Energy Information Agency Research Articles

Powering Growth: The Dynamic Impact of Renewable Energy on GDP in ASEAN-5

This study investigates the dynamic relationships between renewable energy consumption, labor force, gross fixed capital (GFC), and GDP across ASEAN-5 nations from 1984 to 2020. Utilizing data from the World Development Indicators (WDI), the Energy Information Agency (EIA), and national labor statistics, we employ unit root tests, ARDL bound testing for cointegration, and Toda-Yamamoto causality procedures. Our findings indicate significant long-term cointegration between the studied variables in Indonesia and the Philippines, suggesting persistent economic relationships, while results for Malaysia show no cointegration and remain inconclusive for Thailand. The economic analysis reveals that GFC robustly drives GDP growth across these countries, whereas the impacts from labor force and renewable energy consumption are more variable. Causality tests further demonstrate that renewable energy consumption significantly fosters GDP growth in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, aligning with the growth hypothesis. Conversely, findings for the Philippines and Thailand support the neutrality hypothesis, indicating no direct causal impacts. These insights underline the crucial role of tailored renewable energy strategies to enhance economic growth and sustainability in ASEAN-5, providing valuable policy implications for regional energy governance.

Parallel role played by tight gas resource in fulfilling United States’ Energy requirement and reducing emission profile from hydrocarbon exploration and production industry (Life cycle analysis lens)

Tight gas has revolutionized the energy picture in North America. The US energy information agency states that the tight gas and oil in the USA has boosted the production of natural gas by around 35% in recent years. This has reduced the need for gas imports. Thousands of meters underground, tight gas trapped in microscopic pores of very dense rocks requires hydraulic fracturing to fracture the rock and releases the gas into the well, known as tight gas. Environmental impact of producing tight gas has caused concerns related to air emissions, water contamination and disposal of waste generated by the tight gas production. There are also concerns related to the possibility of methane escaping into the air during tight gas production and development of this resource class causing minor earth tremors. The advancements in the drilling technologies have recently enabled greater volume of gas to be produce from a single drilling site. This reduces the operational footprint, which is directly proportional to emission profile of tight gas resource. There is a knowledge gap in understanding of Green House Gas (GHG- CO2 equivalent) footprint of tight gas’ resource development because of lack of operational constraints in previous environmental impact assessment of this resource. The objective of this study is to add value and reduce the scientific gap with respect to understanding of tight gas’ resource development techniques, related environmental, and land impact. There remain concerns about development of tight gas related to chemical and methane release into the local water and air, seismic events because of hydraulic fracturing and waste disposal. In order to understand this phenomenon better the work establishes the tight gas production foundation by in depth understanding of 1) Features of Tight gas reservoirs; 2) Geological environment, deposition and generation of tight gas resource; 3) Field development techniques of tight gas resource including construction, production and processing. The work then uses methodology of accounting input and out parameters of cradle to grave tight gas system boundary throughout its life cycle and understands previous GHG (CO2 equivalent) number of tight gas resource development. The work does systematic analysis and summarizes the previously published life cycle analysis to understand further the potential environmental impacts of resource development of tight gas. This will help hydrocarbon exploration and production operators to optimize the operations of tight gas production by better understanding of each sub block of tight gas field development in terms of C02 numbers by using low carbon technologies thus reducing the potential impacts.

Energy Demand and the Potential Role of Imported Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT: The rapid economic progress of Bangladesh is associated with a swiftly rising demand and energy consumption. Future economic growth will undoubtedly require a proportionate increase in energy availability within affordable prices. Bangladesh is inherently energy-scarce and heavily dependent on imported energy, primarily fossil fuels. Several approaches and strategies were attempted over time to mitigate the energy shortage. Some of them were reasonably successful, while others failed. In this study, we first examine the historical developments of the energy sector in Bangladesh since its independence and then use three approaches – triple exponential smoothing, vector autoregression, and the Cochrane-Orcutt AR(1) process to forecast the energy demand. Data for this study were taken from various sources, including British Petroleum, International Gas Union, International Energy Agency, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, World Bank, Petrobangla, and Energy Information Agency of the United States. As expected, each model predicts an exponential growth of energy demand in Bangladesh. We then explored the possibilities of mitigating such projected energy demand. Various studies show that Bangladesh has some potential for producing energy from renewable sources, i.e., solar, hydro, wind, wave, and others. However, such possibilities are limited, and many are still in their infancy. Although an increase in renewable energy is desirable from an environmental perspective, it alone will not meet Bangladesh's growing energy demand. At least in the short term, Bangladesh must rely on imported fossil energy. Among the fossil energy sources, LNG is by far the cleanest. With the development of technology, liquefaction, transportation, and regasification, LNG production, transportation, and use are becoming less expensive. Progressively more natural gas-producing countries are joining LNG production and export, contributing to the market's competitiveness. Though historically tied to the oil market, LNG markets are becoming more and more independent because of the increasing number of participants from both the demand and supply sides. Given that both its global price and negative impact on the environment are relatively lower than other fossil fuels, imported LNG should be the fuel of choice for Bangladesh. Government policies should focus on both importing LNG and expanding renewable energy resources.

