Search

In France and Germany, significant networks of local initiatives have developed around energy issues. This article brings practitioners' viewpoints into discussion. It presents the way in which two of these networks – the CLER-network for the energy transition (France) and the 100% – Regions network (Germany) – each identifies itself, describes its action and build-up process in relation to government action, and conceives of justice issues in the field of climate energy policy. The analysis shows that these two networks share a lot, including political ends (localisation of energy production, empowerment of rural territories), but practice quite differently as intermediaries for local initiatives. This suggests overcoming the transition management vs grassroots divide present in the literature and paying more attention to hybrids. It also brings emphasis on a type of intermediary's work, which has not been covered by the academic literature, namely that of tinkering with multiple supports and embedding action in local-national-supranational networking in order to maintain continuity. In discussing justice dimensions, we emphasize that motives or ends of action are only reflectively related to ideas of justice: justice issues seem bound up with a politics of assembling, either as a marker of federative action (all fighting for justice) or as a potentially divisive issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The response of energy firms to green credit policy is of great significance, which is related to the emission reduction effect of green finance and transformation of energy firms. This paper analyzes the impact of green credit policy on the growth of energy firms based on the data of Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2019. The empirical results show that green credit policy has significantly promoted the growth of energy firms. Further research shows that green credit policy promoted the growth of energy firms by reducing financing costs and promoting green innovation. Besides, the owned firms, big-scale firms and firms in central and eastern China are more susceptible to the impacts of the green credit policy. This study is relevant to the implementation of green credit policies and the promotion of the development and transformation of energy firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a unique dataset of clean energy and collects firm-level green innovation data that matches it with provinces and cities. Then, this paper executes quasi-natural experiments on green innovation to examine the effects of China's emission trading policy on green innovation. Further, this paper introduces the interactive terms of the pilot time and pilot area dummy variables into the spatial Durbin model (SDM) and spatial dynamic panel model (SDPM) to construct quasi-natural experiments to examine the spatial effect. The findings confirm a negative association between the 'policy treatment effect' and green innovation. The results also indicate a significant negative association between the emissions trading policy and clean energy. Besides, the empirical results reveal a positive correlation between clean energy and green innovation; clean energy promotes green innovation in the region and the surrounding areas. This paper complements existing research and provides empirical evidence and policy implications for developing clean energy, promoting green innovation, and improving the emission trading policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the harmonisation process within the EU area, there are many economic and political differences among European countries in promoting energy policies. Moreover, the status of implementation of environmental tax reforms in the new EU countries is very different from that in the old EU countries, and the economic and environmental impacts of such taxation are diverse. The objective of this paper was therefore to investigate whether the role of environmental taxes in reducing final energy consumption is the same in old and new EU countries. The analysis was conducted for 16 old and 11 new EU member states over the period 1995–2020 using Pooled Mean Group (PMG) and Mean Group (MG) estimators. The results indicate that environmental taxes have a negative long-term impact on final energy consumption in both groups of countries. However, this impact is much smaller in the new EU countries. Moreover, economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions increase final energy consumption. These results also suggest that in order to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, the new EU countries need to apply some stringent regulations and introduce further institutional and environmental reforms that support increasing the share of clean energy sources in the energy mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a methodology for assessing the level of energy security for individual territories in countries. The most significant energy security indices for such an analysis are formulated and used to illustrate a method proposed to obtain an integrated assessment of the energy security state for the regions of Russia. A method for determining the specific weights of indicators in the general system of their value is presented. The application of the developed methodology for analyzing the main trends and the scale of changes in the state of energy security of Russian regions is shown on the example of the Siberian Federal District. Conclusions about the energy security state in these regions are made, and the reasons for the related negative trends are presented. The presented indicative analysis allows identifying the problems in various aspects of energy security in the regions and helps develop measures to improve it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germany represents a new and unconventional actor in the field of energy foreign policy. Based on its reputation as an energy transition frontrunner, it is pursuing a soft power strategy aimed at promoting its Energiewende policy approach abroad. Germany's bilateral energy partnerships, this paper argues, represent the government's central policy instrument for this purpose. After a discussion of the German energy transition as a soft power resource, the paper provides an in-depth empirical analysis of Germany's bilateral energy partnerships. The paper argues that the partnerships have been deliberately designed as instruments for mobilizing the Energiewende narrative as soft power. Linking it to concepts in the soft power debate, it discusses the main channels through which the partnerships aim to boost the attractiveness of German policy solutions and persuade partners to consider their adoption. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for further research on the international political economy of energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan has historically been a major player within the Indo-Pacific region due to its rapid post-war economic expansion, technological advancement, massive overseas development aid as well as its cultural outreach. As the Indo-Pacific today is marred with various challenges in the form of maritime and energy security, border conflicts, booming population, developing economies, and rising carbon emissions, among others. The region requires a multipolar balance of power wherein nations can lead by example and concerted action towards creating a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable future for an extensively dynamic Indo-Pacific. This paper focuses on one of the critical variables of the region, i.e., the energy sector, and attempts to place Japan's role and contribution to the region's ongoing energy transitions. The extent and means through which Japan can propel itself and the region towards a just transition with the help of regional and international cooperation have been analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The latest climate science provides stark warnings around the need for a transition away from further oil and gas exploration. Denmark, as a leader in the oil and gas transition, has already cancelled new oil and gas permits and is pursuing the phase-out of existing oil production in the Danish North Sea by 2050. Progress in other areas of the world, however, is more circumscribed, giving rise to a landscape of both 'leaders' and 'laggards' across value chains. This Special Issue unites the need for market-led oil and gas just transitions with net zero emission ambitions, critically analyzing the potential for a just transition (or transitions) by 2040. This editorial provides introductory context to nine articles and summarizes their key policy insights. The nine contributions present interdisciplinary and mixed method perspectives from globally diverse country contexts. Papers explore oil and gas transitions across the value chain and with attention to a range of stakeholders and processes, including public norm development, tribunals, and industry investments. Whilst there is growing consensus across various actors and institutions in society around the need to phase-out oil and gas, the papers also showcase that care must be taken to avoid perverse incentives, engage the public, steer investment, engage with controversies, account for emerging producers, consider country phase-out sequencing, account for indirect and direct job losses, and consider investor compensation caps. Across all contributions, and alongside reflections of the various barriers and enablers for obtaining just outcomes, considerations of just transitions thinking appear in several different ways. They appear conceptually, empirically (in terms of research findings), as guidance for decision-making, and as an aspirational outcome or target to be obtained; that is, just transition is treated in the same way as the phase-out of oil and gas - as a process and a goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, challenge-oriented innovation policy has become increasingly popular in political and scientific discussions. However, the extent to which such a challenge-based thinking has entered regional policy making is relatively unclear. This paper examines the scope of the regional level in promoting challenge-based innovation, focusing on the recent renewable energy innovation policy in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The results show that while regional innovation policy in Schleswig-Holstein aims to address several structural and transformational systemic failures, many other problems and challenges remain, as they are beyond the capacity of a single region to address. Based on this analysis, we draw four conclusions. First, similar to many other structurally weak regions, policymakers in Schleswig-Holstein are struggling with some of the same key challenges that the policy was originally designed to address. Second, multi-scalar governance and inter-scalar coordination are essential for managing regional sustainability transitions. Third, challenge-driven innovation policy is an extension of, rather than a replacement for, conventional regional innovation policy. Finally, environmental and economic goals should be well balanced in challenge-driven regional innovation policy design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many policy issues are interdependent, while much policy making occurs in sector silos, involving sectoral networks each dominated by their own policy ideas and interests. Such parallel policy-making increases the risk of incoherent policy mixes across policy sectors. However, when new policy issues emerge that cut across existing sectors, opening a new policy field, it presents opportunities for a reconfiguration of actors in new networks. Such network reconfigurations could lead to more coherent policies for interdependent policy issues. This paper examines the Danish policy framework to promote biogas, focusing on the consistency of the policy mix with regards to sustainable development of biogas, and how reconfigurations of actor networks across policy sectors have affected the policy mix. We find that the policy mix is coherent, integrating policy objectives across sectors, and show that this owes in part to a policy community type network that evolved over time. The paper contributes to research on policy instrument mixes by showing how certain types of policy networks may contribute to developing consistent policy mixes. We also identify important coordinating roles of two new intermediary actors, including a government task force, suggesting that procedural policy instruments may contribute to developing consistent policy mixes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential energy policies for individual dwellings predominantly provide minimum design standards for thermal performance and energy efficiency on a square metre basis. This paper quantifies predicted dwelling energy use on a national scale to enable evaluation of the effectiveness of this policy model. Utilizing Australia as a case study, analysis of 580,956 thermal energy design certificates for new detached dwellings verifies that, although minimum energy efficiency design standards were achieved, predicted energy use for thermal comfort increased by 10.4% per dwelling and 5.6% nationally in 2022 compared to 2018. The study examines the impact of both the number and floor area of new dwellings on dwelling energy use and highlights the disparate jurisdictional outcomes resulting from inconsistent implementation of national policy across multi-state governance. To deliver reductions in household energy use it is imperative that residential energy policies target household energy use, rather than only energy efficiency, of new dwellings, of which floor area is a key determinant. Furthermore, to achieve global climate change objectives, there is a need for complementary policy mechanisms that consider the collective energy use of the residential dwelling sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With Japan's thrust towards a more balanced energy mix, it has been undergoing what can be termed as an energy transition. While the Fukushima Disaster has played a crucial role in this transition, the Paris Agreement has further acted as an impetus for the same. However, since 2012 Japan was under the political leadership of Shinzo Abe, who today is the longest-serving Prime Minister of Japan until Yoshihide Suga took over the prime ministership recently. Under Abe's guidance, Japan's energy policy has been a mixed bag with a few hits and some major misses. Now, as Japan welcomes its new Prime Minister Suga, it falls upon him to lead Japan on a path of just transition. One which balances its energy and economic goals and pays heed to the necessity of building a climate-friendly sustainable model. This paper maps and evaluates the Abe administration's broad energy policy measures and attempts to foresee the changes Suga administration can introduce to the ongoing energy transition of Japan. It also highlights the areas within the energy sector, which might require the focus of PM Suga to enable Japan to take advantage of the opportunity of making Japan a part of global green leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the energy consumption of elderly and non-elderly households, recognizing the ever-increasing importance of the aging population for energy policy. Decisions of the domestic (in-home) and transport (out-of-home) sectors at the household level are jointly incorporated by building a multivariate Hierarchical Archimedean Copula model with intra-sector and inter-sector dependencies. Data from a life-oriented behavioral survey in Japan are used, which includes 532 elderly households and 340 non-elderly households. A variety of life-related factors, together with built environment factors, are introduced into the above model. Modeling analysis results show that inter- and intra-sector dependencies are heterogeneous across households in terms of these factors. It is found that almost equal numbers of influential factors are sensitive and insensitive to age-based sample segmentation. Various similarities and dissimilarities across energy types between elderly and non-elderly households are revealed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can ambitious climate policies in the European Green Deal succeed when faced with rising societal divisions between Europeans? This paper undertakes an empirical analysis using data from the European Social Survey to see whether the divisions between cosmopolitan and communitarian Europeans evident in other policy fields like migration are also found in relation to climate and energy. The results show that political ideology is most important determinant of individual attitudes, and that differences in attitudes between Eastern and Western Europe may be explained by energy security and economic development issues. The EU has maintained an ambitious policy since the mid-2010s, and with the Green Deal appears to be framing climate ambition in ways that the data suggests may reduce communitarian opposition, but not the differences between EU Member States resulting from security concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike many Western countries, the Chinese state has a much more active role in innovation that includes direct involvement with actors in innovation processes and the use of state capacity, money, and power to attain certain goals. With the rise of China, innovation processes that critically depend on state action, often labeled state‐led innovation, have thus received growing scholarly attention. However, only few contributions study the specific sector of new energy vehicles (NEV) and policy measures applied at the city level. This paper examines policy and planning tools used in Shenzhen, China, to assert innovation in the NEV industry, using an evaluation of documents and interviews. The paper finds that a city can play a decisive role in the implementation of innovation policy, and Chinese cities in particular make use of a broad set of innovation support measures ranging from binding quotas, public procurement, and incentives to bans and orders. The findings underline the importance of strong regulatory instruments that do not conform to the Western notion of market‐compliant policy, but nevertheless work effectively in the Chinese context. Moreover, the results highlight how successful policy support for innovation in the NEV can be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a fixed effect model to evaluate the effect of wind power policy using a panel dataset covering 30 provinces in China during the period 2000–2017 based on the framework of the Renewable Energy Law and its accompanying policies. The empirical results show that three mechanisms, the Total target mechanism, the Feed-in tariffs (FIT) mechanism, and the Special fund mechanism, are significant in improving wind generation and capacity. The Total target mechanism's impact on wind capacity is greater than is that of generation, the effect of both the FIT mechanism and the Special fund mechanism is greater on wind generation than on capacity. The FIT decline mechanism and the Cost sharing mechanism have mutually reinforcing relationships in respect of wind development. The Mandatory connection and purchase mechanism's effect on wind capacity is significant, whereas its effect on wind generation depends on the specific implementation policy. Conclusions and policy recommendations built on these findings are provided at the end of paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by literature on collaboration, policy adoption, and utility governance, this paper develops and empirically tests hypotheses addressing the implications of collaboration, utility ownership and city-level commitment to sustainability on city-level clean energy policy decisions. This paper offers an answer to the question, "to what extent does collaboration between utilities and local governments influence policy adoption." We utilize cross-sectional data from the United States focused Integrated City Sustainability Database (ICSD) to perform an ordinary least squares regression analysis that investigates the degree that specific city attributes and state policy influence the creation of city-scale policy. This analysis shows that cities with a Publicly Owned Utility (POU) adopt close to two energy policies more than similar cities served by an IOU. Higher levels of collaboration among cities and with an Investor Owned Utility (IOU) can offset a portion of the adoption gap for community-oriented energy policy, but has little to no impact on governmental or renewable policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies the demoi-cratic theory to EU energy governance and policy, and explores whether the demoi-cratic criteria of equal legislative powers between statespeople and citizens and the supremacy of multilateral law through participatory jurisprudence apply to EU energy affairs. More specifically, it zooms in on democratic pathogenies deriving from lack of citizen engagement in energy policy-making at national, transnational and supranational levels; the impact of the lack of citizen participation on the output legitimacy of energy decisions; and