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The purpose of this paper is to estimate industry-specific direct rebound effects and to relate these effects to industry energy efficiency programs. The rebound effect represents economic behavior that will offset energy savings from energy efficiency improvements. The paper focuses on four energy intense sectors in Sweden; pulp and paper, iron and steel, chemical, and mining, during 2001-2012. We apply a factor demand model that allows for asymmetric energy price responses, i.e. that firms respond differently to increasing and decreasing energy prices. The results show considerable rebound effects. For electricity and non-fossil fuels, efficiency improvements could even 'backfire'. To mitigate this effect, policies, such as voluntary energy efficiency programs, should be combined with an increase in energy taxes if the ambition is to reduce overall energy use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual paper proposes that all methodologies create a footprint like the carbon footprint. Design and implementation of new methodologies require limited resources and funding, and these resources are not equitably distributed on a global scale. Thus, we argue for more ecological uses of methodologies, especially in the context of data collection and interdependent relations of knowledge/information creation. Like the excessive use of energy sources, potentially unnecessary productions of new data, information, and evidence should not be regarded as unproblematic, let alone virtuous. Rather, qualitative researchers, funding agencies, and other bodies that evaluate research, should question whether new data, information, evidence are needed and at what cost. We also propose more data recycling, data sharing, open access data, and other ecological ways of supporting shared knowledge and monitoring excessive data production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a detailed dryer section audit was conducted on a paper machine to evaluate its energy performance. The methodology and instruments used for field measurements are introduced as an important part of dryer audit. The deficiency points which limit drying performance of the paper machine are identified based on the tested data, It was found that significant energy savings can be achieved in the studied paper machine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the first to investigate the relationship between the energy efficiency of dwellings, measured by the energy performance certificate (EPC), and utility cost inclusion in rental prices. First, we investigate potential drivers behind the decision to include utility costs in rents. We find that labeled dwellings are more likely to include utility costs and that this likelihood is higher among energy-effi- cient dwellings than among inefficient dwellings. Next, we surprisingly find that utility costs seem to be under-capitalized in energy-inefficient dwellings. These results are confirmed with the counterfactual decomposition approach. Overall, the findings indicate that the EPC labeling policy may be important for both landlord and tenant decision-making and may enhance market efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the determinants of inequality in the distribution of CO2 emissions across U.S. regions. We implement a factorial decomposition of CO2 per capita based on extended Kaya factors, that is, carbon intensity of fossil fuel consumption, energy mix, energy intensity of GDP, economic growth in terms of labor productivity and employment rate. Results reveal that U.S. states display marked differences in most factors. We identify energy intensity as the main source of emissions inequality. Based on the within and between group inequality components we also explore the effect of geographical, geological, climatic and human development partitions of U.S. states' groups. Findings indicate that the within-group inequality had been the main contributor to the whole inequality. Finally, some economic policy implications are also discussed; explaining the unequal distribution of emissions is vital to establish differentiated targets and work towards successful mitigation proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of women's intra-household bargaining power on household cooking fuel choice. It further analyzes the determinants of household energy spending after the decision to use a given fuel has been made. The results reinforce the important role women play in the household cooking fuel choice and energy transition from traditional to modern fuel. In addition, income and education are found to be crucial factors that influence both household cooking fuel choice and energy expenditure. These findings imply that energy transition policies need to consider gender dimension and women's intra-household bargaining power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we have investigated the implications of the threshold effect of changes in FDI inflows for the nexus between energy consumption and economic growth in eight under-researched sub-Saharan African countries for the period 1971--2016. The countries are Benin, Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, and Zambia. Using the lag-augmented VAR (LAVAR) model (corrected for cross-sectional dependence), we develop an empirical framework tightly linked to the endogenous growth model that allows for a threshold effect of changes (strength and weakness) in FDI inflows on the nexus. Our findings show that the FDI inflows matter for the causal link between energy consumption and economic growth in some countries, although, for the cross-section as a whole, our bootstrap simulation supports the neutrality hypothesis. The overall results suggest that an energy demand policy, such as an energy conservation policy, should not cause any significant adverse side-effects to economic growth in those sub-Saharan African countries. Policy implications of the threshold effect for the nexus for individual sub-Saharan African countries are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing energy consumption and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions is an essential part of the clean growth and climate change framework recently developed by the Canadian government, which emphasizes the importance of energy-efficient building constructions. In this paper, the effects of thermal mass and placement of the thermally massive layer within wall assemblies on the transient thermal performance of walls and energy performance of a case study office building were studied. Three climate conditions representative of the heating-dominated, temperate, and cooling-dominated climates were considered. As for the assessment of energy demands, two cases for the indoor air temperature were taken into account: (i) indoor temperature was maintained at 20°C throughout the year, and (ii) during summertime, there was a set-point of 24°C and a setback of 35°C during the rest of the day while during wintertime, the set-point and setback values were 22°C and 18°C, respectively. The cases were compared according to the resulting decrement factor, the time required