What are the consequences of Energy policy?
Social technical, economic, environmental, geopolitical consequences
What is the Energy Trilemma?
security, equity, environmental sustainability
What are RE Policy aims?
Deliver the socially optimal amount of RE which is not deployed due to market failures and technological inertia
Name 4 Drivers for RE Policy
- Energy security (and justice)
- GHG abatement
- Local Environment
- Economic development
Energy security - low risk affordable, accessible and reliable electricity
Risks:
- Technical system failures
- Underinvestment in infrastructure
- Fuel supply risk (market power, global trends)
Contributors:
- Sufficient investment and operation in generation and transmission
- Diversity of primary fuel mix (import dependence and diversity, market concentration)
RE’s role:
- Pro: indigenous, distributed, diversified
- Con: grid integration at high penetration
Economic development
Innovation and industrial development
- First mover advantage
- Manufacturing value chain development
- Green growth
Losers/Issues - Rate of change matters Transitional costs - Sunk costs (infrastructure) - Stranded assets (carbon bubble)
Distributed RE and micro-grids cheaper than building networks
What is the current RE status?
Falling prices, increasing deployment
New Challenges
- DE
- High pen VRE
Old Challenges
- Highest per capita emissions
- Sunk private investment
- High coal use and export
Public Policy Intro
Dimensions of technology (more than hardware):
- Hardware (physical engineering artefact)
- Software (skills and knowledge with/for use)
- Orgware (rules and institutions which govern)
Public policy = plan to guide
decisions/actions implemented through gov as an agent representing the community
- Political level (generalist) - distils social values into policy
- Bureaucratic level (specialist) - translates policy goals to achieve desired outcomes
Types of policy instruments
- Regulatory policies (rules)
- Distributive policies (money allocation)
- Constituent policies (institutional structure)
- Policy making levers
