Alternative Energy Policies Research Articles

Assessing compounding climate-related stresses and development pathways on the power sector in the central U.S.

Future configurations of the power system in the central region of the USA are dependent on relative costs of alternative power generation technologies, energy and environmental policies, and multiple climate-induced stresses. Higher demand in the summer months combined with compounding supply shocks in several power generation technologies can potentially cause a “perfect storm” leading to failure of the power system. Potential future climate stress must be incorporated in investment decisions and energy system planning and operation. We assess how projected future climate impacts on the power system would affect alternative pathways for the electricity sector considering a broad range of generation technologies and changes in demand. We calculate a “potential supply gap” metric for each pathway, system component, and sub-region of the US Heartland due to climate-induced effects on electricity demand and power generation. Potential supply gaps range from 5% in the North Central region under mild changes in climate to 21% in the Lakes-Mid Atlantic region under more severe climate change. We find increases in electricity demand to be more important in determining the size of the potential supply gap than stresses on power generation, while larger shares of renewables in the power system contribute to lower supply gaps. Our results provide a first step toward considering systemic climate impacts that may require changes in managing the grid or on potential additional capacity/reserves that may be needed.

Toward Economically Efficient Carbon Reduction: Contrasting Greening Plastic Supply Chains with Alternative Energy Policy Approaches

As nations around the world strive to achieve carbon neutrality, many policies have been implemented at varying costs and levels of efficacy. Although carbon emissions are dominated by the power, industry, transport, and building sectors, the plastics sector is responsible for a significant 4.5% of global emissions and is the fastest-growing material production sector. This study seeks to identify the economic and carbon-reduction potential of the greening of plastic supply chains compared to existing carbon-reduction regimes. Utilizing literature review, lifecycle analysis and multicriteria analysis cognizant of cost, carbon-reduction potential, quality, and recyclability, this paper identifies the performance of virgin, recycled, and bioplastics under a number of scenarios. We find that recycled plastics offer a low-cost carbon-reduction potential; however, concerns about perceived quality remain. While no single plastic type or source can satisfy all criteria, the satisfaction of manufacturer and end user concerns is critical to reducing CO2 via plastic supply-chain greening and the move away from crude-oil-based plastics. The reallocation of subsidies from less effective carbon-reduction policies toward supply-chain greening may offer benefits and stimulate the emergence of a quality control system to overcome manufacturer and user concerns.

Energy policy simulation in times of crisis: Revisiting the impact of renewable and non-renewable energy production on environmental quality in Germany

In this paper, we examine for the first time in the literature the implications of energy policy alternatives for Germany considering the aftermath of coronavirus as well as Electricity and Gas energy supply shortages. Whilst several policy options are open to the government, the choice of investment in renewable energy generation versus disinvestment in non-renewable energy such as coal energy generation provides divergent impacts in the long term. We utilize data from British Petroleum and the World Bank Development Indicator database for Germany covering 1981 to 2020 to explore a Carbon function by applying a battery of Autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL), dynamic ARDL and Kernel-Based Regularized Least squares approaches. The particular policy tested is the pledge by Germany to decrease emissions by ∼100% in 2050, and this was integrated through the estimation of dynamic ARDL estimation. The simulation result shows that a ＋61% shock in renewable energy production decreases carbon emissions unlike coal energy production which increases carbon emissions in the beginning but the carbon emissions decrease thereafter. The findings highlight the inevitability of cutting down on coal production, and recommends energy investment alternatives. Hence, Germany’s energy policy should contemplate more thoroughly on these factors.

