Month: February 2026
The Cost of Finance and the Cost of Carbon: A Case Study of Britain’s only PWR
This paper argues that the cost of decarbonising depends critically on the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC), illustrated with a case study of Sizewell B (SZB, the nuclear station commissioned in 1995). It calculates the cost per tonne of CO2 abated with prices set as for transmission assets by the regulator under the Regulatory…
Comparing Regulatory Designs for the Transmission of Offshore Wind Energy
Offshore wind plays an ever-increasing role for the global transition to renewable energy. For offshore wind energy to be successful, cost-effective transport of the produced electricity to shore is necessary. The development and operation of the offshore transmission asset is costly and regulated differently across the globe. In most countries, the TSO is responsible for…
Eyes on the Price: Which Power Generation Technologies Set the Market Price?
Upon discussion of price setting on electricity wholesale markets, many refer to the so-called merit order model. Conventional belief holds that during most hours of the year, coal- or natural gas-fired power plants set the price on European markets. In this context, this paper analyses price setting on European power markets. We use a fundamental…
Polar Vortexes in New England: Missing Money, Missing Markets, or Missing Regulation?
The 2014 and 2017-18 “polar vortex” events in New England served as virtual controlled experiments on how competitive natural gas and electricity markets coexist uneasily almost two decades after different kinds of regulatory restructuring initiatives freed different kinds of competitive forces to support the supply infrastructure in each energy market. As a region with no…
Letter to the Editor on Abada, et al. (EEEP 8(1))
Solar Microgrids and Remote Energy Access: How Weak Incentives Can Undermine Smart Technology
This paper documents the challenges faced by one company, Gram Power, installing and operating solar microgrids in rural India. We begin by summarizing the existing literature on best practices for microgrid deployment. Although Gram Power followed nearly all of these recommendations, the company nevertheless faced significant challenges. First, demand for solar microgrids was very limited,…
Financing the Last Mile of Electricity-for-All Programs: Experiences from China
Financing electricity for all programs has been a main barrier to achieve universal energy access. In this paper, we investigate the financing mechanisms of China’s electricity for all programs with a focus on the last mile problem, and we find that central investment, cost sharing, and public-private partnerships are essential for China’s success in such…
Consumers or prosumers, customers or competitors? – Some Australian perspectives on possible energy users of the future
Governance arrangements for electricity industries commonly claim the interests of consumers as their paramount objective. This would suggest a key decision making role for energy users, in all their diversity. However, the industry’s critical role in societal, welfare, large environmental impacts, and the challenges of ensuring it’s secure and reliable operation, all represent key shared…
Does the Shale Gas Revolution Hinder Clean Energy Innovation?
We analyze the causal impact of the U.S. shale gas revolution on technological innovation in the electricity generation sector. Using a country-level data set of electricity patents from 1978-2018, we find that the U.S. shale gas revolution led to a 1.60 decrease in the ratio of green to fossil-fuel electricity patents and a 0.93 decrease…