to reach quasi-steady state conditions, amplitudes of changes of heat fluxes and indoor surface temperatures, and the energy demands. The results showed that, for the cases studied, the wall, for which the thermally massive layer is not directly exposed to the indoor and outdoor climate conditions, resulted in the lowest decrement factor, the minimum amplitude of changes of heat fluxes and indoor surface temperatures, and maximum time required to reach quasi steady-state conditions. As for the energy performance, on the other hand, the wall, for which the thermally massive layer is exposed to the interior and exterior climate conditions, performed best amongst the cases investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate bi-directional spillovers into residential and industrial sectors induced by energy efficiency improvement (EEI) in both the short- and long-term, and the impact of nesting structure as well as the size of elasticities of substitution of production and utility functions on the magnitude and the transitional dynamic of rebound effect. Developing a dynamic general equilibrium model, we demonstrate that residential EEIs spillover into the industrial sector through the labor supply channel and industrial EEIs spillover into the residential sector through the conventional income channel. Numerical simulations calibrated on the U.S. suggest that not taking into account these spillover effects could lead to misestimating the rebound effect notably of residential sector EEIs. We also demonstrate how the size and the duration of the rebound effect depend on the elasticities of substitution’s values. Numerical simulations suggest that alternative sets of value for the elasticities of substitution may give different sizable patterns of rebound effects in both the short- and long-term. In policy terms, our results support the idea that energy efficiency policies should be implemented simultaneously with rebound effect offsetting policies by considering short- and long-term economy feedbacks. As a consequence, they require considering debates about what type of policy pathways are more effective in mitigating the rebound effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon neutrality is an important policy in the current global response to climate change and has been widely recognized by various industries. In the process of promoting carbon neutrality, new energy plays a pivotal role. In this study, the definition and connotation of new energy and its role and specific operation in the energy transition of carbon neutrality are firstly explained. Promoting new energy development requires significant green and low-carbon investments. Taking China as an example, this paper analyzes the opportunities brought by the carbon neutral process to the field of green finance and analyzes the main features and development trends of green finance in China at present. Then this paper proposes policy recommendations to strengthen the development of green finance in China in terms of improving the green financial policy system, enhancing the supply capacity of green financial services, and optimizing the supporting environment for green financial development. Finally, this paper analyzes the measures and experiences of the United States in promoting low-carbon development and proposes countermeasures for China's low-carbon development on the basis of the five major relationships that need attention in China's carbon-neutral process. That is, strengthen the top-level design and improve the regulatory policy system; optimize the energy structure and increase the proportion of clean energy; optimize the industrial structure and reduce energy consumption in key industries; build a complete low-carbon technology system and promote low-carbon technology research and development and demonstration applications, and encourage local conditions to explore low-carbon development paths. The development of green finance can contribute to the advancement of new energy technologies, thus contributing to the achievement of carbon neutrality goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global climate change has caused governments worldwide to take actions to improve their energy efficiency. This paper investigates how China's Top-1000 program, a command-and-control type of energy-saving mandate, has affected the operational choices of firms, and in turn, their profitability. We apply the propensity score matching method to find "identical twins" for the participants in the Top- 1000 program, then conduct a difference-in-differences analysis on the matched sample. Our findings suggest that the profitability of the enterprises targeted for energy savings decreased by one-third, mainly due to increased production costs. The targeted enterprises tended to increase their fixed assets per capita, which was associated with improvements in energy efficiency. Furthermore, compared to similar untargeted enterprises, there was a significant slowdown in the production growths of the targeted enterprises, raising concerns about carbon leakage due to increased production by less efficient producers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expanding the supplies of new energy can not only reduce CO2 emissions, but also alleviate energy shortage. This paper applies the quantile regression to investigate the new energy industry in China. The results show that economic growth exerts the greatest effect on the new energy industry in the lower 10th quantile province. This is because these provinces have the developed economies, demand for a higher ecological environment and new energy resources. Foreign energy dependence has a minimal impact on the new energy industry in the 25th-50th quantile province, due to their minimal oil importation. The contribution of technological progress to the upper 90th quantile province is the lowest, because their R&D capabilities are the weakest. The impact of energy consumption structure decreases in steps from the lower 10th quantile provinces to the upper 90th quantile provinces. The agricultural sector promotes the new energy industry in most provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) are routinely applied to solve a large set of optimization problems. Traditionally, their performance in solving those problems is analyzed using the fitness quality and computing time, and the effect of evolutionary operators on both metrics is routinely used to compare different versions of EAs. Nevertheless, scientists face nowadays the challenge of considering the energy efficiency in addition to computational time, which requires studying the energy consumption of algorithms. This paper discusses the interest of introducing power consumption as a new metric to analyze the performance of standard genetic programming (GP). Two well-studied benchmark problems are addressed on three different computing platforms, and two different approaches to measure the power consumption have been tested. Analyzing the population size, the results demonstrates its influence on the energy consumed: a non-linear relationship was found between size and energy required to complete an experiment. This