No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Long-term trends of electric efficiencies in electricity generation in developing countries
Abstract
This analysis provides time-series data on electric efficiencies for 138 countries and regions, covering all fossil fuels for the period 1971–2005, with an emphasis on non-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Fossil fuel consumption for electricity generation in non-OECD countries now exceeds that in the OECD. The historical performance of the top five non-OECD consumers of each fossil fuel for which reliable data are available is presented and discussed. For each fuel, the countries that lead the world in efficiency are used for benchmarks; bringing the rest of the world up to these standards would result in energy savings of 26 EJ (equivalent to 5% of global energy consumption) and CO2 emissions reduction of 2.1 Pg (equivalent to 8% of global CO2 emissions). Coal showed the largest potential margin of improvement for both energy and CO2, with possible savings equivalent to 3% of current global energy consumption and 5% of global CO2 emissions. The gap in electric efficiency between OECD and non-OECD countries over the past 35 years has widened for coal-fired generation, stayed relatively constant for natural gas, but has shrunk for petroleum. The results show the very gradual nature of overall efficiency improvements and the significant differences among regions and countries.
... In addition, e i is the emission factor, F i is the energy input into CHP, Q i is the electricity output from CHP, and H i is the heat output from CHP. The power loss factor ranges from 0.15 to 0.20 (Maruyama & Eckelman, 2009) and is 0.175 for public heat supply and 0.22 for auto-producers (Graus & Worrell, 2011). 6 It depends on the temperature and pressure of extracted steam, the electricity that it could have produced and the CHP configuration (Graus & Worrell, 2011). ...
... is the CO 2 emissions per kWh of electricity output from CHP, and r i is the reference efficiency of heat plants and can take values of 0.92 for coal, 0.91 for oil and 0.90 for natural gas on a net calorific value basis (Maruyama & Eckelman, 2009). The method, used by Finland in its energy statistics (Koreneff, 2018), is able to consider different boiler performance across fossil fuels (Maruyama & Eckelman, 2009) and considers the external benefits of CHP (Graus & Worrell, 2011). ...
... is the CO 2 emissions per kWh of electricity output from CHP, and r i is the reference efficiency of heat plants and can take values of 0.92 for coal, 0.91 for oil and 0.90 for natural gas on a net calorific value basis (Maruyama & Eckelman, 2009). The method, used by Finland in its energy statistics (Koreneff, 2018), is able to consider different boiler performance across fossil fuels (Maruyama & Eckelman, 2009) and considers the external benefits of CHP (Graus & Worrell, 2011). A disadvantage of this method is that efficiency results can be unrealistically high in some instances (Maruyama & Eckelman, 2009) and a reference efficiency, which may differ across plants and countries, 8 has to be defined. ...
Different technological and policy solutions have been developed to decarbonise energy systems and improve energy efficiency. Combined heat and power (CHP) is one solution that can bring about emission reductions by improving fuel use efficiency through the simultaneous generation of electricity and heat. Index decomposition analysis (IDA) is a tool that has been widely used to study emission trends and quantify the contribution of different measures to emission reductions. Techniques to estimate the emission reductions from CHP using IDA, however, have yet to be developed. This study develops new decomposition frameworks for two methods that have been used to estimate the carbon intensities of CHP and compares their performance theoretically and empirically using the data of Canada, Denmark and Finland. Based on the analysis, the substitution method is recommended as it can be more universally applied to different energy systems. Through the substitution method, the impact of different climate mitigation measures such as power generation efficiency and CHP can be compared within a single IDA framework.
... Besides that, based on electricity generation analysis shows that there are significant opportunities for savings in primary energy and greenhouse gases as older, inefficient plants are replaced with newer models and technologies. Particularly for coal, whose use for electricity generation is projected to grow dramatically in the coming years, the installation of efficient generating equipment as capacity is added will be crucial in improving electric efficiencies and reducing fuel requirements and greenhouse gas emissions (Maruyama & Eckelman, 2009). Energy efficiency is often used as a generic term which refers to using less energy to produce the same amount of services or useful output (Patterson, 1996). ...
... Energy Intensity (Hang & Tu, 2007) Energy Efficiency (Camus, 2007) Electricity Generation (Maruyama & Eckelman, 2009) Electricity Consumption (Saunders, 1992) Figure I. Energy Efficiency or conceptual framework ...
... Theoretically, it is confirmed that the process of generating electricity is little primary energy directly convertible into electricity. As stated by Maruyama & Eckelman (2009), direct energy conversion might represent greater efficiency since it means that electricity could be generated without intermediate equipment. Notes: ***, **, * significant at the 1%, 5%, 10% level respectively. ...
Improving energy efficiency is a vital step to ensuring long-term cost saving and reducing environmental impact. The issue of energy efficiency is bounded by laws and policies of energy source based on the limitation of resources. The findings from this study show the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model is the best fits model compared to Ordinary Least Square (OLS) where the electricity generation (positive relation) and energy intensity (negative relation) have significant impacts on the energy efficiency. This paper provides a useful insight to the Malaysia policymaker and electricity provider on how green energy intensity and green electricity generation crafting to the sustainable energy efficiency in Malaysia
... In relation to the researches of technical efficiency in the power industry, as early as 2009, Maruyama et al. studied the time series data of power efficiency in 138 countries and regions from 1971 to 2005. The results show that the overall efficiency improvement is gradual, and there are significant differences between regions and countries [8]. Barbose et al. (2014) studied an innovative project in the western United States that aims to meet power demand and reduce carbon dioxide emissions and incorporate energy efficiency into regional transmission planning activities to achieve effective integration of power efficiency [9]. ...
... In order to avoid too large data discrepancies affecting the final efficiency results, first convert the existing data into data under the power industry, that is, perform the following processing of pollutants; secondly, use the entropy method to combine the five indicators into a pollutant emission index. EPE = RPE × (SCC/REC) (8) Among them, EPE is the electricity pollution emissions in various regions; RPE is the regional pollutant emissions; SCC is the standard coal consumption for regional power generation; REC is the regional energy consumption standard coal. ...
How to achieve the continuous improvement of the environmental performance level of the power industry within the requirements of clean and low-carbon energy development is the fundamental requirement and inevitable choice for the construction of ecological civilization and sustainable development. From the perspective of environmental protection, based on the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and the internal mechanism of power system production and supply, the power industry environmental efficiency evaluation index system was constructed, and the two-stage Network Slack-based Measure (NSBM) model considering undesired output was used to calculate China’s 30 provinces and municipalities from 1998 to 2019. The environmental efficiency is divided into two links: power generation efficiency and transmission and distribution efficiency. The study found that, within the research interval, the overall environmental efficiency of China’s 30 provinces is low, and the differences between provinces and cities are large, but they have gradually developed in a better direction after 2015. The power generation efficiency of the first link in most provinces and municipalities is higher than the transmission and distribution efficiency of the second link, and the low transmission and distribution efficiency is an important reason for the low comprehensive level of environmental efficiency. The overall evolution trend of environmental efficiency in the six regions of China is roughly the same, but the regional differences are obvious, showing a trend of “high in the southeast and low in the northwest”. The economic and natural resource differences in different provinces and cities in each region have led to varying degrees of redundancy in five aspects, including investment in power assets, installed power generation capacity, and length of transmission lines, which seriously affect the environmental efficiency of the power industry. This research attempts to open the “black box” of the environmental efficiency conversion process of the power industry, which can provide directions and strategic suggestions for the improvement of the efficiency of the power industry in China.
... Certain single indicators, such as carbon or energy intensity, have been used to measure carbon emissions performance at the macroeconomic level [2e4]. Some studies have used the benchmarking approach to compare energy or emissions efficiency in industries worldwide [5,6]. These methods can be seen as achieving partial-factor carbon emissions performance analysis because they are unable to fully reflect the total-factor production process. ...
... If N D ! ðK;L;E;Y;C;gÞ¼0, it indicates that the observation to be evaluated is located at the environmental production frontier in g direction. After solving model (5) to obtain the optimal solutions for each factor, we define the total-factor carbon emission performance index (TCPI) as the ratio of potential target carbon intensity to actual carbon intensity following [29]. Suppose that b * c and b * Y are the optimal solutions corresponding to the carbon emissions and the product of industry in model (5), the TCPI can be formulated as: ...
