Search

Household energy consumption modeling often focusses on fuel and technology, without taking into account the purposes of using energy. In this study, we examine factors associated with household energy service and home appliance choices from the perspective of energy-related well-being. Using a choice model specification and a microdata for China's urban households from 1986 to 2012, we regress nested combinations of energy service categories on socioeconomic, demographic, and climatic factors. Our results suggest heating and cooling energy services use is more associated with climate than other factors. Demographic factors are more related with access to basic appliances and information services, while the acquisition of advanced appliances is more associated with household income. Exploring the role of income, we find similar relationships with ownership of washing machines, TVs, and refrigerators, while household income has a stronger relationship with the ownership of microwaves, computers, and air conditioners. Our results are informative to the factors that drive home appliance selection decisions and corresponding residential energy demand growth in China. • This study contributes to the understanding of home appliance choices from a perspective of energy service. • We define two board categories of energy services and categorize six typical end services. • We use the longitudinal Chinese household survey microdata from 1986 to 2012. • We identify the drivers of households' decisions regarding appliances across different energy services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The causal relationships between electrification and development of poor, rural communities are complex and contextual. The existing literature focuses mainly on the impact of rural electrification and electricity use on local socio-economic development, while the reverse feedbacks of various social and economic changes on electricity demand and supply have not been fully characterized. Most electricity access impact assessments assume linear, one-way effects and linear growth in electricity demand. However, the projections rarely match the reality, creating challenges for rural utilities. From a modelling perspective, the lack of attention to dynamic complexities of the electricity-development nexus prevents the appropriate modelling of electricity demand over time and, hence, informed planning for and sizing of power plants. With the goal to improve modelling of the electricity-development nexus, we undertake a comprehensive review and extensive analysis of the peer-reviewed literature on electricity access and its impact on rural socio-economic development, and vice versa. We characterize and describe the nexus between electricity access and development through graphical causal diagrams that allow us to capture, visualise and discuss the complexity and feedback loops. Based on this, we suggest guidelines for developing appropriate models able to include and simulate such complexities. Our analysis confirms that electricity use is interconnected through complex causal relations with multiple dimensions of socio-economic development, viz. income generating activities, market production and revenues, household economy, local health and population, education, and habits and social networks. The causal diagrams can be seen as a first step of the conceptualization phase of model building, which aims at describing and understanding the structure of a system. The presence of multiple uncertain parameters and complex diffusion mechanisms that describe the complex system under analysis suggests that systems-dynamic simulations can allow modelling such complex and dynamic relations, as well as dealing with the high uncertainties at stake, especially when coupled with stochastic approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of global environmental change make extensive use of scenarios to explore how the future can evolve under a consistent set of assumptions. The recently developed Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) create a framework for the study of climate-related scenario outcomes. Their five narratives span a wide range of worlds that vary in their challenges for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Here we provide background on the quantification that has been selected to serve as the reference, or ‘marker’, implementation for SSP2. The SSP2 narrative describes a middle-of-the-road development in the mitigation and adaptation challenges space. We explain how the narrative has been translated into quantitative assumptions in the IIASA Integrated Assessment Modelling Framework . We show that our SSP2 marker implementation occupies a central position for key metrics along the mitigation and adaptation challenge dimensions. For many dimensions the SSP2 marker implementation also reflects an extension of the historical experience, particularly in terms of carbon and energy intensity improvements in its baseline. This leads to a steady emissions increase over the 21st century, with projected end-of-century warming nearing 4 °C relative to preindustrial levels. On the other hand, SSP2 also shows that global-mean temperature increase can be limited to below 2 °C, pending stringent climate policies throughout the world. The added value of the SSP2 marker implementation for the wider scientific community is that it can serve as a starting point to further explore integrated solutions for achieving multiple societal objectives in light of the climate adaptation and mitigation challenges that society could face over the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Green Economy (GE) paradigm aims to reconcile environmental and socio-economic objectives. Policies to deploy renewable energy (RE) are widely perceived as a way to tap the potential synergies of these objectives. It is, however, still largely unclear whether the potential of simultaneously achieving both environmental and socio-economic objectives can be fully realized, and whether and how multiple objectives influence policy design, implementation, and evaluation. We aim to contribute to this aspect of GE research by looking at selected country experiences of renewable energy deployment with respect to the socio-economic goals of job creation or energy access. Across the cases examined, we find the following implications of relevance for the GE framework: First, we confirm the important role of governmental action for GE, with the specific need to state objectives clearly and build monitoring capacity. Second, consistent with the “strong” green growth variant of GE, some of the cases suggest that while renewable deployment may indeed lead to short-term socio-economic benefits, these benefits may not last. Third, we underline the urgent need for new methodologies to analyze and better understand multiple-objective policies, which are at the heart of the GE paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measuring energy access through binary indicators is insufficient, and in some cases even misleading. In this work, we critically evaluate the World Bank’s multi-tier framework (MTF) to measure household electricity access using a household survey in rural Bangladesh. We argue that the MTF addresses multiple objectives, thereby offering less value as a single composite index than as a set of dimensions along which to evaluate different aspects of electricity access. We test the robustness of the framework to alternative specifications as regards the choice of attributes and tier thresholds. The study shows that access measurement is highly sensitive to changes in parameter values, the application of different algorithms, and data availability. We also discuss the wider implications of applying the framework to current electricity access intervention programs in Bangladesh, provide feedback on the MTF’s design, as well as suggest potential improvements for its application in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The declaration of 2014–2024 as the Decade of Sustainable