Publications

The Responsiveness of Fuel Demand to Gasoline Price in Passenger Transport

Walid Matar

Empirical estimates of fuel demand changes to price variation are based on historical consumption and prices, and can be applied as a single point estimate to a wide range of price movements. However, if fuel prices are set outside the…

Matar, Walid

Will There Be a Price War Between Russian Pipeline Gas & US LNG in Europe?

Around 150 mtpa of LNG export capacity will come to global gas markets over 2015-20. While Asia seems unlikely now to be able to absorb it all, Europe emerges as a residual market for flexible volumes. The question is, therefore,…

KAPSARC Quarterly: Issue 2

Will current EV and charging infrastructure policy lead to cost-effective electrification of passenger car transport?

EVS 2016 - 29th International Electric Vehicle Symposium

Governments around the world are seeking to expedite the electrification of passenger cars. Due to the particular policy approaches taken and market conditions, different mixes of BEVs and PHEVs and of rapid and slow public charging infrastructure are starting to…

Marcello Contestabile, Mohammed Alajaji

Measuring persistent and transient energy efficiency in the US

Energy Efficiency

The promotion of US energy efficiency policy is seen as a very important activity. Generally, the level of energy efficiency of a country or state is approximated by energy intensity, commonly calculated as the ratio of energy use to GDP.…

Lester C. Hunt

Designing Electricity Markets to Integrate Renewable Energy

The penetration of renewable energy in deregulated electricity markets is changing the behavior of wholesale electricity prices. Liberalized electricity markets work well when the penetration of renewable energy is low, but they are disrupted when the penetration is significant.

Policy Instruments & Market Uncertainty: Exploring the Impact on Renewables Adoption

Jorge Blazquez, Nora Nezamuddin

Policymakers have a variety of financial tools to foster the deployment of renewables. Our study explores how these policy instruments impact a private investor’s behavior, and the resulting differences in the adoption of renewable technology as well as costs to…

Blazquez, Jorge

Nezamuddin, Nora

Opportunities & Challenges in Reforming Energy Prices in GCC Countries

The recent fall in oil and natural gas revenues has brought renewed attention to domestic energy pricing issues among GCC governments. Fuel and feedstock prices are typically set below world market prices to support domestic energy-intensive activities such as petrochemicals…

Policymakers Guide to the Various Ways of Calculating Energy Productivity

Anwar Gasim

The existence of multiple approaches to calculating energy productivity, with its resulting diverse outcomes, makes it difficult to draw meaningful comparisons between economies and monitor their progress over time. To understand better the implications of this, we conducted a systematic…

Gasim, Anwar

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