Topic Energy Economics

International Partnerships for a Just Energy Transition: Findings from South Africa

In 2021, the G7 and South Africa agreed upon the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP). This new instrument in international cooperation should support emerging and developing economies in a just energy transition and in phasing out coal. It is intended to facilitate equal partnerships between donors and recipients, thereby also facilitating the energy transition. An evaluation of the South African ...

Decommissioning of Nuclear Power Plants: Regulation, Financing, and Production

Reducing Energy System Model Distortions from Unintended Storage Cycling through Variable Costs

Energy system models are used for policy decisions and technology designs. If not carefully used, models give implausible outputs and mislead decision-making. One implausible effect is “unintended storage cycling”, which is observable as simultaneous storage charging and discharging. Methods to remove such misleading effects exist, but are computationally inefficient and sometimes ineffective. Through ...

Kazakhstan: Decarbonisation Pathways towards a Net Zero Future by 2060 - The Opportunities and Challenges ahead: Final Report

Substituting Clean for Dirty Energy: A Bottom-Up Analysis

We fit CES and VES production functions to data from a numerical bottom-up optimization model of electricity supply with clean and dirty inputs. This approach allows for studying high shares of clean energy not observable today and for isolating mechanisms that impact the elasticity of substitution between clean and dirty energy. Central results show that (i) dirty inputs are not essential for production. ...

Broad Electricity Price Subsidies for Industry Are Not a Suitable Relief Instrument

The sharp rise in electricity prices has led to a discussion on possible subsidies for companies in the form of an industrial power tariff. The subsidies should help companies remain internationally competitive and prevent them from relocating overseas. Although German electricity prices for (industrial) firms are around the European average due to many tax exemptions, they are significantly higher ...

Meeting Climate Targets Can Only Spur on Economic Growth with the Right Combination of Measures

Reducing carbon emissions is essential to meeting climate targets. What is unclear, however, is which measures are required to do so and what impact they would have on economic growth. In this Weekly Report, a macroeconomic model is used to observe four scenarios in comparison to a baseline scenario without emissions reduction. It is analyzed which effects different measures, such as technological ...

A Collective Blueprint, Not a Crystal Ball: Overcoming Political Stalemates: The German Stakeholder Commission on Phasing out Coal

The future of coal remains contested in many countries, hindering necessary energy transitions. Collaborative governance approaches, such as stakeholder commissions, have been proposed as potential solution to resolve such societal conflicts. In Germany, a stakeholder commission process managed to overcome the existing stalemate situation, leading to the adoption of a coal phase-out by 2038. Celebrated ...

Atomwende? Ja, bitte! Warum die Abkehr von der Atomenergie und eine gute Entsorgungspolitik die Energiewende in Deutschland befördern werden

Die Atomenergie bleibt gesellschaftlich umkämpft. Zum einen wird sie wieder als Zukunftstechnologie gehandelt, mit der vermeintlich klimafreundlich und ressourcenschonend Strom erzeugt werden kann. Zum anderen ist die Endlagerung von Atomabfällen noch nicht geregelt. Das Konzept der ,,atompolitischen Wende“ bringt ‐ analog zur Energiewende ‐ dieses Ringen auf den Punkt. Die Beendigung der kommerziellen ...

Uncertainties in Estimating Production Costs of Future Nuclear Technologies: A Model-based Analysis of Small Modular Reactors

Predicting future costs of technologies not yet developed is a complex exercise that includes many uncertain parameters and functional forms. In that context, small modular reactor (SMR) concepts that are in a rather early development stage claim to have cost advantages through learning effects, standardized design, modularization, co-siting economies, and other factors, such as better time-to-market ...