The optimum mix of conservation and substitution: An example from retrofitting of old buildings

The competition between conservation and substitution for scarce resources like skilled manpower and capital is an important policy issue augmented by the fact that the bulk of the investments for the two oil reducing options will occur at different points in time. Using a simple additive approximation to describe the available conservation options in old buildings in Sweden (retrofitting), the optimum mix of conservation and substitution for satisfying the useful energy demand in those buildings has been investigated with a multiperiod LP-model (MARKAL). the optimization is made over 1980-2020 in nine five-year periods considering substitution technologies in the whole energy system. Different objective functions have been used. an analysis of the results shows clear differences in the implementation of identical conservation measures in single and multifamily houses. This is due to the fact that oil is substituted by different technologies in the two sectors.     

Energy and environment policy integration: The case of energy conservation policies and technologies in Japan

Among the OECD countries, Japan has achieved one of the lowest energy intensities and has been successful in reducing emissions of key air pollutants and CO₂ associated with energy use while maintaining a relatively high rate of economic growth, indicating that in Japan energy and environment policies have been able to address each other effectively. This study shows that in both policy domains, considerable importance was attached to the enhancement of energy conservation. The industrial sector has been the most responsive in reducing energy intensity as well as in controlling pollution. Aided by government fiscal measures, the iron and steel, chemicals and automobile industries have pursued both energy conservation and pollution control through suitable process or product innovation. The recent response to global environment issues shows that both the government and the industrial sector are determined to enhance energy conservation and environmental amelioration through technological innovation, indicating that Japanese technologies will continue to be ‘environmentally competitive’.     

Energy and the economy: an interrelated perspective

Energy consumption and economic activity for the United States has been closely related. Using input-output accounts, the variations between sectors which provide most of the consumer final demand are shown to be not as large as often assumed.The energy intensiveness of Continental Western European nations being only one half that of the United States, suggests that continued U.S. economic growth is possible without a corresponding increase in energy consumption. A reduction in energy intensiveness can be achieved through energy-related capital investments and social changes. Estimates for both the monetary value of the required capital investments and the corresponding energy required for the investments are obtained.     

Regional energy rebound effect: The impact of economy-wide and sector level energy efficiency improvement in Georgia,USA

Rebound effect is defined as the lost part of ceteris paribus energy savings from improvements on energy efficiency. In this paper, we investigate economy-wide energy rebound effects by developing a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for Georgia, USA. The model adopts a highly disaggregated sector profile and highlights the substitution possibilities between different energy sources in the production structure. These two features allow us to better characterize the change in energy use in face of an efficiency shock, and to explore in detail how a sector-level shock propagates throughout the economic structure to generate aggregate impacts. We find that with economy-wide energy efficiency improvement on the production side, economy-wide rebound is moderate. Energy price levels fall very slightly, yet sectors respond to these changing prices quite differently in terms of local production and demand. Energy efficiency improvements in particular sectors (epicenters) induce quite different economy-wide impacts. In general, we expect large rebound if the epicenter sector is an energy production sector, a direct upstream/downstream sector of energy production sectors, a transportation sector or a sector with high production elasticity. Our analysis offers valuable insights for policy makers aiming to achieve energy conservation through increasing energy efficiency.     

Exuberance in China's renewable energy investment: Rationality,capital structure and implications with firm level evidence

The new century has witnessed phenomenal worldwide growth in renewable energy investments. China has been especially remarkable, surpassing both the US and the EU in 2013. Some recent facts, however, have raised the question of whether exuberant investment in China’s renewable energy sector is rational. This paper aims to contribute to the literature and to the debate in two ways. First, it tests the over-investment hypothesis based on the main stream finance methodology; second, it analyzes the role of capital structure in the performance of China's renewable energy firms. Empirical results show that overinvestment in the renewable energy sector exists. The problem is more significant in the biomass and wind sector. Capital structure is found to be more important to downstream firms, indicating that policy makers may provide support that enables these firms to finance their investments through corporate bonds, commercial credit, or long-terms debts.     