analysis was extended to the cache memory and results show an exponential growth in the number of cache misses as the population size increases, which affects the energy consumed. This study shows that not only computing time or solution quality must be analyzed, but also the energy required to find a solution. Summarizing, this paper shows that when GP is applied, specific considerations on how to select parameter values must be taken into account if the goal is to obtain solutions while searching for energy efficiency. Although the study has been performed using GP, we foresee that it could be similarly extended to EAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the nexus between energy consumption, financial development, and economic growth in twenty-one (21) sub-Saharan African (SSA) nations by using the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) framework from 1990Q1 to 2014Q4. First, the study reveals that energy consumption and financial development have asymmetrical impacts on economic growth in most countries in the short and long term. Second, positive shocks to financial development favor economic growth in only a few nations compared to the negative shocks in the short term, whereas they have mixed effects in the long term. Third, we found that adverse shocks to energy consumption boost economic growth in several nations in the short term, unlike the positive shocks, but the scenario has reversed in the long term. We also found that gross fixed capital formation and labor force remain key factors promoting economic growth in many SSA countries, in contrast to the mixed effects of trade openness over time. Accordingly, our study recommends implementing energy-saving policies in specific SSA countries to stimulate sustainable development. Policymakers must embrace an effective credit allocation to the private sector supporting productive investments. Governments should also optimize domestic investments in physical capital, upgrade the labor force, and implement efficient strategies in international trade. These policy recommendations need to be implemented according to the unique socio-economic characteristics of each SSA country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the European Union's implementation of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) for buildings, the capitalization of energy efficiency in transaction prices and rents has been subject to much research. This paper uses different identification strategies for the Norwegian residential sales (N = 750,000) and rental (N = 670,000) markets to highlight the endogeneity and methodological limitations associated with assessing the price effects of energy efficiency and the signaling effect of label adoption. We find that the valuation of energy efficiency is subject to unobserved location and quality bias, that labeling has immediate, short-run, and long-run price effects and that different effects are observed in different submarkets. We provide evidence that sample selection issues related to location and time, with methodological and data limitations, are essential factors that must be considered when assessing the effects of the EPC implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimal control of a system governed by an elliptic equation has been widely applied in engineering, and it requires twice differentiability. Furthermore, the optimal control cannot effectively deal with unsmooth boundaries. Now, the condition will not be maintained for a long time because this paper suggests a fractal optimal control of a system governed by a fractal variational principle to deal with unsmooth boundaries. The new optimal theory has obvious advantages in low differentiability for an unsmooth boundary problem. The air conditioning in a room is used as an example to show how to maintain maximum comfortableness of the workplace and maximum efficiency of energy saving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robot swarm networking systems (RSNS) exhibit complex emergent behavior by using local control laws based on spatial information from nearby environment and adjacent robot agents. The consensus behavior of the RSNS depends on a set of parameters of robot agent algorithms or system parameters for their operation, issued mainly by the operator. The challenge in the RSNS is developing techniques for the operator to interact with the RSNS in order to make system behavior adaptive to changes in system configuration and for operator commands without having to handle them individually. Another challenge is saving energy consumption over the robot agents in the RSNS by reducing the number of information exchange between robot agents when the system configuration is spread out the network from the operator. To address these issues, this paper presents an energy-efficient control approach for system configuration propagation with self-triggering control. The proposed method controls the RSNS operation by indirectly propagating the system configuration within the framework of local rules. Moreover, a self-triggered propagation model is designed according to the convergence rate of configuration propagation in order to save and to balance energy consumption among robot agents in the RSNS. This model is then extended to an optimal timing control, where the operator determines its next input time without having to keep track of all the states of robot agents. Theoretical analysis and simulation results are performed to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data from the 2015 Residential Energy Consumption Survey to explore the extent to which renters' electricity use in the United States exceeds that of otherwise similar non-renters. Renting households are found to use approximately 9% more electricity than non-renters when controlling for location, socioeconomic, and many appliance-quantity controls. There are multiple factors that explain this extra electricity use, including inferior energy efficiency of appliances, behavioral factors, differences in bill payment responsibilities, and additional reliance by renters on electric space and water heaters. The paper finds that none of these factors are dominant. The phenomenon of renters' (conditionally) higher electricity use is thus best understood as one that emerges from multiple sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing tariff schemes often fail to achieve basic economic objectives. They set prices per unit that either exceed or fall short the social marginal cost and produce unfair distributional outcomes. In many cases, electricity rates also contribute to unsustainable fiscal deficits due to the (almost) generalized electricity subsidies. Moreover, inefficient residential tariffs do not favor the adoption of green technologies and the investment in energy efficiency improvements. We argue that the efficient deployment of green technologies, and more generally, the clean energy transition, will require electricity tariff reforms. In this paper, we use household level data and hourly industry data from Mexico to show how more efficient pricing mechanisms (such as a two-part tariff scheme in the context of efficient nodal pricing), combined with well-design environmental regulations (e.g., net-metering schemes) and correctly targeted transfer programs (e.g., means testing mechanisms) can improve economic, social, and environmental outcomes significantly, all at once. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If resource intensive practices are regularly represented as conventional, these potentially become naturalised and inconspicuous consumption will increase. Understanding how representations, conventions and everyday practices interact is thus fundamental in tackling unsustainable consumption. To gain new insights into how representations, conventions and practices interact, this paper explores how people respond to cleanliness representations in Swedish media. Cleanliness is chosen as a case for its role in accelerating water and energy consumption (Shove, 2003), and Sweden where cleanliness activities are in line with upward trends (Jack, 2017). Focus-group participants read magazines, discuss content and how it relates to their lives. Cleanliness is perceived as being intertwined with a host of co-conventions such as freshness, health, femininity, masculinity, sustainability, et cetera. Participants have strategies to receive and resist representations, and are especially averse to representations that they suspect are meant to increase consumerism. Dilemmas for participants do not arise from deciding when or how to receive or resist representations. The real dilemmas arise when integrating meanings into everyday life practices given the multiplicity of meanings. Participants see conventions as influencing wider society, but see themselves as individuals critically interacting with representations, a sovereign dupe 1 juxtaposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imperfect information on future energy costs can lower the demand for more energy efficient technologies, with clear implications for energy supply, emissions and climate change. These hypotheses are explored using a randomised discrete choice experiment for property rental decisions. Results show that when energy consumption is expressed in physical units (as per the current EU labels) the willingness- to-pay for energy efficiency improvements is small and marginally significant. While bimonthly energy cost information displayed in monetary terms has no effect on the valuation of energy efficiency, annual monetary energy cost information led to a significant increase. This is the first paper to compare short and long-term point of sale energy cost information for household property decisions. There are clear implications for labelling policy for properties--framing energy consumption according to long-term monetary cost increases the demand for energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a micro-simulation assessment of the distributional impacts of the French carbon tax. It shows that the policy is regressive, but could be made progressive by redistributing the revenue through flat-recycling. However, it would still generate large horizontal distributive effects and harm a significant share of low-income households. The determinants of the tax incidence are characterized precisely, and alternative targeted transfers are simulated on this basis. The paper shows that given the importance of unobserved heterogeneity in the determinants of energy consumption, horizontal distributive effects are much more difficult to tackle than vertical ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the green single-machine scheduling problem that considers the delay cost and the energy consumption of manufacturing equipment and builds its integrated optimization model. The improved ant colony scheduling algorithm based on the Pareto solution set is used to solve this problem. By setting the heuristic information, state transition rules, and other core parameters reasonably, the performance of the algorithm is improved effectively. Finally, the model and the improved algorithm are verified by the simulation experiment of 10 benchmark cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reusing structural components has potential to reduce environmental impacts of building structures because it reduces new material use, energy consumption, and waste. When designing structures through reuse, available element characteristics become a design input. This paper presents a new computational workflow to design structures made of reused and new elements. The workflow combines Combinatorial Equilibrium Modeling, efficient Best-Fit heuristics, and Life Cycle Assessment to explore different design options in a user-interactive way and with almost real-time feedback. The method applicability is demonstrated by a realistic case study. Results show that structures combining reused and new elements have a significantly lower environmental impact than solutions made of new material only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle not only has the advantages of low emissions from electric vehicles, but also takes advantage of the high specific energy and high specific power of petroleum fuels, which can significantly improve the emissions and fuel economy of traditional vehicles. Studying its comprehensive energy consumption evaluation method is an important part of analyzing the economics of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. This paper first puts forward the concept of statistical energy consumption and then proposes an innovative calculation method of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle energy consumption based on statistical energy consumption by referring to and analyzing the energy consumption test regulations of the United States, the European Union, and China. Given the two use case assumptions of charge depleting mode priority and charge sustaining mode only, considering the fuel consumption and the energy consumption that converts electrical energy consumption to fuel consumption, the probability density function of travel mileage distribution and energy consumption is derived. Finally, the interpretation and analysis of statistical energy consumption evaluation results are carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distributional impact of the low-carbon transition is an increasingly important topic both for academics and policymakers. Quantifying where the costs and benefits fall can provide greater insight into the equity and cost-effectiveness of government policies, and improve our understanding of household investment decisions. This paper provides new evidence on the distribution of returns from energy efficiency measures both over time and across household-type. A range of econometric techniques are applied to a database of over four million households over an eight year period to quantify heterogeneity, persistence and how these factors impact the relative cost-effectiveness of measures. Results suggest that more deprived households experience lower energy savings, the difference persists over time, and that significantly heterogeneity may be present across levels of deprivation and income deciles that can not be explained by differences in baseline