Leapfrogging or lagging? Drivers of social equity from renewable energy transitions globally

When countries transition to renewable energy, why do some countries benefit in terms of social equity outcomes more than others? This study examines the effects of technology, policy toolkits and path dependence on countries' changing social equity outcomes, against alternative explanations including development, quality of governance, and demographic factors. Using a new country level measure of the social equity impacts of renewable energy deployment levels for 99 countries from 1990 to 2015, this Large-N study tests which country-level policy interventions and political conditions improve the social impacts of RE deployment regimes. Drawing on statistical models of panel data, we find renewable energy adoption is associated with greater social equity, although alternative renewable energy policies produce better social equity than feed-in tariffs. Further, social equity trajectories are constrained by countries' baseline human development indicators, highlighting that lower income countries facing greater income inequality may struggle to achieve gains in social equity equal to those of higher income countries when deploying RE.

Response of new car buyers to alternative energy policies: The role of vehicle use heterogeneity

Response of new car buyers to alternative energy policies: The role of vehicle use heterogeneity

The role of techno-economic factors for net zero carbon emissions in Pakistan

<abstract> <p>The Government of Pakistan has established clean energy transition goals in the national Alternative and Renewable Energy (ARE) Policy. The goal of this policy is to increase the 30% capacity of green energy in total energy mix by 2030. In this regard, the aim of this study is to develop a de-carbonization plan for achieving net zero emissions through the deployment of a green energy system for the period 2021 to 2040 by incorporating the ARE policy targets. The Low Emissions Analysis Platform (LEAP®) software is used for finding the unidirectional causality among gross domestic product, population within the country, energy demand, renewable energy production and CO<sub>2</sub> emissions for Pakistan. The results revealed that energy production of 564.16 TWh is enough to meet the energy demand of 480.10 TWh with CO<sub>2</sub> emissions of 22.19 million metric tons, having a population of 242.1 million people and GDP growth rate of 5.8%, in the year 2040 in Pakistan. The share of green energy production is 535.07 TWh, which can be utilized fully for meeting energy demand in the country, and almost zero emissions will produce till 2040. CO<sub>2</sub> emissions produced by burning natural gas were 20.64 million metric tons in 2020, which then reduced to 3.25 million metric tons in 2040. CO<sub>2</sub> emissions produced by burning furnace oil are also reduced from 4.19 million metric tons in 2020 to 2.06 million metric tons in 2040. CO<sub>2</sub> emissions produced by burning coal were 24.85 million metric tons in 2020, which then reduced to 16.88 million metric tons in 2040. Energy demand is directly related to the population and GDP of the country, while renewable utilization is inversely proportional to carbon emissions. The declining trend of carbon emissions in Pakistan would help to achieve net zero emissions targets by mid-century. This technique would bring prosperity in the development of a clean, green and sustainable environment.</p> </abstract>

A Comprehensive Analysis of Strategies, Challenges and Policies on Turkish Sustainable Energy Development

Turkey's rapid population and economic growth have caused a significant increase in energy demand over the last two decades. As a result, a process of evaluating alternative energy strategies and policies was required to be formulated carefully along with the country's longer-term decarbonisation aims. Although Turkey's considerable renewable energy potential exists, its dependency on foreign energy and its dramatically depreciating currency have been the main drivers of revisions to these renewable energy-related policies. This paper aims to demonstrate and evaluate all the strategies and challenges of Turkey's green steps toward a sustainable future. Sustainable developments of many developed countries have been examined and compared to assess Turkish strategies and significant policies that have been taken. As findings, it has been revealed that policy revisions regarding the use of domestic technology in green power plants decelerate investments for a short time. However, it has been found that renewable energy patent applications have declined, although domestic technology in green energy plants has been promoted through these policy revisions. As a result of this dilemma, the quality and effectiveness of green research and development (R&D) in Turkey have been investigated and then benchmarked with most leading countries. It has been observed that there is no correlation and relation between the patent application and the articles on renewable energy. Therefore, the paper has provided insight into new policies and strategies to enhance the productivity of R&D for both Turkey and developing similar countries. Consequently, potential measures to increase Turkey's green energy use and production are discussed and proposed systematically, considering those findings.