Wind energy status of Iran: Evaluating Iran's technological capability in manufacturing wind turbines

Iran, as a developing country, will be confronted with a significant increase in electricity demand in future years. Being a petroleum producing country has resulted in extreme subsidies for energy production from fossilized resources such as oil and gas. This issue is one of the most important factors regarding underdevelopment of renewable energies in Iran. Expansive use of fossil resources in providing the necessary energy has resulted in Iran being among the 20 countries that have a share in the 75% spread of greenhouse gases. This issue has resulted in greater attention on behalf of the energy sectors policy makers regarding renewable energies, especially wind. Awareness regarding the current condition of each system is the first step for optimum policy making. On this basis, analyzing Iran's wind conditions and assessing its technological capabilities is considered a pre-requisite for the wind sectors policy making. This paper aims at studying Iran's wind energy status in the form of available capacities, power production, wind power plant characteristics, principal agents and existing protective laws. Also, the main focus of this paper is on evaluating Iran's potential and effective technological capabilities for producing the main parts of wind turbines in different sizes. In order to fulfill this task, sector-level technological capabilities are defined. Then by analyzing active organizations in this field, Iran's capability level will be determined and by comparing it with the ideal conditions, Iran's technological gaps will be identified. The reasons for the creation of such shortcomings will also be introduced from different aspects in the form of the Atlas model. Finally, Iran's potential capabilities in resolving technological shortcomings will be identified.     

Energy efficiency in rental housing

Where indigenous resources comprise a small amount of state's energy supplies, dollars spent on energy in that state are transferred to export economies, reducing local expenditures for goods and services. Preventing this transfer through conservation actions increases household disposable income, which, through a multiplier effect, exerts substantial impacts on local sales, investments, jobs, and the local tax base. A strong relationship can therefore exist between economic development and energy efficiency in the various sectors of a community. In some areas of a local economy, optimal levels of energy conservation can be achieved without government intervention, because of the existence of market incentives. Institutional barriers in the rental housing sector, however, contribute to a lack of thermal integrity in structures that are in many cases inhabited by those who can least afford anticipated energy price increases. This paper reviews the problems of achieving energy efficiency in rental housing and approaches used by local and state governments to overcome resulting barriers. The experience of Ithaca, NY is highlighted.     

Energy efficiency technologies for sustainable food processing

Energy conservation is vital for the sustainable development of food industry. Energy efficiency improvement and waste heat recovery in the food industry have been a focus to increase the sustainability of food processing in the past decades. Replacement of conventional energy-intensive food processes with novel technologies such as novel thermodynamic cycles and non-thermal and novel heating processes provides another potential to reduce energy consumption, reduce production costs, and improve the sustainability of food production. Some novel food processing technologies have been developed to replace traditional energy-intensive unit operations for pasteurization and sterilization, evaporation and dehydration, and chilling and freezing in the food industry. Most of the energy conservation technologies can readily be transferred from other manufacturing sectors to the food processing sector.     

Energy efficiency improvement procedures and audit results of electrical,thermal and solar applications in Palestine

Energy conservation in utilities has played a vital role in improving energy efficiency in the industrial, commercial and residential sectors. The electrical energy consumption in Palestine has increased sharply in the past few years and achieved by the end of 2001 to 10% per year. It is expected that this percentage will increase to about 12% if the current political situation will end hopefully with peace. Modern energy efficient technologies are needed for the national energy policy. Such technologies are investigated in this paper. Implementing of a national 3 years project aiming at energy efficiency improvement in residential and industrial sectors as well as in public utilities, which include wide range of diversified audits and power measurements, had led to creating this paper. Measurement and audit results had shown that the total conservation potential in these sectors is around 15% of the total energy consumption. The associated costs of the investment in this field are relatively low and correspond to a pay back period varying in the range from 6 to 36 months. Consequently, the energy conservation policy will be seriously improved in the forthcoming years. It is estimated that 10% of the new energy purchasing capacity will be reduced accordingly.     

Light duty vehicle transportation and global climate policy: The importance of electric drive vehicles

With a focus on the interaction between long-term climate targets and personal transport we review the electrification of light duty vehicles (LDVs) within a model that utilizes a learning-by-researching structure. By modeling the demand of vehicles, the use of fuels and emissions implied, the model solves for the optimum RD&D investments that decrease the cost of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. A range of technology and climate policy scenarios provide long term projections of vehicle use that highlight the potential synergies between innovation in the transportation sector and the energy sector. We find that even when the capital cost of electric drive vehicles (EDVs) remains higher than that of traditional combustion engine alternatives, EDVs are likely to play a key role in the decarbonisation implied by stringent climate policy. Limited innovation in batteries results in notable increases in policy costs consistent with a two degree climate policy target.     