Comparison of Efficiency-Based Optimal Load Distribution for Modular SSTs with Biologically Inspired Optimization Algorithms

The battle of currents between AC and DC reignited as a result of the development in the field of power electronics. The efficiency of DC distribution systems is highly dependent on the efficiency of distribution converter, which calls for optimized schemes for the efficiency enhancement of distribution converters. Modular solid-state transformers (SSTs) play a vital role in DC distribution networks and renewable energy systems (RES). This paper deals with efficiency-based load distribution for solid-state transformers (SSTs) in DC distribution networks. The aim is to achieve a set of minimum inputs that are consistent with the output while considering the constraints and efficiency. As the main feature of modularity is associated with a three-stage structure of SSTs, this modular structure is optimized using ant lion optimizer (ALO) and validated by applying it to the EIA (Energy Information Agency) DC distribution network which contains SSTs. In the DC distribution grid, modular SSTs provide the promising conversion of DC power from medium voltage to lower DC range (400 V). The proposed algorithm is simulated in MATLAB and also compared with two other metaheuristic algorithms. The obtained results prove that the proposed method can significantly reduce the input requirements for producing the same output while satisfying the specified constraints.

ҚАЗАҚСТАН РЕСПУБЛИКАСЫ МҰНАЙ-ХИМИЯ САЛАСЫНЫҢ ЕРЕКШЕЛІКТЕРІ ЖӘНЕ ОНЫҢ БӘСЕКЕГЕ ҚАБІЛЕТТІЛІГІН БАҒАЛАУ

The petrochemical market is a necessary element of resource supply for all sectors of the economy. The petrochemical market is a necessary element of resource supply for all sectors of the economy. In its development, petrochemicals are ahead of related industries, such as oil production and refining. Even today, the volume of sales in monetary terms significantly exceeds the volume of sales of oil or petroleum products. In the future, the global petrochemical market will continue to grow faster than the oil and petroleum products market. The annual growth of the production rate of multi-tonnage plastics is expected to reach 5% by 2023, and the production of polyester fibers-6%. At the same time, the growth rate of oil demand, according to the Energy Information Agency (USA), will be 1.7% per year, including in developed countries – about 1% per year. The petrochemical industry is characterized by rapid development of scientific and technological progress, increasing the efficiency of public production. Even today, the volume of sales in monetary terms significantly exceeds the volume of sales of oil or petroleum products. In the future, the global petrochemical market will continue to grow faster than the oil and petroleum products market. The annual growth of the production rate of multi-tonnage plastics is expected to reach 5% by 2023, and the production of polyester fibers-6%. At the same time, the growth rate of oil demand, according to the Energy Information Agency (USA), will be 1.7% per year, including in developed countries – about 1% per year. The petrochemical industry is characterized by rapid development of scientific and technological progress, increasing the efficiency of public production.

The Role of Hydrogen in our Energy Future

In my first column for Energy and Climate (Our Energy Future, August 2020), this author suggested a need for investments in renewable baseload generation. When renewables are discussed, the context focuses on the intermittency and distributed nature of renewable generation. This is no less evident than in the definition of renewables provided by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA).

