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Abstract Renewable energy can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by providing renewable electricity, heating, cooling and transportation. The main disadvantage of renewable energy supply is that once it reached a high share in electricity generation, the intermittency caused by renewable energy sources makes balancing of the energy system challenging. This study answers the question "What is the impact of renewable energy on public investment in R&D of energy storage technologies?" Empirical literature studying investments in renewable energy technologies is abundant, however empirical literature studying investments in energy storage technologies is highly limited. Using annual panel data from 28 OECD countries over the period 1990-2014 this paper provides an empirical evidence on the role of renewable energy deployment on public investments in energy storage technologies. The results of fixed effects estimation provide an empirical evidence that governments from countries with greater share of renewable energy invest more in energy storage technologies. Drawing from the empirical results, this paper provides policy recommendations on the need in investments in energy storage technologies due to a growing supply of renewable energy. Although this paper provides lessons from countries which experienced problems with high share of renewable energy and started to promote energy storage alongside with renewable energy, the results will be useful for policy-makers from developing countries with a growing share of renewable energy in total electricity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper links energy and climate change with disadvantage in Australia and explores the dual disadvantage of steeply rising electricity prices and increasing climate change impacts. It reviews the potential of energy policy and climate policy to alleviate disadvantage, over the short and longer term, and suggests that renewable energy in particular has a role to play. However, the prospect of renewable energy policy advances in Australia is constrained, it is found, by the politicised nature of climate policy more broadly, the influence of the fossil fuel lobby, and the predisposition of current governmental policy. Drawing upon the policy streams and advocacy coalition theories of policy change, the paper assesses the political and ideological bases of this constraint, and the prospects for improved policy that could alleviate energy disadvantage. It finds that, whilst renewable energy does have an important role to play in achieving energy affordability, it needs to be supported politically, and complemented, in practical terms, by a range of policies and measures at all levels of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet technology has made creating and sharing media content, including in audio and video format, easier and more accessible for public. Renewable energy technology has been utilizing internet video sharing technology for two main purposes. First, it is a promotional tool to disseminate information about the technology; second, internet becomes a tool for contemporary society to engage on renewable energy issues. This paper shows the importance beside the potential of internet video sharing to improve public engagement on renewable energy. The study shows how an internet video sharing, particularly featured by YouTube, may be an effective tool for renewable energy technology to engage with public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet technology has made creating and sharing media content, including in audio and video format, easier and more accessible for public. Renewable energy technology has been utilizing internet video sharing technology for two main purposes. First, it is a promotional tool to disseminate information about the technology; second, internet becomes a tool for contemporary society to engage on renewable energy issues. This paper shows the importance beside the potential of internet video sharing to improve public engagement on renewable energy. The study shows how an internet video sharing, particularly featured by YouTube, may be an effective tool for renewable energy technology to engage with public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve the needed 95% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, almost all energy consumed globally will have to stem from low-carbon sources, not least from renewable energy. Sweden and Norway have long sought to become world environmental leaders, institutionalizing policies on environmental and climate issues as well as taking ambitious positions in the global climate negotiations. They are comparably well placed to become carbon-neutral societies, with large renewable energy resources and substantial financial and institutional capacity to invest in reaching this target. Focusing on the production of new renewable energy in their energy system transformations from 1960 until the present, this paper investigates why the two countries have pursued such different paths, and what might be learned. The method used is the ‘most similar systems design’; data sources are public documents and 16 interviews with key persons in Sweden and Norway. The results show that politics and public policies have had profound impacts on which renewable energy sources have been developed, when and how. Sweden, lacking access to new cheap hydropower after 1970, has generally implemented more ambitious and comprehensive policies, leading to much higher production of new renewable energy than in Norway. Differences might thus be explained by differences in resource endowments, long-term research and innovation efforts, combined with creation of markets and predictable policies. Enhanced new renewables production has boosted energy security and stabilized the energy systems in both countries. The Swedish-Norwegian green certificate market has mainly contributed to expansion of already cost-competitive or nearly cost-competitive technologies: small-scale hydropower in Norway and biopower and wind power in Sweden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although China and the EU differ vastly in their preconditions for environmental governance and investment, both have expanded their capacity for wind-power generation greatly over the past decade. The EU member-states have generally been regarded as modern and prosperous, with high and stable energy consumption and large, high-tech wind industries. China, in contrast, is an emerging economy under authoritarian rule, with rapidly-increasing energy consumption and comparatively little domestic R&D in wind turbine technology. What can explain the fast development of wind-power production capacity in the EU and in China, despite the very different political systems and basic preconditions? Applying the method of ‘most-different systems design’, this paper shows how, in both regions, large-scale investment in wind power has come about through a specific set of political motivations. These include strong governmental support policies based on similar main aims, like security of energy supply, creating future-oriented industries and employment, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and local pollution. Combined these three factors together, broadly perceived might also explain political motivations driving rapid investment in new renewable energy sources elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focused on the importance of renewable energy to Philippine energy security and sustainability agenda. It examined the status of renewable energy in the Philippines and discussed the opportunities and challenges in the further development and deployment of renewable energy. This research relied on secondary data from the Philippine Department of Energy, ASEAN Centre for Energy, World Bank, and APEC Secretariat. Relevant informative journalistic reports were also consulted. Among the major findings are: (1) renewable energy will account for an increasingly significant share of the Philippine energy mix for power generation in the foreseeable future and (2) fossil fuels, oil in particular, however, will remain the dominant energy source. Whether or not the Philippine government will achieve its renewable energy targets largely depends on how efficient and fast it will be in addressing the related issues. This study builds on the existing knowledge base on Philippine renewable energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Renewable energy resources have a positive effect on energy supply security as well as environmental protection. By analyzing the situation of the world and China''s solar industry, the paper indicates there is of great potential in China''s solar industry. However, there are capital, technology, market and policy obstacles in the development of solar industry. So we need not only the regulation of the market, but also the support of government policy, particularly economic incentives to promote solar industry in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]