Publications

Beyond the end-consumer: how would improvements in residential energy efficiency affect the power sector in Saudi Arabia?

Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency in buildings has garnered significant attention in Saudi Arabia. This paper outlines the potential effects of higher residential efficiency on electricity load profiles in the Kingdom. It further presents the associated benefits that could have been realized by…

Walid Matar

Drivers of Transportation Fuel Demand: Is Policy Expanding the Reach of Alternative and Fuel Efficient Vehicles?

The transportation sector accounts for about 25 percent of all energy consumed worldwide and lightduty vehicles constitute the largest portion of this. Policy has a significant role in increasing vehicle fuel efficiency and expanding the reach of alternatively fueled vehicles.

Challenges for Widespread Renewable Energy Deployment

Jorge Blazquez, Baltasar Manzano

Part of the policy strategy to avert the worst outcomes of global climate change is a transition to low carbon energy on an unprecedented scale. In particular, strong incentives are in place to promote the competitiveness of renewable energy technologies,…

Blazquez, Jorge

Manzano, Baltasar

Understanding Adoption of Energy-Efficient Technologies: A Case Study of Battery Electric Vehicle Adoption in the U.S.

Rubal Dua

The adoption of energy-efficient technologies is a key factor in improving energy utilization. The ways in which consumers make their decisions – incorporating non-economic factors – is critical to understanding the pace and depth of adoption. We present a way…

Dua, Rubal

Renewable Energy: Lessons from the EU Experience

Reducing reliance on fossil fuels in the generation of electricity through supporting wind turbines, solar cells and other renewable technologies has been a key objective of the European Union (EU) for more than a decade. Between 2004 and 2013, the…

Modeling Residential Electricity Demand in the GCC

The Gulf region has seen rapid population and economic growth over the past few decades, changing the landscape of the area, raising living standards and enabling millions to increase their consumption of essential services such as water and electricity. These…

Can Adoption of Rooftop Solar PV Panels Trigger a Utility Death Spiral?

Iqbal Adjali, Rolando Fuentes, Frederic Murphy

The growing penetration of distributed energy resources (DER) such as solar and wind power is causing major changes in the electricity market. One key concern is that existing tariffs incentivize ‘free riding’ behavior by households, which leads to a cycle…

Adjali, Iqbal

Fuentes, Rolando

Murphy, Frederic

Evaluating the economic viability of solar-powered desalination: Saudi Arabia as a case study

International Journal of Water Resources Development

This article constructs a cost calculator to estimate the economic competitiveness of solar-powered desalination in Saudi Arabia. Solar desalination is defined as a plant that obtains solar energy from a closed system. This is done to focus the investigation on…

Christopher Napoli, Bertrand Rioux

The Impact of Low Oil and Gas Prices on Gas Markets: A Retrospective Look at 2014-15

Rami Shabaneh

In the past year, global gas prices have dropped significantly, albeit at unequal paces depending on the region. All else being equal, economists would suggest that this should have generated a positive demand response. However, “all else” was not equal.…

Shabaneh, Rami

Turkey and the EU: Energy, Transport and Competition Policies

Emre Hatipoglu

This book is the product of a research project on Turkey-EU relations launched at the time when Turkey’s accession talks were coming to a standstill. The purpose of this project, carried out by a team of faculty members from Central…

Hatipoglu, Emre

Solar Photovoltaic Toolkit

Amro Elshurafa, Shahad Albardi

This data set compiles capital costs (CAPEX) and levelized cost of energy (LCOE) data for the solar photovoltaic (PV) technology by year and country and presents the data in an interactive manner. Although, the data set contains information that dates…

Elshurafa, Amro

Albardi, Shahad

How Will Natural Gas Adapt to the New Price Environment?

During the period 2011-14, buyers – particularly in Europe and Asia – argued that high natural gas prices had been the main obstacle preventing the fuel from fulfilling its promise and increasing its share in the primary energy mix. Key…

LNG Markets in Transition: The Great Reconfiguration

Anne-Sophie Corbeau

Corbeau, Anne-Sophie

Do population age groups matter in the energy use of the oil-exporting countries?

Economic Modelling

This study examines the impacts of the population age groups of 20-34, 35-49, 50-64 and 65-79 on the per capita energy use of the oil-exporting countries of Commonwealth Independent States: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia employing the modified-STIRPAT framework. Considering that…

Fakhri Hasanov

KAPSARC Quarterly: Issue 1

Step by Step: The Reform of China’s Energy Economy

China has become a regional powerhouse, a middle-income country and home to the world’s largest middle class. Its GDP has grown from $400 billion in 1971 to more than $13 trillion in 2012 (purchasing power parity, 2005 US$). The government…

Substitutes for Liquid Fuels – Outlook in a Low Oil Price Environment

The case for alternatives to gasoline and diesel was historically built on economic concerns; that the world might be running out of oil, which would then become prohibitively expensive. More recently, the argument has been refocused around carbon abatement and…

Energy for Water in Agriculture: A Partial Factor Productivity Analysis

Christopher Napoli, Berenice Garcia Tellez

Water, energy and food are inextricably linked and, consequently, inefficient use of any of the three resources can have a negative effect on the other two. Managing this nexus requires a holistic approach. We compare the productivity of extracted water…

Napoli, Christopher

Garcia Tellez, Berenice

Policy Options for Reducing Water for Agriculture in Saudi Arabia

Christopher Napoli, David Wogan, Lama Yaseen

Saudi Arabia relies almost exclusively on aquifers and desalination to provide its water. Roughly 87 percent of these water extractions are used for agriculture, and so any policy to improve the sustainability of water resources cannot ignore this agriculture dimension.

Napoli, Christopher

Wogan, David

Yaseen, Lama

Group Choice with Interdependent Sublinear Voting

Many important decisions of policy are made in a collective manner, so a great deal of formal and informal analysis has been devoted to collective decision-making processes (CDMPs). One common approach to analyzing CDMPs is first to model the participants…