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CenSES annual report 2013
19
Studies have shown a dearth of investments in energy
efficiency, despite ample incentives. In
The Silver Lin-
ing of Price Spikes
, Mauritzen studies the relationship
between Norwegian electricity prices and Google
searches for heat pumps. The study suggest that the
inherently ‘spikey’ nature of deregulated electricity
markets influences the search for energy efficient solu-
tions.
In
Active ownership in oligopoly
Frode Skjeret analyses
welfare implications of cross ownership in the power
sector. In contrast to previous research, Skjeret pro-
poses that when a firm owns a substantial share in an-
other, the welfare loss of market power may be greater
than under a complete merger.
In
A Carbon footprint proportional to consumption
,
Patrick Narbel studies the relationship between
consumption-based per capita carbon footprint and
per capita expenditure for Norwegian households.
He finds a carbon footprint directly proportional to
expenditure.
The result is at least partly driven by Norway’s near
zero-emission power sector, which leads to compara-
tively low emission intensities for domestically-
produced goods and services. The surprisingly high
emissions for households with high annual expendi-
tures (i.e. the relationship shows no tendency of lower
marginal CO2 propensity for richer households) in part
reflects high emissions when Norwegian households
consume imported goods.
In
What is really behind the adoption of new renewable
electricity generating technologies?
, Narbel explores
how differences in income and other macroeconomic
variables identify the forces behind the countries’
adoption of renewable energy (e.g. wind, solar). He
contributes to the literature by bringing in the notion
of energy security. Results indicate that wealthy coun-
tries increase their energy security as well as abate
their emissions as they replace electricity generation
based on imported coal with renewables.
Combining climate policy and urban
mobility and environment (WP3)
In a Norwegian context, interaction between the
urban agenda – which includes mobility and air qual-
ity – and climate policy is quite important. The reason
is that Norway is a country with no greenhouse gas
emissions in the power sector, rendering the costly
emissions in transportation important (see our earlier
work on vehicles, including electrification, CenSES
2012).
In a von Thünen model of the commute, Eskeland
explores the role that public transport serves when
emission reductions and mobility gain in priority. A
general feature of the model is that a ‘public transport
doughnut’ can serve the urban population that is cen-
tral enough for high density. This ‘doughnut’ reflects
scale economies i) in vehicle size, ii) in roadspace use,
and iii) in emission reductions. It is typically small or
insignificant, unless a city is poor, or big and dense.
But the doughnut suitably served by public transport
covers a greater area when such public causes as air
quality, climate mitigation and congestion surge on
the agenda.
More specific aspects of the model highlight that
cities on the Norwegian west coast – Vestlandet – are
characterized by a scarcity in road space elsewhere
observed only for larger cities. The Bergen setting may
ask for high quality express services (bus, boat, rail)
otherwise suitable only for cities that are larger and
denser.
The sketches below depicts the “Vestland City” as a
monocentric, three-armed star, with great difficulties
of expanding either radial transportation axes or ring
roads. The public transport ‘doughnut’ will thus have
to be triangular and accommodate the situation, with
high quality public transport reaching far out.