... order to account for a perception of reduced risk associated with the investment in the ... t... more ... order to account for a perception of reduced risk associated with the investment in the ... the various growth, structural and technicoeconomic factors affecting energy consumption over the long run ... The structural shift from intermediate product to final product in the output of the pulp ...
Hybrid energy–economy models combine the advantages of a technologically explicit bottom–up model... more Hybrid energy–economy models combine the advantages of a technologically explicit bottom–up model with the behavioral realism sought after by top–down models in order to help policymakers assess the likely technology-specific response and economy-wide impact of policies to induce technological change. We use a discrete choice survey to estimate key technology choice parameters for a hybrid model. Two choice experiments are
ABSTRACT The renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requires the electricity sector to include a mini... more ABSTRACT The renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requires the electricity sector to include a minimum amount of electricity from renewable energy sources. Renewables often have more desirable social and environmental effects in comparison with conventional electricity sources such as fossil fuels. Support for renewables is currently needed because they are usually not yet financially competitive with conventional sources because of: subsidies to conventional sources, minimal pollution charges for conventional sources, and the newness of many renewables technologies, whose relative costs will fall with widespread commercialization. Mechanisms normally used to support renewable electricity generation include direct financial support, indirect support and pollution charges on conventional sources. However, the RPS, a new policy mechanism, is rapidly gaining in popularity because: it maintains cost reduction incentives for producers, ensures the attainment of the market penetration target and possibly associated environmental targets, and minimizes government involvement. The RPS has been recently implemented in jurisdictions in Europe, the US and Australia. Developing countries, such as China, are now also interested in this policy tool. If China were to implement a RPS, it would need to ensure that such a policy was designed to meet the unique needs of China. This would require research and policy development covering several design and implementation considerations. • For setting its target, the government needs to establish explicit goals for renewables, linked to environmental and economic development objectives. This will help in setting the size, timing and percentage growth of the target. A cost cap may be necessary until more information is available about resource supply markets. • The definition of eligible renewable resources needs to be determined. If large hydro is deemed a renewable resource, it may need to have its own, separate target. • The estimated renewable resource endowment of China should be assessed in terms of its relationship to the different electricity grids in the country, different levels of government and different administrative jurisdictions. This will help determine the geographic scope of a RPS (national, interconnected grids, provinces). It would be easiest to initially apply the RPS to electricity suppliers (utilities, independent generators). Setting the renewable percentage by energy instead of capacity will ensure that the standard is closely associated with environmental improvement. The RPS should also provide some flexibility to allow electricity providers to meet each year's requirement with some re-allocation of output from the previous or following periods (banking and crediting). Finally, trading certificates should be developed to ensure that renewable electricity is produced at low cost. • Allocation of administrative responsibilities for the RPS (setting targets, certifying renewables, compliance-monitoring and penalties) depends on the structure of the Chinese electricity industry. (If independent regulation is established, the regulator could have this responsibility.)
ABSTRACT A significant share of future urban energy consumption is predetermined when land-use an... more ABSTRACT A significant share of future urban energy consumption is predetermined when land-use and urban form are designated. Community Energy Management (CEM) is a sustainable energy strategy which looks at how shaping the built environment and designing urban services in consideration of energy production, distribution and use could affect both the long term demand for energy and the type of energy supplied. This energy policy perspective is particularly relevant to China as that country is experiencing rapid urbanisation and significant urban air quality issues.
1. Description of the policy challenge The litany of potential impacts associated with climate ch... more 1. Description of the policy challenge The litany of potential impacts associated with climate change is becoming familiar to anyone who regularly reads a newspaper or watches the news on television. Global average temperatures are expected to increase by 2 to 6oC over the coming century. Temperature increases will continue to melt glaciers throughout the world as well as increase
Voluntary programs for environmental protection are increasingly popular with governments, but it... more Voluntary programs for environmental protection are increasingly popular with governments, but it is difficult to assess the extent to which such programs change the behaviour of firms. We conduct a hindsight decision analysis of the electricity supply strategy that BC Hydro chose in the late 1990s while it participated in a Canadian government program for voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction.
