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Energy performance contracting is increasingly employed to promote energy conservation toward sustainable development. This study characterizes these services in China through an analysis from 2011 to 2020 that reveals imbalances in the energy services company (ESCO) sector with respect to trade route, customer base, and energy conservation technology. More specifically, analyses of inter- and intra-province trade networks show that Beijing was the lead provider of ESCO projects, whereas Hebei was the lead customer. Jiangsu, Liaoning, and Inner Mongolia have risen to be new significant players during the 13th Five Year Plan (FYP) period (2016–2020). Although a wide range of energy conservation measures were deployed, ESCO projects were most prevalent in the industrial sector, with particular emphasis on residual heat, pressure and gas recovery. However, the building sector become an increased focus for ESCO projects during the 13th FYP. We further find that national guidelines alone may not lead to significant advances in energy conservation without additional and complementary provincial support. Such heterogeneity, especially at the provincial level, may help explain observed imbalances in ESCO projects. While prior studies usually focus on national guidelines, the more general implication and call of our study is that greater attention should be placed on subnational (provincial) guidelines around energy conservation.

Driven from investments toward net zero transition global interest in fusion energy is growing. This policy perspective addresses challenges for its commercialization, given the potentially long timeframe to deployment and competing/complementary technologies. We focus on magnetically confined fusion power, specifically tokamaks, as the route to commercialization is clearer and there is some cost data available. For fusion to be competitive beyond 2040, costs will likely need to be at or below ∼$80–100/MWh at 2020 price. This will be hard to achieve for early fusion designs both small or large, for which modelling shows energy costs will be greater than $150/MWh even accounting for production learning. This is due to the low power availability from pulsed operation; frequent replacement of vessel components; and low efficiency power cycles. Technology improvements to improve both cycle efficiency and power availability, along with production standardization and long-life components, have the potential to reduce generation costs and enable magnetically confined fusion to be commercially viable. We therefore recommend focusing commercialization efforts on plants with higher thermal efficiency and potential for higher availability as these maximize the probability of fusion energy proving commercially viable. We also recommend that fusion energy be deployed within a proportionate regulatory regime that recognizes its relatively low radiological hazard. Finally, construction of fusion reactors should be planned in fleet/program terms, as commitment to constructing many units will be necessary for it to become commercially viable.

The US is currently the world's largest ethanol producer. An increasing percentage is used as transportation fuel, but debates continue on its costs competitiveness and energy balance. In this study, technological development of ethanol production and resulting cost reductions are investigated by using the experience curve approach, scrutinizing costs of dry grind ethanol production over the timeframe 1980–2005. Cost reductions are differentiated between feedstock (corn) production and industrial (ethanol) processing. Corn production costs in the US have declined by 62% over 30 years, down to 100$2005/tonne in 2005, while corn production volumes almost doubled since 1975. A progress ratio (PR) of 0.55 is calculated indicating a 45% cost decline over each doubling in cumulative production. Higher corn yields and increasing farm sizes are the most important drivers behind this cost decline. Industrial processing costs of ethanol have declined by 45% since 1983, to below 130$2005/m3 in 2005 (excluding costs for corn and capital), equivalent to a PR of 0.87. Total ethanol production costs (including capital and net corn costs) have declined approximately 60% from 800$2005/m3 in the early 1980s, to 300$2005/m3 in 2005. Higher ethanol yields, lower energy use and the replacement of beverage alcohol-based production technologies have mostly contributed to this substantial cost decline. In addition, the average size of dry grind ethanol plants increased by 235% since 1990. For the future it is estimated that solely due to technological learning, production costs of ethanol may decline 28–44%, though this excludes effects of the current rising corn and fossil fuel costs. It is also concluded that experience curves are a valuable tool to describe both past and potential future cost reductions in US corn-based ethanol production.