In China, industrial sectors contribute carbon emissions at a larger scale and more rapidly growing pace than other end-use sectors. This paper thus aims to investigate the dynamic carbon emissions performance of China's industrial sectors using Malmquist-type index. Previous studies suffer from two limitations: the challenge of isolating carbon emissions performance from radial efficiency measures and the infeasibility problem in the calculation process. This paper proposes the non-radial global Malmquist carbon emissions performance index (NGMCPI) as a way of handling those two challenges with measuring dynamic changes in carbon emissions performance. The NGMCPI can be decomposed into efficiency change (EC) and technological change (TC) indexes, which represent the low-carbon catch-up and innovation effects, respectively. Based on the proposed indexes, we examine the dynamic changes in carbon emissions performance and its patterns for 38 Chinese industrial sectors over the 1990–2012 period. The results show that dynamic carbon emissions performance was mainly driven by the catch-up effect during the 1990s and boosted by innovation from 2000 to 2012. Some policy implications are proposed based on these empirical results.
... where i, k, m and y are process, country, facility and year, respectively; FC represents fuel consumption; C represents the capacity of each facility; and e represents the facility-level energy intensity. Here we consider the common discrepancy of energy intensity between large and small units/facilities in power and industrial sectors-that is, units/facilities with larger capacity generally have lower energy intensity 23,40,42 . In this study, the process-based facilities of each country were classified into mini, small, medium, large and super-large sizes based on their capacity, and their energy intensities were correspondingly distinguished based on the facility-level statistics collected and compiled from previous studies (Supplementary Table 4 and Supplementary Text 8). ...
The critical role of the iron and steel industry in decarbonizing global energy systems calls for refined strategies of climate mitigation. Here, based on a newly developed database of individual iron and steel facilities worldwide, we explore the distinct differences in age-to-capacity ratio and emissions intensity of primary steelmaking plants. We customize regional cost-effective decarbonization strategies by targeting a certain proportion of plants. We find that the more effective indicator for targeted decarbonization in developing regions is emissions intensity, while for developed countries it is age-to-capacity ratio. Whichever indicator we use to target plants, the strategy of transformation towards secondary steelmaking is generally more cost-effective than efficiency improvement in most cases, although obvious regional priorities exist. Our results emphasize the region-specific priorities of mitigation indicators and strategies in targeting plants, which help with designing short-term, cost-effective strategies for reducing steel-related CO2 emissions.
... In terms of the indicators adopted in the current literature to measure the CEP can be classified into two divisions: the partial-factor indicators and the total-factor ones Jola-Sanchez et al., 2016). Some studies take benchmarking approaches to conduct partial-factor CEP analyses (Ang et al., 2011;Maruyama & Eckelman, 2009). However, the abovementioned indicators provide limited information on the CEP (Zhou et al., 2010). ...
Energy consumption and carbon emissions induced by the production of manufacturing enterprises, especially the iron and steel enterprises (ISEs), are leading to severe global climate change. In this case, exploring the effectiveness of production-oriented carbon reduction projects is of great significance in promoting carbon neutrality and global climate governance. Using a unique micro-level dataset, this paper evaluates ISEs’ carbon emission performance (CEP) during China’s 11th five-year plan period (2006–2010), which is the most important period to remove iron and steel overcapacity. In detail, we estimate the meta-frontier non-radial Malmquist CEP index (MNMCPI) and its decomposition, including the efficiency change (EC) index, the best-practice gap change (BPC) index, as well as the technology gap change (TGC) index. Further, we investigate the effectiveness of production-oriented carbon reduction projects by estimating the influences of energy-saving policies on ISEs’ CEP, taking China’s Top 1000 energy-consuming enterprises program (T1000P) as a quasi-natural experiment. Meanwhile, the changes-in-changes model and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator inference are applied to conduct a series of robustness checks. In addition, a mediation effect model is applied to ascertain three influence mechanisms: the energy consumption structure effect, the environmental regulation effect, and the foreign direct investment effect. We find a 44.7% increase in the MNMCPI during 2006–2010, showing an improving trend of the CEP. According to the decomposition results of the EC, BPC, and TGC indexes, we discover a significant catch-up effect, a significant innovation effect, as well as a slight technology leadership effect in China’s ISEs. However, the TGC index shows a significant group heterogeneity. On the one hand, private and small enterprises are moving the production frontier upward steadily and increasing speed. On the other hand, the TGC indexes in eastern China and key cities for environmental protection show a fast-climbing trend, indicating an increase in the technology leadership effect. As for the policy effects, the T1000P improves the MNMCPI, EC index, and BPC index but fails to promote the TGC index. Moreover, the positive policy effect shows an evident heterogeneity among different ISEs. Specifically, the T1000P has a more evident positive impact on the CEP in private enterprises, large enterprises, and enterprises in mid-western China and non-key cities for environmental protection than in other enterprises. Finally, we confirm that the T1000P can significantly increase the CEP through the environmental regulation effect.
... A large number of national climate and energy policies have been implemented to reduce CO 2 emissions (del Río et al., 2005;Lehmann et al., 2012;Meckling & Allan, 2020;Rowlands, 2005;Thakur et al., 2005), playing a vital role in tackling climate change (Martin & Saikawa, 2017;Springer et al., 2019). For example, on the one hand, climate and energy policies for improving the thermal efficiency of fossil fuel power plants have been proven effective in reducing CO 2 emissions of power plants in developed countries (Ang & Goh, 2016;Dong et al., 2015;Maruyama & Eckelman, 2009;Steckel et al., 2020). On the other hand, studies have also proven that fuel switching from coal to natural gas has also helped decrease CO 2 emissions from the power sector (Feng et al., 2015;Pettersson et al., 2012;Wilson & Staffell, 2018). ...
The past three decades have witnessed the dramatic expansion of global biomass‐ and fossil fuel‐fired power plants, but the tremendously diverse power infrastructure shapes different spatial and temporal CO2 emission characteristics. Here, by combining Global Power plant Emissions Database (GPED v1.1) constructed in this study and the previously developed China coal‐fired power Plant Emissions Database (CPED), we analyzed multi‐scale changes and underlying drivers from the globe to the unit in generating capacities, age structure, and CO2 emissions over the past 30 yr. Our estimates show global CO2 emissions from the power sector increased from 7.5 Gt in 1990 to 13.9 Gt in 2019, and the growth of power demand meeting by large and young units mainly drives this increase for all stages. However, regional drivers were broadly different from those affecting global trends. For example, the critical roles of thermal efficiency improvement (accounting for 20% of the decrease in CO2 emissions) by eliminating small and low‐efficient coal‐fired units and fossil fuel mix (61%) by developing natural‐gas‐ and oil‐fired units were identified in preventing CO2 emission increases in the developed regions. By contrast, the decrease of fossil fuel share by speeding up the expansion of renewable power gradually demonstrates its importance in curbing emissions in the most of regions, especially including the developing economies (i.e., China and India) after 2010. Our multi‐scale results of 30 yr emission variations indicate the structure optimization and transformations of power plants is paramount importance to further curb or reduce CO2 emissions from the power sector.
... A large number of national climate and energy policies have been implemented to reduce CO2 emissions [22][23][24][25][26], playing a vital role in tackling climate change [27,28]. For example, on the one hand, climate and energy policies of improving the thermal efficiency of fossil fuel power plants have been proven effective in reducing CO2 emissions of power plants in developed countries [29][30][31][32]. ...
The past three decades have witnessed the dramatic expansion of global biomass- and fossil fuel-fired power plants, but the tremendously diverse power infrastructure shapes different spatial and temporal CO2 emission characteristics. Here, by combining Global Power plant Emissions Database (GPED v1.1) constructed in this study and the previously developed China coal-fired power Plant Emissions Database (CPED), we analyzed global and regional changes in generating capacities, age structure, and CO2 emissions by fuel type and unit size, and further identified the major driving forces of these global and regional structure and emission trends over the past 30 years. Accompanying the growth of fossil fuel- and biomass-burning installed capacity from 1,774 GW in 1990 to 4,139 GW in 2019 (a 133.3% increase), global CO2 emissions from the power sector relatively increased from 7.5 Gt to 13.9 Gt (an 85.3% increase) during the same period. However, diverse developments and transformations of regional power units in fuel types and structure characterized various regional trends of CO2 emissions. For example, in the United States and Europe, CO2 emissions from power plants peaked before 2005, driven by the utilization of advanced electricity technologies and the switches from coal to gas fuel at the early stage. It is estimated the share of identified low-efficiency coal power capacity decreased to 4.3% in the United States and 0.6% in Europe with respectively 2.1% and 13.2% thermal efficiency improvements from 1990-2019. In contrast, CO2 emissions in China, India, and the rest of world are still steadily increasing because the growing demand for electricity is mainly met by developing carbon-intensive but less effective coal power capacity. The index decomposition analysis (IDA) to identify the multi-stage driving forces on the trends of CO2 emissions further suggests different global and regional characteristics. Globally, the growth of demand mainly drives the increase of CO2 emissions for all stages (i.e. 1990-2000, 2000-2010 and 2010-2019). Regional results support the critical roles of thermal efficiency improvement (accounting for 20% of the decrease in CO2 emissions) and fossil fuel mix (61%) in preventing CO2 emission increases in the developed regions (e.g., the United States and Europe). The decrease of fossil fuel share gradually demonstrates its importance in carrying the positive effects on curbing emissions in the most of regions, including the developing economics (i.e. China and India) after 2010 (accounting for 46% of the decrease in CO2 emissions). Our results highlight the contributions of different driving forces to emissions have significantly changed over the past 30 years, and this comprehensive analysis indicates that the structure optimization and transformations of power plants is paramount importance to curb or further reduce CO2 emissions from the power sector in the future.
