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Abstract The housing growth programme could offer an opportunity for accelerating the deployment of decentralised renewable energy systems (DRES) in the UK. The Government hopes to leverage private sector investment into DRES as part of new housing projects. The aim of this paper is to assess whether current regulatory and funding frameworks are sufficient to achieve this. The question is explored by drawing on the experience of developers, local authorities, energy utilities and service companies operating in the largest housing growth region in the UK–Thames Gateway. Their experience suggests that the current low intervention approach will be insufficient to generate the shift required in both industries. In order to be more successful economic and regulatory instruments should focus on producers (house-builders and energy providers) rather than consumers (households). Tighter regulation is needed to ensure that producers have a responsibility to install DRES as part of new developments, to enable connection to the grid, to ensure a sustained financial return from investment and revenue is spent on the expansion of new renewable energy infrastructure. This regulatory framework must be under-pinned by substantial funds focused on producers. Greater intervention is needed if DRES is to be included in new housing development.

Abstract This paper provides an overview of economic issues involved in timing limitations on CO2 emissions from energy systems. It highlights issues relating to technology availability, development and diffusion, and the inertia of energy systems, as being particularly important. The paper sets this in the context of wider uncertainties surrounding the problem and briefly considers other aspects relevant to timing. The paper is stimulated by the debate in the USA about optimal abatement paths, in particular recent claims that it would be economically preferable to defer such abatement action, in favour of measures that support technology development but do not affect emission trends for many years. This paper categorizes the various economic issues involved and concludes that for each economic argument that has been advanced to justify deferring emission constraints, there are counter-vailing economic arguments that could be used in support of rapid near term emissions abatement. Rational policy lies between these extremes. A policy of deferring all emissions abatement exposes economic systems and industries, as well as the environment, to significantly greater costs and risks than those arising from a more balanced approach. Furthermore the modelling studies that have been used to justify deferring emissions abatement do so because they embody the economic factors favourable to delay and largely neglect the countervailing issues, to the point where their results have little relevance to the overall problem of timing emissions abatement.

In this paper we describe the successful part-privatization of Empresa de Energia de Bogota (EEB), the city-owned electricity company in Bogota, Colombia. We describe the reason, the preparation and the actual sale process as well as the outcome following the part-privatization. EEB went from being a company on the edge of bankruptcy to one of the most financially secure electricity companies in South America. We also place the case in relation to the standard views on direct foreign investment and their social benefit. Finally, we aim to generalize the experience to see what other organizations in a similar position can learn.

Abstract An attempt has been made to evaluate the total primary energy inputs to major building materials. These are then followed through to their usage in various types of housing construction to obtain an estimate of the total energy requirement for housebuilding. Typical two storey houses are found to require between 95 and 180 GJ of primary energy input (for major building components only). For large blocks of flats, constructed in reinforced concrete, the energy requirement is about 230–265 GJ per flat. Comparisons have been made between different types of construction, but the large regional variations make the comparisons very dependent on location.

Abstract If intermittent renewable energy technologies such as those based on solar, wind, wave and tidal resources are eventually to supply significant shares of total energy supplies, it is crucial that the energy storage problem is solved. There are several (long-recognised) possibilities ahead including compressed air, pumped storage, further developments in batteries, regenerable fuel cells, ‘super-capacitors’ and so forth. But one that is being revisited extensively by industry and research establishments is the production and storage of hydrogen from electricity at off-peak times, and in times when there would be a surplus of renewable energy, for reuse in the electricity, gas and transport markets; short-term and even seasonal and longer-term storage is technically feasible with this option. This paper looks at the costs of the option both in the near-term and the long-term relative to the current costs of electricity and natural gas supplies. While the costs of hydrogen would necessarily be greater than those of natural gas (though not disruptively so), when used in conjunction with emerging technologies for decentralised generation and combined heat and power there is scope for appreciable economies in electricity supply. A lot will depend on innovation at the systems level, and on how we operate our electricity and gas grids and regulate our electricity and gas industries. We have also suggested that we now need to experiment more, at the commercial level, and in the laboratories, with the hydrogen option.

Abstract This paper explores the use of fuelwood in Third World cities. The importance of fuelwood and the factors which condition its use in cities are set out and three fuelwood problems are identified: the cost to urban consumers, fuel supply security and the impact of urban fuelwood markets on rural areas. Urban fuelwood interventions are evaluated, with four categories identified: interventions in marketing, conservation, increased, wood production and fuel-switching. Of these, fuel-switching by improved supply systems and increased production from smallholders and better management of natural woodlands appear to have the greatest potential. The need for flexibility/community participation in planning is stressed.