RFF’s Center for Energy Economics and Policy (CEEP) has partnered with institutions in China to create a new collaboration dedicated to improving energy policy in China: the Consortium for Energy Economics and Policy in China (CEEPIC).
As a result of growing demand for electricity and recognizing the critical role played by the energy sector in the economic growth and development process, the Government of Ethiopia has already embarked on large scale hydroelectricity projects in view of developing renewable and sustainable energy sources. The goal of this project is to contribute to the fulfillment of these efforts in expanding modern energy access and reducing energy poverty through accelerating the growth of the economy.
Kenya is a rapidly growing country, with energy demands increasing annually. Over-reliance on biomass energy within households has resulted in adverse environmental effects. Forest cover has fallen to 6%, and as a result, water levels in rivers and dams have also fallen leading to an inconsistent electricity supply. This study seeks to explore energy conservation in Kenya using quantitative methods and an established data set.
Although African countries’ GHG emissions are comparatively low, the effects of climate change are still widespread and a reduction in emissions is crucial. In a bid to reduce emissions, there has been a shift towards renewable energy such as wind, hydro-electric and of course, solar energy in Kenya. This study will explore adoption of solar technology in Kenyan households using quantitative methods.
Given the volatility of world oil prices and the recent all time high, which increased their popularity, bio-fuels have received a great deal of attention globally. The central questions of interest include whether this will have a positive or a negative impact on smallholder farmers and people living in rural areas, as more agricultural land will be used for biofuels production? And what is the effect of these large scale biofuels investments on growth and poverty reduction endeavors of poor countries?
Most of the studies so far/literature on rural fuel demand and supply, in general, and those on Ethiopia, in particular, are apparently static, with no time dimension.
Deforestation in Ethiopia has resulted in growing fuel scarcity and higher firewood prices in urban centers. Urban centers have long been dependent on the rural hinterlands for their fuel. The use of biofuels of rural origin covers about 90% of the urban fuel use. The dependence of urban centers on their rural hinterlands has aggravated the deforestation. One response to reducing the pressure of urban centers on their rural hinterlands could be through substitutions between or switching from one fuel to another, i.e., through energy transition. For example, through substituting away or switching from fuelwood to electricity. Electricity as cooking fuel is cleaner and do not cause deforestation.
Using what amounts to a field experiment we analyse whether the electricity consumption patterns of consumers are altered by the experience of blackouts and the exposure to Eskom’s communication. Secondly; we analyse bargaining experiments focussed on disputes concerning conservation-land owned by the South African National Defence Force and the conservation agencies.
La cuantificación monetaria de las externalidades ambientales derivadas de la explotación de hidrocarburos no convencionales que utiliza la técnica de fracturación hidráulica o fracking muestra una alta variabilidad pues sus costos no están unívocamente determinados. En este documento desarrollamos un análisis de metarregresión sobre los posibles efectos económicos atribuibles a la proximidad de entornos que puedan verse afectados ambientalmente por el fracking.
Crude oil exports and imports play a crucial role in the trade balance of Peru, Colombia and Ecuador. These countries are looking into fossil fuel saving measures as a way to deal with increasing demands and decreasing oil production rates. However, studies about the long-term effects of these measures is lacking.
This simulation study analyzes the effect of the introduction of forward markets to mitigate cyclical price behavior in electricity markets from a dynamic extended Cobweb model. We pay particular attention to the effect of lags in investment decisions and the effect of not fully replacing retired capacity in electricity markets. In line with previous research, the introduction of forward markets decreases price variability in comparison to a spot market.
Este documento analiza la incidencia de la política climática internacional en la planeación y el desarrollo del sistema eléctrico de Colombia. Particularmente, estudia las implicaciones que tendría el cumplimiento de las contribuciones nacionalmente determinadas (NDC) presentadas en el Acuerdo de Paris sobre el Sistema Interconectado Nacional.
The Government of Nepal has been providing subsidies to promote biogas technology since the 1970s and
China’s rapid urbanization and increasing energy use are accompanied by deteriorating environmental quality. Understanding the structure of energy use is necessary to address these environmental effects. We investigate how urbanization affects residential energy use, using data from the Chinese Residential Energy Consumption Survey 2012 (CRECS 2012) to compare the energy consumption of urban and rural households and identify the factors influencing the differences.
