1,720,985 research outputs found
La Descritione della Valtelina
No full textGiovanni Leo Rinaldi ; Cesare Bassano fc.OstorientiertTitelkartusche oben rechts, Massstabskartusche Mitte link
The Role of Public Finance in CSP: lessons from the ups and downs of CSP policies in Spain
No full textIn a low carbon energy system, concentrated solar power is of particular interest for its ability to store solar energy as heat. This allows the delivery of power even when the sun sets, so to complement and compensate other intermittent clean sources of power. However, CSP investment costs are high compared to other options such as fossil fuel generation and mature renewable energy technologies, calling upon public support to make investments profitable and appealing to private investors.
This work looks at the evolution of CSP support policies and their impact on financial returns for the industry in Spain, historically the largest market for the technology. We analyze the key features that made the development of the domestic CSP industry possible in a very short time, and measure their impact on investments’ profitability and other relevant measures (e.g. incentives for storage). We then identify and measure the impact of policy changes (aimed at containing policy costs) on investments and the implication of a higher risk aversion and lower investors’ confidence on the outlook for the industry in the country. We derive our conclusions by simulating projects’ financial profiles with a cash-flow modeling of a “representative” CSP plant whose investment costs, capital structure and production estimates equal the national averages of all the plants. We find that policy changes have now significantly increased risk aversion, so that any new eventual investment would require a support higher than before, even assuming a significant reduction in technology costs. Policy uncertainty has ultimately made the country much less attractive for CSP investors than many other developed and emerging ones. We conclude that policy uncertainty and investor confidence should be the first barriers to be tackled if Spain were to reach renewable energy (and CSP) 2020 targets
Mobilizing private sector capital for low-emission investments : a risk allocation framework
No full textFighting climate change poses a scientific, political and financial challenge: containing greenhouse gases atmospheric concentration within the levels that science indicates as relatively safe demands a paramount shift of financial investment patterns on both geographical and sectorial terms. The capital stock in the global economy needed to fund required investments is already available today but neither the public nor the private sectors can meet this challenge independently: policymakers are called to set suitable regulatory frameworks and policies that can facilitate this investment shift, overcoming entrenched economic behaviors, removing knowledge gaps and barriers that make these investments perceived, often unduly, as high-risk.
This work shows how understanding which sets of investors are willing to accept which types of risks and identifying where the market fails to provide the necessary mitigation tools is the necessary starting point to design effective policies aimed at increasing the share of private capital in the current climate finance landscape. A detailed financial analysis of several case studies proves that policymakers and public international finance can play a decisive role in controlling, alleviating and mitigating risks - through effective regulatory frameworks and dedicated financial instruments they can deliver cost-effective solutions that improve investments’ risk-return profile and, ultimately, decrease the public support needed to mobilize private capital.
By focusing the research on the specific barriers that inhibit private capital and increase the cost of low-carbon investments, the aim is to offer actionable insights on the financial solutions that concrete policy initiatives, such as Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions and the Green Climate Fund – could implement to gather the financial resources required to the transition to a more sustainable economic growth-path.
This work shows how understanding which sets of investors are willing to accept which types of risks and identifying where the market fails to provide the necessary mitigation tools is the necessary starting point to design effective policies aimed at increasing the share of private capital in the current climate finance landscape. A detailed financial analysis of several case studies proves that policymakers and public international finance can play a decisive role in controlling, alleviating and mitigating risks - through effective regulatory frameworks and dedicated financial instruments they can deliver cost-effective solutions that improve investments’ risk-return profile and, ultimately, decrease the public support needed to mobilize private capital.
By focusing the research on the specific barriers that inhibit private capital and increase the cost of low-carbon investments, the aim is to offer actionable insights on the financial solutions that concrete policy initiatives, such as Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) and the Green Climate Fund – could implement to gather the financial resources required to the transition to a more sustainable economic growth-path
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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