Natural Resource Economics Commons^™

The Role Of Energy Storage In The Transition Toward A Carbon-Neutral Economy, Siyu Feng

Theses and Dissertations

Energy transitions to less-carbon intense technologies, such as wind and solar energy, in the electricity, sector are crucial to realizing international climate goals because the electricity sector has been one of the main global carbon emitter for decades, and environmental plans in most countries involve electrifying heavily polluting industries with clean electricity generation. The intermittency problem of renewable energy has been the main stumbling block on the path, and energy storage is now referred to as the key in these transitions because it can boost renewable energy use while also improving the efficiency of conventional power plants (Hall and Bain, …

Utilizing Natural And Man-Made Resources For Economic Development: What Are The Mechanisms And Why?, Linh Pham

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studies the roles of natural resources in determining economic outcomes such as innovation, investment, profitability and economic growth.

The first chapter studies the ease of substitution between energy and other production inputs over time and across countries. Improvements in energy efficiency over the past decades have substantially decreased the amount of energy used per unit of capital. Yet, previous literature often assumes a constant elasticity of substitution between capital and energy. In this chapter, we develop a Solow growth model with a variable elasticity of substitution (VES) between production inputs and show that the long-run growth rate directly …

Essays On Environmental Policy And Technological Change, Sahar Milani

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of three empirical essays on technological change. The first chapter examines how industrial R&D intensities respond to environmental regulations when considering specific industry characteristics such as pollution intensity and immobility. Specifically, I study the impact of environmental regulations on R&D intensities in 21 manufacturing industries in 28 OECD countries from 2000-2007. I consider pollution intensity and the relative ease of relocation (immobility) as industry characteristics that determine the optimal industry response to increased environmental policy stringency. I find that more pollution intensive industries innovate less as regulatory environments become more restrictive relative to less pollution intensive …

A Decision Support System To Analyze, Predict, And Evaluate Solar Energy System Performance: Pvsysco (Photovoltaic System Comparison), Lisa Bosman

Theses and Dissertations

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Energy announced the SunShot Initiative, which aims to reduce the total installation cost of solar technologies by 75% between 2010 and 2020. This implies that solar energy is a top priority in the U.S. and many other countries. The purpose of this dissertation research is focused on creating a model to better understand the performance and reliability of photovoltaic (PV) energy systems over time. The model will be used to analyze, predict, and evaluate the performance of PV systems, taking into consideration technological and geographical location attributes. The overall research goal is to build …