According to intuition and theories of diffusion, consumer preferences develop along with technol... more According to intuition and theories of diffusion, consumer preferences develop along with technological change. However, most economic models designed for policy simulation unrealistically assume static preferences. To improve the behavioral realism of an energy–economy policy model, this study investigates the “neighbor effect,” where a new technology becomes more desirable as its adoption becomes more widespread in the market. We measure
Conventional top-down and bottom-up energy–economy models have limitations that affect their usef... more Conventional top-down and bottom-up energy–economy models have limitations that affect their usefulness to policy-makers. Efforts to develop hybrid models, that incorporate valuable aspects of these two frameworks, may be more useful by representing technologies in the energy–economy explicitly while also representing more realistically the way in which businesses and consumers choose between those technologies. This representation allows for the realistic
Because they lower the cost of using energy in production and consumption activities, energy effi... more Because they lower the cost of using energy in production and consumption activities, energy efficiency improvements may lead to a rebound effect, in which the demand for energy increases to offset partly or completely the initial energy saving. The magnitude of the rebound effect depends on: (1) the extent to which the effective costs of energy services (capital and operating)
Many clean energy technologies have experienced rapid cost declines recently as a result of accum... more Many clean energy technologies have experienced rapid cost declines recently as a result of accumulating experience with their production and use. It has been argued that if this relationship between experience and cost continues in the future, then it may make sense to foster market penetration of clean energy technologies on a large scale today, despite their current high costs,
Recently, hybrid models of the energy-economy have been developed with the objective of combining... more Recently, hybrid models of the energy-economy have been developed with the objective of combining the strengths of the traditional top-down and bottom-up approaches by simulating consumer and firm behavior at the technological level. We explore here the application of discrete choice research and modeling to the empirical estimation of key behavioral parameters representing technology choice in hybrid models. We estimate
Issues surrounding the development, application and interpretation of energy intensity indicators... more Issues surrounding the development, application and interpretation of energy intensity indicators are a continuing source of debate in the field of energy policy analysis. Although economic energy intensity indicators still dominate intensity/efficiency studies, the use of physical energy intensity indicators is on the rise. In the past, physical energy intensity indicators were not employed since it was often impossible to
Interest groups and experts debate the cost of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction, and policy-makers ... more Interest groups and experts debate the cost of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction, and policy-makers do not know whom to believe. The confusion stems from differing definitions of costs and divergent assumptions about key uncertainties, especially the role of policy in influencing the long-run evolution of technologies and consumer preferences. Analysis could be more helpful to policy-makers by combining technological explicitness
China's iron and steel sector is faced with increasing pressure to control both local air pol... more China's iron and steel sector is faced with increasing pressure to control both local air pollutants and CO2 simultaneously. Additional policy instruments are needed to co-control these emissions in this sector. This study quantitatively evaluates and compares two categories of emission reduction instruments, namely the economic-incentive (EI) instrument of a carbon tax, and the command-and-control (CAC) instrument of mandatory application of end-of-pipe emission control measures for CO2, SO2 and NOx. The comparative evaluation tool is an integrated assessment model, which combines a top-down computable general equilibrium sub-model and a bottom-up technology-based sub-model through a soft-linkage. The simulation results indicate that the carbon tax can co-control multiple pollutants, but the emission reduction rates are limited under the tax rates examined in this study. In comparison, the CAC instruments are found to have excellent effects on controlling different pollutants s...
... order to account for a perception of reduced risk associated with the investment in the ... t... more ... order to account for a perception of reduced risk associated with the investment in the ... the various growth, structural and technicoeconomic factors affecting energy consumption over the long run ... The structural shift from intermediate product to final product in the output of the pulp ...
Hybrid energy–economy models combine the advantages of a technologically explicit bottom–up model... more Hybrid energy–economy models combine the advantages of a technologically explicit bottom–up model with the behavioral realism sought after by top–down models in order to help policymakers assess the likely technology-specific response and economy-wide impact of policies to induce technological change. We use a discrete choice survey to estimate key technology choice parameters for a hybrid model. Two choice experiments are
ABSTRACT The renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requires the electricity sector to include a mini... more ABSTRACT The renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requires the electricity sector to include a minimum amount of electricity from renewable energy sources. Renewables often have more desirable social and environmental effects in comparison with conventional electricity sources such as fossil fuels. Support for renewables is currently needed because they are usually not yet financially competitive with conventional sources because of: subsidies to conventional sources, minimal pollution charges for conventional sources, and the newness of many renewables technologies, whose relative costs will fall with widespread commercialization. Mechanisms normally used to support renewable electricity generation include direct financial support, indirect support and pollution charges on conventional sources. However, the RPS, a new policy mechanism, is rapidly gaining in popularity because: it maintains cost reduction incentives for producers, ensures the attainment of the market penetration target and possibly associated environmental targets, and minimizes government involvement. The RPS has been recently implemented in jurisdictions in Europe, the US and Australia. Developing countries, such as China, are now also interested in this policy tool. If China were to implement a RPS, it would need to ensure that such a policy was designed to meet the unique needs of China. This would require research and policy development covering several design and implementation considerations. • For setting its target, the government needs to establish explicit goals for renewables, linked to environmental and economic development objectives. This will help in setting the size, timing and percentage growth of the target. A cost cap may be necessary until more information is available about resource supply markets. • The definition of eligible renewable resources needs to be determined. If large hydro is deemed a renewable resource, it may need to have its own, separate target. • The estimated renewable resource endowment of China should be assessed in terms of its relationship to the different electricity grids in the country, different levels of government and different administrative jurisdictions. This will help determine the geographic scope of a RPS (national, interconnected grids, provinces). It would be easiest to initially apply the RPS to electricity suppliers (utilities, independent generators). Setting the renewable percentage by energy instead of capacity will ensure that the standard is closely associated with environmental improvement. The RPS should also provide some flexibility to allow electricity providers to meet each year's requirement with some re-allocation of output from the previous or following periods (banking and crediting). Finally, trading certificates should be developed to ensure that renewable electricity is produced at low cost. • Allocation of administrative responsibilities for the RPS (setting targets, certifying renewables, compliance-monitoring and penalties) depends on the structure of the Chinese electricity industry. (If independent regulation is established, the regulator could have this responsibility.)
