How Do Households Consume Energy?: Evidence from Latin American and Caribbean Countries


Book Description

How do households consume and spend on energy? What are the drivers of their spending and consumption patterns? How does energy consumption has evolved? What is to be expected as the region climbs the development ladder? What are the distributive implications of different energy pricing approaches? This book looks at these questions and examines which policies work in reducing energy poverty and increasing energy savings. The authors unveil the growing household demand of better quality of energy and show that to achieve more cost-effective and progressive public policies, it is necessary to strengthen the transparency and sustainability of energy pricing while having into account the consumer behavioral responses. This volume is a resource for designing energy policies based on an empirical understanding of the household’s energy needs.




Energy Demand Challenges in Europe


Book Description

This open access book examines the role of citizens in sustainable energy transitions across Europe. It explores energy problem framing, policy approaches and practical responses to the challenge of securing clean, affordable and sustainable energy for all citizens, focusing on households as the main unit of analysis. The book revolves around ten contributions that each summarise national trends, socio-material characteristics, and policy responses to contemporary energy issues affecting householders in different countries, and provides good practice examples for designing and implementing sustainable energy initiatives. Prominent concerns include reducing carbon emissions, energy poverty, sustainable consumption, governance, practices, innovations and sustainable lifestyles. The opening and closing contributions consider European level energy policy, dominant and alternative problem framings and similarities and differences between European countries in relation to reducing household energy use. Overall, the book is a valuable resource for researchers, policy-makers, practitioners and others interested in sustainable energy perspectives.




Consumer, Prosumer, Prosumager


Book Description

Consumers, Prosumers, Prosumagers: How Service Innovations will Disrupt the Utility Business Model examines customer stratification in the electric power sector, arguing that it is poised to become one of the fundamental drivers of the 21st century power network as distributed energy generation, storage, sharing and trading options become available at scale. The book addresses the interface and the relationship between key players and their impacts on incumbent and disruptive service providers. Topics covered include innovations that lead to consumer stratification, regulatory policy, the potential of service, the speed and spread of stratification, and a review of potential business models and strategies. The work also covers the evolution and potential end-states of electricity service provision, from its basis in current pilot programs as distributed generation scales and its potential to supplant industry norms. - Explores the impacts and trajectories of increasing distributed power generation and storage adoption - Analyzes the growing number of electricity services and their impact on the existing power grid and service providers, including incumbent and disruptor utilities - Discusses future market trends and trends in costs, pricing and business models




Behind and Beyond the Meter


Book Description

The historical ways in which electricity was generated in large central power plants and delivered to passive customers through a one-way transmission and distribution network – as everyone knows – is radically changing to one where consumers can generate, store and consume a significant portion of their energy needs energy locally. This, however, is only the first step, soon to be followed by the ability to share or trade with others using the distribution network. More exciting opportunities are possible with the increased digitalization of BTM assets, which in turn can be aggregated into large portfolios of flexible load and generation and optimized using artificial intelligence and machine learning. - Examines the latest advances in digitalization of behind-the-meter assets including distributed generation, distributes storage and electric vehicles and – more important – how these assets can be aggregated and remotely monitored unleashing tremendous value and a myriad of innovative services and business models - Examines what lies behind-the-meter (BTM) of typical customers and why managing these assets increasingly matter - Describes how smart aggregators with intelligent software are creating value by optimizing how energy may be generated, consumed, stored o potentially shared o traded and between consumers; prosumers and prosumagers (that is, prosumers with storage) - Explores new business models that are likely to disrupt the traditional interface between the incumbents and their customers




An Energy Analysis of Household Consumption


Book Description

With energy consumption set to become one of the biggest issues in the daily lives of householders around the world, this book could not be more relevant – despite the fact that it focuses on India. Pachauri adopts a socio-economic approach to analyzing the energy system and energy consumption in India from a household perspective. The work also incorporates two crucial aspects often ignored: namely, the importance of non-commercial sources of energy, and diversity in the patterns of energy usage.