Environmental sustainability, trade and economic growth in India: implications for public policy

PurposeBased on the hypothesis of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between environmental pollutants (as measured by CO2 emissions) and GDP for India, over the period 1980–2012. The presence of an inverted “U” shape relationship is examined while controlling for factors such as the degree of trade openness, foreign direct investment, oil prices, the legal system and industrialization.Design/methodology/approachTo verify whether the EKC follows a linear, quadratic or polynomial form, autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach for cointegration with structural breaks is adopted. The annual time series data for carbon emissions (CO2), economic growth (GDP), industrial development (industrialization), foreign direct investment and trade openness have been obtained from World Development Indicators online database. Crude oil price (international price index) for the period is collected from the International Monetary Fund. Data for total petroleum consumption are collected from the US Energy Information Agency. Data for economic freedom variables are from the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom Index's online database.FindingsThe findings support the existence of inverted U-shaped EKC in the short-run, but not in the long-run. A linear monotonic relationship has also been estimated in select model specifications. Additionally, trade openness has been estimated to reduce emissions in models, which incorporate FDI. Else, where significant, its impact on carbon emissions is adverse. A rise in fuel price leads to reduction in carbon emissions across model specifications. Further, the lower size of government degrades the environment both in the long-run and short-run.Practical implicationsGiven the existence of the pollution haven hypothesis, wherein more trade and foreign direct investments cause environmental degradation, the paper proposes formulation of appropriate regulatory mechanisms that are environmentally friendly. Additionally, India's new economic policies, favoring liberalization, privatization and globalization, reinforces the need to strengthen environmental regulations.Originality/valueIncorporation of economic freedom as measured by the “Size of Government” in the EKC model is unique. “Size of Government” deserves a special mention. The rationale for including this explanatory variable is to understand whether countries with lower government size are more polluting. After all, theory does suggest that goods and services, which have higher social cost vis-à-vis private cost, shall be overproduced in economies that adopt more market-friendly policies, necessitating government intervention. In the study, size of government is measured as per the definition and methodology adopted by Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World Index.

COVID-19 and Oil Prices

As demonic panic continues to grip the world over the outbreak of COVID19, There is plenty of bearish sentiment hanging over the markets. The economies of most sub-Saharan African countries who for the past three years have been under the IMF economic partnership program may have to develop extra muscles to face the continues drop in commodity prices most especially crude oil. The continuous spread of COVID-19 seems to be the major external economic compass on which all a sundry rely for the market orientation. Oil prices have plummeted as the Coronavirus has intensified across much of Europe and North America. The Energy Information Agency (EIA) has revised down its global oil demand forecast, which suggests that major importers such as China as well as European countries will reduce demand for oil. The latter has followed the trend of industrial production, which has slowed as manufacturing of waxes, perfumes, dyes, shaving creams, shampoos and conditioners that rely on refined oil have been disrupted by the virus. As such, Brent and WTI both fell by 24.59% and 30% to $31.13 and $30 per barrel respectively on Monday, March 9th. Not only has the virus halted manufacturing supply chains in China, but it has also exacerbated the global cyclical slowdown, with both Euro Area and German industrial production plummeting in recent months.

E&P Notes (January 2020)

E&P Notes (January 2020)

The death spiral of coal in the U.S.: will changes in U.S. Policy turn the tide?

ABSTRACTThe administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has promised to stop the ongoing spiralling down of the U.S. coal industry. We discuss the origins of the decline and assess the effects of policy interventions by the Trump administration. We find that, with fierce competition from natural gas and renewables, a further decrease of coal consumption must be expected by the old and inefficient U.S. coal-fired electricity generation fleet. By contrast, we consider the overly optimistic (for coal producers) view of the U.S. Energy Information Agency, and test whether the tide for the U.S. coal industry could turn as a result of three potential support measures: (i) revoking the Clean Power Plan (CPP); (ii) facilitating access to the booming Asian market; and (iii) enhanced support for Carbon Capture, Transport and Storage (CCTS) technology. We investigate the short-term and long-term effects on U.S. coal production using a comprehensive partial equilibrium model of the world steam coal market, COALMOD-World (Holz, Haftendorn, Mendelevitch, & von Hirschhausen, 2016). We find that revoking the CPP could stop the downward trend of steam coal consumption in the U.S., but even allowing for additional exports, will not lead to a return of U.S. coal production to the levels of the 2000s, that is, over 900 Mt per year. When global steam coal use is aligned with the 2°C climate target, U.S. steam coal production drops to around 100 Mt per year by 2030 and below 50 Mt by 2050, even if CCTS is available and exports via the U.S. West Coast is possible.Key policy insightsDeclining U.S. coal use is primarily caused by competition from natural gas and renewables not by environmental regulation of the coal sector.Without substantial policy support, U.S. coal-fired generation capacity will continue to decline rapidly.Revoking the Clean Power Plan will lead to about one eighth higher U.S. coal production in the next years.Carbon Capture, Transport and Storage does not prevent the rapid decline of coal use required under stringent climate policy.Even in the most extreme pro-coal scenarios with additional export possibilities, U.S. coal production will not return to its pre-2010 levels.

Analysis of Interaction between Global Crude Oil Price, Exchange Rate, Inflation and Stock Market in India:Vector Auto Regression Approach

The present paper analyses the association between global crude oil price, exchange rate, inflation and stock market in Indian economic scenario. The paper employs Vector Auto Regression Model on monthly data from April 2001 to March 2017. The monthly data has been sourced from official website of Energy Information Agency (EIA), Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The analysis reveals the variables being integrated of Order I (1) and negates the possible existence of long run relationship among them. The analysis shows the negative relationship between stock index and inflation and positive association with exchange rate and WTI crude oil price. The paper also indicates the indicates the WTI crude oil price increase cause increase in inflation and exchange rate depreciation. Although the increase in WTI crude oil price has a favourable impact on BSE Index, the paper necessitates the need of decrease in reliance upon crude oil price so as to curb the increase in inflation and exchange rate depreciation. The policymakers need to devise policies to keep control on the increase in inflation and conserve the foreign exchange.

Does the impact of exchange-traded funds flows on commodities prices involve stockpiling as a signature? An empirical investigation

A number of prominent authors have recently argued that any abnormal impact of speculators on commodities prices should involve stockpiling as a signature. Others contend, by contrast, that due to the price inelasticity of supply and demand in commodity markets, speculation could distort commodity prices without any change in inventories. Motivated by this debate, this paper examines the relation between the investment flows into the three main commodity index exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the prices, inventory and term structure of four US-traded energy commodities. Using weekly inventory data from the Energy Information Agency and futures prices from NYMEX energy contracts, we do not find any significant relation between commodity index flows and inventory or term structure. By contrast, we retrieve the short-term impacts of index flows on energy commodities’ futures prices that have already been evidenced in the literature. An extension of our framework of analysis to twelve US-traded agricultural contracts confirms these conclusions. Hence, our results suggest that stockpiling is not necessarily a “signature” of an abnormal impact of speculators on commodities prices.

Quantifying diversity of electricity generation in the U.S.

Applying the Shannon-Wiener Index, Simpson Index and Stirling Index to primary energy source data from the U.S. Energy Information Agency reveals that the major drivers of diversity change have been the adoption of wind and natural gas.

E&P Notes (June 2017)

E&P Notes With New Advance, Natural Gas Filtering Technology Moves Closer to Commercial Reality Trent Jacobs, JPT Digital Editor Researchers at Rice University in Houston have advanced their efforts to develop a low-cost and relatively simple-to-make filtering material for carbon dioxide separation and capture. Their aim is for this new material to be used at natural gas gathering facilities where it will absorb carbon dioxide from natural gas streams while allowing the methane product to pass through. JPT featured the work in 2014 and, since then, the researchers say they have figured out how to optimize their process to make the material, described as a porous-carbon sorbent, to address the different chemical makeups of natural gas sources. The project has received funding from US independent operator Apache Corporation. The latest details were published last month in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal, Sustainable Energy & Fuels. US Gulf of Mexico Hits Record Production Trent Jacobs, JPT Digital Editor Average oil production in the US Gulf of Mexico reached a new benchmark of 1.6 million B/D in 2016, topping the previous record set in 2009 by 44,000 B/D. January’s average production reached 1.7 million B/D, marking a fourth straight month of increases for the offshore region. These figures were published by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA), which predicts that crude output from the US Gulf will continue to rise into 2018. Last year, there were eight offshore projects commissioned in the offshore basin, including Shell’s 50,000 B/D Stones floating production facility that started up in September and Anadarko’s 80,000 B/D Heidelberg spar platform which achieved first oil in January. Seven more projects are slated to start up this year. Foamer Developed To Help Corrosion, Scale Inhibition Stephen Whitfield, Senior Staff Writer Wet-gas production in east and central Texas can often be a complicated process, as corrosive fluids in gas wells often lead to significant deposition of iron sulfide scale in production tubing. Speaking at the SPE Oil-field Chemistry Conference, Jonathan Wylde discussed the challenges in creating a chemical component to deliquefy gas wells while reducing corrosion and preventing iron sulfide scale. Wylde is the global head of application development at Clariant Oil Services. The gas wells are located in the Teague field in east central Texas. There are several producing reservoirs in the field, but the Upper Jurassic Bossier and Cotton Valley Lime reservoirs are the most prolific. Wylde said the gas produced by the two reservoirs has different characteristics, which indicates that they come from different source rock despite being in the same field. The Bossier Sands are a blend of centered gas accumulations and prograding deltaic channel systems with minimal formation water, and the Cotton Valley Lime is an oolitic shoal trend with higher porosity zones that can produce significant amounts of water and hydrogen sulfide (H2S). University Consortium Prepares for Spike in Decommissioning Eric van Oort, Director, Consortium for Decommissioning and Abandonment In the music world, a coda is the final section of a movement or composition. Appropriately, it is also the acronym for the Consortium for Decommissioning and Abandonment (CODA), a University of Texas at Austin (UT)-led initiative that is designed to bring together members of industry and academia to help operators efficiently orchestrate the final days of deepwater developments. The CODA is a response to the growing number of onshore and offshore wells, platforms, and infrastructure that are approaching the end of economic viability and soon must be plugged and removed. In the Gulf of Mexico deep water alone, for example, 2015 abandonment costs were estimated by IHS Markit to be about USD 2.5 billion. That number is expected to rise by more than 500% to USD 13.2 billion by 2040. Abandonment expenses are particularly onerous to operators because unlike other operating costs, plug and abandonment (P&A) operations offer no prospect for return on investment. The consortium is working to minimize the economic impact on operators and to ensure effective P&A operations through the development of innovative technologies. The approach replicates industry efforts over past decades to develop new technologies with which to drill and complete wells in various challenging environments around the world.

