(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012-12)
Deitchman, Benjamin; Brown, Marilyn A.; Wang, Yu
Lack of attractive financing remains one of the most significant barriers to energy-efficiency improvements in commercial buildings. This paper examines a flexible financing policy that would support state and local initiatives via loan loss reserves, tax lien financing, revolving loans, performance contracts, and on-bill programs. We examine the impact of different levels of subsidy covering different numbers of technologies, ultimately selecting a 10% subsidy for 64 qualifying technologies. This policy would save almost half a quad of energy in 2020 and 1.04 quads in 2035, producing net social benefits of $105 billion and a benefit/cost ratio of 1.9. Technologies with significant growth in market share include advanced fluorescents and variable-air-volume ventilation systems. Case studies of other technologies illustrate the advantage of optimizing financial assistance to reflect product maturity and cost-competiveness. A 10% subsidy would produce an estimated ten-fold increase in the amount spent on highefficiency equipment in 2035, and the $3.9 billion subsidy in that year would have only an 11% rate of free ridership.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-11-11)
Brown, Marilyn A.; Sovacool, Benjamin K.; Curry, Judith A.; McGrath, Robert T.; Norton, Bryan G.; Orlando, Thomas M.; Deitchman, Benjamin
Four faculty at Georgia Tech participated in a debate focusing on the theses of the newly published textbook (Climate Change and Global Energy Security) coauthored by Marilyn Brown (Georgia Tech) and Benjamin Sovacool (Vermont Law School). The book submits that our world already has most of the sustainable energy technologies it needs to do this, but it faces a system of reinforcing barriers that support incumbent technologies, handicap innovation, and prevent change.