Energy and Civilization


Book Description

A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. "I wait for new Smil books the way some people wait for the next 'Star Wars' movie. In his latest book, Energy and Civilization: A History, he goes deep and broad to explain how innovations in humans' ability to turn energy into heat, light, and motion have been a driving force behind our cultural and economic progress over the past 10,000 years. —Bill Gates, Gates Notes, Best Books of the Year Energy is the only universal currency; it is necessary for getting anything done. The conversion of energy on Earth ranges from terra-forming forces of plate tectonics to cumulative erosive effects of raindrops. Life on Earth depends on the photosynthetic conversion of solar energy into plant biomass. Humans have come to rely on many more energy flows—ranging from fossil fuels to photovoltaic generation of electricity—for their civilized existence. In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. Humans are the only species that can systematically harness energies outside their bodies, using the power of their intellect and an enormous variety of artifacts—from the simplest tools to internal combustion engines and nuclear reactors. The epochal transition to fossil fuels affected everything: agriculture, industry, transportation, weapons, communication, economics, urbanization, quality of life, politics, and the environment. Smil describes humanity's energy eras in panoramic and interdisciplinary fashion, offering readers a magisterial overview. This book is an extensively updated and expanded version of Smil's Energy in World History (1994). Smil has incorporated an enormous amount of new material, reflecting the dramatic developments in energy studies over the last two decades and his own research over that time.




Real Prospects for Energy Efficiency in the United States


Book Description

America's economy and lifestyles have been shaped by the low prices and availability of energy. In the last decade, however, the prices of oil, natural gas, and coal have increased dramatically, leaving consumers and the industrial and service sectors looking for ways to reduce energy use. To achieve greater energy efficiency, we need technology, more informed consumers and producers, and investments in more energy-efficient industrial processes, businesses, residences, and transportation. As part of the America's Energy Future project, Real Prospects for Energy Efficiency in the United States examines the potential for reducing energy demand through improving efficiency by using existing technologies, technologies developed but not yet utilized widely, and prospective technologies. The book evaluates technologies based on their estimated times to initial commercial deployment, and provides an analysis of costs, barriers, and research needs. This quantitative characterization of technologies will guide policy makers toward planning the future of energy use in America. This book will also have much to offer to industry leaders, investors, environmentalists, and others looking for a practical diagnosis of energy efficiency possibilities.




Energy Justice in a Changing Climate


Book Description

Energy justice is one of the most critical, and yet least developed, concepts associated with sustainability. Much has been written about the sustainability of low-carbon energy systems and policies - with an emphasis on environmental, economic and geopolitical issues. However, less attention has been directed at the social and equity implications of these dynamic relations between energy and low-carbon objectives - the complexity of injustice associated with whole energy systems (from extractive industries, through to consumption and waste) that transcend national boundaries and the social, political-economic and material processes driving the experience of energy injustice and vulnerability. Drawing on a substantial body of original research from an international collaboration of experts this unique collection addresses energy poverty, just innovation, aesthetic justice and the justice implications of low-carbon energy systems and technologies. The book offers new thinking on how interactions between climate change, energy policy, and equity and social justice can be understood and develops a critical agenda for energy justice research.




Energy Use in the U.S. Food System


Book Description

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Energy is an important input in growing, processing, packaging, distributing, storing, preparing, serving, and disposing of food. In the U.S., use of energy along the food chain for food purchases by or for U.S. households increased between 1997 and 2002 at more than six times the rate of increase in total domestic energy use. This increase in food-related energy flows is over 80% of energy flow increases nationwide over the period. The use of more energy-intensive technologies throughout the U.S. food system accounted for half of this increase, with the remainder attributed to population growth and higher real per capita food expenditures. Food-related energy use as a share of the national energy budget grew from 14.4% in 2002 to 15.7% in 2007. Illus.