[en] Benchmarking energy-efficiency is an important tool to promote the efficient use of energy in commercial buildings. Benchmarking models are mostly constructed in a simple benchmark table (percentile table) of energy use, which is normalized with floor area and temperature. This paper describes a benchmarking process for energy efficiency by means of multiple regression analysis, where the relationship between energy-use intensities (EUIs) and the explanatory factors (e.g., operating hours) is developed. Using the resulting regression model, these EUIs are then normalized by removing the effect of deviance in the significant explanatory factors. The empirical cumulative distribution of the normalized EUI gives a benchmark table (or percentile table of EUI) for benchmarking an observed EUI. The advantage of this approach is that the benchmark table represents a normalized distribution of EUI, taking into account all the significant explanatory factors that affect energy consumption. An application to supermarkets is presented to illustrate the development and the use of the benchmarking method

[en] Over the last decades, fundamental changes can be observed in both market conditions and the national policy framework for green electricity in the Netherlands. The Dutch Government has regularly intervened in markets, demonstrating fundamental shifts in policy and approach. This study aims to analyse the developments in renewable energy policy making in the Netherlands. It assesses changes in the choice of policy instruments and target groups, the role of stakeholders, and offers explanations behind policy successes and failures. Dutch green electricity policy over the last decade can be characterised roughly by three phases: in the early 1990s, the government negotiated voluntary agreements with the energy distribution sector on targets for green electricity sales, which were never met. In the second half of the 1990s, a regulatory energy tax was introduced, from which customers of green electricity were exempt. This led to a substantial increase in demand, which was largely met by green electricity imports, and did not lead to additional domestic renewable energy capacity. Finally, a change in policy has taken place recently (2003) shifting the focus from promotion of demand to the promotion of supply through a system of regulated feed-in tariffs. Despite the renewable energy policies, growth of the renewable energy market in the Netherlands has been small and targets have not been fully met. The Dutch government has not yet succeeded in substantially reducing market uncertainties and in building confidence among market parties, because the policies have not been stable and policy objectives have frequently been partly ambiguous. In addition, the influence of stakeholders in renewable energy policy making has been small which has the early acceptance and implementation of alternative policies

[en] Limits to leapfrogging in energy technologies? One of the most attractive notions in the field of sustainable energy development is the concept of energy-technology 'leapfrogging'. Leapfrogging through international technology transfer can be especially problematic because often developing countries do not have the technological capabilities to produce or integrate the advanced energy technologies themselves. Until they have acquired the capabilities to produce the advanced technologies themselves, most late-industrializing countries buy their new technologies from industrialized countries, usually through licensing or joint-venture arrangements. Empirical case studies of the three main Sino-US passenger-car joint ventures reveal that until the late 1990s, little energy or environmental leapfrogging occurred in the Chinese automobile industry as the result of the introduction of US automotive technology. An improvement in Chinese capabilities and more stringent Chinese energy and environmental policies are needed to induce energy leapfrogging in the Chinese automobile industry. Foreign firms also have a social responsibility to contribute to China's sustainable industrial development. In order to realize the promise of the leapfrogging, the limits to leapfrogging must be identified and acknowledged so that strategies can be devised to surmount the barriers to the introduction of advanced energy technologies in developing countries

[en] This paper presents the findings of gross carbon dioxide and methane emissions measurements in several Brazilian hydro-reservoirs, compared to thermo power generation. The term 'gross emissions' means gas flux measurements from the reservoir surface without natural pre-impoundment emissions by natural bodies such as the river channel, seasonal flooding and terrestrial ecosystems. The net emissions result from deducting pre-existing emissions by the reservoir. A power dam emits biogenic gases such as CO₂ and CH₄. However, studies comparing gas emissions (gross emissions) from the reservoir surface with emissions by thermo-power generation technologies show that the hydro-based option presents better results in most cases analyzed. In this study, measurements were carried in the Miranda, Barra Bonita, Segredo, Tres Marias, Xingo, and Samuel and Tucurui reservoirs, located in two different climatological regimes. Additional data were used here from measurements taken at the Itaipu and Serra da Mesa reservoirs. Comparisons were also made between emissions from hydro-power plants and their thermo-based equivalents. Bearing in mind that the estimated values for hydro-power plants include emissions that are not totally anthropogenic, the hydro-power plants studied generally posted lower emissions than their equivalent thermo-based counterparts. Hydro-power complexes with greater power densities (capacity/area flooded-W/m²), such as Itaipu, Xingo, Segredo and Miranda, have the best performance, well above thermo-power plants using state-of-the-art technology: combined cycle fueled by natural gas, with 50% efficiency. On the other hand, some hydro-power complexes with low-power density perform only slightly better or even worse than their thermo-power counterparts

[en] Energy saving is an important option for preventing emission of greenhouse gases. Furthermore, when energy saving is reducing the spatial and temporal density of energy consumption, it supports a rising market share of renewable energy sources. Last but not the least, energy saving plays a role in reducing the vulnerability for import dependency and supply disruptions. Despite these virtues energy saving and energy efficiency, being typically demand side options, appear to be harder to 'sell' than the other options which focus on the supply side. The currently prevailing market-based approach in energy policy initially brought setbacks for energy saving. The introductory article and the selected contributions to this special issue intend to show that markets can and should be shaped to the benefit of the uptake and of the potential of energy saving. To this end, all elements of the energy efficiency delivery context should be addressed in energy-saving policies. Learning, measurement and observation are important tools in this reshaping process. All contributions are based on papers of the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy 2003 Summer Study. (author)

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[en] The discovery of large amounts of oil in the rocky layers under the halite (or pre-halite) of off-shore sedimentary basins is a veritable oil surprise in Brazil, changing the country's oil strategy context. This event is being debated in all political circles and has also gained widespread attention in national and international media. It is becoming a major issue impacting on campaign impetus for the 2010 presidential elections, which look to be difficult and unpredictable for predictable or all potential candidates. The administration of president Lula has aimed to put in place a clear historical (and geographical) limit by proposing significant legal and institutional changes for the development of pre-halite oil resources (as opposed to the current scheme which will remain valid for reserves found in the rocky layers above the halite, or post halite). The purpose of this article is to introduce the main legal and institutional change actors that are proposed. The text mainly focuses on the upstream activities from oil exploration to production and on the capture and distribution of the oil rent. These are the two main areas that the new legal and institutional scheme will cover. (authors)

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