is not yet ready for the full harmonization of the policies. However, it recommends that, with the project outputs it is possible to focus on the specific policy instruments common to most of the member countries, such that it could use to augment ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) initiatives.     

Quality uncertainty and the market for renewable energy: Evidence from German consumers

Consumers can choose from a wide range of electricity supply contracts, including green power options. Electricity produced from renewable energy involves information asymmetries. With a sample of more than 2,000 German electricity consumers, we tested the proposition of a “lemon market” for renewable energy in a discrete choice experiment. Specifically, we found that, compared to investor-owned firms, additional willingness-to-pay for renewable energy is approximately double when offered by cooperatives or municipally-owned electricity utilities. Consumers who are experienced with switching suppliers have an additional willingness-to-pay of one Eurocent per kilowatt hour for cooperatives and two Eurocents for public enterprises. The results demonstrate that organizational transformation in dynamically-changing electricity markets is not only driven by political initiatives but also by consumers' choices on the market. Public policy may reduce information asymmetries by promoting government labeling of green energy products.     

The politics of renewable energy policies: The case of feed-in tariffs in Ontario,Canada

Designing and implementing a renewable energy policy involves political decisions and actors. Yet most research on renewable energy policies comparatively evaluates instruments from an economic or technical perspective. This paper presents a case study of Ontario’s feed-in tariff policies between 1997 and 2012 to analyze how the political process affects renewable energy policy design and implementation. Ontario’s policy, although initially successful, has met with increasing resistance over time. The case reveals key political tensions that arise during implementation. First, high-level support for a policy does not necessarily translate into widespread public support, particularly for local deployment. Second, the government often struggles under asymmetric information during price setting, which may weaken the policy’s legitimacy with the public due to higher costs. Third, there is an unacknowledged tension that governments must navigate between policy stability, to spur investment, and adaptive policymaking, to improve policy design. Fourth, when multiple jurisdictions pursue the same policies simultaneously, international political conflict over jobs and innovation may occur. These implementation tensions result from political choices during policy design and present underappreciated challenges to transforming the electricity system. Governments need to critically recognize the political dimension of renewable energy policies to secure sustained political support.     

Analysing the effectiveness of renewable energy supporting policies in the European Union

With several mid-term policies in place to support the development of renewables, the European Union (EU) seems on its way to increasing the share of renewable energy to the targeted 12% by the year 2010. It is however, yet unclear how effective these policies are, which technologies will see the largest growth and which countries will indeed be able to meet their targets. This article discusses a monitoring protocol that was developed to monitor this effectiveness and judge whether targets will be met. In a step-wise approach policy instruments are characterised and analysed, leading to a quantitative assessment of the likely growth in renewable energy production for each individual technology and country in case no policy changes occur. Applying this monitoring protocol at the EU-level we show that with the current policies in place renewable energy production will reach a share of 8–10% in 2010, and the share of electricity production will reach a level of 15–18% of total electricity consumption, whereas the target is 22.5%. Additional policies are clearly needed to achieve the ambitious targets set.     

Policy considerations for a sprouting UK green electricity market

Green electricity (GE) is a generic term for electricity generated from clean, environmentally preferable energy sources. Because of its low-to-zero carbon content, the use of GE is seen as a desirable and important option for the UK's carbon emission reduction strategy. Since 1999 GE has been available to all customers in the UK. The market has had positive beginnings with almost all electricity suppliers offering a green electricity product. Marketing has been launched and consumers are beginning to make the switch to green electricity despite the premium charged. An accreditation scheme guarantees that the green purchases match power entering the grid. While the groundwork has been set for a progressive market to emerge, recent energy policy proposals may undermine the progress made. The Utilities Bill and Climate Change Levy, despite aiming to support renewables, are introducing a number of uncertainties to the market, while the New Electricity Trading Arrangement undermines the growth of some renewables altogether. These uncertainties mean there is some question about where the potential for this market lies. Research carried out by the Environmental Change Institute examines the developments of the UK's GE market; it traces past and present policies and identifies policy options for the promotion of this sector in future.     

Electricity from biomass in the European union—With or without biomass import

The European Union has set up indicative targets for its 15 Member States to supply 22.1% of their total electricity consumption using renewable energy resources by 2010. This paper compares two ways to achieve target compliance—either with import of biomass from countries outside the EU or without. The ADMIRE REBUS model combines cost data for electricity producing renewable energy technologies with data on the renewable energy resources available in EU and assesses the effect of the various national support policies for green electricity in the EU countries. The major finding of the study is that increased imports of low-cost biomass will significantly reduce the cost of target compliance, but would hamper the use of energy crops and further development of wind power within the EU. Despite this, increased importation of biomass can be the cost-reducing factor making the target realisable, which would justify promotion of such trade.     

