Special Issue "Energy Policy and Sustainability"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Daniel A. Farber
Sho Sato Professor of Law; Center for Law, Energy and the Environment; Chair, Energy and Resources Group; and Climate and Energy Policy Institute, University of California at Berkeley, USA
Website: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/faculty/facultyProfile.php?facID=1141
E-Mail:
Interests: uncertainty and environmental policy; U.S. climate policy; constitutional issues in environmental law; compensation for climate change; natural disasters and the legal system

Dear Colleagues,

Renewable energy and energy conservation are crucial to sustainability and are on the forefront of the policy agenda. Yet, fundamental questions such as the following remain unanswered:

Innovation Policy. Major technological innovations will be required to meet 2050 emissions goals. What mix of legal/policy instruments can best promote the necessary level of innovation?

Decision Making Under Uncertainty. Infrastructure decisions (such as grid construction) involve uncertainty about future technologies – for example, about the mix of wind and solar power in twenty years. Uncertainty about downside risks of climate change relates to the desired level of emissions controls. How do we make policy in the face of these uncertainties?

International Spillovers. We do not have a firm grasp on the international spillover effects of national climate policy, in the form of “leakage” or of indirect effects on land use. How large are these effects and how should they affect policy?

Energy Policy and the Non-Developed World. Effective methods are needed to promote sustainable energy use in rapidly developing countries such as China. How can that goal be achieved? How can we ensure the availability of sustainable energy for the poorest nations. This symposium will focus on these and related unanswered fundamental questions.

Prof. Dr. Daniel A. Farber
Guest Editor

Submission Information

• energy technology innovation policy
• carbon leakage
• chinese energy policy
• climate change uncertainties
• energy justice
• energy and development
• indirect land use effects
• biofuels
• energy policy
• energy efficiency
• intellectual property and energy
• energy R & D
• energy technology transfer

Type of Paper: Review
Title: Energy Conservation through Retail Price Innovation
Author: Evens Salies; E-Mail: evens.salies@sciences-po.fr
Abstract: In accordance with the general concern about climate change, policy makers, media and lobbies emphasise the need for customers’ behaviour to adapt over time to different ways of using energy. Incentives to use electricity more efficiently will unavoidably be given by changes in both the level and the structure of electricity tariffs, which requires assumptions of both price and other elasticities that are usually considered in estimating electricity demand responses. The present survey is reflective of the regain of interest in predicting accurately the change in electricity-use that would result from a change in price and other variables. Logically, it reports stylised facts that have not yet been challenged by more recent studies. It is also a complement as we focus on modern issues that still need further empirical investigations. Among other things we address the influence on residential demand responses of dynamic pricing experiments, enabling technologies and point to the biasing effect of self-selection by households. Recent progress in researches dedicated to incorporating non-linear electricity prices in electricity demand is also covered. Throughout the survey we discuss the interplay between consumer data characteristics and several fundamental specifications of electricity demand. We provide a table which summarizes key results and give some precautions to take before interpreting them. Finally, we give some recommendation concerning mistakes to avoid when measuring electricity demand elasticities.

