Interesting reading . . .

Renewable Energies in Africa:  Current Knowledge

This report summarises current knowledge at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre regarding Renewable Energy in Africa. It assesses current energy consumption and the share of renewables in African states, and attempts to estimate the technical potential of available resources of solar, wind, biomass and hydropower that could be economically used to provide energy for the increasing population. Existing statistical data on energy supply and demand have a large uncertainty, both in terms of quantity and costs or price. The available data used for this report indicate a wide range both of per capita energy consumption (100 to 2000 kgoe/cap/y) and per capita electricity consumption (50 to 4000 kWh/cap/y). Relative to the average of the European Union, this corresponds to up to 35 times less regarding all energy, and up to 100 times less regarding electricity. Even though electrification made considerable progress in the past 10 years, 600 million of rural population has no access to electricity at all.

From Confrontation to Collaboration?

This Oxford Energy and Environment Brief is the first of two papers by Benito Müller on the theme of ‘Equity and the Durban Platform’ as recently presented at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. The Brief focuses on the question of how to operationalise the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities as enshrined in Article 3.1 of the UNFCCC. It does so by looking at the controversy about the introduction of international aviation in the EU Emission Trading System as a case study and uses the proposed operationalisation to suggest options for compromise in that dispute.

Available at Oxford Energy website.

Energy Efficiency Obligations – the EU Experience

This report was prepared by Dr. Eoin Lees of the eceee as a briefing for DG Energy.  It is timely because such obligations are being negotiated under the draft Energy Efficiency Directive.  The evidence from European countries that already have energy efficiency obligations for suppliers suggests that such schemes are effective, according to the report.  This report should help those member states who have been reluctant to use energy companies to play such a key role in their energy efficiency strategies.  The report is available at the eceee website.

United States Building Energy Efficiency Retrofits. Market Sizing and Financing Models.

This report, out in March 2012, by DB Climate Change Advisors (of Deutsche Bank) and the Rockefeller Foundation shows that scaling building energy efficiency retrofits in the US offers a $279 billion investment opportunity and that energy savings over the next ten years could amount to more than $1 trillion and create 3.3 million job-years.  The report is available here.