The increasing demand for electrical energy to bring about development and social change has brought about renewed interest in the use of nuclear power as one of the sources of electrical energy. The nuclear power industry has had a few decades of low activity due to previous accidents which turned the public perception against the use of nuclear as an electrical power source. The low activity has resulted in the shortage of nuclear skills as the skill previously available is now aged and about to reach retirement. The South African Government has recently announced its commitment to having nuclear in the energy mix. This will require construction of new nuclear power plants. This research arises from the need to understand whether the required human capital will be available, looking specifically at technician level in the nuclear energy industry. The main research goal of the study was to find what training and development initiatives are currently being used in industry and what needs to be in place to ensure that the industry is ready for the nuclear new-build. The researcher than proposes training and development initiatives that should be put in place to meet the demand that will be created by the nuclear new-build. / Thesis (MSc (Engineering Sciences in Nuclear Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The increasing demand for electrical energy to bring about development and social change has brought about renewed interest in the use of nuclear power as one of the sources of electrical energy. The nuclear power industry has had a few decades of low activity due to previous accidents which turned the public perception against the use of nuclear as an electrical power source. The low activity has resulted in the shortage of nuclear skills as the skill previously available is now aged and about to reach retirement. The South African Government has recently announced its commitment to having nuclear in the energy mix. This will require construction of new nuclear power plants. This research arises from the need to understand whether the required human capital will be available, looking specifically at technician level in the nuclear energy industry. The main research goal of the study was to find what training and development initiatives are currently being used in industry and what needs to be in place to ensure that the industry is ready for the nuclear new-build. The researcher than proposes training and development initiatives that should be put in place to meet the demand that will be created by the nuclear new-build. / Thesis (MSc (Engineering Sciences in Nuclear Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

- / The PhD thesis is about measurement and effects of environmental policy in the context of the Porter Hypothesis (PH). The first chapter offers a critical review of the large empirical literature on the Porter Hypothesis. The second chapter presents an empirical investigation of the Porter Hypothesis focusing on the manufacturing sectors of European countries between 1997 and 2009. We look at overall innovation and productivity impact that are the most relevant indicators for the “strong” PH. This approach allows us to account for potential opportunity costs of induced innovations. As a proxy of environmental policy stringency we use pollution abatement and control expenditures (PACE), which represent one of the few indicators available at the sectoral level. We remedy upon its main drawback, that of potential endogeneity of PACE, by adopting an instrumental variable estimation approach. The third chapter represents a novel approach, inspired by the literature on multilevel latent models and Item Response Theory, to assessing countries’ environmental and energy policy performance. We use data on energy efficiency policy targeting industrial sectors in 27 EU countries between 2004 and 2009 and rank countries with respect to their ability to implement policy over time. Unlike previous contributions in this respect, our model accounts for the inherent difficulty of a given policy instrument mix. Moreover, the model is extended to deal with the longitudinal data and to adjust the country ranking as a result of economic and institutional observables, which are likely to affect policy design and implementation.

This thesis investigates the development of the long-term energy consumption in the Swedish households by estimating the sector’s total energy use and moreover, by examining how structural, institutional and economic factors have affected the demand for energy in the residential sector during the period 1913-2008. The investigated period covers a transition from traditional fuels, such as firewood, to fossil fuels and finally renewable energy. Previous quantitative research in the field of energy history has mainly focused on estimates of the primary energy supply, and further, this research has primarily been supply-oriented and has therefore focused the production of energy and the supporting infrastructure.   Overall, there is currently a lack of knowledge covering the long-term patterns in Swedish household’s energy consumption, including changes of the household energy mix. Identifying the central mechanisms behind these changes is the central research question in this thesis. Improved understanding of the energy transformation in Swedish households constitutes important knowledge for all actors who address energy and climate policy, not the least are knowledge about the complex factors that have affected the household consumption of fossil fuels, and thereby the household’s carbon dioxide emissions, important.- The aim of this thesis is to contribute to a better under-standing of the households' role in the energy system and how this role has changed during the 1900s until 2008.   The thesis uses a structural analytical approach, based on the concepts suggested by foremost Olle Krantz and Lennart Schön, to understand how the household’s energy consumption is linked to structural changes and techno-logical development. Although the structural analytical chronology, as suggested by Schön, primary builds on the industrial sector, the households can be expected to follow a similar pattern of transformation. This since general-purpose energy technologies is central for the pattern of transformation. However, since different sectors face different conditions and different abilities to utilize the energy, it is equally plausible to assume that the households follow a different pattern than other sectors. The response could either have been faster or slower.   The thesis concludes that the period covering the years 1913 to 1973 was a catching-up phase. The households lagged behind the industrial sector with respect to the transition to coal, electricity and oil. But in 1973 the households had however a similar energy mix to other sectors. The second conclusion is therefore that the households made a faster transition from oil to electricity and district heating. After 1985 the household’s energy mix took a different path compared to other sectors, which is the third conclusion. After 1985 the household’s oil consumption continued to decline as the consumption of district heating was increasing. The households were also more prone to increase their consumption of bio-fuels during the 1990s.