Analisis bibliometrik perkembangan potensi energi baru dan terbarukan di Indonesia menggunakan R Biblioshiny dan VosViewer

Introduction. Indonesia is one of the countries that has the highest potential for clean and renewable energy in the world. Indonesia's renewable energy potential includes geothermal, hydro and micro-mini hydro, bioenergy, solar, wind and ocean waves. To find out this potential, a bibliometric analysis was carried out on the development of new and renewable energy potential in Indonesia.Methodology. Data on the development of new and renewable energy potential is taken from the Scopus database. Data retrieval was carried out through a search with the keyword criteria used were renewable energy OR potential of new renewable energy OR implementation of new renewable energy OR geothermal OR biofuel OR biogas OR biomass OR solar panels AND Indonesia earth radiation OR. The analysis of this study uses R bibliophagy and Vos Viewer.Results and discussion. The results show that the highest annual publication trend will occur in 2021. The largest number of citations for new and renewable energy publications in Indonesia is Biodiversity with a total of 74 publications and 250 citations. The Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan is a widely used publication source for publish research results on new and renewable energy. Pambudi, N.A. is a researcher who conducts the most research on geothermal energy (geothermal). Keywords that are often used are biomass, geothermal, biogas, biodiesel and biofuel.Conclusion. It was concluded that biomass, geothermal systems, renewable energy, alternative energy and energy policy were the most studied topics.

Strategies for the symbiotic development of renewable power and nuclear power under the ‘Renewable Energy 3020’ policy in South Korea: Part II. Technical solutions for expanding renewable power generation

In recent years, the Korean government has recently implemented the ‘Renewable Energy 3020’ policy to substantially expand renewable energy without the inclusion of nuclear and coal-fired power plants. This study analyzes the changing conditions of the national power system on the assumption that ‘Renewable Energy 3020’ policy achieves the goal of the expansion of renewable energy generation to 20% by 2030. Korean government needs to consider the effects of technological innovation, changes in market, and the possibility of social consensus deduction. The Wien Automatic System Planning (WASP) model was used to verify the implementation of the long-term power development plan within specified constraints. The extension methodology of renewable power equipment was verified using the WASP model, which provides the basis for the application of scientific logic and suggestion to drive the national energy transition policy efficiently. Currently, technological and economic uncertainties related to nuclear and renewable power generation need to be investigated. Thereafter, energy transition needs to be examined to promote an alternative energy policy considering the technological innovation and the social consensus. The national energy transition policy will likely succeed, if based on the accurate technical planning and evaluation of the symbiotic strategies for nuclear and renewable power generation.

Energy subsidies and poverty: The case of fossil fuel subsidies in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso has long relied on energy subsidies to facilitate the access of the population to energy products. However, there is no evidence that they contribute to monetary nor energy poverty reduction. This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of fossil fuel subsidies in alleviating monetary and energy poverty in Burkina Faso, focusing on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and liquid fuel subsidies. It then evaluates the impact of shifting expenditure from energy subsidies towards universal cash transfer to the poor.The distributional impact of subsidies on households is estimated using the price-gap approach, computing the difference between the reference price and the end-user price across the income distribution. Unlike many price-gap analyses, our price-gap estimate takes into account regional disparities in energy pricing.The analysis reveals that energy subsidies are not pro-poor. Rather, (i) end-user prices of LPG and liquid fuel are not aligned with monetary poverty, (ii) subsidies have a near zero impact on energy and monetary poverty, as those at the bottom income distribution barely benefit from the subsidies, (iii) there is a geographical dimension to the regressiveness of subsidies, as the reform impacts wealthier regions only. Alternative energy policies under the form of a cash transfer targeting the poor maximize redistribution while being budget-neutral.