Type of Paper: Article
Title: Energy Technology Transition: Keys to the Sustainable Energy Succession
Authors: Aki Suwa, Toshiaki Oka, Koji Noda and Kohei Watanabe
Affiliation: United Nations University, 2-2-1 Minatomirai Nishi-ku, Yokohama 220-8502, Japan; E-Mail: a_suwa@yahoo.co.jp
Abstract: There is an increasing strong recognition that environmental problems require technological development. Climate change, for example, demands appropriate policy framework for promoting greenhouse gas reduction technologies. Renewable energy technologies are expected to play a significant role as measures against the climate change.
National and sub-national policy changes are required for successful transition to more common use of renewable technologies. It has been long since the international energy technology transition was advocated during 1970-80s, with a number of studies have been carried out on renewable energy policy in individual countries. Little attention, however, has been paid to social evolution through technological change by looking at countries at different development stages, with a historical sustainable development perspective. Also, few holistic studies have been conducted to cover the interaction between technology transition and sustainable social evolution.
The research identifies how the national and sub-national energy policies interact with technological change, enabling a shift to sustainable energy technology transition. It evaluates how a social recognition and awareness interact with active technological acceptance and participation into national/sub-national renewable energy policies. It also examines whether energy technologies are on the path of global sustainable transition, and the way in which the global sustainable energy transition is having impacts on international communities.
The research focus is on renewable energy development, as, e.g., PV (photovoltaic) cases in EU, Japan and India, are demonstrating highly important examples of interaction between policy and technological development. Empirical country case study analyses, with a multi criteria approach, are used to assess the EU, Japanese and Indian PV development. The assessment criteria are on the renewable penetration and its effects on environmental and economic aspects and foreign policy. Renewable penetration includes both physical (renewable capacity increase) and psychological (sense of ownership on renewable technologies, through, e.g. increased business and employment opportunities) perspectives.
A series of policy recommendations for individual countries and international communities are proposed, for the further development of sustainable energy technologies. Based on extensive coverage on EU, Japan and India, their policy experiences would have direct implications to courtiers that seek to shift to sustainable societies. Especially with the Indian example, emerging economies can learn how to carefully integrate and design sustainable value in their country policies to develop renewable energy technologies.

Title: Renewable Energy—Is It a Manufactured Technology or Information Technology?
Author: Kwok L. Shum
Affiliation: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China; E-Mail: kwokshum@rocketmail.com
Abstract: Socio technical or strategic approach to renewable energy deployment all alludes to the proposal that the uptake of renewable energy technology such as solar photovoltaic is as much a social issue as a technical issue. Among social issues, one most direct and immediate component is the cost of the renewable energy technology. Due to the fact that renewable energy electricity compares relatively expensive with non fossil fuel based electricity, special subsidies are usually an important (energy) policy method to stimulate the adoption of renewable energy technology. In this vein, the most discussed subsidies are renewable portfolio standard or quota based system and the general category of feed in tariff. The existent discussions have all concerned about the relative effectiveness of these two instruments. This paper attempts a different basis of evaluation of these two instruments or any other deployment instruments in terms of cost and (network) externality effects. Cost effect is driven by deploying the renewable as a manufactured technology. Network externality effect is driven by deploying the renewable as an information technology. The deployment instruments can then be studied in terms of how these two effects are leveraged and made complementary in order to trigger a bandwagon effect in the deployment process. Our current focus is on small scale grid tied residential solar photovoltaic system, to illustrate our framework. Future research directions associated with this new energy policy framework is then suggested.

Title: Energy Recovery from Wastewater Treatment Plants in the United States: A Case Study of the Energy-Water Nexus
Authors: Ashlynn S. Stillwell ¹, David C. Hoppock ² and Michael E. Webber ³
Affiliations: ¹ Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station C1786, Austin, TX 78712, USA; E-Mail: ashlynn.stillwell@mail.utexas.edu
² Climate Change Policy Partnership, Duke University, Box 90335, Durham, NC 27708, USA; E-Mail: david.hoppock@gmail.com
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station C2200, Austin, TX 78712, USA; E-Mail: webber@mail.utexas.edu
Abstract: This manuscript uses data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to analyze the potential for energy recovery from wastewater treatment plants via anaerobic digestion with biogas utilization and biosolids incineration with electricity generation. These energy recovery strategies could help offset the electricity consumption of the wastewater sector and represent possible areas for sustainable energy policy implementation. We estimate that anaerobic digestion could save 628 to 4,940 million kWh annually in the United States. In Texas, anaerobic digestion could save 40.2 to 460 million kWh annually and biosolids incineration could save 51.9 to 1,030 million kWh annually.
Keywords: wastewater; energy; biogas; biosolids incineration; energy recovery; policy