This thesis analyses Turkey&rsquo / s energy policies and Turkey&rsquo / s foreign relations through the energy issues in the Eurasian region. In the first phase, the energy policies implemented by the state and free market orientation in Turkish energy sector will be discussed. The impacts of neo-liberal economic policies, regional organizations (the European Union and OECD), and global finance institutions (International Monetary Fund &ndash / the IMF and the World Bank &ndash / WB) on Turkish energy sub-sectors, particularly since the beginning of the 1980s, will be examined. In the second phase, Turkey&rsquo / s own autonomy and effectiveness within major energy pipeline projects in the Eurasian energy axis will be questioned in the post-Cold War period. Turkey&rsquo / s relations in the energy issues with the European Union, Middle East, Caucasus and Turkic States, Russia and the United States (US) will be discussed. Basic vulnerabilities in Turkish energy sector and possible acquisitions of Turkey through its international energy deals will be emphasized.

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht wie rationale Entscheidungsfindungen in Transformationsländern katalysiert werden können, indem durch den Fokus auf die internationale Wertschöpfungskette Synergieeffekte zwischen den Unternehmen genutzt und in deren Folge die Transaktionskosten, für Investitionsentscheidungen in energieeffiziente Technologien und Prozesse zur Erfüllung der Emissionsreduktionen, gesenkt werden können. Es wird das Wirken der Marktmechanismen analysiert und der Fokus auf die Transformationstheorie sowie die Ingenieurwissenschaften gelegt. Das Supply Chain Management, als anwendungsorientierte Realwissenschaft mit expliziter Ausrichtung auf Wertschöpfungsprozesse, wird in Bezug auf strategische Investitionsentscheidungen im Allgemeinen und Investitionen in Energieeffizienzmaßnahmen im Speziellen, weiterentwickelt. Mit Hilfe einer empirisch basierten Fallstudie werden die abgeleiteten Erkenntnisse einer kritischen Prüfung unterzogen und beispielhaft dargestellt, wie das entwickelte Entscheidungsmodell eingesetzt werden kann.

Tez (Yüksek Lisans) - Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Uluslararası İlişkiler Anabilim Dalı, 2007. / Bibliyografya var.

Research supported by MIT's Center for Energy Policy Research.

This thesis presents a political geography of transparency, regulation and resource making in shale gas projects in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). The emergence of shale gas as a politically and economically desirable resource occupied national political aspirations, most notably in the US and to some extent in the UK, for reasons of energy security and economic development. Although shale gas has become a globally desirable resource, this thesis shows that the resource is not same everywhere. Following knowledge making practices in distinct regulatory regimes of the UK and the US, I trace how making of shale gas resource is subjected to contestation in a range of technical fields, such as law, economics, geosciences and environmental impact assessment. The study is based on in-depth analysis of technical and policy documents, and interviews with a wide range of actors (i.e. regulators, gas companies, investors, scientists, landowners), and field visits in the US (New York, Pennsylvania and Texas) and the UK (Lancashire, Litchfield and London). Drawing on theoretical insights from the Science and Technology Studies (STS), legal and resource geographies, I empirically showed that both regulatory practices and resource materialities matter in encapsulating making of shale gas projects in different national contexts. Documenting how information production and its contestation is entangled with assemblages of materials and technologies, as well as regulatory, geoscientific and market interventions in the context of the UK and the US, this thesis offers an alternative account of the geography of transparency and regulation regarding the development of shale gas policies. The political viability of shale projects depends on how these informational spaces are generated, contested and transformed in nationally specific scientific practices and regulatory regimes.