A multifaceted evaluation of hybrid energy policies: The case of sustainable alternatives in special Economic Zones of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

While the gradual switch over to sustainable energy generation is under the limelight around the globe, developing nations are still struggling to meet their basic demand-supply deficits, which leads them to adopt short-term solutions like burning fossil fuels. Although the proposed mega-transportation project of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is subject to background political concerns, it has a strong potential to become a launching pad for sustainable energy growth in Pakistan. This study offers a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach for real-world prioritization of sustainable hybrid energy policy alternatives in the Special Economic Zones, planned as a constituent of the CPEC project. The factors affecting the energy policies are rigorously explored, screened, and prioritized. Flexible hybrid policy alternatives are designed with respect to the local situation in the respective economic zones. The problem is modeled using MCDM methodologies and solved by taking real-world data into account. Alternatives involving hybrid renewable solutions with sophistication in technology secure the highest positions in the ranking for most of the zones. The research outcomes, in the form of these prioritized sustainable energy policy rankings, are highly attractive for all the stakeholders, including global investors and national and international policy makers.

Vanishing weekly hydropeaking cycles in American and Canadian rivers

Sub-daily and weekly flow cycles termed ‘hydropeaking’ are common features in regulated rivers worldwide. Weekly flow periodicity arises from fluctuating electricity demand and production tied to socioeconomic activity, typically with higher consumption during weekdays followed by reductions on weekends. Here, we propose a weekly hydropeaking index to quantify the 1920–2019 intensity and prevalence of weekly hydropeaking cycles at 500 sites across the United States of America and Canada. A robust weekly hydropeaking signal exists at 1.8% of sites starting in 1920, peaking at 18.9% in 1963, and diminishing to 3.1% in 2019, marking a 21st century decline in weekly hydropeaking intensity. We propose this decline may be tied to recent, above-average precipitation, socioeconomic shifts, alternative energy production, and legislative and policy changes impacting water management in regulated systems. Vanishing weekly hydropeaking cycles may offset some of the prior deleterious ecohydrological impacts from hydropeaking in highly regulated rivers.

Assessing the consequences of second-generation bioenergy crops for grain/livestock farming on the Canadian prairies: An agent-based simulation

ABSTRACT In North America, alternative energy policies have been mostly focused on first-generation biofuels. There is continued development of second-generation biofuels (SGB), crops founded upon low-value feedstocks thriving on marginal (low quality) land. SGB’s alter the farming decision environment since they do not compete directly with high-value annual crops. To examine possible future consequences of SGB’s on mixed farming, we develop anagent-based simulation model (ABM) of a major agricultural region in Western Canada. If energy prices for SGB’s rise high enough, there will likely be structural changes in the sector. Farmers with significant quantities of marginal land experience the greatest benefit adopting energy crops. Spillover effects of energy crop adoption will also be felt in the beef industry since cattle numbers will be gradually reduced. Simulation results also indicate that beef farmers are better off with SGB crops since energy crops stabilise farm income as average farm size decreases.

Regional Computable General Equilibrium models: A review

Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models are very popular for analyzing a wide range of policy issues. CGE applications vary from estimating the welfare impact of tax reform and alternative energy policies to the effect of foreign trade reforms, labour markets and employment. CGE models are commonly developed at the country level; however, modified versions of CGE, so called Regional CGE (RCGE) models, can be used at subnational disaggregation to examine impacts studied at the national counterparts on a specific region. RCGE models have grown in popularity as an alternative to the Input-Output (I-O) models, which are regularly used for regional analysis. RCGE models can provide comprehensive information, which make them more desirable analytical models for many researchers. Yet, RCGE models have not yet become a “go-to” for governmental policy practitioners when they are developing regional public policies. This paper reviews the current state of regional CGE models, describes their features, contributions and limitations and surveys some applications of the main three classes of RCGE models: region-specific, bottom-up, and top-down models. This paper concludes that the applications of RCGE are quite variable and flexible, with a new and more complex type of application to be developed with the advancement of computation economics. The paper offers recommendations on the micro, meso and macro conditions that are necessary to increase policy practitioners’ utilization of RCGE models.

