Electrification rates have been increasing within low and middle income countries. However, the prevalence of outages is still a relevant issue for rural households when considering whether to connect to the grid. We test this by exploiting a shock in quality that unequally affected different municipalities in Guatemala during 2012–2014. Our main estimates, which are…
Differential Impact of COVID-19 on the Energy Consumption of Residential and Business Sectors
As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, some patterns of energy consumption changed in the residential and non-residential sectors. This paper uses data from a local utility company in Florida to quantify the heterogeneous impacts of the pandemic on electricity and natural gas consumption across households from different income levels and across essential and non-essential…
Mexico’s Energy Prospects: Gains from Renewable Sources Over A Fossil Fuel-Dominated Environment
Changing political conditions in Mexico threatens the future of clean energy in the country. A competitive electricity market and ambitious environmental goals were among the priorities of the previous administration, but the current administration aims to increase revenues from the national power company and acquire control of the electricity market at the expense of consumer…
Decentral Electrification, Network Interconnection, and Local Power Markets – An Introduction
(Anti) Competitive Effects of RES Infeed in a Transmission-Constrained Network
Many countries are adding substantial capacities of wind- and solar-based power generation to their portfolios. While ownership of conventional capacities is typically concentrated, renewable energy (RES) is often provided by new, independent producers. Hence, one might expect competitive pressure to increase as RES production is ramped up. However, the best locations for RES are often…
Book Reviews
Book Reviews
Greener and Fairer: A Progressive Environmental Tax Reform for Spain
Environmental externalities call for the use of environmental taxes to get prices right and thereby reduce environmental pressures. To date, however, the Spanish government makes only limited use of environmental taxes. One major reason for the policy reluctance are concerns on the regressive impacts of environmental taxes. We argue that policy can hedge against these…
Book Reviews
The Role of Energy Poverty on Economic Growth in Sub-Saharan African Countries
Appreciating firstly the importance of access to basic services and secondly, the lack of infrastructure particularly in the energy domain in the African continent, the aim of this paper is to examine empirically the role of energy poverty to economic growth in the sub-Saharan region. The findings aim to assist in proposing directions to policy…