We study the impact of the Fukushima disaster on people's mental well-being in another industrialized country, more than 5000 miles distant. The meltdown significantlyincreased environmental concerns by 20% among the German population. Subsequent drastic policy action permanently shut down the oldest nuclear reactors, implemented the phase-out of the remaining ones, and proclaimed the transition to ...
In its Green Paper on a 2030 framework for climate and energy policies, the European Commission calls for a framework for the future development of environment and energy policy beyond 2020. However, much like the Energy Roadmap 2050 adopted by the Commission in December 2011, the Green Paper is based on scenario assumptions that are, to a great extent, not up-to-date. The European Commission would ...
Recent developments in electricity markets such as the increased deployment of variable renewable generation have prompted renewed interest over the role of energy storage. While storage technologies can in principle provide various benefits for the functioning of an electrical grid, many energy storage technologies are in initial stages of development and demonstration. The role of public policy is ...
Achieving the objectives of the German governments 2010 Energy Concept and the accelerated phase-out of nuclear energy will require significant investment in restructuring energy supply. In particular, this includes investment in installations for the use of renewable energy sources in the power and heating sector, as well as in the infrastructure, such as power grids. In addition, substantial investment ...
Major nuclear accidents as recently in Fukushima set nuclear power plant security at the top of the public agenda. Using data of the German Socio-Economic Panel we analyze the effects of the Fukushima accident and a subsequent government decision on nuclear power phase-out on several measures of subjective perception in Germany. In the light of current political debates about the strategic orientation ...
We examine the effects of future renewable expansion in Germany on residual load and renewable surplus generation for policy-relevant scenarios for 2022, 2032 and 2050. We also determine the storage capacities required for taking up renewable surpluses for varying levels of accepted curtailment. Making use of extensive sensitivity analyses, our simulations show that the expansion of variable renewables ...
We quantify externalities on profitability and market shares of competing firms in oligopolistic markets through the transition from an n to an n - 1 player oligopoly after a merger. Competitors are identified via the European Commission's market investigations and our methodology allows us to distinguish the externality due to the change in market structure from the merger effect. We obtain results ...
