There is a growing interest in reducing energy consumption and the associated greenhouse gas emissions in every sector of the economy. The residential sector is a substantial consumer of energy in every country, and therefore a focus for energy consumption efforts. Since the energy consumption characteristics of the residential sector are complex and inter-related, comprehensive models are needed to assess the technoeconomic impacts of adopting energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies suitable for residential applications. The aim of this paper is to provide an up-to-date review of the various modeling techniques used for modeling residential sector energy consumption. Two distinct approaches are identified: top-down and bottom-up. The top-down approach treats the residential sector as an energy sink and is not concerned with individual end-uses. It utilizes historic aggregate energy values and regresses the energy consumption of the housing stock as a function of top-level variables such as macroeconomic indicators (e.g. gross domestic product, unemployment, and inflation), energy price, and general climate. The bottom-up approach extrapolates the estimated energy consumption of a representative set of individual houses to regional and national levels, and consists of two distinct methodologies: the statistical method and the engineering method. Each technique relies on different levels of input information, different calculation or simulation techniques, and provides results with different applicability. A critical review of each technique, focusing on the strengths, shortcomings and purposes, is provided along with a review of models reported in the literature.

Modeling of end-use energy consumption in the residential sector: A review of modeling techniques

Energy efficiency and conservation are major factors in the reduction of the environmental impact of the energy sector, particularly with regard to climate change. Energy efficiency also contributes to reducing external dependence and vulnerabilities in the energy domain. In this paper, we discuss the factors that influence energy efficiency and conservation decisions, and the most appropriate policies for their promotion. Although not all public policies seem justified, we argue that specific policies for promoting energy conservation may be required, preferably based on economic instruments or on the provision of information to consumers.

/pdf/energy-efficiency-economics-and-policy-2s6ucoafb1.pdf

Energy efficiency: economics and policy

/pdf/government-printing-office-expands-database-access-3paa9elw22.pdf

Government Printing Office expands database access

Energy systems across the globe are going through a radical transformation as a result of technological and institutional changes, depletion of fossil fuel resources, and climate change. At the local level, increasing distributed energy resources requires that the centralized energy systems be re-organized. In this paper, the concept of Integrated community energy systems (ICESs) is presented as a modern development to re-organize local energy systems to integrate distributed energy resources and engage local communities. Local energy systems such as ICESs not only ensure self-provision of energy but also provide essential system services to the larger energy system. In this regard, a comparison of different energy system integration option is provided. We review the current energy trends and the associated technological, socio-economic, environmental and institutional issues shaping the development of ICESs. These systems can be applied to both developed and developing countries, however, their objectives, business models as well as composition differs. ICESs can be accepted by different actors such as local governments, communities, energy suppliers and system operators as an effective means to achieve sustainability and thereby will have significant roles in future energy systems.

/pdf/energetic-communities-for-community-energy-a-review-of-key-5cyrkfy2mz.pdf

Energetic communities for community energy: A review of key issues and trends shaping integrated community energy systems

Nonrenewable resource theory often is summarized by Hotelling's rule. This paper reviews theoretical extensions and empirical investigations of resource extraction models. Observed data are often inconsistent with the Hotelling rule, suggesting that other characteristics of nonrenewable resource supply, including exploration, heterogeneous ore quality, technological progress, and capital investment, are important determinants of the dynamic behavior of resource prices. Given the persistent recurrence of concern about nonrenewable resource scarcity, measures of nonrenewable resource scarcity and the empirical evidence for the time trends of those measures are reviewed. Finally, the implications of nonrenewable resource scarcity for economic growth are examined.

Nonrenewable Resource Scarcity

The potential for energy efficiency gains in the Canadian commercial building sector: A stochastic frontier study

Split incentives and energy efficiency in Canadian multi-family dwellings

When do energy-efficient appliances generate energy savings? Some evidence from Canada

Price risk is an important factor for both copper purchasers, who use the commodity as a major input in their production process, and copper refiners, who must deal with cash-flow volatility. Information from NYMEX cash and futures prices is used to examine optimal hedging behavior for agents in copper markets. A bivariate GARCH-jump model with autoregressive jump intensity is proposed to capture the features of the joint distribution of cash and futures returns over two subperiods with different dominant pricing regimes. It is found that during the earlier producerpricing regime this specification is not needed, whereas for the later exchange pricing era jump dynamics stemming from a common jump across cash and futures series are significant in explaining the dynamics in both daily and weekly data sets. Results from the model are used to under-take both within-sample and out-of-sample hedging exercises. These results indicate that there are important gains to be made from a time-varying optimal hedging strategy that incorporates the information from the common jump dynamics. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 26:169–188, 2006

Jumping hedges: An examination of movements in copper spot and futures markets

In applied resource economics much attention has been focused.on the ability of the Hotelling model to explain observed firm behavior. In this paper, a preliminary specification search is performed to determine the appropriate cost function parameterization for the firms in the sample before proceeding to the estimation of the Euler equation. Once a cost function specification is chosen, the corresponding Euler equation is estimated via the Generalization Method of Moments (GMM), which allows for better estimates of the Euler equations than in previous studies. Even with the preliminary specification search and the use of GMM estimation, the behavior of the panel of fourteen Canadian copper mining firms in the data set examined does not seem to be consistent with the basic Hotelling model used.

Denise Young

Papers

The potential for energy efficiency gains in the Canadian commercial building sector: A stochastic frontier study

Split incentives and energy efficiency in Canadian multi-family dwellings

When do energy-efficient appliances generate energy savings? Some evidence from Canada

Jumping hedges: An examination of movements in copper spot and futures markets

Cost Specification and Firm Behaviour in a Hotelling Model of Resource Extraction