consumption. Measures have been largely cost-effective but savings are much lower than previous policy evaluations using ex-ante estimates would suggest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper production, doctor (scraping) blades are placed in contact with press rolls during wet pressing so as to purge the surface of the rolls from processing water, contamination and stickies. The contact is achieved by mounting the blade on a holder, which is tilted around a rotation axis until the blade tip contacts with the roll. The contact force is determined by the supply pressure of the air forced through the tube that is placed at the bottom of the holder. Owing to contact, the blade wears off and needs to be replaced periodically. Our aim is to optimise the cleaning performance of the system by modelling the tribological contact between the doctor blade and press roll in order to achieve an optimum cleaning performance, thus increasing the blade lifetime and reducing energy consumption. The model is susceptible to an inextensive numerical evaluation as compared to that of a more advanced modelling approach, e.g. in terms of a full finite element analysis of the beam deflection. A first comparison with experimental findings is encouraging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: In the paper, we examine the energy consumption efficiency of specialized container diesel trucks engaged in container transportation at a seaport terminal. Objectives: Using the container terminal at Klaipėda in Lithuania as the background for the research, we produced an improved energy consumption model for measuring the theoretical energy consumption and regeneration of diesel trucks at the terminal and provide a comparative analysis. Methods: We created a mathematical model which describes the instantaneous energy consumption of the diesel trucks, taking into account their dynamic properties and the overall geometry of their routes—"Ship-Truck-Stack-Ship"—using the superposition principle. We investigated other critical parameters relevant to the model and provide a statistical evaluation of the transportation process using data from a case study of Klaipėda port, where we collected measurements of container transportation parameters using georeferenced movement detection and logs from wireless equipment positioned on the diesel-powered container trucks. Results: The modeling results showed that an instantaneous evaluation of energy consumption can reveal areas in the container transportation process which have the highest energy loss and require the introduction of new management and process control initiatives to address the regulations which are designed to decrease harmful industrial emissions and encourage novel technologies and thereby increase the eco-friendliness of existing systems. Conclusion: Based on the research results, the article can provide a reference for the estimation of diesel truck efficiency in seaport terminal operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless sensor network is a collection of sensor nodes designed with different routing capabilities to operate on real-world applications. In extreme environments, real-time applications of wireless sensor network ensure exchange of data, a difficult one between the sensor nodes, when less resources are consumed. Therefore, researchers are developing a routing protocol including optimal routing procedures to increase the longevity of the networks. In this paper, an improved route extension architecture is developed in wireless sensor network environment. This Improved Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing is proposed to offer an improved transmission coverage and reduced power consumption capability. It deploys a periodic broadcast of hello message (or control messages) including the positional information between the sensor nodes. The experimental result concludes that the Improved Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing method achieves improved routing capabilities than the traditional hybrid protocols like LEACH and Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy rebound effect is a potential threat to energy-saving targets based on energy efficiency improvements. This paper employs a stochastic energy demand frontier model to analyze the energy demand and rebound effect in China's urban residential sector. Using a panel data set of 30 Chinese provincial-level regions over the period 2001-2014, for the first time, we investigate the degrees and determinants of China's urban residential energy demand and energy rebound effect. The results show that residents' income level, energy price, temperature deviation, population scale, household size, and district heating system are significant influencing factors of residential energy consumption. Regarding the energy rebound effect, we find that energy price is negatively correlated with the rebound effect, and an inverted U-shaped relationship between residents' income level and rebound-effect size exists. The magnitude of the rebound effect varies across regions, with an average of 65.4%. The main policy implication generated by this study is that it should be in urgent need of energy pricing reform to mitigate the rebound effect in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asymmetric information is an important barrier to the adoption of energy efficient technologies. In this paper, we study supply-side implications of the associated incentive structure. We build on existing evidence that, in some settings, energy efficiency owns a credence component, whereby the supply side of the market has more information about what technology is best for consumers. The literature on credence goods markets suggests that an information advantage by expert-sellers leads to market inefficiencies, including low trade volume. We start by developing a simple framework to study supply-side incentives related to the provision of energy efficient technologies. We then document inefficiencies and potential remedies by discussing linkages between an empirical literature on credence goods and that on the market for energy efficiency. Doing so, we identify implications for the design of policies promoting the adoption of energy-efficient technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is one of the limited studies to investigate rebound effects in sectoral electricity consumption and the specific case of New Zealand. New Zealand, like other OECD economies, has aimed for energy efficiency improvements and reduced electricity consumption from 9.2 MWh per capita in 2010 to 8.6 MWh per capita in 2015. However, following a significant decline since 2010, electricity consumption in the main New Zealand sectors is increasing. Energy conservation could play an important role in meeting the growing demand for electricity but rebound effects can affect the effectiveness of conservation policies. We decompose the sectoral electricity prices to capture the asymmetric demand response to electricity price changes and estimate electricity demand elasticity during 1980 and 2015 to estimate the sectoral rebound effects. We find partial rebound effects of 54% and 