태양광 어레이의 배열 및 설치 각도에 따른 순풍압력분포 특성

The use of fossil fuels pollutes the atmosphere and causes problems such as global warming and abnormal climate. In Korea, attention was attracted on the development of alternative energy in order to reduce carbon emissions. Among the alternative energy policies, the supply of photovoltaic generator to general houses was expanded through the “One Million Green Homes Program”. Photovoltaic generators are exposed to unfavourable outdoor conditions and are directly affected by strong wind events such as typhoons. Therefore, wind damage to the photovoltaic generators is also increasing with their widespread popularization. In this study, wind tunnel tests were conducted to identify wind-resistant performance of photovoltaic generator types suitable for the installation capacity on houses. The photovoltaic generators with two (5 by 3 and 3 by 5) rectangular arrays of the same area and their three (30°, 35°, and 40°) tilt angles were considered. Wind pressure distribution and peak net wind pressure coefficient for the configurations was evaluated. Overall, the value decreased as the tilt angle increased, and the peak net wind pressure coefficient in the upwind direction at the upper corner of the array and the downwind direction at the lower corner were dominant. In addition, it was found that the rectangular (3 by 5 array) arrangement was more vulnerable to strong wind than the square (5 by 3 array) one.

The WASP model on the symbiotic strategy of renewable and nuclear power for the future of ‘Renewable Energy 3020’ policy in South Korea

The Korean government has recently implemented the energy transition ‘Renewable Energy 3020’ policy to expand dramatically renewable energy without adding nuclear and coal-fired power plants. This study provides an opportunity to use scientific analysis to investigate the ripple effects of the ‘Renewable Energy 3020’ policy, which expects renewable energy generation to reach 20% by 2030, and the policy enforcement of efficient energy transition. More specifically, the Wien Automatic System Planning (WASP) model has been used to verify the implementation of the long-term power development plan within specified constraints. In accordance with the methodology in the WASP-ΙV model, assuming that the ‘Renewable Energy 3020’ policy succeeds, additional charges of approximately 144 billion KRW by 2035 has been estimated. Therefore, a combination of continuous baseload power and variable renewable power plants can help to implement the ‘Renewable Energy 3020’ policy successfully. If technological and economic uncertainties related to renewable and nuclear powers are neglected, the second-best energy transition would need to be examined to promote an alternative energy policy, considering the technological innovation and the social consensus.

Pemex, su reestructuración corporativa, financiera y productiva, y los efectos de ésta sobre la balanza comercial petrolera

La presente investigación demuestra cómo las diferentes reformas energéticas que se han implementado en México, al vincular gradualmente los precios de los combustibles domésticos a los del mercado internacional y a la estructura tributaria interna, han tendido a distorsionar el precio y la producción doméstica de gasolinas, lo cual ha llevado a descapitalizar Pemex, a reducir la capacidad de refinación doméstica y a incrementar aceleradamente el monto de importaciones de gasolinas. El trabajo se divide en cuatro secciones. La primera analiza la evolución tanto de la organización como del modelo de negocios de Pemex, en el que actualmente predominan los criterios de eficiencia económica, apertura y dependencia creciente de capitales privados. La segunda estudia los precios interorganismos y los factores que han generado distorsiones en los componentes de éstos. La tercera está dedicada al análisis de los componentes más importantes de la balanza comercial petrolera del país, y, a partir de éste, se construyen dos estimaciones con modelos econométricos de los cambios en las elasticidades ingreso y precio de la demanda de importaciones de petrolíferos. La cuarta sección presenta las reflexiones finales con el objetivo de plantear alternativas de política energética aplicables a la realidad que enfrenta el país.

