Final report to Office of Energy Research and Development Policy, National Science Foundation, Contract NSF C-1030

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 279-298).

This thesis uses a case study of the Community Home Energy Retrofit Project (CHERP) and it analyzes the larger statewide effort in California to increase energy efficiency in existing residential buildings to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. CHERP’s primary strategy is to embed itself into a community, educate residents on the multiple benefits of energy efficiency, and inspire them to take energy-saving actions in their own homes. It then builds its own community by connecting like-minded individuals together and provides an opportunity for them to exercise their political agency. This thesis analyzes CHERP’s effort in the context of the political, social, and economic climate of California. It identifies three obstacles for widespread energy efficiency adoption: one, CHERP’s lack of funding to support permanent staff and pay for collateral materials; two, low access to energy efficiency measures for low-income households and renters; and three, a lack of high quality home performance contractors that perform energy efficiency upgrades utilizing a whole-house energy systems approach. The thesis concludes with five recommendations to overcome these issues.

This thesis presents a novel policy assessment tool that serves as a decision support framework for analysis of energy policy problems involving multilevel, multidimensional and multi-stakeholder complexity. This new approach, The Energy Policy Assessment Technique (E-PAT), integrates System Dynamics Simulation and Multi-Criteria Evaluation models into a unified assessment framework. The E-PAT doubles as a systems-thinking model and a multi-criteria evaluation archetype. The E-PAT is designed for assessing policy issues, particularly those relating to energy planning in a national context. It is a suitable tool for evaluation and selection of optimal policies from competing and conflicting alternatives. To test its robustness and practical application, a case study on energy policy evaluation in Nigeria is carried out with this tool. A model of the Nigerian energy economy was constructed, and three proposed government policies for Sustainable Energy Development were evaluated relative to a Business-As-Usual case. The evaluation process identified ‘best’ policy options according to stakeholder viewpoints. The original contribution of this research is the creation of an integrated, transparent and comprehensive assessment tool, and the development of measurable Energy Sustainability Indicators (ESI), to aid policymakers in diverse policy analysis. The new tool is intended to support assessment of energy policies in relation to impacts on the economy, society and environment.

There is need for increased production of electricity from renewable energy technologies. The transition to a low-carbon economy, whilst achieving energy security and meeting the Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) is an ongoing challenge for many countries. Local communities instituting an energy co-operative model may be instrumental to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to attain the 2030 goal. Renewable energy co-operatives (RECs) are one approach that can contribute to environmentally and socially equitable energy transitions in order to meet the SDG7. This thesis examines the factors that affect the success of RECs within Ontario to better discern how RECs are set up and how government policy affects their development. The main research question of this study is “How can Ontario’s renewable energy co-ops grow, experience long-term viability, be updated or expanded?” This thesis argues that the quest towards energy transition, a low-carbon economy and to achieve both the federal and provincial targets by 2030 should take on a multi-stakeholders approach. In theory, this should reflect community desires, goals and energy equity since a community should have its own supported role in energy generation towards the whole of Ontario. With the absence of provincial support from the removal of the Feed-In Tariff (FIT) program in 2017, it is now imperative that municipal governments become involved in REC developments within their community. The methodological approach of this thesis uses a combination of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) and sustainability analyses in order to interpret the data collected from semi-structured interviews with co-ops and policymakers as well as their websites and reports. This study examines the support structures and barriers for the growth of RECs in Ontario and how their growth can contribute to the SDG7. Through document review and interviews with representatives from the co-ops, I discovered that barriers include unstable government policy, inadequate funding, and a lack of support from financial institutions due to the smaller size of the projects developed by power co-ops. Comparisons with REC policy and progress in European countries show Ontario can do more to support RECs. This thesis concludes that one of the many available options for Ontario to contribute substantially to the transition to a low-carbon-economy is through applying the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change and the SDG7 by supporting citizen-led initiatives like RECs and to encourage large financial institutions to invest in their communities.

In 2014, European heads of state selected new targets for the EU as part of the 2030 climate and energy framework. The targets will guide the ambition and nature of EU policy in this area until 2030 and are likely to have important implications for Europe’s transition to a low-carbon economy. The decision taken by the European Council was preceded by several years of vigorous interaction between interest groups, the European Commission and the member states. The outcome of this interaction set the agenda for EU climate and energy policy but the role of interest groups in climate and energy policy, especially relative to important economic ideas, is relatively under researched. By augmenting and applying the multiple streams approach developed by John Kingdon in the 1980s and using process-tracing techniques, this thesis contributes a detailed case study of this important instance of European interest representation. It is found that the complex and dynamic political context for the interaction made planning and executing advocacy campaigns challenging for all actors. The debate about the 2030 framework is shown to hinge on the idea of technology-neutrality and its status on the policymaking agenda. A number of policy coalitions are observed with a wide range of characteristics, some novel. Several attempts at ‘policy entrepreneurship’ by interest groups are recorded but most were disrupted by the confused and fast-changing political situation. It is shown that a combination of spill-over between policy windows, framing and coalition building activity served to push the idea of technology neutrality up the agenda. The multiple streams approach is shown to be broadly applicable to the research context and aims but greater agency over policy windows than originally assumed must be granted to actors and the possibility for successful policy entrepreneurship to yield unintended policy outcomes allowed for.