Data for development: The case for an Indian energy information administration

Energy in India has a big data problem – the world’s second most populous and fastest growing large economy does not have a singular central body in charge of maintaining and disseminating India’s energy data, let alone analyzing it. Different pockets of data come from different bodies, some statutory, but these lack granularity and timeliness, even before we get to the challenges of data completeness, accuracy, and differences in methodology and assumptions. We propose that India should create a national Energy Information Agency – an Indian EIA or “indEIA.” India urgently needs a dedicated, central agency to collect, collate, disseminate, and facilitate the analysis of all essential energy-related data. An entity like indEIA will be critical in helping India leverage the creative powers of the national and international analyst community to provide reliable, cost-effective, and clean energy to its citizens. Our proposal envisions indEIA as the primary vehicle for curating and maintaining India’s energy data.

India's Energy Data: The Urgent Need to Move from Patchwork Systems to a National Energy Information Agency

We propose that India should create a national Energy Information Agency – an Indian EIA or “indEIA.” India urgently needs a dedicated, central agency to collect, collate, disseminate, and facilitate the analysis of all essential energy-related data. There are a number of government support programs, for everything from renewable energy to electricity access, in the billions of dollars. Their efficacy is rarely understood, in part because of data limitations. An entity like indEIA will be critical in helping India leverage the creative powers of the national and international research community to provide reliable, cost-effective, and clean energy to its citizens. In addition, granular data can enable the industry as well as policymakers to move towards more customized, dynamic, and nimble solutions, instead of relying on averaged, aggregated, and nongranular time-series or spatial data. Thus our proposal envisions indEIA as the primary vehicle for curating and maintaining India’s energy data, a vital national (and global) asset.

El Gas de Lutitas (Shale Gas) en México. Recursos, explotación, usos, impactos

Energy facts and processes have accelerated, mainly as a result of innovations and technological advances. A good example is what has recently taken place in the United States in the field of unconventional natural gas, producing expectations about the possibility of replicating the shale revolution in other countries. Precisely, information coming from the Energy Information Agency recently positioned Mexico at the top world places concerning shale gas resources in its territory. Based on this information official statements have been made about the possibility of these resources to contribute to a better energy supply and to impact economic development both at national and local levels.Recognizing the importance of the US successes and performances, a product of specific combination of conditions and factors analyzed in the article, it is not possible to sustain that they could be replicated in Mexico. A strategy to detonate the eventual exploitation of that energy source demands a deep knowledge of the structural situation of the natural gas industry. It is also necessary to understand technical aspects concerning unconventional gas production processes, to be able to understand the way economic, organizational and regulatory issues are structured.It is within an integral framework of energy, environmental and technological policies that the possible exploitation of shale gas by public and private actors should be analyzed and discussed. Once the existence of resources technically andeconomically recoverable is fully confirmed and the environmental impacts of their exploitation fully assessed, it is also necessary to build or reinforce a specific institutional and regulatory framework in order to guarantee an adequate development of this sector.