Most of the current developmental projects in Tanzania on natural resources has been established basing on their national/macro-economic impacts and environmental impacts with little attention to the understanding of the nature/ways of lives of the local community. We understand that lately there has been a movement of resource rich countries to incorporate local content component in their policies so that local people can really benefit from the sector.
We use behavioural insights to design nudges, leveraging social comparison and assignment of responsibility, aimed at reducing electricity consumption in a large provincial government office building with 24 floors, a total of 1008 occupants. Results from a randomized control trial show that floors participating in a treatment with inter-floor competitions and tips reduced energy consumption by 9%, while those that also included floor-wise “energy advocates” reduced energy consumption by 14% over a period of 5 months.
Having a reliable supply of electricity is essential for the operation of any firm. In most developing countries, however, electricity supply is highly unreliable. In this study, we estimate the cost of power outages for micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, using a stated preference survey. We find that the willingness to pay, and thus the cost of power outages, is substantial. The estimated willingness to pay for a reduction of one power outage corresponds to a tariff increase of 16 percent.
The astounding scope of the global energy poverty challenge has motivated many organizations to
Adaptation Plan for the energy sector: participative methods for developing countries
The energy matrix is a useful tool for understanding the trends of production and consumption in a country and for evaluating long-term energy policies. This paper presents a behavioral simulation model of the evolution of Chile’s energy matrix.
Deregulation in electricity markets has changed the conditions for maintaining long-term adequacy of supply. Particularly in the last decade, security of supply has become a major issue for policymakers due to a number of changes in technology, especially the introduction of renewables, where regulators have introduced capacity mechanisms. In this paper, we focus on the use of two different capacity mechanisms: procurement for long-term strategic reserves contracting, and centralized auctioning for capacity contracts.
A number of mechanisms have been suggested for capacity adequacy.
Small hydropower (SHP) has existed for more than a century in Colombia, and is gaining reserved interest as an option to mitigating climate change. In this paper we investigate the prospects for SHP in Colombia based on an analysis of economies-of-scale and learning-by-doing effects. We created an inventory of SHP plants realized in Colombia between 1900 and 2013, and focused on grid-connected SHP stations only. In the economies-of-scale part of our analysis we considered all SHP plants with a capacity lower than 20 MW.
This paper studies the impacts of renewable energy support policies on energy prices, fossil fuel supply and thus carbon emissions from fossil fuels. Such supports are climate friendly if the renewables are already competitive against fossil fuels. But if the renewables are not yet competitive, the climate change impacts are often ambiguous and are sensitive to capacity constraints of renewables production and to the fossil fuel market structure. If the renewables
This paper examines the determinants of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises’ adoption of energy efficiency practices and technologies, using cross-sectional data of 8174 randomly selected enterprises from ten major urban areas of Ethiopia. For identification, the study relys on a generalized ordered probit model. The findings reveal that, as the size of the enterprise becomes larger, it is more likely the enterprise will undertake energy efficient practices and technologies.
This article examines the effect of commercial bank performance on an indicator of energy efficiency (i.e. energy intensity) while controlling for the mediating effect of political institution. To achieve this goal, the study develops a theoretical model based on the neoclassical theory of the firm that links energy efficiency to bank sector development, and a unique bank-based data by Andrianova et al. (2015) for 43 Sub-Saharan African countries from 1998 to 2012.
This study use the concepts of riskscapes and risk governance to analyze the tensions between land use for food (farms) and energy (dams) in South West Ethiopia. It analyzes the linkage between risk perception, risk assessment and risk management for local and non-local actors. The study distinguish, after empirical analysis, as main riskscapes the riskscapes of landlessness, food and energy insecurity and siltation.
This research investigates the profitability of bioethanol production in Africa, taking Ethiopia as a case in point, and suggests an oil price threshold beyond which biofuels may be profitable. Specifically, the study analyzes the viability of producing bioethanol from molasses in the context of Ethiopia, using data from a biofuels investment survey by EEPFE/EDRI in 2010. The study draw on investment theory as underlying conceptual framework and employ unit cost analysis for the empirical analysis.