Green accounting for greener energy

The first step towards the widespread use of renewable energy sources and preservation of our environment for the people of the future is to adopt the “green accounting” standards that translate socially and environmentally responsible behavior into monetary terms, the only language businesses understand. These standards have the potential of switching on the red light for all pollution-causing power plants, and those depleting the natural capital in any way, be it over-harvesting the forests, or exhausting the underground treasures – coal, oil, natural gas, etc. This paper will show how green accounting can help in changing the focus from the economic welfare to the total societal welfare, acknowledging the fact that human society is an integral part of the natural world. The paper will also briefly present the software developed by the authors that introduce the green accounting principles into the investment appraisal process, aiming at encouraging investments into renewable energy. The tool is also useful as a platform facilitating calibration of economic/financial instruments, like environmental taxes of governmental incentives, that are usually to boost renewable energy sector. The comparative analysis of investment into biofuel-powered combined heat and power production plant using two types of investment valuation standards, one based on conventional cash-flow analysis, the other based on green-accounting standards is detailed in the paper. The analysis is performed as a part of the European Commission Framework Program Project AFTUR, undertaken by the consortium consisting of respectful European Research Establishments in renewable energy area as well as major European biofuel-powered turbine producers. The results show that the wider adoption of green accounting standards would induce the unprecedented growth of the renewable energy sector, because it would make the investment into renewable energy attractive for investors.     

State-level benefits of energy efficiency

This paper describes benefits attributable to state-level energy efficiency programs. Nationwide, state-level energy efficiency programs have targeted all sectors of the economy and have employed a wide range of methods to promote energy efficiency. Standard residential and industrial programs typically identify between 20% and 30% energy savings in homes and plants, respectively. Over a 20-year period of time, an average state that aggressively pursues even a limited array of energy efficiency programs can potentially reduce total state energy use by as much as 20%. Well-designed energy efficiency programs can be expected to help overcome numerous barriers to the market penetration of energy efficient technologies and accelerate the market penetration of the technologies. Energy efficiency programs are cost-effective; typical benefit–cost ratios exceed 3:1 and are much higher when non-energy and macroeconomic benefits are included. Indeed, energy efficiency and associated programs and investments can create significant numbers of new jobs and enhance state tax revenues. Several states have incorporated energy efficiency into their economic development programs. It should also be noted that increasing amounts of venture capital are being invested in the energy sector in general and in specific technologies like solar power in particular.     

Feasibility of solar hot water systems in Vietnam

This study describes the prospects for solar hot water systems in Vietnam. Changes in domestic energy consumption, both in terms of quantity and patterns of usage, particularly the increase in electricity use for hot water systems, are expected. VIETSIM, a computer program for simulating solar hot water systems in Vietnam will be described. This program has been validated by comparing the results of this program with those from the well-known TRNSYS program and shown to be highly reliable. The feasibility of SHWS will be studied for both the domestic and commercial sectors. For the domestic sector, the feasibility of SHWS will be studied for medium size families in three locations, representing the main climatic types in this country. The optimum criteria for designing SHWS in this sector are also investigated. For the commercial sector, a case of a hotel/office building is analysed and it is shown that the application of SHWS is very feasible due to high electricity prices for the commercial sector. With the natural advantages of high solar intensity, the social advantages of having plentiful and cheap human resources, and an economic environment with high energy and capital inflation, the use of solar hot water systems in this country can be very favourable if the government has the correct policies to encourage this application.     

Lessons learned from studying public initiatives to support energy efficiency finance in Thailand from 1992 to 2014

Despite the huge technical and market potential for cost-effective energy efficiency investments in Southeast Asian markets, only a small fraction of this potential has been realised. Given that the major share of global future energy demand, and associated greenhouse gas emissions, will come from emerging economies, it is important to understand the barriers to mainstreaming energy efficiency into the financial sector. This paper focuses on public initiatives that support one of the main barriers: access to capital. The researchers chose Thailand as a case study because of the range of energy efficiency finance programmes that have been designed and implemented since the early 1990s. Interviews with 21 experts from government, the private sector and academia provided the core data for this research. The analysis employed a multi-level perspective and focused on the historical evolution of public support of energy efficiency finance in the country. We identified three distinct phases of public policy development over the past two decades. Despite an impressive variety of ambitious and creative programmes, the initiatives have not yet succeeded in integrating energy efficiency into the financial sector in a meaningful way. Some of the key lessons found are that (a) it is better to treat energy efficiency and renewable energy in separate financing initiatives, (b) governments find it challenging to design effective mechanisms to de-risk financial investments, and (c) international organisations play an important role in testing and facilitating the introduction of new financing approaches and mechanisms. In emerging economies, cost-effective implementation of energy efficiency measures is a promising alternative that can reduce the need for investment in large-scale power generation capacity. The researchers hope that this paper will contribute to more effective design of programmes to incentivise energy efficiency financing in Thailand and in other economies in Southeast Asia.     

