Final Master Thesis report EGI 2010-2013   Thesis Title: The Role of Renewable Energies in Energy supply Planning and   Management for Sustainable    Development “Case of Rwanda”. ABSTRACT   This report provides an overview of the main results from the scenarios analysed in the Rwanda energy policy strategy, planning and prospective energy initiatives and alternatives (Hydropower, Biomass, Solar, Methane, Peat, etc.) as well as other Government Development Frameworks meant for poverty reduction strategies and economic development. Under this context, the report attempts to assess the role of renewable energies particularly micro hydropower in solving Rwanda energy supply and management issues for sustainable development. The main conclusion is that renewable energies (micro hydropower) substantially contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving diversification of the energy production and supply into the national grid as well as independent off-grid systems particularly in rural based areas that are far from the grid. This becomes even more significant and relevant when considering that electricity access in the country stands at about 14% leaving about 86% of the population especially in rural areas without power supply. Although other technologies are still used to meet urgent and pressing power demand, Renewable energy sources are well placed in offering medium and long term solution in a sustainable manner. To this effect therefore, the report has tried to outline the impacts, costs and benefits of ambitious renewable energy targets for Rwanda in the medium and long term perspectives.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

In January 2008 the South African power grid operated by Eskom became severely constrained because electricity demand exceeded supply. Following the immediate measure of load shedding, Eskom implemented a medium term strategy of Power Conservation to encourage consumers to reduce their power usage so that overall demand could be managed. Despite the extensive campaigns the 10% electricity savings target was not met in 2008. The aim of this study was to review the experiences of other countries that had successfully implemented Power Conservation Programmes and to research the different approaches that were taken in other countries to encourage behaviour change. A survey and quantitative analysis was undertaken on a sample of electricity consumers within the eThekwini Municipality Central Region to gauge the response of consumers to the power conservation campaigns conducted within the municipality. The analysis was done to determine how the response had varied among the various groups by taking into account demographic factors like age, gender and income level. The population of the sample frame was estimated at 15 000 customers. Two hundred and eighty responses were received and analysed. A salient finding of the study was that the majority of respondents were aware of the reasons for power conservation and the campaigns undertaken, but that there was a preference for Government to lead the initiative and subsidise the required savings measures. A second important finding was that different demographic groups implemented different savings measures, for different reasons and preferred different strategies to encourage savings. The main recommendations made were that Government should lead the savings drive, with customised campaigns for different demographic groups. The campaigns should place greater emphasis on the financial benefits to be gained. It was necessary for new and different savings measures to be communicated. Further, the was a need for Government to introduce legislation to enforce electricity savings. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2009.

In the Third World, the Oil Crisis has emphasized the vulnerability of certain large oil-importing countries, engaged in an extensive process of industrialization. The author asks whether Brazil's response to this new challenge will emerge from a tradition of direct State involvement in Energy (exemplified by PETROBRAS), or an original strategy based on the private sector. Both the personal commitment of General Geisel to enhance the national bourgeoisie, and the general context of the mid-Seventies, favour the latter. As the locally-owned sugar-producing oligopoly promotes an alcohol program to replace gasoline, the State is seeking a loose formula--an Alliance of the agro-energetic sector with the multinational automobile industry and PETROBRAS. Its success would be based on the performance of each actor. / Given a tradition of susceptibility of the Brazilian State to internal lobbying, and the choice in favour of indirect involvement in the program, it is not surprising that controls remained largely ineffective. Further structural limitations--an archaic agriculture resulting in low productivity of land, a lack of private funding, and technological deficiencies (caused by inadequate R & D activities)--induced the failure of the program in its original conception. However, the national bourgeoisie's fear of foreign control lead the military to veto the possible alternative of further internationalization of the alcohol sector. It remains to be seen, in the light of the weakening position of Brazil in the world economy, if such a stance can be maintained in the long term.

In order to find politically feasible ways to reduce greenhouse gas emission emissions, governments must examine how policies affect a variety of stakeholders. The costs and benefits of low carbon technology options are unique and affect different market participants in different ways. In this thesis, we examine the cost effectiveness of carbon mitigation technologies and policies from the social perspective and from the perspective of consumers. In Chapter 2, we perform an engineering-economic analysis of hybridizing concentrating solar thermal power with fossil fuel. We examine the cost effectiveness of substituting the solar power for new coal or gas and find the cost of mitigation to be approximately ~$130/tCO2 to ~$300/tCO2. In Chapter 3, we quantify some externalized social costs and benefits of wind energy. We estimate the costs due to variability and transmission unique to wind to have an expected value of ~$20/MWh. In Chapter 4, we quantify the cost effectiveness of a renewable portfolio standard and a carbon price from the perspective of consumers in restructured markets. We find that both that the RPS can be more cost effective than a carbon price for consumers under certain circumstances: continued excess supply of capacity, retention of nuclear generators, and high natural gas prices. In Chapter 5, we examine the implications of lowering electricity sector CO2 emissions in PJM through a Low Carbon Capacity Standard (LCCS). We estimate that an LCCS would supply the same amount of energy (105,000 GWh) as the RPS’s in PJM and an additional ~10 GW of capacity. We find that the LCCS could be more cost effective for consumers than an RPS if it lowered capacity prices.