... We estimate the heat rates of power plant technologies based on various sources (MIT, 2007;Tong et al., 2018; U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2020). The heat rates and corresponding electricity generating efficiencies are listed in Table S2 in Supporting Information S1 and they agree with efficiencies in select ASEAN countries where data is available (Maruyama & Eckelman, 2009). We use emission factors of each fuel following the IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (Eggleston et al., 2006). ...
Coal combustion for power generation made up 30% of global CO2 emissions in 2018. To achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement to keep global average temperatures below 2°C, power generation must be decarbonized globally by mid‐century. This requires a rapid phase‐out of coal‐fired power generation. However, global coal power expansion continues, mostly in developing countries where electricity demand continues to increase. Since the early 2010s, Southeast Asia's coal power capacity expansion has been among the fastest in the world, following China and India, but its implications for the global climate and regional energy transition remain understudied. Here we examine Southeast Asia's power generation pipeline as of mid‐2020 and evaluate its implications for the region's CO2 emissions over the plant lifetime as well as projected electricity generation between 2020‐2030 in Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. We find that power plants under construction and planned in Southeast Asia as of 2020 will more than double the region's fossil fuel power generation capacity. If all fossil fuel plants under development are built, Southeast Asia's power sector CO2 emissions will increase by 72% from 2020 to 2030 and long‐term committed emissions will double. Moreover, in Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, projected electricity generation from fossil fuel plants under development, combined with generation from renewable capacity targets and existing power capacity, will exceed future national electricity demand. As a result, fossil fuel plants will likely be underutilized and/or become stranded assets while also potentially crowding out renewable energy deployment.
... On the energy production side, almost all regions have seen steady decreases in energy intensities, at a global average of −2.1% per year since 2010, and at a similar steady pace in most individual regions albeit at varying rates. Technology benchmarking studies show that power generation efficiencies vary widely between (and also within) regions-generally higher in Europe, Japan and the United states, and lower in Russia, China, India and Australia (Maruyama andEckelman 2009, Oda et al 2012). In the case of coal these differences are mainly driven by fuel qualities (e.g. ...
Global greenhouse gas emissions can be traced to five economic sectors: energy, industry, buildings, transport and AFOLU (agriculture, forestry and other land uses). In this topical review we synthesize the literature to explain recent trends in global and regional emissions in each of these sectors. To contextualise our review, we present estimates of greenhouse gas emissions trends by sector from 1990 to 2018, describing the major sources of emissions growth, stability and decline across ten global regions. Both the literature and data emphasize limited progress towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The prominent global pattern is a continuation of underlying drivers with few signs of emerging limits to demand, nor of a deep shift towards the delivery of low and zero carbon services across sectors. We observe a moderate decarbonisation of energy systems in Europe and North America, driven by fuel switching and the increasing penetration of renewables. By contrast, in rapidly industrialising regions, fossil-based energy systems have continuously expanded, only very recently slowing down in their growth. Strong demand for materials, floor area, energy services and travel have driven emissions growth in the industry, buildings and transport sectors, particularly in Eastern Asia, Southern Asia and South-East Asia. An expansion of agriculture into carbon-dense tropical forest areas has driven recent increases in AFOLU emissions in Latin America, South-East Asia and Africa. Identifying, understanding, and tackling the most persistent and climate-damaging trends across sectors is a fundamental concern for research and policy as humanity treads deeper into the Anthropocene.
... Before NATO campaign in March 1999, Serbia was self-sufficient in electricity produced from coal and hydropower, and electricity normally covered 75% of the total centrally supplied energy needs of Serbia (gas and oil cover the remaining 25% of demand). In The total power capacity of the Serbian EPS is 8.3 GW [26,27]. Thermal power capacities provide it with 65%, while hydroelectric power makes up almost 44% of total electric power capacity [28]. ...
Paper presents the energy policy of the Republic of Serbia with special attention to the energy situation on the government controlled territory. South Serbian autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija is under UN jurisdiction since the 1999 according to UNSC Resolution 1244. Renewable energy sources are rarely used in Serbia with exception of energy from hydropower plants, but in this sector priorities in geothermal and energy coming from biomass recently increased. In natural gas sector, Serbia has the deal with Russia for construction of South Stream gas-line through Serbia and for construction of the first underground storage in depleted gas reservoir in Banatski Dvor. In 2008, Serbia also sold 51% of the government founded petroleum industry – NIS which has exclusive monopoly for exploitation of crude oil. Serbian government has complete monopoly in electric power sector. Electric power infrastructure became technologically obsolete, and operative efficiency is at very low level. Serbia has not yet decided whether Serbian Electric Power Industry – EPS will be privatized. District heating sector mostly natural gas fuelled is highly inefficient and it is in jurisdiction of local municipalities but also has social component dictated by central government.
... On the role of market share, Olatubi and Dismukes (2000) in their analysis of competitive effects on generation efficiency in US have shown that greater the share in total generation of a utility, lower is the level of inefficiency. It has also been found that the thermal efficiency of power plants is low in developing countries as compared to the developed countries (Maruyama and Eckelman, 2009). This is not surprising as in most of the developing countries context the power sector had been under strict governmental control with hardly any competitive pressures or incentives to improve performance. ...
... Fuel consumption per unit power generated is inversely related to electric efficiency. Electric efficiencies in different utilities range from 25-45% for coal-fired power plants, 35-50% for oil-fired power plants, and 35-60% for natural-gas-fired power plants 52 , corresponding to different technology and operating conditions. Instead, we estimate electric efficiency using a function we built based on data in eGRID, CPED and ICPD, as well as measurements collected from various electric reports or companies' websites. ...
There are more than 30,000 biomass- and fossil-fuel-burning power plants now operating worldwide, reflecting a tremendously diverse infrastructure, which ranges in capacity from less than a megawatt to more than a gigawatt. In 2010, 68.7% of electricity generated globally came from these power plants, compared with 64.2% in 1990. Although the electricity generated by this infrastructure is vital to economic activity worldwide, it also produces more CO2 and air pollutant emissions than infrastructure from any other industrial sector. Here, we assess fuel- and region-specific opportunities for reducing undesirable air pollutant emissions using a newly developed emission dataset at the level of individual generating units. For example, we find that retiring or installing emission control technologies on units representing 0.8% of the global coal-fired power plant capacity could reduce levels of PM2.5 emissions by 7.7–14.2%. In India and China, retiring coal-fired plants representing 1.8% and 0.8% of total capacity can reduce total PM2.5 emissions from coal-fired plants by 13.2% and 16.0%, respectively. Our results therefore suggest that policies targeting a relatively small number of ‘super-polluting’ units could substantially reduce pollutant emissions and thus the related impacts on both human health and global climate. After developing a unit-based air pollutants emission inventory of more than 30,000 fossil fuel power plants operating worldwide in 2010, the authors find that retiring or implementing controlling measures on coal-fired power plants, representing 0.8% of global capacity, could reduce PM2.5 emissions from coal-fired plants by up to 14.2%.
... In addition, studies have found that electricity generation from fossil fuel sources is the major factor contributing to the growth of GHG in the GCC (Qader 2009); hence, improving efficiency targets significant environmental gains. Maruyama and Eckelman (2009) compare power generation across regions and find that the Middle East trails behind OECD and other non-OECD countries in terms of efficiency. Moreover, they find that while natural gas power plants are generally more energy efficient as compared to oil or coal plants, in the Middle East the opposite is true. ...
Although energy wealth rankings place the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries among the richest in the world, these economies face unsustainable growth in energy use and continuous environmental degradation. This paper examines the long-run relationship between per capita \(\hbox {CO}_2\) emissions and energy intensity in the GCC, while controlling for economic activity, the size of the manufacturing sector, and institutional qualities. We use heterogeneous panel techniques that account for heterogeneity and cross-country dependence for the period 1971–2011. We find that energy intensity and emissions are cointegrated in all GCC countries and that conservation and energy efficiency policies have greater potential in reducing emissions in Kuwait, Oman, and the UAE. A regional goal of mitigating emissions by 10% would require a reduction in energy intensity by 12%, on average. Last, we find that judiciary independence is an essential institutional quality that ensures the successful implementation and the stringent enforcement of long-term environmental policies.