23% in the industrial and commercial sectors respectively while we find no rebound effect at the aggregate level. The rebound effect is insignificant in the residential sector. These findings lead to policy recommendations for sector specific energy conservation measures and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries plan to decarbonise their energy systems by increasing energy efficiency and expanding the use of renewable energy sources (RES). Such actions require significant investments in new energy infrastructures. While people are generally accepting of these infrastructures, opposition sometimes arises when these developments are sited at close proximity to people's residences. Therefore, it is important to understand what actually drives people's preferences for spatial proximity to different energy infrastructure technologies. This study examines the factors influencing people's proximity preferences to a range of different energy technologies using a cross-country econometric analysis of the stated preference data from an unprecedented survey conducted on nationally representative samples of the population in Ireland, the U.S. and Germany. The survey involved more than 4,500 participants in total. This paper presents the data and selected results from a generalised ordered logit model for each energy technology surveyed. These are; wind turbines, solar power technology, biomass power plant, coalfired power plant and natural gas power plant. The results show that, in general, German and Irish citizens are willing to accept energy infrastructures at smaller distances to their homes than their U.S. counterparts. Moreover, attitudinal factors are found to shape people's preferences more consistently than any of the socio-demographic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand the mutually affecting intensities in family households that occur through the use of energy for parenting, care and making home in the societal context of energy capitalism. Our work draws on sensual energy ethnographies with 13 families in regional New South Wales, Australia. We extend Deleuze and Guattarri's related concepts of molar and molecular lines and lines of flight into energy geographies to draw attention to the socio-material, subjective and affective dimensions of being and becoming a parent, providing care and making home. In doing so, we open up questions around how families use energy and how this relates to the politics of care. We consider the possibilities for lines of flight to bring about social change to escape energy capitalism and help care for humans, more-than-humans and the planet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, an agreement between the key EU institutions--the Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Council--was reached after a long-lasting discourse over the 2030 EU climate and energy policy package. This paper offers a comprehensive assessment of the EU package, with its three main targets: lower greenhouse gas emissions, higher renewable share in final energy consumption, and improved energy efficiency. We find that the renewable and energy efficiency targets have been set so high that the derived emissions reduction (50 percent) exceeds the EU climate target (40 percent). Hence, there is no need for an EU climate policy, for example, to use carbon prices to reach the EU climate goals. It is, however, not cost-efficient to achieve the climate target by imposing the three EU targets. We demonstrate that a cost-efficient policy that obtains a 50 percent GHG emissions reduction would increase annual welfare (relative to the Reference scenario) by an amount corresponding to 0.6 percent of GDP in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes a global Green New Deal program that can advance climate stabilization as well as rising mass living standards and an expansion of decent job opportunities. The core features of this program are massive global investments in energy efficiency and clean renewable energy so that clean energy supplants the existing fossil-fuel-dominant global energy system. Through annual investments in the range of 2 percent of global GDP in clean energy and a corresponding contraction in fossil fuel consumption, the global economy can maintain an absolute decoupling trajectory—i.e., economic growth proceeds while CO2 emissions fall to zero within 30–40 years. The paper also shows that a steady contraction of global GDP—i.e., "degrowth"—does not provide a viable climate stabilization framework. JEL Classification: Q54, Q56, Q58 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Confronted with the contemporary challenges of maximising energy efficiency with minimal impact on the environment, the automotive industry has developed various technologies to tackle them. Most of these technologies, however, have wider implications on the tribological performance of the automotive engines due to resultant soot build-up. This paper reviews the effects that attempts by stakeholders to satisfy requirements for reduced fuel consumption, reduced emissions and extended service intervals have had on increasing soot levels to an extent that can lead to engine component failure. Three areas have been identified that have either not been explored or not widely explored in the study of automotive soot namely: numerical simulation and modelling of soot wear, soot effects on wear of actual engine components and the wear and friction performance of non-metallic materials used in internal combustion engines. A paper-grading system is also utilised to present an overview of how sooty oil-related research covers various areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle not only has the advantages of low emissions from electric vehicles, but also takes advantage of the high specific energy and high specific power of petroleum fuels, which can significantly improve the emissions and fuel economy of traditional vehicles. Studying its comprehensive energy consumption evaluation method is an important part of analyzing the economics of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. This paper first puts forward the concept of statistical energy consumption and then proposes an innovative calculation method of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle energy consumption based on statistical energy consumption by referring to and analyzing the energy consumption test regulations of the United States, the European Union, and China. Given the two use case assumptions of charge depleting mode priority and charge sustaining mode only, considering the fuel consumption and the energy consumption that converts electrical energy consumption to fuel consumption, the probability density function of travel mileage distribution and energy consumption is derived. Finally, the interpretation and analysis of statistical energy consumption evaluation results are carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an econometric analysis of curtailment costs of renewable energy sources (RES) in Germany. The study aims at explaining and quantifying the regional variability of RES curtailment, which is a measure to relieve grid