我国鼓励节能的财税政策思路和建议

未来我国政府对能源的管理应由能源供应转向供应与终端消费并重,要从行政手段为主转向经济政策调控手段为主。在操作层面上,政府应该通过采取有效的经济激励政策,建立终端用能设备能效标准和标识体系,鼓励生产和使用各类节能设备,以减少能源消费、促进市场竞争、减少污染物排放,从而逐步建立起有效的节能性社会。财税政策是国家鼓励节能经济政策的重要方面,本文主要从税收政策、政府预算政策、政府采购政策等方面提出相应的思路和对策建议。     

Energy and environmental efficiency measurement of China's industrial sectors: A DEA model with non-homogeneous inputs and outputs

Environmental problems brought by industry are attracting extensive attention so a comprehensive analysis of industrial environmental performance is increasingly important. However, the comparison of industrial sector efficiencies is complicated by the fact that the natural resources consumed and/or the pollutants discharged by each sector may differ. In this paper, we extend the DEA model to consider two-sided non-homogeneous problems, handling DMU sets that have non-homogeneity in both inputs and outputs. This is different from the previous researches which generally focus on regional data to avoid non-homogeneity. Today environmental reform and energy conservation in various industrial sectors are both parts of the basic state policy of China. The empirical results show that: (1) Sectors' efficiencies are still low and unbalanced. The Recycling and Disposal of Waste department achieves the best energy saving and emission reduction efficiency. (2) 38 sectors can be clustered into four groups and set new benchmark in each group. (3) The overall efficiency of 38 industrial sectors in China maintained a rising trend in five years. With this more realistic analysis of environmental efficiency, the Chinese government can make more informed decisions to realize sustainable industrial development.     

Energy conservation of residential buildings in Beirut

Energy conservation measures on buildings have a significant role to play in reducing the burden of the energy bill on the Lebanese economy. The residential sector is one of various sectors that energy measures can be applied to. Such measures include the use of insulation materials, double-glazed windows, shading, efficient air-conditioning systems, economical lighting and reduction of infiltration rates. It is demonstrated through detailed energy analysis of typical residential and office buildings that strict conservation is benificial on the micro- and macro-economic levels. A code of practice is suggested to establish acceptable standards for energy use in residential buildings and ranking is done of energy measures based on economical indices. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Identifying and addressing barriers to renewable energy development in Pakistan

To ensure a sustainable energy future for Pakistan, it is necessary that the energy sector be accorded a high priority. Pakistan remains predominantly reliant on fossil fuels as its primary source of energy. Efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels through increasing the share of renewable energy in the energy supply systems have met with little success so far. The barriers to development of renewable energy can be broadly classified as policy and regulatory barriers, institutional barriers, fiscal and financial barriers, market-related barriers, technological barriers and information and social barriers. In this article, an effort has been made to identify the barriers that limit the use of renewable energy technologies in general and with specific reference to Pakistan, and outline the measures to address these barriers.     

The impacts of removing energy subsidies on economy-wide rebound effects in China: An input-output analysis

Facing with the increasing contradiction of economic growth, energy scarcity and environmental deterioration, energy conservation and emissions abatement have been ambitious targets for the Chinese government. Improving energy efficiency through technological advancement is a primary measure to achieve these targets. However, the existence of energy rebound effects may completely or partially offset energy savings associated with technological advancement. This paper adopted a modified input-output model to estimate the economy-wide energy rebound effects across China's economic sectors with the consideration of energy subsidies. The empirical results show that the aggregate rebound effect of China is about 1.9% in 2007–2010, thus technological advancement significantly restrains energy consumption increasing. Removing energy subsidies will cause the aggregate rebound effect declines to 1.53%. Specifically, removing subsidies for coal and nature gas can reduce the rebound effects signifcantly, while removing the subsidies for oil products has a small impact on rebound effect. The existence of rebound effects implies that technological advancement should be cooperated with energy price reform so as to achieve the energy saving target. In addition, the government should consider the diversity of economic sectors and energy types when design the reform schedule.