By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-09-22 05:30
Thinking out of the box
Surfing the Internet, one frequently comes upon articles on new inventions for harvesting energy and solving the energy problem. Last week, we reported on the concept of 'solar highways'. That idea is certainly not the craziest one to come along...
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-07-28 05:30
Money goes to gas pipeline and CCS
Despite EU commissioner Piebalgs recent declarations that energy efficiency is the number one priority, the recently approved EU economic recovery funds for energy projects virtually completely overlooks energy efficiency. The allocation for renewable energy projects is also rather poor.
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By HDK / Published on Thu, 2009-06-25 08:00
Growing concern about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change are profoundly altering the way utilities, businesses and governments plan for the future. Beside direct policy and stimulation, one of the mechanisms to enable change towards a lower climate impact is by trading carbon credits in a capped emissions trading scheme. Because of a (planned) shortage of credits, the credits become scarce in an economic sense, and a price for the credits is created. In this way, the idea is that the emission reductions will be made there where the cost is lowest.
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By HDK / Published on Mon, 2009-06-08 07:19
The European Institutions are declaring a new commitment to strongly enhance the uptake of energy efficiency in the European Union. New Directives have been formulated (e.g. the Directive on promotion of energy efficiency and energy services) and the Green Paper on energy efficiency was issued to act as a catalyst to this renewed policy uptake.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Tue, 2009-06-02 11:12
On the January 23, 2008 the European Commission agreed on a far-reaching package of proposals that will deliver the European Council's commitments to fight climate change and promote RE. With the publication of this Climate Action Plan and its several targets, the EU wants to show global leadership in this area.
This report provides an overview of the Kyoto-targets and the objectives of energy from RES in final energy consumption in 2020.
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By HDK / Published on Thu, 2009-05-28 09:37
Oikonomou V., SOM, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Becchis F., Prof., Environmental Economics, University of East Piedmont, Italy
Russolillo D., Fondazione per l’Ambiente “T. Fenoglio”, Torino, Italy
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Mon, 2009-02-02 20:37
This status report examines the support schemes in place across Europe. It found that fiscal incentives such as tax reductions or exemptions are often used to complement the main support scheme which are feed-in tariffs or (to a lesser extent) quotas with tradeable certificates. The report identifies barriers to the further deployment of renewables and assesses the extent to which renewables have been successful in replacing conventional generation in the fuel mix.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2009-01-29 06:30
On blackouts and cascading failures
An article in Scientific American last month discussed an interesting analogy, namely the one between the electricity network and global financial networks.
According to the author Jeffrey D. Sachs, both are network systems in which a local problem can undergo a system-wide amplification leading to a general catastrophe. Such amplification is caused by what Sachs calls 'rational panics'. Each node in the network has certain rational rules that are created to protect its own stability. However, if all those rules should conclude simultaneously to withdraw from the system, the whole network starts collapsing.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-01-06 06:30
Looking at the sunny or at the shady side?
The year 2008 was a wild ride for energy. Oil prices and the global economy were turbulent throughout the year. The sustainable energy market kept on growing, albeit at a much slower rate of growth in the final six months of the year. For many aspects of the past year, we have to wait and see how 2009 evolves before being able to judge the significance of 2008.
The following are 10 topics and trends of the energy year 2008:
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The financial crisis affecting the sustainable energy market - or not?
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High oil price volatility
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Energy efficiency a high priority for the EU
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The first implementation of the eco-design directive measures
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Mandatory energy labels for buildings established in several EU countries
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Wind turbines keep on growing in size and efficiency
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After bulk wind power, there is also bulk solar power
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Asia keeps growing fast in renewables
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Reality dawns for large-scale integration of renewables
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Microgrids are being intensively studied and tested
We invite you to take our survey and vote / comment on these trends.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2008-12-30 06:30
In the second half of 2008, the global financial crisis has dominated the news media. What will be the effect of this crisis on the sustainable energy market? Will it bring this young market to a standstill, or will it bring about new opportunities? The following is an attempt to group the pessimistic and the optimistic arguments.
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By Angelo Baggini / Published on Thu, 2008-12-18 10:00
Year: 2007
Policy Status: In force
Since
1 January 2007, a
Green Mortgage Programme has been in place to encourage the
construction and
purchase of homes that are
energy-efficient.
Infonavit, an institution that provides credits to workers for home acquisition, is offering and promoting the programme. Infonavit provides increased financing to families purchasing a green home of between MXN 6000 and 8000, equivalent to approximately
USD 720: this can represent an extra bedroom or more spacious home.
The programme
encourages developers to build greener homes as well, and paperwork for developers planning to build energy-efficient homes is simplified.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Wed, 2008-11-05 12:34
Will energy efficiency always fail to win its case through the consultation process?
Jacky Pett, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Wed, 2008-11-05 11:12
A new training package on “Sustainable Energy Regulation and Policymaking for Africa” is now freely available via the REEEP website. Developed by UNIDO with contributions from a number of organisations, and co-funded by REEEP, it provides an introduction to the key issues relating to the energy market and energy regulation as they affect sustainable energy.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Wed, 2008-10-15 09:22
Published in Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews Volume 12 Issue 4, May 2008, Pages 960-998
Galen Barbose, Ryan Wisera and Mark Bolinger
In the US, the increasing financial support for customer-sited photovoltaic (PV) systems provided through publicly funded incentive programs has heightened concerns about the long-term performance of these systems. Given the barriers that customers face to ensuring that their PV systems perform well, and the responsibility that PV incentive programs bear to ensure that public funds are prudently spent, these programs should, and often do, play a critical role in addressing PV system performance. To provide a point of reference for assessing the current state of the art, and to inform program design efforts going forward, we examine the approaches to encouraging PV system performance used by 32 prominent PV incentive programs in the US. We identify eight general strategies or groups of related strategies that these programs have used to address factors that affect performance, and describe key implementation details. Based on this review, we then offer recommendations for how PV incentive programs can be effectively designed to mitigate potential performance issues.
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