Energy subsidies,structure of electricity prices and technological change of energy use

This paper addresses the impact of the structure of energy prices on technological change in renewable energy sources. It operates on two fields of research that are often not related to each other. Firstly, the increasing interest in environmental economics for the determinants of green technological change, and secondly the impact of government policies aimed at subsidizing energy prices. Recent research claims a positive relationship between energy prices and the number of patents in the fields of energy efficiency. This paper extends this research by investigating the impact of the price structure of electricity on patent counts in 1) renewable energy sources, 2) wind energy and 3) solar power. In nearly all OECD countries in the period 1990–2006 industrial energy users pay a lower price per energy unit than households due, among others, to government subsidy policies. The empirical results show that reducing government subsidies and hence increasing the electricity price of (large) industrial electricity users relative to the price paid by (small) residential users provides a clear incentive to increase inventions as measured by number of patents in the technical fields of solar and wind energy. These results are an important input in the debate on reducing government support to large energy users.     

State renewable energy electricity policies: An empirical evaluation of effectiveness

Over the past decade, state governments have emerged as US energy policy leaders. Across the country, states are adopting policy instruments aimed at carbon mitigation and renewable energy deployment. One of the most prevalent and innovative policy instruments is a renewable portfolio standard (RPS), which seeks to increase the share of renewable energy electrification in the electricity market. This analysis evaluates the effectiveness of state energy programs with an empirical investigation of the linkage between state RPS policy implementation and the percentage of renewable energy electricity generation across states. We use a variant of a standard fixed effects model, referred to as a fixed effects vector decomposition, with state-level data from 1998 to 2006. Results indicate that RPS implementation is not a significant predictor of the percentage of renewable energy generation out of the total generation mix, yet for each additional year that a state has an RPS policy, they are found to increase the total amount of renewable energy generation. These findings reveal a potentially significant shortcoming of RPS policies. Political institutions, natural resource endowments, deregulation, gross state product per capita, electricity use per person, electricity price, and the presence of regional RPS policies are also found to be significantly related to renewable energy deployment.     

Adoption of green electricity policies: Investigating the role of environmental attitudes via big data-driven search-queries

Despite the rising influence of public opinion on government energy policy formulation and implementation, the roles of pro and/or anti-environmental attitudes among residents have not been empirically examined. To quantify time-varying environmental attitudes among local residents, we exploit geo-specific Google search-query data derived from Internet-based “big data” and verify through ordinary least squares regression outcomes regarding environmental behavior. For the purpose of drawing policy implications, we revisit decisions by state governments of the United States to adopt three well-known green electricity policies: renewable energy portfolio, net metering rules, and public benefit funds. As some states have not yet adopted some (or any) of these policies, unlike previous studies, we handle the issue by examining right-censored data and applying a duration-based econometric method called the accelerated failure time model. We found state residents’ environmental attitudes to have statistically significant roles, after controlling for other traditional time-varying policy adoption factors. Interestingly, the extent to which anti-environmental attitudes affect a state’s policy adoption differs across green energy policies, and knowing this can help a local government formulate better-tailored environmental policy. In particular, researchers can use our method of incorporating citizens’ environmental attitudes to discuss relevant issues in the field of energy policy.     

Electricity generation from renewable energy sources in Poland

AbstractFor the European Union's Member States 2001/77/EC Directive on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in the internal electricity market determined targets for 2010 of 21% share of electricity from renewable energy sources in total electricity consumption. Particular Member States adopted different measures for development of renewable and in consequence they achieved different results. Poland, being Member State of the EU since 2004 has accepted target of 7.5% for electricity generated from renewable energy sources until 2010. Currently, in this decade, new 2009/28/EC Directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources plays significant role in development of renewable energy sources. Directive set new target for 2020. Nowadays is a time for summary and assessment of results fulfilling Directives and monitor progress of new targets. Article presents measures implemented for renewable source energy development, also current state and perspectives of using of renewable energy sources in Poland and in the EU.     

Learning from experience? The development of the Renewables Obligation in England and Wales 2002–2010

The UK has enviable renewable resources, both onshore (wind) and offshore (wind, wave and tidal) (The Offshore Valuation Group, 2010). The government has had policy mechanisms in place since 1990 to encourage these resources to be developed. The current mechanism, the Renewables Obligation (RO), was specifically designed to emphasise competition and therefore to fit in with the UK’s overall strategic approach to energy policy. However, as yet, it has not delivered the capacity that it was designed to do, and as a result the UK faces a difficult challenge in attempting to meet European-wide renewable energy targets for 2020, as well as longer term decarbonisation targets. This paper explores some of the major reasons why the RO has performed so poorly to date and considers the prospects for improvement up to 2020. It concludes that the strategic emphasis on competition in the support mechanisms has played a key role in limiting renewables development, but that the mechanism has changed significantly since it was introduced. However, these changes, together with proposals for electricity market reform, still do not address important elements of risk in comparison with a standard Feed In Tariff.     

德国绿色电力营销政策

德国的发电燃料结构以煤和核能为主;同时,可再生能源,主要是大型水电也占了一部分,近年来发展最快的可再生能源是风能。德国绿色电力产品分为3类,即纯大型水电、可再生能源电力与热电联产混合产品以及纯可再生能源电力。德国的第一个绿色电价项目出现于上世纪90年代中期,在德国开展了绿色电力营销和认证体系,同时,该国传统上的可再生能源政策更加注重对可再生能源发电的直接支持,而不是对市场的零售端提供激励措施。