democratic externalities and their consequences in the energy realm. It concludes that energy policy-making fulfils neither of the demoi-cratic criteria. This is due to the top-down mode of EU energy policy, and the dual EU failure to benefit from citizen engagement in the design and implementation of energy policy, and to recognize and deal with the democratic externalities emanating from the heightened democratic interdependence within the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dependency on coal consumption to maintain energy security is common to the majority of developing countries where the coal is found in abundance. China and India are the leaders in coal consumption from the developing countries group, so establishing a relationship between the coal consumption and the economic growth for these two will derive useful lessons for policy-makers. This paper re-examines the causal relationship between coal consumption and economic growth in China and India for the period 1969–2013, for the first time using a frequency domain–based Granger causality test proposed by Brietung and Candelon (2006). The empirical results support unidirectional causality running from coal consumption to economic growth for both China and India. The findings of this paper provide important policy implications for energy policies and strategies for these two countries under study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Governments all over the world experience institutional conflicts in transforming their fossil-based energy system into a more renewable one. Between national, regional, and local tiers of government tensions rise on meeting renewable energy objectives. Under the institutional arrangement of subsidiarity, decisions on renewable energy policy objectives are taken on the international level, while the implementation of policy increasingly becomes a local responsibility. In this paper, we use an institutional framework to analyze the tensions in interactions between tiers of governments on four cases of Dutch wind energy policy implementation. The analysis offers insights into how tensions emerge in top-down wind energy policy implementation in the Netherlands. Within the four cases, tensions between government tiers are found, serving to constrain local tiers of government to implement local policy and object to top-down development. The results indicate that local issues aren't sufficiently addressed in higher-tier government policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is continuously growing stronger. Realization of the direct correlation of quality of life to the environmental aspects of the energy sector has been at the heart of the new energy paradigm. In light of this, ensuring full awareness of current and potential emissions, with regard to market circumstances and policy implications, is crucial in acquiring a better overview on the current issues and the future development of the energy system. Research presented in this paper offers a method for calculating direct CO2 emissions from electricity generation. It also offers an insight into current issues and future prospects of the South East Europe electricity market. Observing various scenarios, the region's emission intensity is evaluated, with special consideration given to the potential impact of varying carbon prices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to review, summarize, and critically assess the academic studies that have dealt with either the causal relationship between energy consumption and growth or the determinants of energy demand in South Africa from 2007 and outline recent forecasts for electricity demand. The results of this review aim to identify gaps in the existing research. From a policy point of view, the findings of this effort have the potential to inform the relevant stakeholders to make appropriate interventions to improve the status quo of the energy sector. The results have indicated that studies examining the causality direction between energy (electricity) consumption and economic growth have failed to reach a consensus. The main differences identified were the time periods examined, the econometric approaches, and the variables included in the estimations. Another potential reason for the results is the availability—or lack thereof—of data specific for the country. On the other side, the studies looking at the factor affecting energy (electricity) demand have agreed that economic growth or income or output are considered significant factors. The role of prices was debatable among different studies. This has become more apparent when reviewing the few forecasting efforts in the country that resulted in conflicting results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The EU has long pursued relatively ambitious climate and energy policies, often against the backdrop of what has been termed the EU 'polycrisis'. This paper introduces a special issue which seeks to develop a better understanding of why, how and with which consequences the polycrisis and EU climate and energy governance have influenced each other. It draws on a novel framework of five broad crisis trends underlying the polycrisis. Most of the contributions suggest that EU climate and energy governance have advanced significantly despite, and sometimes even because of, the crisis trends. The countervailing effects of the trends and the effectiveness of actors' strategies to advance EU policy against opponents go a long way to explaining this puzzling finding. As the EU seeks to fully decarbonise itself by 2050, interactions with the crisis trends are likely to intensify in ways which future research could fruitfully investigate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the 2009 EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED), Norway has overachieved its national renewables target and taken the European lead in new wind power. This seems puzzling as Norway had a surplus of renewable energy and the government opposed the EU-induced national target. Employing a dynamic approach to implementation and its consequences, we examine three explanations. From an EU adaptation-pressure perspective, the RED enabled joint implementation, which Norway utilized through its flexible certificate system with Sweden. From a domestic politics perspective, internal pressures led to favourable depreciation rules that stimulated pro-windpower interests. Third, from a policy feedback perspective, protests from municipalities resulted in a reform of the licensing system. These explanations proved complementary, and more persuasive than the main alternative explanation of drastic cost reductions in windpower technology. Our findings speak to the energy democracy, energy policy and implementation literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanisation and global environmental transformations require rethinking the material and social configurations of cities. The concept of 'transitions' has gained traction to guide such processes of infrastructure change towards net-zero, resilient societies both in academic and policy