The UK Government proposes offering long-term Feed-in-Tariffs (FiTs) to low-carbon generation to reduce risk and encourage new entrants. Their preference is for a Contract-for-Difference (CfD) for all generation regardless of type. I argue that a standard CfD is unsuitable for on-shore wind, where a fixed FiT appears less risky. The estimated extra trading and balancing…
2012
Development and Application of Greenhouse Gas Performance Benchmarks in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme
In the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme’s third trading period (2013-2020), the free allocation of emission allowances will be based on greenhouse gas performance benchmarks. This policy note describes how the revised rules were developed, how they will be applied in practice, and what they imply for operators of installations subject to the system. It…
Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy: Vision, Purpose and Goals
The creation of a new journal called ‘Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy’ (EEEP) was based on a vision of the critical energy and environmental challenges facing the world in the period out to 2050. On the one hand, what investment, infrastructures, resource discoveries, technology innovation and market arrangements are necessary to make enough energy…
Solar Integration
Solar energy can enter our energy systems through many doors and windows, mostly as heat and electricity. As costs go down, especially for photovoltaic electricity, the variability of the resource becomes a dominant issue.Interconnections,load management, flexible fossil or hydro power plants and storage capacities of pumped hydro plants combine to make the daily variability manageable,…
Linking Emission Trading Schemes: A Short Note
In principle, linking emission trading schemes would favour the depletion of low-cost abatement opportunities that are geographically spread over the globe. However, this would only be possible if the price of the emission permits in the different schemes converge to one price. Using a simple model-free structure, the paper first assesses how a unilateral link…
Will China Lead the World into a Clean-energy Future?
China became the world’s biggest energy consumer in 2009 and the biggest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2) two years earlier, having surpassed the United States on both counts. Driven by a strong economy, China will almost certainly see both of these facts reinforced in the years to come, despite its energy consumption and CO2 emissions…
Market and Policy Barriers to Deployment of Energy Storage
There has recently been resurgent interest in energy storage, due to a number of developments in the electricity industry. Despite this interest, very little storage, beyond some small demonstration projects, has been deployed recently. While technical issues, such as cost, device efficiency, and other technical characteristics are often listed as barriers to storage, there are…
Is Conflating Climate with Energy Policy a Good Idea?
This essay reviews the evolution of energy policy and climate policy in the United States and notes that the difference between the two has become increasingly less. In the nearly forty years that energy has been a public policy issue, it has always been characterized by impossible goals concerning reduced oil imports, but in the…
Can Bioenergy Assessments Deliver?
The role of biomass as a primary energy resource is highly debated. Next generation biofuels are suggested to be associated with low specific greenhouse gas emissions. But land consumption, demand for scarce water, competition with food production and harmful indirect land-use effects put a question mark over the beneficial effects of bioenergy deployment. In this…
The Oil Market to 2030–Implications for Investment and Policy
Oil is (an important) part of a larger global energy market, which is expected to see continued consumption growth (largely in emerging markets) and a continued shift toward natural gas and renewable forms of energy. While oil continues to lose market share, overall consumption and production are likely to continue growing— though more slowly than…