The competitive federalist system facilitated state leadership and the diffusion of innovative policies that addressed climate change and energy issues in the absence of comprehensive federal action at the start of the twenty-first century. In a competitive federalist system state governments and their politicians challenge one another horizontally and the federal government vertically for legislative credit and functional authority on relevant policy issues. What drove state-level climate and clean energy leadership from 2001 to 2012? This dissertation develops three competitive federalism-based hypotheses for analysis: (H1) A national, bipartisan network of ambitious, entrepreneurial governors drove climate and clean energy policy innovation from 2001 to 2012; (H2) the State Energy Program Recovery Act resources reduced the policy adoption gap between early enactors and laggards in clean energy financing and regulation; (H3) and justification for climate and clean energy activities in the states shifted from environmental to economic rationales from 2001 to 2012 (Figure ES1). While competitive federalism theory has centered on both fiscal and ideological considerations driving innovation in the policy environment, the experience of climate change policymaking and clean energy actions at the state level during the period under consideration reveals a clear partisan divide in policymaking within this domain.

Addressing building energy use is a pressing issue for building sector decisionmakers across Europe. In Sweden, some regions have adopted a target of reducingenergy use in buildings by 50% until 2050. However, building codes currently donot support as ambitious objectives as these, and novel approaches to addressingenergy use in buildings from a regional perspective are called for. The purpose ofthis licentiate thesis was to provide a deeper understanding of most relevant issueswith regard to energy use in buildings from a broad perspective and to suggestpathways towards reaching the long-term savings objective. Current trends inbuilding sector structure and energy use point to detached houses constructed before1981 playing a key role in the energy transition, especially in the rural areas ofSweden. In the Swedish county of Dalarna, which was used as a study area in thisthesis, these houses account for almost 70% of the residential heating demand.Building energy simulations of eight sample houses from county show that there isconsiderable techno-economic potential for energy savings in these houses, but notquite enough to reach the 50% savings objective. Two case studies from ruralSweden show that savings well beyond 50% are achievable, both when access tocapital and use of high technology are granted and when they are not. However, on abroader scale both direct and indirect rebound effects will have to be expected,which calls for more refined approaches to energy savings. Furthermore, researchhas shown that the techno-economic potential is in fact never realised, not even inthe most well-designed intervention programmes, due to the inherent complexity ofhuman behaviour with respect to energy use. This is not taken account of in neithercurrent nor previous Swedish energy use legislation. Therefore an approach thatconsiders the technical prerequisites, economic aspects and the perspective of themany home owners, based on Community-Based Social Marketing methodology, issuggested as a way forward towards reaching the energy savings target.

This dissertation consists of three interrelated essays examining the role of crisis events in Swedish nuclear energy policymaking. The study takes stock of the idea of ‘crisis exceptionalism’ raised in the literature, which postulates that crisis events provide openings for major policy change. In an effort to explain crisis-induced outcomes in Swedish nuclear energy policy, each essay explores and develops theoretical assumptions derived from the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). The introduction discusses the ACF and other theoretical perspectives accentuating the role of crisis in policymaking and identifies three explanations for crisis-induced policy outcomes: minority coalition mobilization, learning, and strategic action. Essay I analyzes the nature and development of the Swedish nuclear energy subsystem. The results contradict the ACF assumption that corporatist systems nurture narrow subsystems and small advocacy coalitions, but corroborate the assumption that advocacy coalitions remain stable over time. While this analysis identifies temporary openings in policymaking venues and in the advocacy coalition structure, it is argued that these developments did not affect crisis policymaking. Essay II seeks to explain the decision to initiate a referendum on nuclear power following the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. Internal government documents and other historical records indicate that strategic considerations superseded learning as the primary explanation in this case. Essay III conducts an in-depth examination of Swedish policymaking in the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl accident in an effort to explain the government’s decision not to accelerate the nuclear power phaseout. Recently disclosed government documents show that minority coalition mobilization was insufficient to explain this decision. In this case, rational learning and strategic action provided a better explanation. The main theoretical contribution derived from the three essays is to posit the intensity and breadth of political conflict, strategic action, and analogical reasoning as key factors affecting the propensity for crisis-induced policy change.

Liberalism is a political philosophy that is “committed in the strongest possible way to individual rights, and, almost as a deduction from this, to a rigorously neutral state” (Walzer 99). It takes its “constitutive morality” to be a “theory of equality that requires official neutrality amongst theories of what is valuable in life” (Dworkin 203). For this reason, some theorists say Liberalism and the idea of environmental sustainability are not in conflict with one another. According to Mike Mills, because the commitment to neutrality means there is “no given set of policies associated” with Liberalism, any outcome is plausible (168). However, through this paper, I will show that the frameworks of Liberal political theory are not neutral because they cannot give due consideration to claims for environmental sustainability. Given these procedural incapacities, true neutral consideration would involve a counterintuitive commitment to fully supporting sustainability, further justification for which could come from a reexamination of the underlying Liberal theory of human nature.

Microgeneration technologies, such as solar photovoltaics (PV), have recently been cited as a potential solution to energy policy challenges such as climate change and security of supply. International evidence suggests that the benefit of a PV installation will depend on both the amount of electricity generated and the technology’s influence on energy consumption behaviour. This study seeks to quantify and explain this ‘double-dividend’ effect by examining photovoltaics in the UK domestic sector. Questionnaire and interview data were collected from owner-occupier PV households, revealing that the installation of PV increased awareness of electricity generation and consumption in the home. Guided by monitoring devices, an overall electricity saving (~8%) and load-shifting behaviours were observed. Although the installation of PV followed a series of other energy-saving measures, respondents showed an ongoing commitment to environmentally responsible behaviour and further reduction of the carbon footprint of household energy consumption. PV household electricity data and interviews with industry and government found that electricity tariffs, metering and other institutional constraints were important determinants of a household’s behavioural response. As these parts of the domestic PV system are largely still evolving, it is recommended that households and industry work together to develop systems that support sustainable electricity use, for both the early adopting households studied here and future adopters.