conversations. In this paper, we examine what notions of change are deployed in these debates. Specifically, we argue that transition theory conceptualises change as triggered by intentional actions and innovations by emphasising the functional drivers leading change. While deliberate actions cause changes, not all change follows strategic intent. Instead, transitions also depend on contingent relations between social actors and material objects, which cannot always be planned or anticipated. The concept of 'urban infrastructure landscape' helps reveal the non-strategic aspects of transitions. The example of improved cookstoves in Maputo, Mozambique, demonstrates the change envisaged in current energy policy and the changes on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU's character as a regulatory state is widely accepted, yet more research is needed to shed light on the relationship between primary and secondary legislation, as well as other types of rule specification. Applying these concepts to EU rulemaking is insightful since rules adopted through the ordinary legislative procedure (primary legislation) usually only set a broad framework. Yet prior to implementation at the national level, many policies are subject to rule specification through executive decisions (secondary legislation), or through private actors (private regulation). Nevertheless, analysis of the growth of European regulation has mostly focused on primary legislation. By contrast, the question how secondary legislation and private regulation relate to primary legislation has attracted far less attention. I argue in this paper that a focus on primary legislation risks leaving us with a biased account of the power balance in European policymaking. The paper follows a case-oriented strategy with the aim to develop a workable operationalisation of the core concepts. It compares two fields of legislation, namely European product and energy policy. It first retraces the evolution of primary and secondary legislation, but also voluntary agreements as an implementing instrument and the role of private actors' expertise in these fields, and then assesses the relationship between these regulatory tools based on document analysis and expert interviews. The goal is to work out discrepancies between the formal allocation of competencies and the actual locus of power. The findings show that solely looking at primary legislation leads to several misperceptions, such as overstating the relative importance of certain policy instruments, or the achieved degree of administrative centralisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies the coalitions involved in the topic of shale oil and gas development in India and identifies the circumstances surrounding a change in policy in 2013 by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to promote shale exploration. Using the Advocacy Coalition Framework as the theoretical lens, the data are collected primarily from newspaper articles from 2010 to 2015 to identify coalitions, including actors’ positions, priorities, and interactions. The findings show the presence of a dominant advocacy coalition in favor of shale oil and gas development with priorities about energy security and a regulatory framework. The findings indicate some internal coalition disagreement, but stronger internal coalition agreement. Policy change was preceded by a spike in disagreement internal to the dominant coalition. This paper shows how a change in a dominant coalition can precede a change in policy, offers a replicable method of identifying and measuring coalitions via newspaper content analysis, provides a rare application of the Advocacy Coalition Framework outside of North America and Western Europe, and provides evidence of support for shale oil and gas development in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the structural-energy, electrically conductive and polarization properties of biintercalant clathrate GaSe≪NaNO2> +3≫. The existence of two modifications of the crystal structure with interplanar distances c1 = 16.072 Å and c2 = 15.977 Å was established by X-ray diffractometry. The сurrent-voltage characteristics of the biitercalant clathrate GaSe≪NaNO2> +3≫ acquires a hysteresis form, which indicates the accumulation of electric charge at the interfacial boundaries. The spectrum of impurity energy levels was established by the method of thermally stimulated discharge with short-circuited contacts in the temperature range from 240 to 340 K, which testifies to the relaxation of the hetero-charge and the quasi-continuity of energy states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international agenda has become a key area due to the diversity of topics negotiated at the international level and the fact that emerging countries question the global distribution of power. In this context, the international agenda can be characterised as a result of bids for power. This article focuses on Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS member states) as emerging powers that have demanded to change some rules and put on the table new meanings for crucial topics as norm entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, during the second decade of this century, Brazil and South Africa have withdrawn from the international scene, while India, Russia and China (mainly Beijing) have intensified their presence. This paper aims to analyse the achievements and limitations faced by each of these emerging countries as norm entrepreneurs, particularly regarding global health and world energy governance. It follows an interpretive research methodology and its purpose is to contribute to the debate on systemic changes and the role of emerging powers in the norm entrepreneur literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates state policy to promote solar energy in Latvia's and Ukraine's households. Comparing different approaches to stimulating sectors' development in both countries, the article evaluates the economic efficiency of solar power plants implementation based on the Levelized Cost of Electricity method and investment projects payback periods. The calculations were performed for solar power plants installed capacities ranging from 1 to 30 kW. The results revealed the fundamental differences in solar energy advancement due to the existing support mechanisms in the countries. While high feed-in tariff rates contribute to the rapid deployment of solar power plants in Ukraine's, Latvia's net-metering system hinders solar energy development in households. The research forms recommendations for improving policy by adjusting Ukrainian feed-in tariffs to trends in reducing solar energy costs, introducing solar energy in the Mandatory Procurement Component for Latvia, and applying preferential public financing to solar power plants construction in both states. Highlights State policy to promote solar energy in Ukraine's and Latvia's homes is analyzed The economic efficiency of small solar power plants is estimated for both countries Feed-in tariff in Ukraine ensures a quick payback period for solar power projects