... In Asia coal prices are also used because coal use for electricity is so dominant. Coal prices are converted into equivalent physical units (tcf of natural gas) and further adjusted for the fact that coal plants are typically less efficient at producing electricity than natural gas plants (Maruyama and Eckelman, 2009;Graus and Worrell, 2009); this factor inflates the gas equivalent price of coal by a factor of 1.25. Fig. 2 shows energy prices for natural gas for three geographies as well as for Asian coal. ...
... The demand of electricity was increased in line with the world population and economic growth in developing countries [48]. Malaysia was also not spared from this situation and statistics from Figure 1 explains everything. ...
Application of laser in heating technique of both organic gas-phase and solid particles for thermochemical decomposition at elevated temperatures in the absence of oxygen is presently a challenging area. Laser pyrolysis is a powerful and a versatile tool for the gas-phase synthesis of nanoparticles. Generally, the purpose of pyrolysis is not only for energy production but also for the production of chemical feedstocks. This paper reviews on the pyrolysis activities, generally in Malaysia and the utilization of laser in pyrolysis for renewable energy and materials application. Malaysia is a well-known for palm oil producer country in the world, generating significant wastes yearly from oil palm mills such as empty fruit brunch (EFB), shell, fiber and palm oil mill effluent (POME) has put the government to solve these wastes problem by doing research on the development of renewable energy and materials. This reviews concluded that there are new area of research for the utilization of waste material by using laser technique.
... On the role of market share, Olatubi and Dismukes (2000) in their analysis of competitive effects on generation efficiency in US have shown that greater the share in total generation of a utility, lower is the level of inefficiency . It has also been found that the thermal efficiency of power plants is low in developing countries as compared to the developed countries (Maruyama and Eckelman, 2009). This is not surprising as in most of the developing countries context the power sector had been under strict governmental control with hardly any competitive pressures or incentives to improve performance . ...
This paper investigates the impact of institutional quality – typified as regulatory governance – on the performance of thermal power plants in India. The Indian power sector was reformed in the early 1990s. However, reforms are effective only as much as the regulators are committed in ensuring that they are implemented. We hypothesize that higher the quality of regulation in a federal Indian state, higher is the efficiency of electric generation utilities. A translog stochastic frontier model is estimated using index of state-level independent regulation as one of the determinants of inefficiency. The dataset comprises a panel of 77 coal-based thermal power plants during the reform period covering over 70% of installed electricity generation capacity. The mean technical efficiency of 76.7% indicates there is wide scope for efficiency improvement in the sector. Results are robust to various model specifications and show that state-level regulators have positively impacted plant performance. Technical efficiency is sensitive to both unbundling of state utilities, and regulatory experience. The policy implication is that further reforms which empower independent regulators will have far reaching impacts on power sector performance.
... Qader (2009) finds that electricity generation from fossil fuel sources is the major factor contributing to the growth of GHG in the GCC; hence, the expected environmental gains from improving efficiency can be quite significant. Maruyama and Eckelman (2009) compare the efficiency of power generation across regions in the world and find that the Middle East trails behind OECD and other non-OECD countries. In addition, while natural gas power plants are usually more energy efficient than oil or coal plants, thanks to the combined-cycle (natural gas and steam turbines) technology, the study finds that oil-fired power plants are more energy efficient than natural gas plants in the Middle East. ...
While the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are among the most energy-rich in the world, they face unsustainable growth in energy use and environmental degradation. This paper examines the long-run relationship between per capita CO2 emissions and energy intensity in the GCC, while controlling for economic activity, the size of the manufacturing sector, and differences in institutional qualities. We use heterogeneous panel techniques that account for cross-country dependence for the period 1971-2010. We find that energy intensity and emissions are cointegrated in all GCC countries and that conservation and energy efficiency policies have greater potential in reducing emissions in Kuwait, Oman, and the UAE. However, energy efficiency and conservation alone may not be viable policy options to significantly cutting emissions in the next decades. A regional goal of mitigating emissions by 10% would require a reduction in energy intensity by 12%, on average. Therefore, investing in Carbon Sequestration (CS) technologies and strong commitment to renewable energy seem essential ingredients to any sustainable energy and environmental strategy. In addition, we find that judiciary independence is an essential institutional quality for the successful implementation of long-term environmental policies.
... substitute for natural gas, which has an energy intensity 30% higher in Iran than in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (Maruyama and Eckelman, 2009). Thus, the only option for industries is to decrease energy consumption through the use of new technology and investment. ...
The prospects of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and for carbon income, up to and beyond 2012, in the industrial sectors of Iran and five other Asian countries are investigated. The attractiveness and suitability of each host country, the status of their industrial sectors (based on four post-2012 scenarios), and the post-2012 potential of the CDM (or similar carbon projects) in these sectors are all examined. A multi-criteria analysis of Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, China, and India, based on seven sets of criteria (institutional, regulatory, economic, political, social, CDM experience, and energy production/consumption), is conducted, and the post-2012 potential carbon incomes of each country – based on CO2e emissions of industrial processes – are calculated. Finally, the Iranian industrial sector and the impact of deregulation of energy prices are examined. The post-2012 potential savings in the Iranian industrial sector are calculated based on energy savings, carbon income, and environmental savings. The results indicate that there is strong demand for investment and new technology in this sector to combat several-fold energy price increases. Moreover, high-priced carbon credits could play a meaningful role in post-2012 energy policies in this sector.
... In order to address this issue, the Thai government has, over the past two decades or so, undertaken a suite of policy measures, focusing on, for example, promoting efficient use of energy, adopting more energyefficient technologies, substituting renewable energy for fossil-fuels. A review of these policy settings (see for example, Mulugetta et al. 2007, Nguyen et al. 2007, Shrestha et al. 2007, Gvozdenac et al. 2008, Nakawiro et al. 2008a, 2008b, and Maruyama & Eckelman 2009) however suggests that the above noted measures have not been based on any comprehensive analysis of the entire energy sector. Rather, they appear to have been formulated on the basis of narrowly defined specific issues -generally without due consideration being given to the links between various issues, sectors, and segments of the electricity industry. ...
Thailand – the country of focus in this study – is a developing country, with a rapidly growing demand for energy to sustain economic growth, underpinned by continued shifts from agriculture to industry. This increased energy demand is likely to appreciably impact the economy and the environment. Further, Thailand, with limited supplies of indigenous energy resources, is a net energy importer. The security of energy supply, and energy resource diversity are therefore major policy considerations for Thailand. The task of developing appropriate energy and environmental policies and strategies is hence a challenging task for the Thai policy makers. At a fundamental level, this task could be facilitated through a framework that can capture the above noted features of the Thai energy system and provide a satisfactory redress for any issues that might arise from the interaction of these aspects. This paper develops such a framework. This framework is then employed in this study to examine the long-term impacts of alternative energy-policy scenarios, using a scenario-based approach. The three scenarios developed in this paper encompass different story-lines about the evolution of energy-economic-environmental setting to the year 2050. A linear optimisation approach (namely, MESSAGE model) is employed in this study to analyse the long-term impacts of the three scenarios. The broad contours of the scenarios are defined in terms of relevant energy parameters, energy technologies, energy efficiency, economic and environmental constraints. Analysis suggests that the primary energy needs for Thailand are expected to increase by approximately four times the current primary energy levels by the year 2050. Further, the introduction to nuclear power and renewable energy, while causing significant changes in the electricity generation capacity mix, is unlikely to appreciably affect the country's energy import dependency. In addition, increased contribution by renewable energy is likely to improve energy diversity, and the introduction of nuclear power is likely to worsen it.
... As previous assessments point, in developing countries, residential AC alone could consume more electricity than the total remaining consumption of the dwelling (Ekwall, 1991). Furthermore, electricity production from fossil fuels in many countries is commonly used (Maruyama et al., 2009) making that these fuels could disappear in the coming decades leaving coal as the only fossil source. Before the exhaustion of these resources, increasing costs, due mainly to the scarcity of them, it will make very difficult their purchase at reasonable prices. ...
This article shows the combination of a thermal air flow simulation program with an energy systems analysis model in order to assess the use of natural ventilation as a method for saving energy within residential buildings in large-scale scenarios. The aim is to show the benefits for utilizing natural airflow instead of active systems such as mechanical ventilation or air-conditioning in buildings where the indoor temperature is over the upper limit of the comfort range. The combination is done by introducing the energy saving output - calculated with a model of natural ventilation using a thermal air flow simulation program - Into the energy systems analysis model. Descriptions of the energy systems in two geographical locations, i.e. Mexico and Denmark, are set up as inputs. Then, the assessment is done by calculating the energy impacts as well as environmental benefits in the energy systems analysis. Results show that for an energy system such as the Mexican, with a relatively simple connection between supply and demand of electricity, natural ventilation mainly creates savings, whereas in the Danish system, the system operation is also affected by energy savings through natural ventilation.