overstress by temporarily disconnecting RES from the electricity grid. We apply a Heckit sample selection model, which corrects bias from non-randomly selected samples. The selection equation estimates the probability of occurrence of RES curtailment in a region. The outcome equation corrects for cross-sectional dependence and quantifies the effect of RES on curtailment costs. The results show that wind energy systems connected to the distribution grid increase RES curtailment costs by 0.7% per MW (or 0.2% per GWh) in subregions that have experienced RES curtailment over the period 2015-2017. The implication of this finding is that policymakers should set price signals for renewables that consider the regional grid overstress, in order to mitigate the cost burden on consumers due to excess generation from RES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment of industrial-level energy efficiency's (EE) development is a critical research topic that has entrenched in the global battle against climate change. Under the Energy Efficiency Directives 2012/27/EU and 2018/2002/EU, European Commission sets specific industrial energy efficiency targets, rules and obligations for the 2020-2030 period aiming, among others, at specific energy intensity reduction and energy efficiency improvements. In this paper we use a balanced panel of fourteen European industries from twenty-seven countries for the period 1995-2011 under a metatechnology framework. The aim of this study is to evaluate, at a first stage, the industrial total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) at a national and European level by incorporating technological heterogeneity through a nonparametric approach. Reflecting the divergent views on the importance of desirable and undesirable outcomes in the pursuit of TFEE, we additionally estimate industrial performance by prioritizing either economic or environmental aspects. At the second stage of our analysis, econometric models are applied to investigate the main factors of industrial TFEE using sector specific and country characteristics while we further proceed with a ß and s-convergence analysis for our TFEE measures. The results of this study reveal that small-scale economies exhibit persistent high TFEE scores. At the same time, TFEE determinants suggest that path dependence phenomena have a strong presence, climatic characteristics occur while energy mix displays both linear and non-linear relationship. Either considering one desirable output or consolidating the undesirable output in the production function our results indicate a strong evidence of conditional and unconditional convergence in TFEE scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many economists and psychologists have studied the impact of nudges on households' pro-environmental behaviors. Interestingly, "private nudges" can be imagined for companies. Yet, studies focusing on nudging employees' energy use are rare. The objective of our paper is to explore this issue with the help of a field experiment conducted at 47 French companies' sites. Using a difference-in-difference methodology, the effects of three nudges on employees' energy conservation are tested. The first nudge, "moral appeal", stresses the responsible use of energy. The second one, "social comparison", informs employees on the energy consumption of other firms participating in the experiment. Finally, the third nudge, "stickers", alerts employees about good energy conservation practices. Our results stress the complementarity of these nudges. When implemented alone, the three nudges have no significant effects on energy consumption. However, when the moral appeal and social comparison nudges are combined with the stickers nudge, they become effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the increasing importance of the wastewater sector in terms of energy usage, the understanding of the level of energy efficiency of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) is useful to both the industry itself as well as policy makers. Here, based on economic foundations, we apply a Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) approach for energy demand modelling to estimate energy efficiency in the wastewater sector. Using specific SFA models and panel data from 183 Swiss WWTPs over the period 2001 to 2015, the paper illustrates that distinguishing between persistent and transient inefficiency is essential to deduce appropriate energy efficiency diagnosis in WWTPs. In this respect, persistent energy inefficiency is found to be more severe than transient energy inefficiency. Furthermore, it is shown that the age of the equipment influences the demand for energy and the energy savings due to technological innovation are quantified. Finally, economies of output density and scale are estimated demonstrating that for plants operating below optimal scale significant energy savings can be achieved if plants would be operated at higher size. Moreover, our analysis reveals also that for plants larger than 100,000 Population Equivalent, at least from an energy efficiency point of view, it would be no more beneficial to increase their scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an extended Solow decomposition framework with a finite mixture model, which is incorporated to account for heterogeneous regimes. The model decomposes green economy into two different components, namely, green total factor productivity and factor endowment. Then, we reestimate the growth sources of green economy and especially the importance of energy consumption in China's provincial industries over 2000-2015. The empirical results suggest that there are three green growth regimes across Chinese provinces for overall economy and different industries. Specifically, some provinces switch regime over time, while the others maintain the same regime. Furthermore, when controlling for regime heterogeneity, the contribution of factor endowment decreases and that of green total factor productivity increases. With respect to energy consumption, traditional methods overestimate its importance in the primary and tertiary industries and underestimate that in the secondary industry. In addition, the reliance of China's overall economy and the secondary and tertiary industries on energy consumption decreases as economy develops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops existing work on building design through a focus on one important yet understudied form of regulation: market standards. Market standards are agreed upon definitions of ‘necessary’ provision in buildings and are fundamental in ‘formatting’ markets and determining the value of a building in the market. The paper presents a case study of the design of 10 commercial offices in London, UK, the effects of market standards on the designs and on the potential for the development of lower energy buildings. Theoretically, the paper integrates literatures on standards, institutions and markets to argue that market standards do important ‘work’ in design processes that require closer scrutiny. In particular, we show that market standards are an important form of normative and cultural regulation