Net metering in Latvia does not provide investment attractiveness of solar plants Both countries need energy policy changes for balanced solar power development [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studied the phenomenon of energy poverty in the Municipality of Agrafa, a mountainous region of Greece, aiming to enhance knowledge on the phenomenon within mountainous areas. For this purpose, a primary survey was undertaken, and various objective and subjective indicators were monitored. It was found that 62.4% of households in Agrafa are classified as energy poor according to the 10% index based on actual energy costs, while the percentage escalates to 91.3% based on required costs. Also, the compression of energy needs emerges as a significant side of the problem. The subjective indicators highlight supplementary behavioural aspects of the phenomenon. A set of statistical tests was applied, i.e. cluster analysis, Chi-square tests of independence and regression analysis, enriching the outcomes of the research. Finally, the directions of energy policy are evaluated, highlighting the need for targeted research and policy measures adapted to mountainous areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency policy is expected to play a key role for meeting the European Union's energy targets (particularly for reduced energy demand and reduced CO2emissions) using a range of policy instrument combinations. However, most analyses undertaken so far have focused on single-policy measures rather than developing a more generic framework for assessing to what extent a particular policy mix is effective and under which specific conditions. This paper both contributes to the theoretical literature on policy mixes and undertakes an empirical analysis of the current policy mixes in buildings efficiency policy in 14 European Union countries. Building on the existing literature, and using expert knowledge, an assessment of the interaction of 55 pairs of policies is presented. This identifies policy mixes likely to deliver more, less or the same energy savings in combination than singly. The theoretical assessment is compared with actual policy mixes present within the European Union, highlighting that combinations of multiple financial incentives may need further investigation. By bringing these forms of knowledge together, the paper suggests how buildings policy mixes could be made more effective, shows gaps in current knowledge and highlights key research needs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper discusses in detail specific barriers to establishing energy efficiency policies in Croatian public buildings that affect the realisation of energy efficiency projects. Barriers were discovered after years of collaboration with public institutions in Croatia, especially at a local level. Although the information presented in this paper relates specifically to the geographical areas of Splitsko- Dalmatinska and Dubrovacko-Neretvanska counties in Croatia, the research can be generalised to the country as a whole. The paper also analyses the important role of the United Nations Development Programme in encouraging proactive energy efficiency policies in public buildings in Croatia. Finally, a new organisational framework is proposed to eliminate existing barriers and to establish a system which will lead to the effective realisation of energy efficiency projects in buildings. The research presented in this paper should also be useful to countries facing similar barriers to energy investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency policies can help to reduce energy use and mitigate the effects of climate change. This paper examines the U.S. and Chinese economies by applying HEM to both. Key sectors absorbing more energy from other sectors by purchasing intermediate products from them and, simultaneously, transferring more energy by selling products to the rest of the sectors are identified. This provides insights for decision-making on appropriate energy efficiency policies. It appears that the U.S. economy should focus on the service sector, and the Chinese should focus on the industrial sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drying is a ubiquitous process in a wide range of applications and industries, including residential and commercial textile drying, agriculture, chemical processing, and the pharmaceutical industry. Thermal drying is energy intensive due to the unavoidable thermodynamic constraint of supplying sufficient energy to provide the latent heat of evaporation (> 2000 kJ kg−1) for the removal of water vapor. There is a critical need to reduce the overall energy consumption in drying, and several methods to do so have been explored. Most energy saving approaches for convective drying are based on heat recovery from the exhaust stream, because a significant amount of heat used in drying appears in the exhaust stream. Different techniques have been attempted to reduce energy consumption in different types of dryers (gas-fired, electrical, and heat pump dryers). This paper focuses on the literature addressing drying theory and the underlying mass, species, and heat transfer phenomena, identification of the most energy-consuming steps in the process, assessment of the potential for energy savings, and the energy saving techniques considered in the literature. Insights gained from this study are used to identify the optimal techniques to minimize energy consumption and drying time for a variety of drying scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers often focus on the most intense conflicts, skewing our perception of the diversity and nature of policy conflicts. The paper examines the discourse engaged in the siting of three pipeline projects under construction, each with varying levels of conflict, and one rejected project of high conflict. We analyze over 700 newspaper articles that span the life of each proposed pipeline and supplement the news media data with interviews. Using these data, we compare differences in actor types, frames, and behaviors in natural gas pipeline siting processes characterized by high, medium, and low conflict. Comparing the characteristics of energy siting conflicts at varying intensities helps support corresponding portrayals of how people engage in the policy process. This paper offers theoretical and empirical guidance on understanding policy conflict intensity variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the heterogeneity of ways through which a policy innovation affects the structure and the complex interactions taking place within a business ecosystem and how different business ecosystems react differently to a policy innovation, given their structural and behavioural characteristics. The paper focuses on a specific policy innovation, namely the collective switching. We performed a cross-country analysis using the 6C framework as a tool for identifying differences in the structure and behaviours of energy business ecosystems after the introduction of collective switching. We examined in rich detail 11 European