Revisiting the levels of Aerosol Optical Depth in south-southeast Asia, Europe and USA amid the COVID-19 pandemic using satellite observations

The countries around the world are dealing with air quality issues for decades due to their mode of production and energy usages. The outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic and consequent global economic shutdown, for the first time, provided a base for the real-time experiment of the effect of reduced emissions across the globe in abetting the air pollution issue. The present study dealt with the changes in Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), a marker of air pollution, because of global economic shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. The study considered the countries in south and south-east Asia (SSEA), Europe and the USA for their extended period of lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic. Daily Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) from Moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) and tropospheric column density of NO2 and SO2 from Ozone monitoring instrument (OMI) sensors, including meteorological data such as wind speed (WS) and relative humidity (RH) were analyzed during the pre-lockdown (2017–2019) and lockdown periods (2020). The average AOD, NO2 and SO2 during the lockdown period were statistically compared with their pre-lockdown average using Wilcoxon-signed-paired-rank test. The accuracy of the MODIS-derived AOD, including the changing pattern of AOD due to lockdown was estimated using AERONET data. The weekly anomaly of AOD, NO2 and SO2 was used for analyzing the space-time variation of aerosol load as restrictions were imposed by the concerned countries at the different points of time. Additionally, a random forest-based regression (RF) model was used to examine the effects of meteorological and emission parameters on the spatial variation of AOD. A significant reduction of AOD (−20%) was obtained for majority of the areas in SSEA, Europe and USA during the lockdown period. Yet, the clusters of increased AOD (30–60%) was obtained in the south-east part of SSEA, the western part of Europe and US regions. NO2 reductions were measured up to 20–40%, while SO2 emission increased up to 30% for a majority of areas in these regions. A notable space-time variation was observed in weekly anomaly. We found the evidence of the formation of new particles for causing high AOD under high RH and low WS, aided by the downward vertical wind flow. The RF model showed a distinguishable relative importance of emission and meteorological factors among these regions to account for the spatial variability of AOD. Our findings suggest that the continued lockdown might provide a temporary solution to air pollution; however, to combat persistent air quality issues, it needs switching over to the cleaner mode of production and energy. The findings of this study, thus, advocated for alternative energy policy at the global scale.

Bridging global socioeconomic scenarios with policy adaptations to examine energy-water tradeoffs

Scenarios are commonly used to evaluate the environmental implications of future alternative energy pathways - they provide a benchmark for policy-makers to evaluate social, economic or environmental tradeoffs of various policies and their benefits to society. However, scenarios may leave policy-makers incognizant of potential technological hurdles, economic costs, or unforeseen environmental consequences of energy pathways, prior to venturing into long-term, binding decisions. Herein, we present a framework to bridge global socioeconomic scenarios with in situ energy policy assumptions to ensure technological alternatives can be evaluated and compared relative to realistic techno-economic constraints, environmental tradeoffs, and potential vulnerabilities arising from climate stress. We integrate downscaled Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) with prospective Life Cycle Assessment as a framework to understand the technical specifications, i.e. raw materials, energy inputs, and environmental impacts, of alternative energy policy assumptions. We apply our integrated framework to understand the technological implications, particularly greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption, of future energy policies surrounding the practice of hydraulic fracturing in Texas, and the implications of potential adaptive responses to climate change. Results indicated that trade-offs between water conservation and greenhouse gas mitigation are inherent to hydraulic fracturing processes, necessitating careful consideration of technology options to balance environmental objectives.

Benefits from energy policy synchronisation of Brazil’s North-Northeast interconnection

During the last 10 years Brazil has accelerated the incorporation of new wind capacity into its power matrix. This situation has generated the need for increased transport capacity. However, there have been delays in the planning process for new transmission line construction, thus inducing trapped electricity in the system; in other words, electricity that cannot be dispatched to the interconnected system. Using system dynamics modelling, this paper assesses energy policy alternatives for improving the synchronisation between the construction of both power generation and transmission capacities. Simulation results show that policy synchronisation within the wind industry may provide important opportunities regarding security of supply. This paper concludes that in Brazil’s case it is possible to attain a balance between wind power expansion and interconnection capacity through synchronised and systemic interventions.