La transition énergétique mondiale suppose un développement accéléré des énergies nouvelles et renouvelables pour la production d’électricité (ENRe), ce qui implique de nouveaux défis d’ordre technique, économique et de régulation du secteur électrique. Or, un engagement plus fort des pays émergents et en développement dans des trajectoires de décarbonation profonde de l’économie nécessite un renforcement des politiques de promotion ainsi que la conception d’instruments de régulation mieux adaptés aux spécificités de leurs contextes économiques et institutionnels.Cette thèse traite de la question de la conception, de la mise en place et de l’évaluation de politiques de promotion des ENRe adaptées au contexte des pays d’Amérique Latine. Dans ce but, nous avons tout d’abord recours à l’économie environnementale pour analyser les différents instruments de régulation disponibles, les caractériser et proposer des critères d’évaluation, en nous appuyant sur une revue approfondie de la littérature. Nous réalisons ensuite une étude économétrique de panel afin d’identifier les facteurs déterminants des investissements en nouvelles capacités d'ENRe et de mesurer l’efficacité des politiques. Dans un troisième temps, nous mobilisons la théorie évolutionniste du changement technologique pour analyser en profondeur le processus de mise en place des politiques, les barrières existantes et les résultats obtenus. Cette analyse s’appuie sur trois études de cas du secteur électrique au Chili, au Brésil et en Argentine. Enfin nous explorons les enjeux liés au déploiement massif des ENRe en Amérique Latine à l’horizon 2030-2040 : l’intégration des énergies intermittentes, l’accès au financement et le défi industriel.Nos analyses mettent en évidence que les transformations du contexte économique et institutionnel impulsent une dynamique qui conditionne les choix des politiques publiques ainsi que leur performance. Nous proposons donc les bases d’un cadre analytique pour la conception et l’évaluation de politiques de promotion ambitieuses sur le long terme. Ces politiques doivent être intégrées dans un projet multidimensionnel et cohérent pour le secteur énergétique. Concernant spécifiquement le choix de l’instrument de promotion et ses éléments de design, nous avons mis en exergue quatre principes à prendre en compte spécialement dans le contexte des pays émergents : le niveau de risque pour les investisseurs, le coût total de la politique pour le consommateur, l’adéquation institutionnelle de l’instrument et, enfin, sa flexibilité pour soutenir des technologies ayant différents degrés de maturité technico-économique. Cette flexibilité doit également répondre à des objectifs multiples liés au processus de développement socio-économique de chaque pays. / The transition to a more sustainable energy system requires a much faster development of new and renewable energy technologies for electricity generation (RENe). Thus, involving new challenges in the regulation of electricity sector. Additionally, a stronger commitment by emerging and developing countries for a deeper decarbonization trajectory, calls for the strengthening of renewable energy policies. Such policies include designing regulatory instruments that are better adapted for their specific economic and institutional needs.This thesis deals with the evaluation and the redesign of policies that encourage the diffusion of RENe in the context of Latin America’s countries. To this end, we first use Environmental Economics theory to analyse the different regulatory instruments available, characterize them and to propose evaluation criteria based on a thorough review of the literature. We then carry out a panel data econometric study, to identify the determining factors of investments in regards to new RENe production capacity; and in particular, to measure the effectiveness of such policies. In a third phase, we mobilize the evolutionary theory of technological change to analyse the process of policy implementation, the existing barriers and the obtained results. This analysis is based on three case studies in the electricity sector of Chile, Brazil and Argentina. And finally, we focus on the challenges related to the massive deployment of RENe in Latin America by 2030-2040: the integration of intermittent energy sources, the access to financing and the industrial challenge.Our research shows that the evolution of the economic and institutional context encourages a dynamic which conditions public policy choices as well as their performance. We therefore propose the basis of an analytical framework for the design and assessment of ambitious long-term promoting policies. These policies must be integrated into a multidimensional and coherent project for the energy sector. More specifically, concerning the choice of the policy instrument and its design elements, We have therefore highlighted four principles to be considered, especially in the context of emerging countries. The level of risk for investors, the total cost of the policy for consumers, the institutional competency of the instrument and its flexibility to support technologies with various degrees of technical and economic maturity. Such flexibility must also address multiple objectives related to the socio-economic development process of each country.