The use of small-scale off-grid renewable energy for rural electrification is now seen as part of the sustainable energy solutions. The expectation from such small-scale investment is that it can meet the basic energy needs of a household and subsequently improve someaspects of household welfare. However, these stated benefits remain largely hypothetical because there are data and methodological challenges in existing literature attempting to isolate such impact.
With increasingly improved cooking stoves (ICS) that aim to reduce fuelwood consumption by forest-dependent households, more evidence of what drives households to adopt ICS is needed. Using data from a representative sample (N=271) of households in a rural part of eastern Tanzania, we estimated a mixed logit model to take into account the limitations of the standard multinomial logit model and relaxed the restrictive assumption of the conditional logit model.
Continued high reliance on traditional biomass fuels and stoves in developing countries gives rise to several human health, environmental, and livelihood issues. However solid data on the performance of improved biomass cooking stoves remains scarce. This paper provides controlled cooking test (CCT) evidence on fuel savings from a promising improved biomass cooking stove in Ethiopia. The stove is called Mirt(meaning “best” in Amharic), and is used to bake injera, the staple food in much of Ethiopia. Injera preparation accounts for about half the primary energy consumed in the country.
This study conducted a cross-sectional survey of 8174 micro, small and medium enterprises from ten major urban areas in Ethiopia to study the determinants of the enterprises’ adoption of energy efficiency practices and technologies. For identification, we rely on a generalized ordered probit model. The findings reveal that, as the size of the enterprise becomes larger, it is more likely the enterprise will undertake energy efficient practices and technologies.
The use of small-scale off-grid renewable energy for rural electrification is now seen as one sustainable energy solution. The expectations from such small-scale investment include meeting basic household energy needs and thereby improving some aspects of household welfare. However, these stated benefits remain largely hypothetical because there are data and methodological challenges in existing literature attempting to isolate such impacts. This paper uses field data from micro hydro schemes in Kenya and a propensity score matching technique to demonstrate such an impact.
The recent Collective Forest Tenure Reform in China has started the process of devolving forest management rights from village collectives to households since 2003. In this paper, we study the impact of the reform on rural energy consumption. Devolving forest tenure improves farmers' access to forest products on their newly acquired forestland, and is therefore expected to increase farmers' fuelwood consumption. The reform also allows farmers to adopt some revenue-enhancing forest technologies which may lead to energy switching in farmer households.
Electrification, especially rural electrification (RE), is a core component of the Sustainable Development Goals and a major focal point of the global development community. Despite this focus, more than one billion people worldwide do not have access to electricity, and electrification growth rates are not keeping pace with population growth. In this paper, we posit that lack of progress is partly driven by a misalignment between academic research and energy planners’ and policy makers’ needs.
This study investigates Chinese local residents’ attitudes toward shale gas exploitation through an interview of 730 local residents in two counties of Sichuan Province (Weiyuan County and Gong County) and explores the determinants of their support or opposition. It is the first study in China to explore local residents’ attitudes, and we comprehensively identify underlying factors accounting for such attitudes, including energy poverty, environmental awareness, and risk and benefit perceptions.
The Economics and Environment for Development Program (EEfD) carry out a review of policy relevant documents and countries initiatives on environment and development topics in Central America. The policy review addresses the issue of sustainable energy from two different perspectives. One approach considers energy in its broad spectrum and as a national sector of relevance, while the other one focuses on the relevance of implementing sustainable energies under a climate change context (EEfD 2016)1.
The investment requirements to achieve the United Nations’ universal electricity access goal by 2030 are estimated at 640 billion USD. The assumption underlying this goal is that electrification contributes to poverty alleviation in many regards. In recent years, a body of literature has emerged that widely confirms this positive poverty impact assumption. Most of these studies, however, are based on data from Asia and Latin America. This paper challenges the transferability of impact findings in the literature to the African context.