'Underlying Energy Efficiency' in the US

The promotion of US energy efficiency policy is seen as a very important activity by the Energy Information Agency (EIA). Generally, the level of energy efficiency of a state is approximated by energy intensity, commonly calculated as the ratio of energy use to GDP. However, energy intensity is not an accurate proxy for energy efficiency, because changes in energy intensity are a function of changes in several factors including the structure of the economy, climate, efficiency in the use of resources and technical change. The aim of this paper is to measure the ‘underlying energy efficiency’ for the whole economy of 49 ‘states’ in the US using a stochastic frontier energy demand approach. A total US energy demand frontier function is estimated using panel data for 49 ‘states’ over the period 1995 to 2009 using several panel data models: the pooled model; the random effects model; true fixed effects model; the true random effects model; and the Mundlak versions of the pooled and random effects models. The analysis confirms that energy intensity is not a good indicator of energy efficiency; whereas, by controlling for a range of economic and other factors, the measure of ‘underlying energy efficiency’ obtained via the approach adopted here (based on the microeconomic theory of production) is.

Energy performance optimization for Army installations

Buildings contribute to a large fraction of energy usage worldwide. In the United States alone, buildings consume about 40% of total energy expenditure, including 71% of electricity and 54% of natural gas. 1 The Army alone spends more than US $1 billion for building-related energy expenses. The 2005 Energy Policy Act 2 requires that Federal facilities be built to achieve at least a 30% energy savings over the 2004 International Energy Code or ASHRAE Standard 90.1-2004, as appropriate, and that energy efficient designs must be life-cycle cost effective. According to the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA 2007), 3 new buildings and buildings undergoing major renovations shall be designed to reduce consumption of energy generated off-site or on-site using fossil fuels, as compared with such energy consumption by a similar building in fiscal year 2003 (FY03) as measured by Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) or Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) data from the Energy Information Agency, by 55% in 2010, 80% by 2020, and 100% by 2030. Current US research efforts focus on renewable energy sources and single-building energy efficiency, and pay little attention to integration and minimization of energy use in building communities, i.e. Army installations and university campuses. There is no over arching ‘power delivery/energy storage/demand’ architecture and methodology to accomplish this. This article describes the Net Zero fossil fuel-based energy optimization process and illustrates it with an example based on the results of study conducted for a cluster of buildings at Fort Irwin, CA. Application of the energy optimization process to new construction and major retrofit project shows17–20 that use of high performance building envelope (improved insulation and air tightness), advanced lighting strategies, and efficient HVAC systems results in significant energy savings (site and source) in Army buildings in all climates. When buildings built or retrofitted with a high performance building envelope, using advanced lighting systems and highly efficient ‘low exergy’ HVAC systems, reach a theoretical energy use minimum, the largest percentage of the remaining energy use in the building will be related to its ‘mission’: lighting, plug loads, and domestic hot water usage. Additional savings may be achieved with measures related to improved efficiency of power generation supplied to the building (co- and tri-generation) and use of energy supplied from renewable energy sources. The integrated energy solution recommended here demonstrates that vastly improved energy efficiency and GHG reduction are feasible in the context of a normal scale development using proven approaches from the USA and elsewhere. Moreover, the optimization process can be applied to new construction and major renovation of buildings and building clusters projects developed for low energy communities.

A Proposal to Create a Pan-Canadian Energy Information Organization (CEIO)

Canada is a safe and stable resource-rich nation in an increasingly energy- hungry world. While this state of affairs imbues our riches with strategic importance, it also creates an acute need for accurate data collection guided by nationally accepted methods, tools and approaches, to cut through the tangle of overlapping jurisdictions that confuse present attempts to understand the Canadian energy sector as a whole. Prepared at the request of the Alberta Department of Energy, this paper proposes the creation of the Canadian Energy Information Organization (CEIO), an independent, objective energy information agency similar, but not identical, to the Energy Information Administration in the United States and the International Energy Agency serving OECD member countries. Funded through modest provincial contributions and working with Statistics Canada, the CEIO would support federal and provincial energy regulatory mechanisms; offer timely energy forecasts, analysis and statistical interpretations; lower research costs for the provinces; promote clear and uniform reporting standards; and aggregate facts and figures in an easily accessible database functioning as an official information portal, educating the public and ensuring that Canada makes the most of its energy bounty. A nationally recognized authority on the Canadian energy sector is long overdue, and in sketching one (right down to the level of corporate governance, budgeting and staffing), this paper fills in a major gap in Canada’s energy landscape.