250 research outputs found
New electric utility management and control systems : proceedings of conference, held in Boxborough, Massachusetts, May 30-June 1, 1979
No full text"This work was supported by the Center for Energy Policy Research and the Electric Power Systems Engineering Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The FEA Project Independence report: an analytical review and evaluation
No full textFinal report to Office of Energy Research and Development Policy, National Science Foundation, Contract NSF C-103
Market diffusion and the effect of demonstrations : a study of the Denver Metro Passive Solar Home program
No full textThis paper is a report on the reactions to and effects of the Denver Metro Passive Solar Home demonstration program, conducted in the Spring of 1981. The purpose of the program was to provide impetus to builders for incorporating passive solar designs in spec-built homes and to demonstrate those designs to prospective buyers to increase buyer-receptivity.A pre-post exposure analysis of the effect of the program is reported on here, with four separate groups of prospective new home buyers studied. The first group heard publicity about and voluntarily visited a demonstration home. The second group saw the home, but was recruited to come to the site. The third group, also in Denver, did not see the site, but answered the same set of questions after receiving a description of and pictures of passive solar homes. The fourth group was a control group, similar to the third, but located in Kansas City. A total of 245 individuals participated.Analysis of the study results leads to the following conclusions: 1. Due to the high level of prior awareness and pre-disposition toward passive solar in Denver, relatively few changes in attitudes occurred. 2. The demonstration was effective in reducing concern about aesthetics and about builders' capability of producing passive solar homes. 3. The demonstration encouraged those individuals exposed to the site to actively seek additional information about passive solar. 4. Exposure to the demonstration program reduced individuals' sensitivity to the cost of passive solar.The study identified the following actions and communications program-messages that builders and public policy makers should consider in accelerating the diffusion of passive solar: 1. Teach prospective buyers how to evalute the financial aspects of passive solar. 2. Show how passive solar can provide protection against fuel price increases. 3. Develop statistics showing that passive solar increases the resale value of homes. 4. Develop relationships with the financial community so that passive solar can easily be included in conventional mortgages.The implication of the study for evaluating the impact of a demonstration program on market penetration is discussed in terms of the theory of diffusion of innovations and implications for further research are reviewed
The future development and acceptance of light water reactors in the U.S.
No full textThis report summarizes a two-year effort by the M.I.T. Light Water
Reactor Study Group to assess the institutional, regulatory, technical, and
economic factors influencing the development and deployment of LWR technology.
The nuclear industry is confronted by a mix of problems which, if not
addressed, may soon eliminate LWRs as a practical source of electric energy.
The Study Group found that technical developments could improve nuclear plant
capacity factors by 10 percent; furthermore, substantial economic benefits are
possible through better use of existing technology, further technological
improvements, and various financing schemes. However, the most pronounced
problems are institutional and social, not technical and economic. Regulatory
and institutional problems in licensing, constructing, and operating nuclear
plants have created such uncertainty in the electric utility sector that the
economic and environmental advantages of LWRs are seriously jeopardized.
Regulatory constraints, unpredictability of government policy, unnecessary
construction delays, and the resultant difficulty in obtaining the large-scale
financing needed for new plant construction all discourage the electric
utility sector from making long-term commitments to nuclear power. In the
absence of a concerted government attempt to resolve these and other problems,
public mistrust and legal intervention in the nuclear industry grow
increasingly serious. Thus, the technical and economic improvements that
could benefit the industry will be negated unless the government, the
industrial sector, the electric utilities, and the public address the
regulatory and institutional problems that are threatening to cripple the
industry."This work was prepared as an account of work sponsored by the United States Government.
Electric utility forecasting of customer cogeneration and the influence of special rates
No full textCogeneration, or the simultaneous production of heat and electric or mechanical power, emerged as one of the main components of the energy conservation strategies in the past decade. Special tax treatment, exemptions from fuel use restrictions, and regulatory policy changes were crafted to encourage its more wide-spread adoption in anticipation of higher energy conversion efficiencies. The expansion of cogeneration still faces a broad spectrum of problems, current and future: environmental restrictions; capital constraints; fuel prices; utility rates and future utility economics; and the difficulties of management.The most debated issue has been the reform of rates between individual cogenerators and the local electric utility. Many of the major cogeneration studies in the late 1970's urged an analysis of the exact impact from current electric utility rates upon cogeneration project economics (1,2,3). The changes mandated by the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act of 1978 (PURPA) are now reaching the final implementation stage and the cogeneration projects of the mid- 1970s are nearing completion. To better understand the relationship between utility rates, the economics of cogeneration, and its potential development, the New England Electric System and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Laboratory Utility Systems Group began a study to refine methods for forecasting cogeneration in a specific utility service area with special attention devoted to the utility rates (4).This paper surveys the insights gained from this effort, which is now nearing completion. Many of the central issues reflect conditions in New England, but this analysis should provide an approach for examining the question in other regions as well. Since the project has not undergone complete review, however, this paper reflects the opinions of the author alone
Recent proposals for government support for the commercialization of shale oil : a review and analysis