in the field of commercial office design; format and act as calculative devices in property markets and result in forms of knowledge diminution that break the relationship between building design and occupiers’ practices. Together, these effects result in particular designs being legitimised and valued, and lower energy designs being delegitimised, devalued and pushed to the periphery of the attention of commercial office designers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the commercial opportunities for electrical energy storage, taking market prices as given and determining the extent to which a strategy of arbitrage across the day, buying at the lowest price times at night and selling at the highest price times during the early evening, and relying on price forecasts one day-ahead generates profits in the British context. The paper sets out the potential problems as the market moves to absorb increasing amounts of wind, then characterises the nature of prices, which reveals the importance of a strategy in which power is absorbed into store for a relatively few hours of the day and discharged over a relatively few hours. It argues that additional incentives may need to be put into place in order to render storage over relatively longer periods more attractive and to deliver broader social benefits which are unlikely to be generated and captured as a result of purely commercial considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are possible synergies between the decision to invest in energy efficiency measures and to adopt renewable energy, in the sense that the former reduces energy demand so that the latter can further cut future greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and which has great potential in the residential sector. Much work has been done in the residential sector on demand for clean energy and on investment in energy efficiency, but to our knowledge there is no specific study that investigates the relationship between the two. This paper fills a gap in the literature, and first shows theoretically that there are relationships of substitution or complementarity between the two decisions depending on the threshold of the cross effect related to the environmental motivation of the consumer. Second, the paper empirically shows that the two decisions are positively interrelated due to unobserved characteristics that determine both decisions. Third, the paper provides differential impact of energy poverty, split incentive problem, dwelling characteristics, commitment and trust on the two decisions. Finally, the paper investigates household characteristics that significantly affect the joint adoption of energy efficient and renewable energy technologies. This contribution can serve to define incentive policies to advance the energy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless sensor network is a collection of sensor nodes designed with different routing capabilities to operate on real-world applications. In extreme environments, real-time applications of wireless sensor network ensure exchange of data, a difficult one between the sensor nodes, when less resources are consumed. Therefore, researchers are developing a routing protocol including optimal routing procedures to increase the longevity of the networks. In this paper, an improved route extension architecture is developed in wireless sensor network environment. This Improved Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing is proposed to offer an improved transmission coverage and reduced power consumption capability. It deploys a periodic broadcast of hello message (or control messages) including the positional information between the sensor nodes. The experimental result concludes that the Improved Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing method achieves improved routing capabilities than the traditional hybrid protocols like LEACH and Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper contributes to the literature on the relationship between economic development and energy demand by assembling a wide panel dataset of energy consumption and prices for 37 OECD and 41 non-OECD countries. The unbalanced data spans 1960-2016, with the full 56 years of data for 17 countries and all countries having at least 18 years. In addition, our dynamic panel estimates address nonstationarity, heterogeneity, and cross-sectional dependence. Most results suggest that the GDP elasticity is less than unity (e.g., 0.7)-i.e., energy intensity will fall with economic growth. Most evidence suggests that the GDP elasticity is similar for OECD and non-OECD countries, and for non-OECD countries, similar across income-bands. Also, there is no evidence that individual country elasticity estimates (for GDP or prices) vary systematically according to income. The price elasticity is larger (in absolute terms) for OECD than for non-OECD countries- indeed, it is typically insignificant for non-OECD countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the relative effectiveness of market vs program based climate policies. We compute the carbon price resulting in an equivalent reduction in energy from programs that eliminate the efficiency gap. A reduced-form stochastic frontier energy demand analysis of plant level electricity and fuel data, from energy-intensive chemical sectors, jointly estimates the distribution of energy efficiency and underlying price elasticities. The analysis obtains a decomposition of efficiency into persistent (PE) and time-varying (TVE) components. Total inefficiency is relatively small in most sectors and price elasticities are relatively high. If all plants performed at the 90th percentile of their efficiency distribution, the reduction in energy is between 4% and 37%. A carbon price averaging around $31.51/ton CO2 would achieve reductions in energy use equivalent to all manufacturing plants making improvements to close the efficiency gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating the perspective of smart grid users is the next challenge to be tackled in order to deploy fully the broad technical development of this new generation of electrical grids and improve the efficacy thereof. This is the conclusion reached by the social research developed within the framework of the European UPGRID project. This paper presents the main findings of the Spanish demonstration, working with domestic electricity consumers. The results indicate that these consumers know little about their contract and consumption of electricity, with regard to smart grids. In spite of this, there is some evidence that there is willingness among these consumers to make a change in their energy use towards more environmentally responsible behaviours, a tendency that needs to be developed so that consumers play an active role, which is essential in order to deliver optimal energy supply through smart grids. However, the results must be taken with a degree of caution, since, in spite of the major drive for recruitment, the sample was small and the experimental mortality between phases was high, so the research presented is exploratory in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]