Edizioni FrancoAngeli - Last issue of ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT (1/2012)

EPEE: a new name for a journal with more than 50 years of life

Mon, 15 Apr 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Luigi De Paoli

Lo sterile dibattito sulla nuova strategia energetica

Mon, 15 Apr 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Alberto Clò
I Governi italiani hanno spesso proposto misure di politica energetica per il Paese, sebbene raramente si siano avuti effetti significativi. Recentemente il Governo italiano ha auspicato un passaggio dal concetto di politica e quello di "strategia energetica nazionale", i cui contenuti e metodi evidenziano gli stessi limiti che hanno portato all’insufficienza delle precedenti politiche. L’articolo pertanto mette in evidenza criticamente le ragioni del fallimento dei precedenti tentativi di definizione di una politica energetica nazionale e dello sterile dibattito sulla nuova strategia. Evidenzia, al contrario, la necessità di rispettare alcuni aspetti metodologici che possono favorirne il successo: la necessità di una maggiore specificità delle misure, il ricorso all’analisi costi-benefici per identificare i trade-off tra le alternative, l’identificazione degli obiettivi prioritari e delle responsabilità delle diverse istituzioni. Le sfide poste dai cambiamenti del contesto geopolitico, economico ed ambientale odierni rendono tale metodologia ancora più urgente. Focalizzandosi successivamente sul tema degli obiettivi di una politica energetica, l’articolo ne identifica quattro (ambiente, competitività, sicurezza e crescita) e suggerisce l’apporto che alcune misure possono portare al raggiungimento degli stessi.

A proposito di strategia energetica nazionale

Mon, 15 Apr 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Tullio Fanelli, Federico Testa
Paese. Oggi questo non è più vero: non è più possibile trattare di energia e ambiente senza occuparsi di industria e sviluppo. Tre eventi hanno modificato drasticamente la situazione: l’ingresso dell’Italia nell’Euro nel 1999, l’ingresso della Cina nella World Trade Organization (WTO) nel 2001, l’ampliamento dell’UE da 15 a 25 Paesi nel 2004, divenuti poi 27 nel 2007. In questo mutato contesto occorre una "Strategia energetica" (o di ogni altro strumento programmatico) è quindi quella di fornire indicazioni ai cittadini, ma soprattutto alle imprese, non solo del settore energetico, sulle iniziative che lo Stato intende assumere e sulle conseguenze, in termini di disponibilità, di prezzi, di impatto sull’ambiente, che da esse potranno derivare. L’Italia non è ricca di risorse energetiche fossili; questa è una ragione in più perché sia ricca di mercati energetici liberi, competitivi e trasparenti, governati da Autorità forti e indipendenti che inducano lo sviluppo efficiente di infrastrutture materiali ed immateriali per il trasporto, lo stoccaggio e le negoziazioni di prodotti energetici e di CO2 .

100% renewable electricity by mid century in italy?

Mon, 15 Apr 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Gianni Silvestrini
Climate change will be in the future one of the most influential driving force for energy policies. In the electric sector will therefore be important to find solution to reduce carbon emission. With the shrinking share of nuclear power, Carbon Capture Sequestration will play an important role, although the largest contribution will come from renewable energies. Ambitious roadmaps and new targets have already been set - Germany plans to cover 80% of its electric demand with renewables by 2050 - based on studies indicating the possibility to achieve 100% of the electric demand through renewable energy by 2050. The capital required is significant, although over a long period (over 40 years) the economic impact of this transition will be limited. With an increasing renewable share and the need to convert a large electricity market, Italy should incorporate a longer-term perspective and vision and a broader geographical scope. After the nuclear referendum, it is important to discuss scenarios at national level coherent with international indications and climate change constraints and launch a revolutionary approach; but at present is lacking the clear vision of the future required to do so.

The power sector in italy: an (almost) forced path

Mon, 15 Apr 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Giovanni Battista Zorzoli
The article underlines that, after the results in the Referendum of June 2011 on nuclear energy policy, the future pathway of the power sector is strictly conditioned to the current production structure. The author analyzes how relevant economic, geopolitical, environmental and social factors could influence this situation in the next years and suggests some scenarios

Nuclear power generation, renewable resources and endogenous growth

Mon, 15 Apr 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Riccardo Costantini
The author develops an endogenous growth framework in which energy production is based on a learning by doing technology exploiting renewable reproducible capital and nuclear power plants. Consumption activities generates radioactive waste according to an exogenous factor reflecting the economy energy mix, while an abatement technology, reducing the impact of solid waste accumulation on welfare, is explicitly taken into account. Differently from traditional growth and environmental literature, the author includes an explicit preference for the technology mix by postulating a non separable utility in consumption, radioactive waste and stock of renewable capital. Within this framework the author derives conditions on preferences under which sustained growth is attainable without imposing, ex ante, neither compensation nor a distaste effect characterizing utility. Finally, introducing simplifying assumptions on the preference relation, an investigation of the dynamic property of the equilibrium is provided. The results obtained suggest a high complementarity of renewable capital and nuclear technology exploitation in determining potential long run growth.

Taxation within electricity auctions with dominant firm

Mon, 15 Apr 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Francesco Gullì
This paper gives an additional contribution to the literature on environmental policy under imperfect competition. It aims at exploring how imperfect competition can affect the performance of environmental policy. The focus is on pollution taxes and power generation which is a particularly interesting case for three reasons. First it is one of the most important environmentally regulated markets. Second the demand for electricity varies cyclically over time (for example on hourly basis). Third the pricing mechanism is a multi-period and multi-unit first price auctions. The main finding of the analysis is that, looking at the entire demand cycle, it is very unlikely (virtually impossible) that under imperfect competition taxation could increase emissions although, according to a part of the current literature, in principle pollution may increase in the short-run within specific cycle periods. Moreover this may happen under specific and unlikely conditions although, unlike what this literature suggests, large asymmetry of firms and extreme curvature of demand are not strictly necessary.

An assessment of the tools of incentive regulation in electricity networks

Mon, 15 Apr 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Haikel Khalfallah, Jean-Michel Glachant
Network regulation is playing an active role in a context of restructuring energy systems for long term transition to a smart grid. Regulation of network companies’ activities should consider both cost efficiency objectives and other objectives such as quality and network innovation. It is in this context that incentive regulation tools are discussed and assessed in this paper. The aim is to show their key features and how they could be aligned with the main regulation goals. This paper concludes that they should be considered as complementary tools to address conflicting regulatory aspects in an efficient manner.

Investment, public resources and the transport system: some simulations with the astra-it model

Mon, 15 Apr 2012 8:00:00 GMT

Davide Fiorello, Dorota Bielanska, Silvia Mafii, Angelo Martino
TRT Trasporti e Territorio (Milano) The transport sector is facing big challenges, such as the need for reducing greenhouse gases and the pressure on fossil fuels price. Tackling such challenges requires structural changes and policy should play a steering role. Therefore, transport policy measures should be assessed for their wider impact on the economy and the environment. This paper presents the strategic model ASTRA-IT and its application for the analysis of the investment in developing innovative vehicles. The several results produced by the model suggest that investing in innovative vehicles can have positive effects on the economy, but the environmental impact can be small.

Summaries and abstracts

Mon, 15 Apr 2012 8:00:00 GMT