... Avoided electricity output can be calculated by assuming a thermal efficiency of 30 % for the Rankine steam cycle portion of the combined cycle plant, which is the method used here. It can also be estimated by isolating the efficiency of electricity generation without steam, or the electric efficiency of the combined heat and power plant (Maruyama and Eckelman 2009). ...
Purpose
The industrial ecosystem identified in and around the Campbell Industrial Park in Honolulu County, Hawai’i involves 11 facilities exchanging water, materials, and energy across an industrial cluster. This paper highlights the advantages of this arrangement using life cycle assessment to determine the energy and environmental costs and benefits of the existing pattern of exchanges.
Methods
A consequential approach was used to evaluate each material substitution for four environmental impact categories: primary energy use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, acidification, and eutrophication. Each material exchange included avoided production and reduced use of virgin materials, any necessary pre-processing or transportation of local by-products, and avoided treatment or disposal of these by-products.
Results and discussion
All exchanges exhibited positive net savings across all environmental impact categories, with the exceptions of waste oil and tire-derived fuel burned as substitutes for coal. The greatest savings occur as a result of sharing steam between a combined cycle fuel oil-fired cogeneration plant and a nearby refinery. In total, the environmental savings realized by this industrial cluster are significant, equivalent to 25 % of the state’s policy goal for reducing the industrial component of GHG emissions over the next decade. The role of policy in supporting material and energy exchanges is also discussed as the central cluster of two power plants and two refineries share steam and water in part under regulatory requirements.
Conclusions
The results show environmental benefits of the sharing of by-product resources accrued on a life cycle basis, while for the local context, the reduction of imported fuels and materials helps to reduce the external dependency of Oahu’s remote island economy. The environmental benefits of materials exchanges are often ignored in energy policy, though, as in this case, they can represent considerable savings.
... During the recent years, the demand of electricity was increased in line with the world population and economic growth in developing countries [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. Malaysian electricity generation in 2009 was reported to be around 21,817 MW that shows around 10.6% increase in comparison with this amount in 2008 [31]. ...
... It is therefore worthwhile to benchmark the energy performance of electricity generation and assess its potential for CO 2 emission reduction. Several studies, such as Graus and Worrell (2009) and Maruyama and Eckelman (2009), analyze the emissions reduction potential in electricity generation for various countries based on the assumption that the efficiencies of fossil-fuel electricity generation were to improve to certain levels. Ang et al. (2011) estimates the potential for reducing CO 2 emissions arising from electricity generation in over 100 countries through improving generation efficiency and increasing the share of non-fossil fuel generation. ...
This paper presents a non-radial directional distance function approach to modeling energy and CO2emission performance in electricity generation from the production efficiency point of view. We first define and construct the environmental production technologies for the countries with and without CHP plants, respectively. The non-radial direction distance function approach is then proposed and several indexes are developed to measure energy and CO2 emission performance of electricity generation. The directional distance functions established can be computed by solving a series of data envelopment analysis models. We then conduct an empirical study using the dataset for over one hundred countries. It is found that OECD countries have better carbon emission performance and integrated energy-carbon performance than non-OECD countries in electricity generation, while the difference in energy performance is not significant.
... Following that, the Government of India initiated market-oriented reforms to address the underlying causes of the sector's inefficiency. The Electricity Acts of 1998 and 2003 led to the creation of a central (national) electricity regulatory commission – the CERC, and 1 It is well established that the thermal efficiency of power plants in developing countries is lower than the thermal efficiency of plants in OECD countries (Maruyama and Eckelman 2009). Persson et al. (2007) report an average thermal efficiency of 29 percent for coal-fired Indian plants in 1998. ...
This paper examines the impact of unbundling of generation from transmission and distribution on the operating efficiency of state-owned thermal power plantsin India. Using information collected by India’s Central Electricity Authority we construct a panel dataset for thermal power plants for the years 1994-2008. We take advantage of variation across states in the timing of reforms to examine the impact of restructuring on plant performance and thermal efficiency. We estimate difference-in-differences models that control for state-level time trends, and plant and year fixed effects. The models suggest that unbundling significantly improved average annual plant availability by about 4.6 percentage points and reduced forced outages by about 2.9 percentage points in states that unbundled before 2003. Restructuring has not, however, improved thermal efficiency. This may reflect the fact that unbundling has not yet attracted independent power producers into the market to the same extent as has occurred in the US.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.
... A study of the long-term trends in efficiency of electricity generation in non- OECD countries for the period 1971–2005 shows that the gap between their efficiency of coal-based electricity generation and that of the OECD countries has widened (Maruyama & Eckelman 2009). The authors found that global energy consumption could be reduced by 5% and global greenhouse gas emissions by 8% if all countries were brought up to the standards of the countries that lead the world in efficiency. ...
This paper reviews the literature that has sought to quantify the determinants of electricity demand and supply efficiency in developing countries. We examine the causal relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth, price and income elasticities of demand, and the barriers to adoption of energy-efficient equipment. We also examine the performance outcomes of economic policies affecting the electricity sector, including institutional reforms such as privatization and regulation. We find that electricity demand is driven by GDP, prices, income, the level and characteristics of economic activity/urbanization, and seasonal factors. The magnitude of their effects differs across countries, time periods, and studies even for the same country. These demand studies suffer from a number of limitations, including data availability and price distortions that limit responsiveness of demand to price signals. The literature is inconclusive on whether reforms, particularly privatization, improved supply efficiency. Effective regulation, competitive markets, and appropriate sequencing of reforms are important factors that influence the outcomes of privatization. There is a need for more quantitative analysis of the social welfare and distributional impacts of privatization of the electricity sector in developing countries.
... In this method the external benefits of combined heat and power generation are included in the CO 2 intensity factor, by taking into account the fuel use that would have been needed if heat was generated separately (see Eq. (4)). This method is, e.g., used by Maruyama and Eckelman (2009) to calculate energy efficiency of power generation (which they call ''effective electric efficiency''). ...
This paper compares five methods to calculate CO2 intensity (g/kWh) of power generation, based on different ways to take into account combined heat and power generation. It was found that the method chosen can have a large impact on the CO2 intensity for countries with relatively large amounts of combined heat and power plants. Of the analysed countries, the difference in CO2 intensities is found to be especially large for Russia, Germany and Italy (82%, 31% and 20% differences in 2007, respectively, for CO2 intensity of total power generation). This study furthermore shows that by taking into account transmission and distribution losses and auxiliary power use, CO2 intensity for electricity consumption is 8-44% higher for the analysed countries than the CO2 intensity for electricity generation, with 15% as global average, in 2007. CO2 emissions from power generation can be reduced by implementing best practice technology for fossil power generation. This paper estimates a potential of 18-44% savings, with 29% as global average. An additional potential is expected to exist for reducing transmission and distribution losses, which range from 4% to 25% of power generation in 2006, for the analysed countries, with 9% as global average.
... In Asia coal prices are also used because coal use for electricity is so dominant. Coal prices are converted into equivalent physical units (tcf of natural gas) and further adjusted for the fact that coal plants are typically less efficient at producing electricity than natural gas plants (Maruyama and Eckelman, 2009;Graus and Worrell, 2009); this factor inflates the gas equivalent price of coal by a factor of 1.25. Fig. 2 shows energy prices for natural gas for three geographies as well as for Asian coal. ...
In building a governance regime to address climate change, should we prioritize the development of global institutions or national ones? This paper focuses on two neglected characteristics to inform the governance problem: the incentives for investment in low-carbon energy technology and the influence of historical policy volatility. Examining a case study of an important low-carbon energy technology, wind power, this study finds: (1) policy volatility has been substantial, (2) policy changes were uncorrelated across jurisdictions, suggesting that (3) investors could have substantially reduced their exposure to the risk of policy volatility by operating globally. While it also has downsides, a poorly coordinated international policy regime has the advantage of reducing the risk associated with a global policy failure. Beyond this case study, the importance of this positive effect depends on: the probability of policy failures in each country, the correlations among them, and the probability of a global policy failure.