Indigenous peoples are increasingly using renewable energy technologies to meet a variety of objectives. In so-called Canada, there has been a dramatic rise in Indigenous renewable energy projects due to economic, environmental, and legal trends. Nowhere are these trends more evident than in the province of British Columbia (BC). In the early 2000s, the colonial government privatized the electricity system, sparking a rapid expansion of run of river hydro projects on Indigenous lands. Over time, and with much effort, First Nations in BC began to participate in and ultimately benefit from the shift to independent power production. However, just as they increased their involvement in the renewable energy sector, the government withdrew its commitment to purchase private power for the foreseeable future. One way to understand the implications of this policy reversal is to examine it through the lens of energy justice. Using a justice framework, this research explores how First Nations are involved in renewable energy developments in BC as well as the significance of this involvement for Indigenous self-determination. Drawing from two case studies and survey data from First Nations across the province, this thesis argues that the decline in power procurement programs is not simply a barrier but an injustice. I first illustrate how provincial energy policies have shaped and been shaped by Indigenous renewable energy ambitions. While First Nations were not the intended beneficiaries of these policies, they nonetheless seized the opportunity to sell electricity to the grid. I also compare the approaches of two Indigenous power producers, Kanaka Bar Indian Band and Sts’ailes First Nation, arguing that they have generated important economic benefits by strategically navigating the private power industry. Lastly, I document how members of Kanaka Bar have leveraged the Kwoiek Creek hydro project to address the adverse impacts of colonization and further their aims of self-determination. Based on these findings, I conclude that Indigenous renewable energy projects are themselves forms of energy justice and as such, must be supported through a variety of means. / Graduate

Submitted by Milena Rubi (milenarubi@ufscar.br) on 2017-02-13T14:26:44Z No. of bitstreams: 1 CIAMPONI_Celso_2015.pdf: 39622256 bytes, checksum: 63ce863907c91b5d7f9eb0db5207b7c2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Milena Rubi (milenarubi@ufscar.br) on 2017-02-13T14:26:52Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 CIAMPONI_Celso_2015.pdf: 39622256 bytes, checksum: 63ce863907c91b5d7f9eb0db5207b7c2 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Milena Rubi (milenarubi@ufscar.br) on 2017-02-13T14:26:57Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 CIAMPONI_Celso_2015.pdf: 39622256 bytes, checksum: 63ce863907c91b5d7f9eb0db5207b7c2 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-13T14:27:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CIAMPONI_Celso_2015.pdf: 39622256 bytes, checksum: 63ce863907c91b5d7f9eb0db5207b7c2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-26 / Não recebi financiamento / This paper presents the results of the economic feasibility analysis of implementing a distributed generation system based on electricity produced from wind and / or solar systems in the cities of Sorocaba, São Paulo; Brasilia, Federal District; Rio Branco, Acre; Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul; Manaus, Amazonas and Fortaleza, Ceará. Thus, three scenarios were raised as well as the consumption of energy generated, in full or having to be complemented with the use of the normal distribution network. For each of the scenarios considered the following indicators were raised: NPV, IRR, and Payback final balance in the life of the equipment, based on a TMA equal to the government Selic rate. As a result we had a payback between 8 and 12 years in the best case scenario and between 12 and 16 years in the worst scenario analyzed, but all were positive NPV and final balance at the end of life of equipamrnto In this way it was possible to determine for these cities that the best structure to be implemented and serve as a basis for analyzing the implementation of this same infrastructure in other locations in Brazil, particularly in more remote places where access to electrification in the centralized system becomes more difficult to arrival. / Este trabalho apresenta os resultados da análise de viabilidade econômica da implantação de um sistema de geração distribuída baseado em energia elétrica produzida a partir de sistemas eólicos e/ou solares, nas cidades de Sorocaba, São Paulo; Brasília, Distrito Federal; Rio Branco, Acre; Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul; Manaus, Amazonas e Fortaleza, Ceará. Assim, foram levantados três cenários possíveis, bem como o consumo desta energia gerada, de forma integral ou tendo de ser complementada com o uso da rede de distribuição normal. Para cada um dos cenários estudados foram levantados os seguintes indicadores: VPL, TIR, Payback e saldo final na vida útil do equipamento, como base em uma TMA igual à taxa Selic do governo. Como resultado tivemos um payback entre 8 e 12 anos no melhor cenário e entre 12 e 16 anos no pior cenário analisado, mas todos apresentaram VPL positivo e saldo final ao término da vida útil do equipamrnto Desta forma foi possível determinar para estas cidades qual a melhor estrutura a ser implantada bem como servir de base para a análise na implantação desta mesma infraestrutura em outras localidades do Brasil, principalmente em lugares mais distantes onde o acesso à eletrificação no sistema centralizado se torna mais difícil a sua chegada.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:52:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:01:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Dissertação (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP