Energy Sector Policy Research Articles

Preface to Special Topic: Marine Renewable Energy

Marine renewable energy (MRE) is generates from waves, currents, tides, and thermal resources in the ocean. MRE has been identified as a potential commercial-scale source of renewable energy. This special topic presents a compilation of works selected from the 3rd IAHR Europe Congress, held in Porto, Portugal, in 2014. It covers different subjects relevant to MRE, including resource assessment, marine energy sector policies, energy source comparisons based on levelized cost, proof-of-concept and new-technology development for wave and tidal energy exploitation, and assessment of possible inference between wave energy converters (WEC).

Analysis of Tanzanian Biomass Consumption Using Artificial Neural Network

The growing biomass consumption in developing countries context is being driven by a mixture of concerns over energy security, sustainable development and the climate change mitigation. The development of the comprehensive, sustainable and efficient biomass energy sector policies, strategies and investments requires proper biomass utilization and planning which in fact has not yet received the attention it deserves in the developing countries policies. This paper aims are twofold; one being to demonstrate the practicability of the application of artificial neural network multilayer perceptron (ANN-MLP) in the analysis of the biomass energy consumption and two, to identify the demographic and economic indicators which works better in the analysis and prediction of biomass consumption in Tanzania. Three models made up of Tanzania rural, Tanzania urban and Tanzania population with the addition of economic indicators were formulated for the analysis. The ANN-MLP has shown promising results with the statistical correlation coefficient of 0.9972 indicating that it can be used for practical analysis and prediction of biomass energy consumption. Furthermore the results show the use of Tanzania population model in the analysis and prediction of biomass consumption gives better results in comparison to the Tanzania rural and Tanzania urban population models individually.

New Uses of Old Tools? Greenhouse Gas Mitigation with Agriculture Sector Policies

AbstractFollowing the failure of legislative proposals for a multi‐sector greenhouse gas (GHG) cap‐and‐trade policy, the shift in focus to energy sector policies ignores the perhaps substantial potential for GHG mitigation from agriculture/forestry. We review estimates of the current U.S. agriculture sector contribution to GHG mitigation from a portfolio of existing sector policies in bioenergy, conservation, and research and development to compare accomplishments across programs. We then consider what opportunities and challenges may exist for increasing sector GHG mitigation by retargeting and/or expanding current programs—or for bioenergy‐related mitigation, implementing proposed new programs—to serve as an alternative to cap‐and‐trade.

Risks of delayed reindustrialization

2012 was a tough year for Serbia because transition was not completed yet and the economy went sharply into reverse. Last year the accessi­on process to the EU slowed down and economic growth shrank by 2%, which is much more than expected. Deterioration of macroeconomic fundamentals during the crisis 2008-is evident. The labor market has been hit hard by the recession. The unemployment rate, which stood at 14.4% before the crisis, is gravitating around 25% during the crisis. Projections are even more discouraging, as it is expected to stabilize at 28% in the following three years. Persistently high unemployment has dampened consumption (investment and final). Now Serbia's economy is faced with the second dip of double-dip recession. Transmission mechanisms of deeply embedded structural imbalances are accelerated by global stress factors. Public sector and great majority of private sector are loss makers. Banking industry is profitable but in downturn negative prospects are affecting its deteriorating performances. Households suffer from low income and high unemployment. This paper investigates the influence of the structural imbalances on the investor's risk appetite and potentials for recovery. The analysis includes an in-depth look at Serbia's economy through several different lenses. We take a view that is both broad and deep, striving to drill down into several key issues, but mainly from business perspective. Proposed anti-crisis program has two purposes, financial consolidation and reindustrialization through expansion of commodities production (energy and food primarily) in the first stage as well as manufacturing in the second stage. The role of the state and the importance of the public sector are also taken into equation via industrial policy in energy sector. Our work is structured into four parts. The first part addresses the strategic audit of Serbia's economy. We present key macroeconomic and vulnerability indicators and adverse trends in the main sectors. The second part examines global economic prospects with a special emphasis on alternative economic models. The third part considers reindustrialization as a way of rethinking the current economic model. Finally, we put energy sector as priority one for economic recovery in the risk analysis framework in the fourth part.

Changing Regulation and Governance of Finnish Energy Policy Making: New Rules but Old Elites?

Energy policy making is commonly seen as a sector dominated more by experts and technocrats than politicians. Regulation of Finnish energy policy, which was traditionally characterized by state-centeredness and detailed governmental control, was step by step annulled in the mid-1980s on, and a deregulation policy was introduced. The return of regulation can be timed to in the beginning of the twenty-first century, being the result of the global debate and measures dealing with climate change. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which the changes of operational environment have transformed the power structure of Finnish energy policy making and whether the key actors constitute a coherent energy elite in terms of attitudinal unanimity and interaction networks. Methodologically the study was based on three sets of elite interview data collected in 1987, 1997, and 2009 and a postal survey conducted among the citizenry in 2007. The major finding was that despite fundamental changes in the operational environment the power structure of the energy sector policy making has been fairly stable from 1987 to 2009 and the old cohesive energy elite is still in power.

Public policy modeling of distributed energy technologies: strategies, attributes, and challenges

The systems which provide active and passive energy-services are undergoing rapid institutional, commercial, and technical change. As part of this transformation, distributed energy technologies are expected to play a greater role. In addition, governments and local authorities are seeking to encourage selected distributed technologies, including wind power and cogeneration, for reasons of public interest. Even so, most energy sector policy support models have difficulty realizing distributed technologies, particularly where complex component/system interactions arise. High-resolution modeling addresses these shortcomings through increased topological resolution, greater temporal disaggregation, extended model scope, and support for context-dependent component performance. Examples using the deeco (dynamic energy, emissions, and cost optimization) energy system modeling environment are given. Multi-agent simulation and high-resolution modeling have similar underlying architectures and can be combined to yield entity-oriented modeling. This new technique additionally supports decentralized decision-making, automatically captures interacting commercial and technical dynamics, and may be used to investigate structural evolution. A summary of national energy policy modeling strategies and a roadmap are provided.

Energy sector policies in Botswana and their implications for global climate change

Like most African countries, Botswana contributes almost insignificantly to global greenhouse emissions (GHGs). In this context, some have argued that energy policy and legislative measures to regulate emissions in Botswana should not be accorded high priority. This is a misguided view when one considers that each country, no matter how under-industrialized, contributes to the overall global emission problem. Moreover, the least developed countries will have to industrialize in order to meet the increasing economic and social needs of their growing populations. For rapidly growing economies like Botswana, whose annual energy demand is projected to increase by about 4% for the next ten years, the importance of compiling accurate inventories of sources and sinks of GHGs and formulating environmentally-friendly policies can hardly be over- emphasized. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) provides the ideal basis for the country-by-country investigations and management of global climatic change; specifically its nature, properties, directionality, characteristics and probable consequences. Botswana was a founding signatory of UNFCCC in 1992 and ratified the Convention in 1994. The country is also involved in regional cooperation efforts, within the Southern African Development Community, to enforce regulatory mechanisms to minimize GHG emissions from the energy sector. There exist certain energy-related institutions, policies, and regulations in the country which could mitigate the impact of GHG emissions on global warming. This paper, based on government and other relevant documentation, critically analyses Botswana's energy sector policies in as far as they affect climate change. It is clear that much still needs to be done about energy policies in terms of proper formulation, monitoring, co-ordination, energy pricing and the exploration of energy alternatives to mitigate potentially negative impacts on climate change.

Environmental Impacts of Energy Utilization and Renewable Energy Sources in Turkey

Turkey is an energy importing country, more than half of the energy requirement has been supplied by imports. Domestic oil and lignite reserves are limited and lignites are characterised by high ash, sulfur and moisture content. Due to increasing energy consumption, air pollution is becoming a great environmental concern for future in the country. In this regard, renewable energy resources appear to be the one of the most efficient and effective solutions for sustainable energy development and environmental pollution prevention in Turkey. Turkey's geographical location has several advantages for extensive use of most of these renewable energy sources. Because of this and the fact that it has limited fossil fuel resources, a gradual shift from fossil fuels to renewables seems to be serious and the sole alternative for Turkey. This article presents a review of the present energy situation and sustainability, technical and economical potential of renewable energy sources and future policies for energy sector in Turkey. Throughout the paper several problems relating to energy sources, environment and sustainable development are discussed from both current and future perspectives.

Microcosm- A Tool for Energy Sector Policy Analysis and Training in Nepal

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