Energy for All has catalyzed actions towards achieving universal electricity access. The high costs of building electric infrastructure are a major impediment to improved access, making stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) systems an attractive solution in remote areas. Here, we analyze the cost-effective electrification solution for Kenya comparing grid extension with stand-alone PV systems. We use micro-data from a national household survey to estimate electricity demand for households that are within reach of electricity infrastructure and to predict latent demand in unconnected households. These regional demands are used in a spatially explicit supply model to seek for a least cost electrification solution. Our results suggest that decentralized PV systems can make an important contribution in areas, with low demand and high connection costs. We find that up to 17% of the population can be reached cost-effectively by off-grid PV systems till 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Providing sustainable energy access is one of the most critical global challenges. This paper introduces a method for evaluating the status and progress of rural household energy sustainability in developing countries using a new composite indicator, the energy sustainability index (ESI). The ESI combines 13 techno-economic, environmental and social indicators of sustainability using principal component analysis (PCA). We apply the ESI to China, India, South Africa, Sri-Lanka, Bangladesh and Ghana between 1990 and 2010. The analysis suggests that South Africa's rural energy sustainability index is highest followed by China, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and Ghana respectively. All the countries' rural energy sustainability has improved relatively over time except Ghana's. Improvements result mainly from increasing rural electricity use and increasing access to clean and efficient cooking fuels. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Household energy related accidents such as burns and poisonings are not included amongst the causes of health burdens from residential energy use in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) and other similar assessments. This is a serious omission in the case of transitional developmental states, such as South Africa, where these can be significant. This study analyses the risks associated with burns, scalds and poisonings from the use of household fuels in South Africa, adopting an environmental risk transition framework. We employ quantitative data from a nationally representative household energy consumption survey and hospital treatment data on energy incident injuries from a sample of 17 hospitals around South Africa to assess the relationship between the risk of these accidents, household income and energy poverty. Previous research on risk transitions provides clear evidence of a transition away from risks associated with household pollution with rising income, and also suggests that the evidence regarding injuries appears to decrease with rising income. We, however, find that in the case of South Africa, the relationship between poverty and burn and poison incidents due to household energy use maybe non-linear. The results of our analysis suggest that the risks of burn incidents and fires initially rise with income only to decrease at higher income levels. Moreover, for households below an energy poverty threshold, the risks of energy related accidents rise with an increase in household energy use, but falls once households cross this threshold. This suggests that a pro-poor approach is needed in designing programmes that lower the overall risk of these incidents. In addition, more rapid household energy transitions that displace paraffin with LPG and candles with electricity or solar power can help reduce the incidence and burden of these accidents. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Highlights: [•] Current air quality policies will be inadequate in achieving reductions in global air pollution. [•] Energy access policies will be vital to achieve improvements in global outdoor air quality. [•] Integrating policies on pollution, climate change and energy access leads to compliance with WHO levels. [•] Significant health benefits and cost savings result from integrated policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a quantitative assessment of Sustainable Energy Security (SES) of the energy demand sub-system for India by calculating a multidimensional SES index. The demand sub-system has been evaluated for four dimensions of SES, viz., Availability, Affordability, Efficiency and (Environmental) Acceptability using 23 selected metrics. A hierarchical structure has been used to construct indices using ‘scores’ (objective values of selected metrics), and ‘weights’ (subjective values, representing importance of each metric) which are then aggregated, to obtain a SES index. Various sectors of the energy demand sub-system are evaluated and dimensional and sectoral indices are calculated for the years 2002, 2007 and 2012. Assessment of the obtained energy indices is undertaken (separately for rural and urban residential sector) and results reveal that all (except one) sectoral indices have shown an increase during the period of assessment. The results show that from 2002 to 2012, the aggregate SES index has increased by approximately 10% which indicates a gradual improvement in the sustainability and security of the energy demand sub-system. However, the SES index is approximately 0.7 (against a desired target of 1.0), which implies that there is still a large scope for improvement in the performance of the India’s energy demand sub-system. A sensitivity analysis of various indices reveals that the SES index is relatively robust to variation in weights allotted to different dimensions and hence provides a reliable assessment of the energy demand sub-system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In order to reach a goal of universal access to modern energy services in Africa by 2030, consideration of various electricity sector pathways is required to help inform policy-makers and investors, and help guide power system design. To that end, and building on existing tools and analysis, we present several ‘high-level’, transparent, and economy-wide scenarios for the sub-Saharan African power sector to 2030. We construct these simple scenarios against the backdrop of historical trends and various interpretations of universal access. They are designed to provide the international community with an indication of the overall scale of the effort required – one aspect of the many inputs required. We find that most existing projections, using typical long-term forecasting methods for power planning, show roughly a threefold increase in installed generation capacity occurring by 2030, but more than a tenfold increase would likely be required to provide for full access – even at relatively modest levels of electricity consumption. This equates to approximately a 13% average annual growth rate, compared to a historical one (in the last two decades) of 1.7%. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we appraise sustainable household consumption from a global perspective. Using per capita energy requirements as an indicator of environmental pressure, we focus on the importance of income growth in a cross-country analysis. Our analysis is supported by a detailed within-country analysis encompassing five countries, in which we assess the importance of various socioeconomic-demographic characteristics of household energy requirements. We bring together family expenditure survey data, input–output tables, and energy statistics in a multivariate analysis. Instead of a uniform Kuznet''s curve, we find that the effect of increasing income varies considerably across countries, even when controlling for socioeconomic and demographic variations. The latter variables show similar influences, but differing importance across countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]