countries' collective switching campaigns, and provide an accurate description of the transformations of their energy business ecosystems. Semi-structured interviews, conducted with consumer associations that organised collective switching campaigns, provide insights for the definition of some policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to reduce carbon emissions calls for more use of renewable generation, particularly distributed resources. The intermittency of renewable generation, and concerns about energy security, require us to become more independent of central grid operation by use of local or regional (micro-grid) electricity systems. Distributed generation, allied to the commercial availability of battery storage products, permits this – the pathway to energy autonomy. This paper reviews the contribution of different renewable energy sources (RES), trends in energy storage technologies to enable energy autonomy, and the centralised and decentralised techniques that coordinate the associated energy management. The paper covers energy autonomy at different scales, ranging from household levels to district levels. The improvements in grid independency are measured accordingly. There is discussion of this measurement and of the economic and ecological benefits from energy autonomy in the context of policy frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kuwait's policy of achieving 15% renewable energy by 2030, announced in 2012, has been diverted from its original intent. Today, Kuwait's renewable energy goal is to meet 15% of its projected peak load by 2030. To examine the actual outcomes, a comparison is offered between the original policy: annual energy share, the current policy: peak capacity share, and two other policies: installed capacity share and peak load share. The results demonstrate how these policies lead to drastically different outcomes. The total installed renewable energy capacity ranges from 4 GW to 27 GW; the total produced energy from renewables ranges from 8 TWh to 44 TWh; and the flexibility requirements ranges from 1.6 GW to 20 GW per hour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy transition and achieving net-zero goals were viewed as a straight road – in some quarters. Still, with the realities on the ground, energy security has emerged as another path governments must earnestly consider. The government of the United Kingdom has backed, and committed itself to achieving, a greener and clean-energy society through various policies and laws. However, the Russian–Ukraine crisis has raised a vital question of energy security for the government. This paper looks pragmatically at some issues and opportunities for the UK government. Energy security issues are not peculiar to the UK; many countries are saddled with these energy problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of policy theories could help produce comprehensive understandings of the policy process and generate findings that challenge the boundaries of the policy sciences. To help promote policy theory integration, this paper reviewed and discussed the scientific benefits of publications that have integrated the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD), Multiple Streams Framework (MSF), Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), Epistemic Community (EC) and Instrument Constituency (IC) theories. It discovered that these publications are strongly focused on the integration of the MSF, ACF and EC theories. Some of the scientific benefits of integrating these theories include the discoveries that epistemic communities and instrument constituencies do not only support advocacy coalitions but can lead policy decision-making. Hence, researchers are encouraged to pay more attention to theory integration in the policy process scholarship. One question that needs further attention is: under what conditions do actors in one stream actively participate in another stream? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the inequity in irrigation distribution in India using a variant of Theil's entropy measure for the period 1995–2010. The analysis reveals that the level of inequity in irrigation distribution has increased over time. Inequity has declined in canal, tank and well-irrigated systems and increased in the tube well-irrigated system. Decomposition analysis revealed that regional disparities have declined in all sources of irrigation except for tube wells. The role of property rights to groundwater, groundwater markets, energy pricing policy and competitive deepening of wells in worsening the inequity in access to groundwater resources is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a nonconforming immersed finite element method for solving elliptic optimal control problems with interfaces. The immersed finite element space is constructed based on the rotated-Q1 nonconforming finite elements with the integral-value degrees of freedom. The method can overcome the difficulties encountered by conforming immersed finite element method. We derive error estimates for the control, state and adjoint state in both energy and L 2 norms. Numerical results are reported to support the theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on climate justice principles developed in the context of international negotiationsbetweennational governments to assess the distribution of carbon reduction roles between different actors involved in residential energy usewithinthe UK. In so doing, it aims to provide a new understanding of equity aspects of current residential policy and to highlight opportunities for more effective and equitable policy. The paper uses three criteria: rights and corresponding duties; mitigation responsibilities and capabilities. It applies them systematically to assess the roles of five key actors involved in residential energy use in the UK. The assessment finds a suboptimal distribution of actors’ duties, responsibilities and capabilities and roles and discusses whether and how a more effective and fair allocation of outcomes, in terms of carbon reduction and fuel poverty, could be achieved. In particular, it raises questions about whether the right actors are being legally obliged or incentivised to deliver energy efficiency improvements, and suggests that particular actors – local authorities and community groups – are under-used and require greater government support with capability. The paper represents the first use of international climate justice frameworks to investigate residential energy policywithina country. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The community energy sector is widely understood to be a pluralistic sector, encompassing a broad range of aims, motivations, and practices. This heterogeneity is, however, still not very well understood. Dominant analytical frameworks in the study of energy geographies offer little in the way of exploring the diversity of motivations, visions, and social relations that are present within the community energy sector, nor their causes or consequences. Drawing on the notion of ‘critical pluralism’, this paper aims to highlight the diverse range of sociotechnical configurations that make up this sector in Scotland, and begins to discuss some potential causes and consequences. To do so, it presents a novel community energy typology, based on an analysis of technical and social dimensions of 367 projects in Scotland. This shows that whilst the Scottish community energy sector contains a broad range of motivations, technologies, and social practices, the sector has become dominated by groups for whom energy generation is a means to achieve local socio-economic development. The paper discusses the community-level and policy drivers that may have contributed to this. It also discusses how we can begin to understand a diverse sector’s ability to affect the wider structures in which it operates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the existence and dating of electricity price bubbles in South Africa from 1965 to 2013. In the literature, it is agreed that such a task is difficult due to the explosive nature of price bubbles and labeling their presence’s occurrence. To overcome the predicament, the authors followed the methodological approach suggested by Phillips et al. (2013): a recursive right-tailed Generalized Sup Augmented Dickey-Fuller (GSADF). Two significant bubbles were detected in the output-adjusted nominal prices: the first one was a long one from 1971 to 1998 and can be attributed to the monopolistic unregulated nature of the electricity market at the time, while the second one lasted for a shorter period of time (2008–2009) coinciding with the severe supply crisis of 2008, and the massive price hikes that followed it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Energy has a vital role in the development of countries. The situation of global increasing demand for energy, lack of domestic resources, energy prices, etc. forces the policymakers to plan energy policies in detail. In this paper, the strategic energy situation of Turkey is analyzed. This paper presents a hybrid model that combines strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat (SWOT) analysis with the fuzzy analytic network process (FANP) method. In the evaluation process, it is occasionally impossible to take precise information from decision makers (DMs) who can say their assessments relatively and approximately. It is also needed to use fuzzy logic to alleviate this problem. Since the evaluation and selection of alternative energy policies are complex multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem, one of the most popular MCDM methods, ANP, is used under fuzziness in this paper. For this aim, four factors and 21 sub-factors are determined and seven alternative policies are evaluated. It is computed that the most important three sub-factors are “major companies’ interest for offshore drilling in Mediterranean and Black Sea,” “developing economy of the country,” and “rapidly increasing energy demand,” respectively. As a result, Turkish energy policy makers are advised to focus on the privatization of electric transmission and distribution facilities, integrating the national electric system with European transmission systems and turning the country into an energy hub and terminal to be able to get the rapid economic growth and mitigate future energy problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy transition has provided a framework for designing and implementing renewable energy policies in a growing number of countries in recent years. The discourse from both international energy organisations and national governments around these renewable energy policies highlights its -supposed- sustainable nature. However, much evidence shows that the "renewable" component of these energy policies and the impact on local communities' sustainable development are much smaller than what is claimed in their discourse. This paper analyses the Mazar-Dudas hydropower project (Ecuador) case study, which is officially classified as a small renewable energy project (21 MW) with presumable low environmental impact and significant positive effects on sustainability of local communities. Although, the sustainability associated with hydropower production is one of the most controversial aspects of this energy production technology. Based on interviews with relevant actors and the subsequent thematic content analysis, the results highlight that the environmental impact is perceived as significant, contrary to what it is said in the official discourse. Additionally, the benefit-sharing scheme's effects of this hydropower project are far below expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expected gains from RES deployment to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) and the cut-off of external dependence of electricity sources could be important. However, it is crucial to understand the determinants of RES growth to help policymakers drawing effective energy polices, involving a commitment of both citizens and governments. In this paper, we use novel panel econometric tools (taking into account structural breaks and cross-section dependence) and find evidence of nonstationary issues and cointegration issues between renewable energy production and its drivers (CO2 emissions, GDP per capita, energy use and dependency). The results thus reveal that non-stationary issues should be attended, otherwise they could be biased. Using suitable estimators (DOLS, FMOLS) with two different data sets and different proxies and taking common factors into account by MG estimates, we find that there is no environmental concerns effect explaining the growth of renewables in European countries. However, national revenues, energy consumption (demand effect) and energy dependency have a positive impact on renewables deployment. Considering these results, economic assistance (subsidies) might be a mean to increase further the renewables deployment in EU countries and education about renewables deployment is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar Photovoltaics (PV) is considered a highly competitive technology supporting the transition towards a low-carbon energy system. However, increased shares of its deployment have caused a set of mainly regulatory and financial challenges which require solutions. This paper identifies key research challenges for the further development and deployment of Solar PV, aiming to bridge the gap between expressed market needs and scientific research inquiries. The findings revealed a heterogeneous landscape of Research Priorities and Research Needs focused around the issues of renewable energy sources' variability, the impacts of curtailment, material (re-)use and module efficiency, synergies with the cooling/heating sector, quality criteria and standardisation, as well as new support schemes and business models. These findings can be taken up by academic institutions or technology associations to shape further directions for research. Finally, a list of implications to guide potential end-users involved in the field of policy and practice is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]