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Étiqueté : renewable energy

Energy transition toward renewables and metal depletion

More and more attention is being paid to renewable technologies because there are seen as a great opportunity to disengage our society from its dependence on fossil fuels. Such flowbased energy resources that rely on solar energy, are supposed to lead us toward a technologies require large amounts of matter, among which common and rare metals…

Unilateral climate policies and green paradoxes: Extraction costs matter

Under which conditions unilateral tightening of climate policy causes a weak or strong green paradox or even decreases social welfare has recently been studied by Hoel (2011). Hoel assumes that the costs of extracting fossil fuel are linear in output. We extend his model by allowing for progressively increasing and stock dependent extraction costs…

A roadmap for renewable energy in the Middle East and North Africa

This paper argues that renewable energy – most importantly solar power, with its particular regional climatic advantage – could play a significant role as a cost-competitive alternative to conventional fossil fuels, if the full opportunity cost of domestically consumed oil and natural gas resources is fully priced into the regional energy system…

Certain legal aspects of the multilateral trade system and the promotion of renewable energy

(…) On the occasion of recent WTO cases that contain findings against Canada in relation to a regional measure aimed at the promotion of renewable energy, it may be pertinent to examine the degree to which the existing WTO normative framework may permit its members policy space to take measures aimed at promoting renewable energy. To that end, we provide a tour d’horizon of the WTO rules that are likely to be engaged by such policies. As part of this, we examine the GATT/WTO system’s evolved responsiveness towards environmental objectives. Finally, we highlight whatever perceived systemic obstacles might exist to the meaningful bridging of the WTO’s environmental objectives with its core trade liberalization objectives…

Pulling the plug on renewable power in Spain

Spain has earned a reputation for leadership in the development of renewables, especially wind and solar powered electricity. But draft legislation introduced last July is the latest in a series of regulatory reforms since 2010 that reduce revenues to existing renewable power generators and that end the previous system of support to new renewable generation. In this comment, David Robinson explains the background to the reform, which aims to stop the tariff deficit, which has reached €30 billion, from growing further…

Smart grids and renewables– A guide for effective deployment

The steady growth of renewable energy technologies and cost-competitiveness of solar and wind power call for a smarter approach to power-grid management. This working paper from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) provides a technical overview of smart-grid technologies as a way to accommodate larger shares of renewable energy in the electricity sector.

Year 2 of Germany’s energy transition

After a decade characterised by the take-off of renewable energies, Germany decided in 2010 to make them the top priority. At the same time, it decided to make exemplary efforts in terms of energy efficiency and the reduction of greenhouse gases. The audacious nature of this policy was strengthened by the “turn” taken in 2011 to give up nuclear energy in the wake of the Fukushima accident…

Secure and Efficient Electricity Supply

Electricity shortages can paralyse our modern economies. All governments fear rolling black-outs and their economic consequences, especially in economies increasingly based on digital technologies. Over the last two decades, the development of markets for power has produced cost reduction, technological innovation, increased cross border trade and assured a steady supply of electricity. Now, IEA countries face the challenge of maintaining security of electricity supply during the transition to low-carbon economies…

Equilibrium Transitions from Non Renewable Energy to Renewable Energy under Capacity Constraints

We study the transition between non renewable and renewable energy sources with adjustment costs over the production capacity of renewable energy. Assuming constant variable marginal costs for both energy sources, convex adjustment costs and a more expensive renewable energy, we show the following…