China is the world's largest electricity producer and consumer, and the healthy development of the electricity industry contributes to its economic growth and social stability. Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) and non-YREB are two major economic engines of great strategic significance for China with distinct differences in the external development environment of their power industry. A cross-regional comparison of electricity generation efficiency in China is meaningful to obtain a more accurate understanding of the power generation efficiency of YREB and non-YREB, but there is currently no literature in this area as well as none for comparing electricity generation efficiency between different energy sources. Therefore, this research uses the meta-frontier epsilon-based measure (EBM) data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to calculate the efficiency of different electricity generation energy in YREB and non-YREB for the period 2013–2017. The empirical results show that: 1) YREB's electricity industry has higher electricity generation efficiency than non-YREB's, and the efficiency gap is continuing to widen; 2) YREB's average thermal electricity generation efficiency is higher than non-YREB's; 3) YREB's clean energy power generation efficiency is always higher than non-YREB's; 4) regional differences in YREB are smaller than those in non-YREB; and 5) the efficiency value of clean energy power generation is lower than that of thermal power generation. From our analysis results, this paper presents some policy recommendations.
CO2 emissions from China accounted for 27 per cent of global emisions in 2019. More than one third of China's CO2 emissions come from the thermal electricity and heating sector. Unfortunately, this area has received limited academic attention. This research aims to find the key drivers of CO2 emissions in the thermal electricity and heating sector, as well as investigating how energy policies affect those drivers. We use data from 2007 to 2018 to decompose the drivers of CO2 emissions into four types, namely: energy structure; energy intensity; input-output structure; and the demand for electricity and heating. We find that the demand for electricity and heating is the main driver of the increase in CO2 emissions, and energy intensity has a slight effect on increasing carbon emissions. Improving the input-output structure can significantly help to reduce CO2 emissions, but optimising the energy structure only has a limited influence. This study complements the existing literature and finds that the continuous upgrading of power generation technology is less effective at reducing emissions and needs to be accompanied by the market reform of thermal power prices. Second, this study extends the research on CO2 emissions and enriches the application of the IO-SDA method. In terms of policy implications, we suggest that energy policies should be more flexible and adaptive to the varying socio-economic conditions in different cities and provinces in China. Accelerating the market-oriented reforms with regard to electricity pricing is also important if the benefits of technology upgrading and innovation are to be realised.
About 70% of Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) electricity generation comes from fossil fuels. However, the overdependence on these resources has contributed to the increasing global temperature levels leading to an annual average of 10% to 13% decline in GDP per capita growth in the region. Besides, SSA's contribution to Climate Change is marginal yet recognized as the hardest hit in the world. Therefore, considering technology heterogeneity, the study applies Metafrontier non-radial Malmquist index of CO2 emission (MNMCPI) to estimate the changes in the performance of CO2 emission and its decompositions in public thermal power plants across 18 SSA countries over 2005-2016 year period. The results depict that, averagely, the CO2 emission performance changes progressed slightly by 0.3% over the sample period, largely due to technological progress. Regionally, West Africa has the highest MNMCPI. Southern Africa emerged as the technology leader among all regions. The technical efficiency change index decline in all regions. Targeted policy implications are provided to enhance the transfer of advanced technologies and management experience to minimize CO2 emissions.
This paper focused on carbon emission reduction effect of non-fossil fuel power generation on electricity sector in China using the panel data of 30 provinces over the period 1991–2015. The empirical results of both dynamic, non-dynamic spatial panel analysis and the GS2SLS method aimed at eliminating endogeneity indicate that the increased share of non-fossil fuel power generation indeed reduce the CO2 emissions from electricity sector. However, although the spatial direct effects are positive driver for reduction of electricity-related CO2 emissions in each spatial weight matrix, on the contrary, the spatial indirect effects show that the rise of local share of non-fossil fuel power generation increases the CO2 emissions from electricity sector of other regions. This so-called “beggar-thy-neighbor” effect in the process of implementing clean-oriented energy strategy reflects an urgent need of mutually beneficial coordination mechanism between regions so as to bring maximum environmental benefits of installed clean power for the whole country.
This study employs an undesirable-output?oriented data envelopment analysis model to measure the carbon emission performance of the power industry throughout China's 30 administrative regions during the period of 2003?2012. Also, it further studies the regional disparity and spatial correlation of the carbon emission performance of China's power industry. The main findings are as follows: (1) The carbon emission performance of China's power industry is at a relatively low level, but shows a rising trend. (2) The regional carbon emission performance of China's power industry is extremely unbalanced: The eastern area ranks first, with the highest performance of 0.851, followed by the central area, whereas the western area falls behind, with the lowest performance of 0.760. Provinces in the eastern area generally perform better than those in other areas. (3) According to spatial analysis, the global Moran's I values of carbon emission performance are significantly positive during the sample period, which indicates that the carbon emission performance is a positive spatial correlation and has an obvious clustering effect. The estimate of the local spatial autocorrelation index confirms the imbalance of spatial distribution of the power sector's carbon emission performance. Based on the above findings, several policy suggestions are presented in this article.
This study discusses the new use of DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) environmental assessment to measure MRT (Marginal Rate of Transformation) and RS (Rate of Substitution) among production factors (e.g., inputs, desirable and undesirable outputs). To measure the degree on MRT and RS, this study first examines a concept of disposability from the perspective of economic strategies to combat various environmental issues. The strategies are extendable to a policy change for pollution prevention. The underlying concept is separated into natural and managerial disposability. Under managerial disposability, it is possible for us to measure an occurrence of desirable congestion, or eco-technology innovation. Considering the disposability concept, this study discusses how to measure the type and magnitude of MRT and RS. A problem of the MRT & RS measurement is that these measures usually become unstable (e.g., very large or small in these magnitudes) because DEA does not assume any functional form for economic activities. To overcome such a difficulty, this study equips DEA environmental assessment with multiplier restriction by utilizing a unique feature on a proposed data treatment. The multiplier restriction in DEA has been never explored in previous works on environmental assessment. In an application, this study finds three important economic concerns on Europe and North America. First, Western Europe outperforms Eastern Europe and North America in their unified efficiency measures under managerial disposability. This study statistically confirms a difference between Western and Eastern Europe, but not between Western Europe and North America. This result exhibits that Eastern Europe is not yet well developed at the level of the other two regions. Second, Eastern Europe has exhibited MRT estimates that are different from Western Europe and North America. The nations in Eastern Europe have an economic potential for industrial developments because the level of their industrial pollutions is less than that of the other two regions. The potential is also found in their MRT estimates. Finally, an interesting difference can be found in the RS estimate between Eastern Europe and Western Europe from 2008 to 2012. They have statistically exhibited a difference between the two regimes, but not with North America. This is because most nations in both Western Europe and North America have already attained a high level of economic successes so that they have a limited industrial potential under current production technology and eco-technology. The situation of the two regions will be changed along with new technology development. In contrast, Eastern Europe is different from the other two regions in terms of attaining such a level of social sustainability because of limited capital accumulation and limited opportunity for technology innovation.
This paper proposes non-radial directional distance functions for a low-carbon productivity analysis in the field of fossil fuel electricity generation. It is used to measure the low-carbon productivity performance of thermal electric power plants. Based on the approach, we develop a totalfactor carbon intensity (TCI) indicator in the total-factor productivity viewpoint and provide an empirical analysis of thermal power plants in China belonging to various power companies. The results show significant differences in total-factor carbon intensity across power companies. TCI indicator is lower for state-owned power companies than for private ones. This suggests that Chinese government should consider private incentives and deregulation for its state-owned enterprises.
This study discusses a new use of window analysis for DEA environmental assessment in a time horizon where DEA stands for Data Envelopment Analysis. The data sets on environmental protection are often structured by time series. In applying DEA to environmental assessment, it is necessary for us to examine a frontier shift between different periods because it indicates a technology progress on desirable and undesirable outputs. An important feature of the proposed approach is that it incorporates the concept of natural and managerial disposability into the computational framework of DEA and extends the two disposability concepts in a time horizon. To capture the frontier shift, this study proposes a new type of DEA window analysis for environmental assessment. This study applies the proposed DEA window analysis to a data set on U.S. coal-fired power plants during 1995-2007. The application finds that the coal-fired power plants have gradually paid attention to environmental protections under Clean Air Act (CAA). Consequently, their performance under managerial disposability has increased from 1996 to 2007. This indicates the importance of CAA and regulation on industrial pollutions. Thus, it is necessary for the United States to extend the scope of CAA for controlling the amount of CO2 emission because current regulation has a limited policy influence on the source of global warming and climate change in our modem society.
