A study of zoning for energy security in China

As a result of more and more serious energy risks, the study of national energy security zoning is not only the basic requirement of energy risk management but also the new demand of economic development for the energy industry. Firstly, this paper analyzes the basic situation of energy resources and production and consumption of primary. energy from 1996 to 2005 in China. Secondly; this paper founds an Energy Security Index System formed by six indices including the percentage of energy reserves, interlocal dependent degree, energy elasticity coefficient and so on. It subsequently calculates the weight of these indices with the factor analysis rating method Lastly, the paper evaluates and zones the abilities of energy security of 30 provinces in China with the grey chuster method According to their security; the 30 provinces are classified into three different levels： high, medium, and low levels. The regions at low energy security level include Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan. They are mainly littoral and short of primary energy production while mostly dependent on other provinces. Those at medium energy security level include 15 provinces （cities or districts）, such as Liaoning, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Hunan and so on. These provinces are in the northeast, north, east of and central China. Those at high energy security level contain Shanxi. lnner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Chongqing, Sichuan, Shaanxi. Xinjiang. These provinces are the main primary energy production bases.     

西部地区的能源开发与经济增长——基于“资源诅咒”假说的实证分析

本文应用"资源诅咒"理论假说,通过1991—2006年的省际面板数据对西部地区的能源开发与经济增长之间的相关性及其传导机制进行了计量检验和分析。研究结果表明:自进入上世纪90年代以来,西部地区的能源开发与经济增长之间存在显著的负相关性,能源开发确实带来了"资源诅咒"效应;虽然实施西部大开发战略前能源开发负向作用于对外开放度、科技创新和人力资本投入,但"诅咒"效应尚未明显产生,而实施大开发后能源开发对科技创新和人力资本投入的负向作用有所增强,从而导致诅咒效应明显出现。通过进一步的实证考察,我们发现能源开发在西部主要通过其对科技创新和人力资本投入的挤出效应,以及滋生寻租和腐败而引起的政治制度弱化效应这三种间接传导途径来阻碍经济增长,其中人力资本投入是作用最强的传导因素。     

论全球性食品和能源危机的应对策略

本文借助现有文献和中国城乡住户抽样调查统计说明,中国的食品和能源价格上涨幅度虽然低于国际市场,但已对低收入住户的家计造成冲击。城市低收入户用低价食品替代高价食品;农户实际消费总支出降低,恩格尔系数增大,衣着和燃料支出比重减少。农户的膳食更加不均衡,贫困群体的营养不足状况加剧。因此,需要全社会共同行动,由政府采取应急措施,停止补贴以食品为原料的生物能源企业,瞄准贫困人口实施食品救助。需要采取的中长期策略是,遏制垄断,改善竞争环境,消除食品和能源价格扭曲。长期改革政策在于,调整社会结构,校正要素价格形成机制,转变经济增长方式。     

A functional approach for studying technological progress: Extension to energy technology

This paper extends a broad functional category approach for the study of technological capability progress recently developed and applied to information technology to a second key case—that of energy based technologies. The approach is applied to the same three functional operations—storage, transportation and transformation—that were used for information technology by first building a 100 plus year database for each of the three energy-based functional categories. In agreement with the results for information technology in the first paper, the energy technology results indicate that the functional approach offers a stable methodology for assessing longer time technological progress trends. Moreover, similar to what was found with information technology in the first study, the functional capability for energy technology shows continual—if not continuous—improvement that is best quantitatively described as exponential with respect to time. The absence of capability discontinuities—even with large technology displacement—and the lack of clear saturation effects are found with energy as it was with information. However, some key differences between energy and information technology are seen and these include:

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Lower rates of progress for energy technology over the entire period: 19-37% annually for Information Technology and 3-13% for Energy Technology.

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Substantial variability of progress rates is found within given functional categories for energy compared to relatively small variation within any one category for information technology. The strongest variation is found among capability progress among different energy types.

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More challenging data recovery and metric definition for energy as compared to information technology.

These findings are interpreted in terms of fundamental differences between energy and information including the losses and efficiency constraints on energy. We apply Whitney's insight that these fundamental differences lead to naturally modular information technology artifacts. The higher progress rates of information-based as opposed to energy-based technologies follows since decomposable systems can progress more rapidly due to the greater ease of independent as opposed to simultaneous development. In addition, the broad implications of our findings to studies of the relationships between technical and social change are briefly discussed.     

Technological innovation and diffusion of wind power in Japan

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the diffusion of wind power in Japan by focusing on the value chain and the interaction between technology and markets and to contribute towards recommendations on technology policy and management. This paper proposes a framework for analyzing the early stage diffusion of wind power systems by combining the use of several approaches considering wind power system as a complex technological system. Firstly, the business system approach is used as an analytical framework by focusing on efficiency, effectiveness and development criteria. As a second approach, the technological trajectory was analyzed based on the concept of technological disequilibrium and the evolutionary patterns of innovation of wind power generation systems were analyzed and the relationship between innovations at the sub-system, modular, and system level was identified. We apply the framework to investigate why wind power diffusion has not picked up momentum in Japan.The results include the following: (1) Technological imbalances within the product system were solved by technological innovation (2) The wind power business in Japan is insufficiently effective due to organizational disequilibrium (3) The technology system has begun to evolve in the direction of micro grid systems. (4) It is important to consider the demand-pull measures for wind power generation so that Japanese institution can have a “time slot” for ”learning by doing” to catch up and accelerate diffusion of wind power generation, including institutional reform of RPS law. Also further technological development related to stabilizing unstable wind energy is required.     

