Carbon Capture is Messy and Fraught - But Might Be Essential
Who would pay for a company to sequester carbon underground? MIT economist Christopher Knittel discusses a potential solution in a Wired article here.
The Rationale for Investment in Life Extension of Spanish Nuclear Power Plants
Nuclear power provides more than 20% of Spain's electricity. As each of the 7 plants approaches its 40 year design life, a decision must be made whether to invest in a life extension, considering Spain's goal of reducing GHG emissions. This research shows that life extensions are the least-cost alternative for further reducing GHG emissions.
Dynamic Competition and Arbitrage in Electricity Markets: The Role of Financial Players
Market power is typically an important concern in restructured electricity markets. This paper shows that financial traders, who trade alongside physical buyers and sellers, can increase competitiveness and lead to lower consumer prices by effectively competing with generators and restricting their market power.
Energy Efficiency, Information, and the Acceptability of Rent Increases
In this paper, the authors explore role of imperfect information and attentional biases in the context of energy efficiency investments by quantifying how alternative informational interventions affect tenants' acceptance of rent increases in exchange for improved energy efficiency of their heating appliance.
Does the U.S. Export Global Warming? Coal Trade and the Shale Gas Boom
Christopher Knittel, Konstantinos Metaxoglou, Anson Soderbery and Andre Trindade examine the effect of the US Shale Gas Boom on global trade, consumption of coal, and CO2 emissions and the results show that the total quantity of coal traded around in the absence of the Boom is essentially the same as the actual...
Fair, Equitable, and Efficient Tariffs in the Presence of DERs
In a new CEEPR Working Paper, the authors delineate various aspects of equity and fairness that regulators must grapple with when designing electricity tariffs and show that more economically efficient tariffs can improve several aspects of equity. The research argues that DER adoption under existing tariff schemes may increase inequities already present in the power system.
In The News
Oct 9, 2018
Carbon tax debate: Nobels and IPCC vs. Trump and Doug Ford
In an article in Grist, Professor Christopher Knittel comments on the carbon tax debate. Read the full article here.
Jul 26, 2018
Coordinating Separate Markets for Externalities
In a new CEEPR Working Paper, the authors show that inefficiencies from having separate markets to correct an environmental externality are significantly mitigated when firms participate in an...
Jul 17, 2018
Who Closes First? Ownership and Collusive Early Exits
Climate and energy policies lead to a declining market for the incumbent technologies in electricity markets. Facing the challenge of closures, incumbent firms have incentives to coordinate...
May 9, 2018
We don’t know what climate change will cost — that doesn’t mean we can ignore it
Professor Robert S. Pindyck of MIT and Professor James H. Stock of Harvard University discuss the importance of the social cost of carbon in a new piece on TheHill.
May 1, 2018
Electricity Market Design with Renewables
A new paper compares EU and US electricity market designs, arguing for a focus on correct price formation in the short-term to incentivize investments and reliability. Increased demand-side...
Mar 20, 2018
Restructuring Revisited: Competition and Coordination in Electricity Distribution Systems
In light of the decentralization of the power sector, a new CEEPR Working Paper carefully considers how industry structure regulations impacts competition, market development, and the efficiency of...
Mar 7, 2018
Power Sector Reform and Corruption: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
In this paper, the authors conduct an econometric analysis of the performance of reforms in terms of efficiency, welfare, and economic development in 47 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa between 2002...
Feb 21, 2018
3 Questions: The Future of Nuclear Energy
Jacopo Buongiorno and John Parsons, co-directors of the MITEI LCEC for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems, discuss how to overcome the challenges and realize the benefits of expanding nuclear power.