This paper proposes the metafrontier non-radial Malmquist CO2 emission performance index (MNMCPI) for measuring dynamic changes in total-factor CO2 emission performance over time. The MNMCPI method allows for the incorporation of group heterogeneity and non-radial slack into the previously introduced Malmquist CO2 emission performance index (MCPI). We derive the MNMCPI by solving several non-radial data envelopment analysis (DEA) models. We decompose the MNMCPI into an efficiency change (EC) index, a best-practice gap change (BPC) index, and a technology gap change (TGC) index, and based on the proposed indices, we examine the dynamic changes in CO2 emission performance and its decomposition of fossil fuel power plants in China for the 2005-2010 period. The empirical results show a 0.38% increase in total-factor CO2 emission performance as a whole and a U-shaped MNMCPI curve for the sample period. Because companies owned by the central government lack innovation and technological leadership, the results suggest a missing link in the role of the central government in promoting CO2 emission performance.
Internationally, the level of public awareness of carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology remains low. The mainstream media have a salient influence in shaping the debate on CCS's implementation and its risks. This paper presents the results of analysis of print media coverage of CCS worldwide between August 2009 and June 2010. A total of 1138 articles from the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum were reviewed and analysed. The majority of these articles were balanced or neutral in tone and lacking in technical detail. Fifteen key themes were identified. Two of these emerged the most frequently across all sources: CCS pilot and demonstration projects, and funding issues. This suggests a pattern of media curiosity over how financial support for CCS is provided and what results are occurring at pilot and demonstration efforts. Cross-regional key risks included: time, cost, and implementation issues; technical validity; and storage capacity issues.
This paper examines the effect of size control policy on the energy and carbon efficiency for Chinese fossil fuel power industry. For this purpose, we propose two non-radial directional distance functions for energy/carbon efficiency analysis of fossil fuel electricity generation. One is named a total-factor directional distance function that incorporates the inefficiency of all input and output factors to measure the unified (operational and environmental) efficiency of fossil fuel power plants, and the other is called an energy–environmental directional distance function that can be used to measure the energy–environmental performance of fossil fuel electric power plants. Several standardized indicators for measuring unified efficiency and energy–environmental performance are derived from the two directional distance functions. An empirical study of 252 fossil fuel power plants in China is conducted by using the proposed approach. Our empirical results show that there exists a significant positive relationship between the plant size and unified efficiency, the five state-owned companies show lower unified efficiency and energy–environmental performance than other companies. It is suggested that Chinese government might need to consider private incentives and deregulation for its state-owned enterprises to improve their performance proactively.
This article shows the impacts of the extensive use of NV (natural ventilation) in the Mexican residential sector on the Mexican energy system. By integrating a thermal-airflow simulation programme with an energy systems analysis model, the impact on the Mexican energy system of replacing air conditioning, in particular, with natural ventilation to cool residential buildings is determined. It is shown that when, as in Mexico, there is a relatively simple connection between supply and electricity demand, NV creates savings which could be used to reduce either the fossil-fuel-based generation and mitigate CO2 emissions, or the use of water reservoirs and hydro generation during a dry season.
The relationship between technology and carbon intensity has received a lot of attention in recent years. This paper focuses on the impacts of diffusion of new energy technologies and thermal power technology on carbon intensity of electricity production during 1996–2009. The results show that new energy maintained less than 20% over the period 1996–2009, and it can also decrease the carbon intensity of electricity power. However, the decline of thermal power carbon intensity driven by its technology diffusion was the main driver force of electricity power carbon intensity. However, the effect of thermal power technology diffusion was also different in different years as the speed of thermal power technology diffusion and technological learning ability was different.
This paper proposes a meta-frontier non-radial directional distance function to model energy and CO2 emission performance in electricity generation. This approach allows for the consideration of the group heterogeneity of electricity generation, non-radial slacks, and undesirable outputs simultaneously. We extend several standardized indices to measure total-factor energy efficiency, CO2 emission performance, and technology gaps in electricity generation. We estimate the potential reductions in energy use and CO2 emissions under different technology assumptions. We conduct an empirical analysis of fossil fuel electricity generation in Korea by using the proposed approach. The results indicate that coal-fired power plants show higher levels of total-factor energy efficiency and CO2 emission performance than oil-fired ones. Under the meta-frontier technology assumption, coal-fired power plants show a smaller technology gap than oil-fired ones. This suggests that the Korean government should promote technological innovation to reduce technology gaps for oil-fired plants, thereby improving energy and CO2 emission performance and meeting emission reduction targets in the electricity generation industry.
Power sector is responsible for about 40% of the total CO(2) emissions in the world and plays a leading role in climate change mitigation. In this study, measures that lower CO(2) emissions from the supply side, demand side, and power grid are discussed, based on which, an integrated optimization model of CO(2) mitigation (IOCM) is proposed. Virtual energy, referring to energy saving capacity in both demand side and the power grid, together with conventional energy in supply side, is unified planning for IOCM. Consequently, the optimal plan of energy distribution, considering both economic benefits and mitigation benefits, is figured out through the application of IOCM. The results indicate that development of demand side management (DSM) and smart grid can make great contributions to CO(2) mitigation of power sector in China by reducing the CO(2) emissions by 10.02% and 12.59%, respectively, in 2015, and in 2020.
This article is the first part of a study dealing with current and prospective clean coal technologies. For this purpose, the importance of coal utilization in electricity production and the importance of clean coal technologies (CCTs) for the minimization of the environmental impacts of coal-fired power generation are discussed as an introduction to the subject. The article includes an extensive presentation about the source and formation mechanisms of the major pollutants and their control strategies.
This paper provides an empirical analysis of the determinants of energy efficiency in fossil-fuel electricity generation across 29 OECD countries over the period 1975-2006, with particular attention to the role played by technological development and the availability of energy efficient technologies in the market. This contribution is novel in three respects: first, we concentrate in empirically assessing the contribution of different determinants of energy-efficiency, which include input mix in power generation, the capacity ratio at which power plants are run as well as the age of the technology used. Second, we devote particular attention devoted to the issue of technical change and technological availability: using patent data for carefully selected innovations in fossil fuel technologies for power generation, we build an index which proxies for technological development in the field of power production and measures technological changes. Third, by spelling out the relationship between energy efficiency and carbon intensity of the power sector, we are able to assess the impact of technological availability and changes in the input mix on CO2 emissions of the power sector. The results presented here show that, while input mix, capacity utilization and new investment in capacity play a significant role in increasing energy efficiency, also the stock of knowledge, or stock of available technologies, has a positive effect. Turning to carbon intensity dynamics, given the link between increased efficiency and lower CO2 emissions, we conclude that technological change has negative and significant effect on carbon intensity, while the changing input mix affects CO2 intensity both through an increase in efficiency as well as a lowering of the input weighted emission factor.
This paper studies innovation dynamics in efficiency improving electricity generation technologies as an important means of mitigating climate change impacts. Relevant patents are identified and used as an indicator of innovation. We find that patenting in efficiency improving technologies has mostly been stable over time, with a recent decreasing trend. We also find that majority of patents are first filed in OECD countries and only then in non-OECD or BRIC countries. Conversely, non-OECD and BRIC countries apply for patents that are mostly marketed domestically. This result shows that there is significant technology transfer in the field of efficiency improving technologies for electricity production. This flow of know-how is likely to contribute to mitigation of greenhouse gases emissions in emerging economies in the long run.
We present five performance indicators for electricity generation for 129 countries using the 2005 data. These indicators, measured at the national level, are the aggregate CO2 intensity of electricity production, the efficiencies of coal, oil and gas generation and the share of electricity produced from non-fossil fuels. We conduct a study on the potential for reducing global energy-related CO2 emissions from electricity production through simple benchmarking. This is performed based on the last four performance indicators and the construction of a cumulative curve for each of these indicators. It is found that global CO2 emissions from electricity production would be reduced by 19% if all these indicators are benchmarked at the 50th percentile. Not surprisingly, the emission reduction potential measured in absolute terms is the highest for large countries such as China, India, Russia and the United States. When the potential is expressed as a percentage of a country's own emissions, few of these countries appear in the top-five list.
A cradle-to-gate greenhouse gas assessment of nickel for every major mine, smelter, and refinery worldwide reveals a high degree of variability in emissions per unit of contained metal. The difference between lowest and highest carbon-intensive producers is 70-100 fold, for each stage of production. The results suggest that using global average LCI data for nickel can seriously misrepresent the actual impacts of production.
Since the early 1980’s, many countries have implemented electricity sector reform, many of which have bundled generation, transmission, distribution and supply activities, and have introduced competition in generation and supply. An increasing number of countries are also adopting incentive regulation to promote efficiency improvement in the natural monopoly activities - transmission and distribution. Incentive regulation almost invariably involves benchmarking or comparison of actual vs. some reference performance. This paper reviews the main approaches to incentive regulation and discusses various benchmarking methods. We also present the finding of a survey of the use of benchmarking methods in the OECD and few other countries. Our survey finds a variety of methods used by the electricity regulators although with a notable preference for the non-parametric methods. We then draw conclusions based on the finding of the survey highlighting the main outstanding issues and lessons for best practice implementation of benchmarking in electricity regulation.