The market-based dissemination of energy-access technologies as a business model for rural entrepreneurs: Evidence from Kenya

Improving access to more modern forms of energy requires supply chains that reach further into rural areas. This paper studies a supply-side intervention intended to foster last-mile distribution of energy-access technologies through local small-scale entrepreneurship. We use a staggered-implementation evaluation design to assess the impact on employment and income outcomes of the intervention, which is a large-scale program in Kenya that supports the diffusion of improved cookstoves and small solar products. The results demonstrate how trained entrepreneurs intensify and diversify their income-generating activities, often by shifting away from subsistence farming as a main source of income. For cookstove entrepreneurs, this goes along with improvements in individual and household incomes as well as perceived economic well-being. Our estimates suggest that impacts do not only differ between the two technologies but also across subgroups including gender, age, and baseline occupation. Our findings substantiate that market-based interventions can foster energy access in rural areas by supporting the establishment of local businesses. We highlight several contextual factors that are of relevance when considering the adoption of this approach.     

Time-varying pricing may increase total electricity consumption: Evidence from Costa Rica

We study the implementation of a time-varying pricing (TVP) program by a major electricity utility in Costa Rica. Because of particular features of the data, we use recently developed understanding of the two-way fixed effects differences-in-differences estimator along with event-study specifications to interpret our results. Similar to previous research, we find that the program reduces consumption during peak-hours. However, in contrast with previous research, we find that the program increases total consumption. With a stylized economic model, we show how these seemingly conflicted results may not be at odds. The key element of the model is that previous research used data from rich countries, in which the use of heating and cooling devices drives electricity consumption, but we use data from a tropical middle-income country, where very few households have heating or cooling devices. Since there is not much room for technological changes (which might reduce consumption at all times), behavioral changes to reduce consumption during peak hours are not enough to offset the increased consumption during off-peak hours (when electricity is cheaper). Our results serve as a cautionary piece of evidence for policy makers interested in reducing consumption during peak hours—the goal can potentially be achieved with TVP, but the cost is increased total consumption     

Financing energy efficiency retrofits in Chilean households: The role of financial instruments,savings and uncertainty in energy transition

High firewood consumption for heating produces high levels of pollution in cities in central and southern Chile, with serious consequences for health and quality of life. Energy efficiency measures (EEMs) have been identified as the best strategy to reduce air pollution and maximize social benefits. However, their adoption has been slow. The objective of this article is to investigate household preferences for financial incentives needed to promote private investments in EEMs in Central-Southern Chilean households and study the role of energy savings and the uncertainty about potential savings in the investment decision, with the aim of finding solutions to increase the adoption of these technologies. We use a choice experiment to explore the trade-off between the investment costs, financial instruments, energy savings, and the uncertainty about achieving the theoretical savings provided by engineering and architectural models. The results show that financial instruments play the most important role in this decision, followed by the savings achieved by the retrofit. Householders prefer to finance their investments with a mix of their personal resources and medium-term credits, trying to avoid long-term commitments. Although uncertainty was found to be a significant variable, it seems to play a small role in the investment decision.     

辽宁省碳交易市场建设中的问题及建议

日本和欧美等发达国家已经建立了较为成熟的碳交易市场,并通过碳交易取得了显著的环境和经济效益。我国国内的碳交易市场机制十分落后,还没有一个成熟的国际碳交易市场。作为能源消耗大省,辽宁省的碳减排压力指数全国位列第六,辽宁省低碳经济建设任重道远,务实发展碳交易市场是发展低碳经济的首要任务。本文首先详细论述了辽宁省发展碳交易市场的重要意义,指出碳交易市场对辽宁经济建设、财政收入、环境改善及增强企业竞争力都具有较大的推动力。通过对辽宁省碳交易市场发展现状的分析,发现辽宁省碳交易市场建设中存在的问题主要集中在CDM项目、碳交易所建设及自愿减排市场上。根据辽宁省发展阶段的特点,提出了推进碳交易市场建设的相关建议。     

中国能源消费、碳排放与工业经济增长——一个脱钩理论视角的实证分析

本文利用相对“脱钩”、“复钩”的理论与测度模型,对2000—2009年我国工业经济增长与能源消费和碳排放之间的脱钩关系进行研究。在此基础上,对脱钩评价模型进行扩展,构建了脱钩指数分解模型,对脱钩关系的影响因素作出了更为深入的分析,并指出未来工业脱钩发展措施的重点方向是在进一步提升能效技术的基础上,着力推进工业产业结构升级的步伐,提升新型低碳能源的结构比重,改善能源的生产和消费结构。