• Energy Research

Whether commercial real estate market participants effectively evaluate building energy efficiency characteristics in the absence of a green label has so far remained unaddressed in the literature. I estimate the energy efficiency premium in unlabeled office buildings by exploiting variation in mandatory building energy standard implementations as a result of the 1992 U.S. Energy Policy Act. A more stringent energy code leads to rent and price premiums of approximately 4 percent and 9 percent, respectively. Heterogeneity in the rent premium is also observed based on who pays the utility bills, as would be expected if market participants correctly evaluate energy conservation characteristics. The rent and price premiums are consistent with full capitalization of the energy savings from a more stringent standard.

This paper analyzes dynamic economies in renewable energy technologies. The paper has two contributions. The first is to test the robustness of experience in solar photovoltaic, solar thermal and wind energy to the addition of an explicit time trend, which has been done in experience studies for other industries, but not for renewable energy technologies. Estimation is carried out on the assumption that cumulative capacity, industry production, average firm production, and electricity generation affect experience and thus the fall in price. The second contribution is to test the impact of R&D on price reduction. In general cumulative experience is found to be highly statistically significant when estimated alone, and highly statistically insignificant when time is added to the model. The effect of R&D is small and statistically significant in solar photovoltaic technology and statistically insignificant in solar thermal and wind technologies.

Abstract We implement a conditional demand analysis (CDA) using a large dataset of electricity consumers in a Canadian province with a high market share of electric heating technologies. In doing so we also provide a unifying review of the breadth of interdisciplinary applications of CDA, beginning from the earliest studies up to the present, and test for evidence of unobservable variable bias from random effects panel data estimators. We find that local (i.e. minisplit) heat pumps and thermostat setbacks show the largest electricity savings. Central heat pumps generally do not save heating electricity compared to electric baseboards, and exhibit higher cooling season consumption compared to local heat pumps. We also observe a consistent decline in electricity consumption for newer homes, with the largest effects in the post-2010 period. Our results can inform research to identify promising technologies that support a shift towards large-scale electrification and decarbonization of energy end-uses, on the basis of robust statistical analysis utilizing realized household consumption data.

Abstract The adoption rate and stringency of building energy standards in the U.S. have been increasing since the mid-1990s as a result of the Energy Policy Act mandate of 1992 (EPAct). Current evidence on the energy savings that accrue from commercial building energy standards is based on engineering simulations, which do not account for realized behaviour once a standard is actually adopted. This paper uses quasi-experimental variation in commercial building energy standard adoptions to estimate their effect on realized electricity consumption and cost-effectiveness. In states induced by EPAct to adopt an energy standard where all new nonresidential construction was erected under a commercial standard, electricity consumption per service worker is lower by about 12%, and total commercial electricity consumption is lower by 10%. Including early adopters and never-adopters to the analysis leads to a downward bias in the treatment effect. The realized electricity savings in the EPAct states represent three quarters of predicted simulated savings, and electricity saved in 2010 came at a cost of approximately 7.7 cents per kWh.