Humanity already possesses the fundamental scientific, technical, and industrial know-how to solve the carbon and climate
problem for the next half-century. A portfolio of technologies now exists to meet the world's energy needs over the next 50
years and limit atmospheric CO2 to a trajectory that avoids a doubling of the preindustrial concentration. Every element in this portfolio has passed beyond
the laboratory bench and demonstration project; many are already implemented somewhere at full industrial scale. Although
no element is a credible candidate for doing the entire job (or even half the job) by itself, the portfolio as a whole is
large enough that not every element has to be used.
At present, promotion of combined production of heat and power (CHP) plays a significant role in most national energy strategies, aiming at primary energy savings and CO2-reduction. However, it is not correct to state that rational use of energy and reduction of CO2-emission are intrinsic to CHP. The amount of energy savings and CO2-reduction by using CHP strongly depend on the performances of the CHP plants (efficiencies, valorization of electricity and heat, number of running hours) and of the characteristics of the reference situation with separate production of heat and power. Especially nowadays, as performances of separate systems for the production of electricity and heat [electricity production by combined cycle plants (efficiency >50%) and heat production by high efficiency boilers (efficiency >90%)] are strongly improving, the required performances of CHP plants being preferable to separate systems for the production of heat and power, have to be tightened. In this paper, a calculation methodology for evaluating the primary energy consumption and CO2-emission for both options (CHP and separate production of heat and power) is presented. Based on calculations with this methodology and with practical figures of performances of CHP plants and separate systems for production of heat and power, the boundary conditions that have to be met by CHP systems for being less energy consuming and less CO2-producing are discussed.
The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the effects of SO2 and NOx pollution control on the energy efficiency of fossil-fired power generation for the following countries: Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Norway aggregated), South Korea, UK and Ireland, and United States. Together these countries generate 65% of fossil-fired power generation worldwide.The level of SO2 and NOx control seems to vary widely for the included countries. The highest level of desulphurisation and denitrification is present in Japan, Germany, Nordic countries and South Korea. These countries also have the lowest NOx and SO2 emissions per unit of power generated. Limited pollution control is implemented in India and China, resulting in high specific NOx and SO2 emissions.The effect of NOx and SO2 control on net energy efficiency is estimated to be around 2% for coal-fired power plants and 1% for natural gas-fired power plants. The average power use for NOx and SO2 control for fossil-fired power generation is estimated to be between 1.2% and 1.5% of power generation output for countries with high levels of pollution control; leading to an effect on net efficiency of fossil-fired power generation of 0.5–0.6% points.
The Danish power stations have a long-standing tradition of building plants with high-efficiency. Elsam's two most recent power plants commissioned in 1997 and 1998 represented a turning point in Europe for high-efficiency conventional power plants with double reheat and steam temperatures of 580 °C. The operational experiences have been good and the plants are just as flexible in operation as more traditional plants. With a background in the two plants and as coordinator of the EU financed AD700 project, Elsam has been on the forefront of the development of a future coal-fired power plant with 700 °C steam temperature. The project comprises about 40 companies representing all actors in the European power industry and is now in its second phase. The presentation will briefly show the historical development and present status and perspectives for the AD700 technology.
The paper reviews the current state of knowledge regarding global emissions of mercury and presents a new inventory of global emissions of mercury to the atmosphere from anthropogenic sources for the year 2000. The largest emissions of Hg to the global atmosphere occur from combustion of fossil fuels, mainly coal in utility, industrial, and residential boilers. As much as two-thirds of the total emission of ca. 2190 ton of Hg emitted from all anthropogenic sources worldwide in 2000 came from combustion of fossil fuels. Emissions of Hg from coal combustion are between one and two orders of magnitude higher than emissions from oil combustion, depending on the country. Various industrial processes account for additional 30% of Hg emissions from anthropogenic sources worldwide in 2000. Major contribution to emissions from this source category comes from gold production using Hg technology. The Asian countries contributed about 54% to the global Hg emission from anthropogenic sources in 2000, followed by Africa (18%) and Europe, including the European part of Russia (11%). China heads the list of the 10 countries with highest Hg emissions from anthropogenic activities. With more than 600 ton of Hg, China contributes about 28% to the global emissions of mercury.It is expected that future changes of Hg emissions from anthropogenic sources worldwide until the year 2020 should be within ±20% of the current estimates, although this assessment should be treated with great caution.Emission estimates for various continents presented in this paper were used to prepare global emission maps. These maps are presented in a companion paper (Wilson et al., 2005. Spatial distribution of global anthropogenic mercury atmospheric emissions. Atmospheric Environment, in this issue).
As part of its energy and climate policy the Dutch government has reached an agreement with the Dutch energy-intensive industry that is explicitly based on industry's relative energy efficiency performance. The energy efficiency of the Dutch industry is benchmarked against that of comparable industries in countries worldwide. In the agreement, industry is required to belong to the top-of-the-world in terms of energy efficiency. In return, the government refrains from implementing additional climate policies.This article assesses the potential effects of this agreement on energy consumption and CO2 emissions by comparing the current level of energy efficiency of the Dutch industry—including electricity production—to that of the most efficient countries and regions. At the current structure achieving the regional best practice level for the selected energy-intensive industries would result in a 5±2% lower current primary energy consumption than the actual level. Most of the savings are expected in the petrochemical industry and in electricity generation. Avoided CO2 emissions would amount to 4 Mt CO2. A first estimate of the effect of the benchmarking agreement in 2012 suggests primary energy savings of 50–130 PJ or 4–9 Mt CO2 avoided compared to the estimated Business as Usual development (5–15%). This saving is smaller than what a continuation of the existing policies of Long-Term Agreements would probably deliver.
The pollution-convergence hypothesis is formalized in a neoclassical growth model with optimal emissions reduction: pollution growth rates are positively correlated with output growth (scale effect) but negatively correlated with emission levels (defensive effect). This dynamic law is empirically tested for two major and regulated air pollutants - nitrogen oxides (NOX) and sulfur oxides (SOX) - with a panel of 25 European countries spanning over years 1980-2005. Traditional parametric models are rejected by the data. However, more flexible regression techniques - semiparametric additive specifications and fully nonparametric regressions with discrete and continuous factors - confirm the existence of the predicted positive and defensive effects. By analyzing the spatial distributions of per capita emissions, we also show that cross-country pollution gaps have decreased over the period for both pollutants and within the Eastern as well as the Western European areas. A Markov modeling approach predicts further cross-country absolute convergence, in particular for SOX. The latter results hold in the presence of spatial non-convergence in per capita income levels within both regions.
The objective of this paper is to identify best practice
performance and to measure the technical efficiency of 85 developing
country electricity systems. Technical efficiency is measured as the
ratio of the gross output of electricity sectors to their output at best
practice. Technical efficiency estimates are standardised for
differences between systems in average consumption of electricity per
customer, inefficiencies due to nonoptimal scale and input congestion.
The resulting estimates of technical efficiency measure the scope for
management initiated improvements in labour and capital productivity by
forming benchmarking partnerships and emulating the best practices of
other systems
Steam Plant Operation. McGraw-Hill Professional Energy efficiency and conservation in the developing world: The World Bank's Role
- E B Woodruff
- H B Lammers
- T F Lammers
Woodruff, E.B., Lammers, H.B., Lammers, T.F., 2004. Steam Plant Operation. McGraw-Hill Professional. World Bank, 1993. Energy efficiency and conservation in the developing world: The World Bank's Role, Washington, DC. ARTICLE IN PRESS N. Maruyama, M.J. Eckelman / Energy Policy 37 (2009) 1678–1686
Country analysis briefs Efficiency metrics for CHP systems: Total system and effective electric efficiencies
- Wiley
Wiley, New York. EIA, 2008. Country analysis briefs. US Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, Washington, DC. EPA, 2008. Efficiency metrics for CHP systems: Total system and effective electric efficiencies. US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC (Combined Heat and Power Partnership).
Rebuilding Romania: Energy, efficiency, and the economic transition. Royal Institute of International Affairs Benchmarking the energy efficiency of the Dutch energy-intensive industry: a preliminary
- W Patterson
- G J M Phylipsen
- K Blok
- E Worrell
Patterson, W., 1994. Rebuilding Romania: Energy, efficiency, and the economic transition. Royal Institute of International Affairs, London. Phylipsen, G.J.M., Blok, K., Worrell, E., 1998. Benchmarking the energy efficiency of the Dutch energy-intensive industry: a preliminary assessment of the effect on energy consumption and CO 2 emissions.