Recently, the Swedish government adopted a national planning goal of a yearly wind power generation of 10 TWh by 2015, implying a substantial increase from the current 0.6 TWh level. In this paper, we provide an economic assessment of the potential for future wind power investments in Sweden in close conjunction with an analysis of the legal, attitudinal and policy-related uncertainties that face a wind mill investor. It is shown that the economics of Swedish wind power is negatively affected by: (a) the lack of policy stability; (b) public criticism at the local level; and, in particular, (c) the legal provisions governing the assessment of the environmental impacts of wind mills and the planning procedures for mill location. While national and global energy policies as well as the general public point out wind power as particularly environmentally friendly, most of the objections to its expansion at the local level tend to have environmental origins. The interests of those who object to wind mill installations gain strong legal protection, and the municipal territorial planning monopoly in Sweden implies that it is hard to make national energy policy goals heard at the local implementation stage. Compared to its competitors, wind power is the technology that tends to have the most to loose from the risk and uncertainties created by this investment environment. The paper identifies and discusses a number of ways in which the national policy interests could be strengthened at the local level. We discuss the role of citizen participation, as well as solutions within the realms of the legal system. Moreover, since the diffusion of wind power encounters the most strident legal and attitudinal obstacles where it interferes with competing land uses, a move offshore appears to be an efficient strategy from the perspective of a wind mill investor. A stronger political commitment to wind power expansion in legal provisions as well as in the form of long-run stability in policy instrument implementation will probably be necessary to attain the 2015 policy goal.

Wind power development in Sweden: Global policies and local obstacles

http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:608373/FULLTEXT02

Who invests in renewable electricity production? Empirical evidence and suggestions for further research

Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy systems are being deployed at an accelerating rate to supply low-carbon electricity worldwide. However, PV is unlikely to economically supply much more than 10% of the world's electricity unless there is a dramatic reduction in the cost of electricity storage. There is an important scientific and technological opportunity to address the storage challenge by developing inexpensive hybrid solar converters that collect solar heat at temperatures between about 200 and 600 °C and also incorporate PV. Since heat can be stored and converted to electricity at relatively low cost, collection of high exergy content (high temperature) solar heat can provide energy that is dispatchable on demand to meet loads that are not well matched to solar insolation. However, PV cells can collect and convert much of the solar spectrum to electricity more efficiently and inexpensively than solar thermal systems. Advances in spectrum-splitting optics, high-temperature PV cells, thermal management and system design are needed for transformational hybrid converters. We propose that maximizing the exergy output from the solar converters while minimizing the cost of exergy can help propel solar energy toward a higher contribution to carbon-free electricity in the long term than the prevailing paradigm of maximizing the energy output while minimizing the cost of energy.

/pdf/hybrid-solar-converters-for-maximum-exergy-and-inexpensive-1q5ijo843e.pdf

Hybrid solar converters for maximum exergy and inexpensive dispatchable electricity

https://www.mresearch.com/pdfs/docket4185/NG11/doc104.pdf

Offshore wind power policy and planning in Sweden

Social and Political Impacts of Renewable Energy: Literature Review

The levelized cost of electricity is estimated for more than 70 electricity production technologies and for two facility ownership sectors. The analysis uses a Lotus 1–2-3 spreadsheet for a consistent approach. The cost effectiveness of several alternative technologies is compared with that of conventional technologies. A variety of owners could build and operate facilities made from these conventional and alternative technologies.

Michael DoANGELIS

Papers

Levelized cost of electricity generation technologies