ABSTRACT A significant share of future urban energy consumption is predetermined when land-use an... more ABSTRACT A significant share of future urban energy consumption is predetermined when land-use and urban form are designated. Community Energy Management (CEM) is a sustainable energy strategy which looks at how shaping the built environment and designing urban services in consideration of energy production, distribution and use could affect both the long term demand for energy and the type of energy supplied. This energy policy perspective is particularly relevant to China as that country is experiencing rapid urbanisation and significant urban air quality issues.
1. Description of the policy challenge The litany of potential impacts associated with climate ch... more 1. Description of the policy challenge The litany of potential impacts associated with climate change is becoming familiar to anyone who regularly reads a newspaper or watches the news on television. Global average temperatures are expected to increase by 2 to 6oC over the coming century. Temperature increases will continue to melt glaciers throughout the world as well as increase
Voluntary programs for environmental protection are increasingly popular with governments, but it... more Voluntary programs for environmental protection are increasingly popular with governments, but it is difficult to assess the extent to which such programs change the behaviour of firms. We conduct a hindsight decision analysis of the electricity supply strategy that BC Hydro chose in the late 1990s while it participated in a Canadian government program for voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction.
According to intuition and theories of diffusion, consumer preferences develop along with technol... more According to intuition and theories of diffusion, consumer preferences develop along with technological change. However, most economic models designed for policy simulation unrealistically assume static preferences. To improve the behavioral realism of an energy–economy policy model, this study investigates the “neighbor effect,” where a new technology becomes more desirable as its adoption becomes more widespread in the market. We measure
Conventional top-down and bottom-up energy–economy models have limitations that affect their usef... more Conventional top-down and bottom-up energy–economy models have limitations that affect their usefulness to policy-makers. Efforts to develop hybrid models, that incorporate valuable aspects of these two frameworks, may be more useful by representing technologies in the energy–economy explicitly while also representing more realistically the way in which businesses and consumers choose between those technologies. This representation allows for the realistic
Because they lower the cost of using energy in production and consumption activities, energy effi... more Because they lower the cost of using energy in production and consumption activities, energy efficiency improvements may lead to a rebound effect, in which the demand for energy increases to offset partly or completely the initial energy saving. The magnitude of the rebound effect depends on: (1) the extent to which the effective costs of energy services (capital and operating)
Many clean energy technologies have experienced rapid cost declines recently as a result of accum... more Many clean energy technologies have experienced rapid cost declines recently as a result of accumulating experience with their production and use. It has been argued that if this relationship between experience and cost continues in the future, then it may make sense to foster market penetration of clean energy technologies on a large scale today, despite their current high costs,
Recently, hybrid models of the energy-economy have been developed with the objective of combining... more Recently, hybrid models of the energy-economy have been developed with the objective of combining the strengths of the traditional top-down and bottom-up approaches by simulating consumer and firm behavior at the technological level. We explore here the application of discrete choice research and modeling to the empirical estimation of key behavioral parameters representing technology choice in hybrid models. We estimate
Issues surrounding the development, application and interpretation of energy intensity indicators... more Issues surrounding the development, application and interpretation of energy intensity indicators are a continuing source of debate in the field of energy policy analysis. Although economic energy intensity indicators still dominate intensity/efficiency studies, the use of physical energy intensity indicators is on the rise. In the past, physical energy intensity indicators were not employed since it was often impossible to
Interest groups and experts debate the cost of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction, and policy-makers ... more Interest groups and experts debate the cost of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction, and policy-makers do not know whom to believe. The confusion stems from differing definitions of costs and divergent assumptions about key uncertainties, especially the role of policy in influencing the long-run evolution of technologies and consumer preferences. Analysis could be more helpful to policy-makers by combining technological explicitness
China's iron and steel sector is faced with increasing pressure to control both local air pol... more China's iron and steel sector is faced with increasing pressure to control both local air pollutants and CO2 simultaneously. Additional policy instruments are needed to co-control these emissions in this sector. This study quantitatively evaluates and compares two categories of emission reduction instruments, namely the economic-incentive (EI) instrument of a carbon tax, and the command-and-control (CAC) instrument of mandatory application of end-of-pipe emission control measures for CO2, SO2 and NOx. The comparative evaluation tool is an integrated assessment model, which combines a top-down computable general equilibrium sub-model and a bottom-up technology-based sub-model through a soft-linkage. The simulation results indicate that the carbon tax can co-control multiple pollutants, but the emission reduction rates are limited under the tax rates examined in this study. In comparison, the CAC instruments are found to have excellent effects on controlling different pollutants s...
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Papers by Mark Jaccard