Improved cook stoves (ICS) have been widely touted for their potential to deliver the triple benefits of improved household health and time savings, reduced deforestation and local environmental degradation, and reduced emissions of black carbon, a significant short-term contributor to global climate change. Yet diffusion of ICS technologies among potential users in many low-income settings, including India, remains slow, despite decades of promotion.
The authors examine whether high personal discount rates help explain why and which households in developing countries under-invest in seemingly low-cost options to avert environmental health threats, including bednets, clean cooking fuels, individual household latrines, water treatment and handwashing. First, the authors elicit personal discount rates by combining a simple randomized experiment with detailed surveys of over 10,000 rural households in Maharashtra, India. Personal discount rates are lower for women, for better-off households, and for households who can access formal credit.
More than 3 billion people use wood fuels for their daily cooking needs, with detrimental health implications related to smoke emissions. Best practice global initiatives emphasize the dissemination of clean cooking stoves, but these are often expensive and suffer from interrupted supply chains that do not reach rural areas. This emphasis neglects that many households in the developing world cook outdoors. Our calculations suggest that for such households, the use of less expensive biomass cooking stoves can substantially reduce smoke exposure.
While much work has examined approaches to increase uptake of a variety of household environmental, health and energy technologies, researchers and policymakers alike have struggled to ensure long-term use. Drawing on a pilot-scale experiment conducted in rural Cambodia, this study evaluates whether economic incentives enhance continued use of—and fuel savings from—improved cookstoves (ICS).
Free technology distribution can be an effective development policy instrument if adoption is socially inefficient and hampered by affordability constraints. Yet, policy makers often oppose free distribution, arguing that reference dependence spoils the willingness to pay and thus market potentials in the long run. For improved cookstoves, this paper studies the willingness to pay six years after a randomized one-time free distribution.
The cost of providing electricity to the unconnected 1.1 billion people in developing countries is significant. High hopes are pinned on market-based dissemination of off-grid technologies to complement the expensive extension of public grid infrastructure. In this paper, we elicit the revealed willingness-to-pay for different off-grid solar technologies in a field experiment in rural Rwanda. Our findings show that households are willing to dedicate substantial parts of their budget to electricity, but not enough to reach cost-covering prices.
this study uses a randomized experiment in rural Ethiopia to test on how quickly energy efficient technology (an improved stove) is put in use after the technologies is disseminated. We evaluate two concepts that may affect usage of a product: screening (related to valuation of a product) and sunk cost effects (based on the price the potential user paid for the product). A standard Tobit and IV-Tobit methods of estimations are used for testing sunk cost and screening effects, respectively.
Measuring inequality can be challenging due to the limitations of using household income or expenditure data. Because actual energy consumption can be measured more easily and accurately and is relatively more stable, it may be a better measure of inequality. Here we use data on energy consumption for specific devices from a large nation-wide household survey (n = 3,404 rural households from 12 provinces) to assess inequality in rural China.
We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a subsidy program to introduce cleaner and more efficient household wood combustion technologies.
This paper empirically analyzes adoption and fuel savings efficiency of improved biomass cookstove technology using survey data from a cross-section of 200 farm households from the highlands of Tigrai, northern Ethiopia. Results indicate that these farm households are willing to adopt improved biomass cookstove innovations if this leads to economic savings. Moreover, results suggest significant positive environmental externalities. On a per household basis, we found that adopters collect about 70 kg less wood and about 20 kg less dung each month.
This paper examines the relationship between information feedback and residential electricity consumption, based on a household survey dataset collected in 2012 that covered 26 provinces in China. The results show that information feedback is strongly associated with residential electricity consumption. Electricity consumption is statistically lower in households who obtain consumption information through interactions with meter readers, receive ex ante feedback (use a prepaid metering system), and receive explicit feedback by directly paying meter readers.
An appropriate design of climate mitigation policies such as carbon taxes may face a lot of challenges in reality, e.g., the strategic behavior of fossil fuel producers, and huge uncertainty surrounding the climate system. This paper investigated the effect of possible climate tipping events on optimal carbon taxation and energy pricing, taking into account the strategic behavior of energy consumers/producers and the uncertainty of tipping points through a stochastic dynamic game.