No full textThis report is intended to accompany a paper prepared by the Policy Study Group of the M.I.T. Energy Laboratory, entitled "Government Support for the Commercialization of New Energy Technologies: An Analysis and Exploration of the Issues". The paper was prepared for the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration and is referred to herein as "Issue Paper".The Issue Paper discusses the general principles of government-supported commercialization programs. This report applies those principles to a specific case, that of a proposed program for the commercial demonstration of shale oil production. This case has significance as a result of the national goal of greater energy independence.The report begins with a brief discussion of a proposed commercial demonstration program, followed by a section that sketches the historical, technological and economic background of shale oil. The commercial implications of this background are discussed in the next section. Based on this information, the report then outlines probable industry action in the shale oil field if no government action were taken. The next section discusses rationales for the proposed program, both those explicitly offered by the government and others that could have been offered. The program is then evaluated for its effectiveness in dealing with the various problems involved in starting and maintaining a commercially viable shale oil industry. The findings of the analysis are summarized in the final section
Accelerating Energy Innovation: Insights from Multiple Sectors
No full textRe-orienting current energy systems toward a far greater reliance on technologies with low or no carbon dioxide emissions is an immense challenge. At the broadest level the histories presented here are very much consistent with widely held views within the energy innovation policy literature. In general, this literature has suggested that greatly increasing rates of energy innovation requires creating significant demand for low carbon technologies, substantially increased federal funding for “well-managed” research, and in at least some cases support for the initial deployment of new technologies. As the other markets explored in this volume do not face the same degree of unpriced environmental externality, there is no straightforward equivalent to a carbon price in the history of agriculture, chemicals, IT or biopharmaceuticals. Nonetheless, our authors outline a number of ways in which public policy has often stimulated demand, particularly in the early stages of a technology’s evolution, and confirm that the expectation of rapidly growing demand appears to have been a major stimulus to private sector investment in innovation. Each history also confirms the centrality of publicly funded research to the generation of innovation, particularly in the early stages of an industry’s history, and highlights a range of institutional mechanisms that have enabled it to be simultaneously path breaking and directly connected to industrial practice. Our histories depart somewhat from the bulk of the energy innovation policy literature in focusing attention on the role of vigorous competition – particularly entry – in stimulating innovation, suggesting that in several industries a mix of public policies – including procurement, antitrust and intellectual property protection – played an important role in stimulating innovation by encouraging extensive competition and entry by newly founded firms. Many of the most innovative industries profiled here have been characterized by a lively “innovation ecosystem” that both rapidly incorporated the results of publicly funded research and supports widespread private sector experimentation and rapid entry. There are, of course important differences between the industries profiled here and the energy sector, but we believe that exploring the potential of these kinds of innovation ecosystems in clean energy might be a fruitful avenue for future research.
Energy demand models for policy formulation : a comparative study of energy demand models
No full textThis paper critically reviews existing energy demand forecasting methodologies highlighting the methodological diversities and developments over the past four decades in order to investigate whether the existing energy demand models are appropriate for capturing the specific features of developing countries. The study finds that two types of approaches, econometric and end-use accounting, are used in the existing energy demand models. Although energy demand models have greatly evolved since the early 1970s, key issues such as the poor-rich and urban-rural divides, traditional energy resources, and differentiation between commercial and non-commercial energy commodities are often poorly reflected in these models. While the end-use energy accounting models with detailed sector representations produce more realistic projections compared with the econometric models, they still suffer from huge data deficiencies especially in developing countries. Development and maintenance of more detailed energy databases, further development of models to better reflect developing country context, and institutionalizing the modeling capacity in developing countries are the key requirements for energy demand modeling to deliver richer and more reliable input to policy formulation in developing countries.Energy Production and Transportation,Energy Demand,Environment and Energy Efficiency,Energy and Environment,Economic Theory&Research
Renewable Energy Subsidies: Second-Best Policy or Fatal Aberration for Mitigation?
No full textThis paper evaluates the consequences of renewable energy policies on welfare, resource rents and energy costs in a world where carbon pricing is imperfect and the regulator seeks to limit emissions to a (cumulative) target. We use a global general equilibrium model with an intertemporal fossil resource sector. We calculate the optimal second-best renewable energy subsidy and compare the resulting welfare level with an efficient first-best carbon pricing policy. If carbon pricing is permanently missing, mitigation costs increase by a multiple (compared to the optimal carbon pricing policy) for a wide range of parameters describing extraction costs, renewable energy costs, substitution possibilities and normative attitudes. Furthermore, we show that small deviations from the second-best subsidy can lead to strong increases in emissions and consumption losses. This confirms the rising concerns about the occurrence of unintended side effects of climate policy { a new version of the green paradox. We extend our second-best analysis by considering two further types of policy instruments: (1) temporary subsidies that are displaced by carbon pricing in the long run and (2) revenue-neutral instruments like a carbon trust and a feed-in-tariff scheme. Although these instruments cause small welfare losses, they have the potential to ease distributional conflicts as they lead to lower energy prices and higher fossil resource rents than the optimal carbon pricing policy.Feed-in-Tariff, Carbon Trust, Carbon Pricing, Supply-Side Dynamics, Green Paradox, Climate Policy
Putting a Floor on Energy Savings: Comparing State Energy Efficiency Resource Standards
No full textEnergy efficiency resource standards (EERS) refer to policies that require utilities and other covered entities to achieve quantitative goals for reducing energy use by a certain year. EERS policies generally apply to electricity and natural gas sales and electricity peak demand, though they also cover other energy sources in Europe. Our study aggregates information about the requirements of existing EERS policies for electricity sales in the United States. We convert quantitative goals into comparable terms to compare the nominal stringency of EERS programs across states. EERS programs also differ in their nonquantitative requirements, including flexibility measures, measurement and verification programs, and penalties and positive incentives. We compare the U.S. policies to similar policies in the European Union and discuss important policy issues, including exogenous changes in fuel prices and issues with utility management of energy efficiency programs.energy efficiency, electricity, energy efficiency resource standards, state regulation
- …
