Utility green pricing programs represent one way in which consumers can voluntarily support the development of renewable energy. The design features and effectiveness of these programs varies considerably. Based on a survey of utility program managers in the United States, this article provides insight into which program features might help maximize both customer participation in green pricing programs and the amount of renewable energy purchased by customers in those programs. We find that program length has a substantial impact on customer participation and purchases; to achieve higher levels of success, utilities will need to remain committed to their product offering for some time. Our findings also suggest that utilities should consider higher renewable energy purchase thresholds for residential customers in order to maximize renewable energy sales. Smaller utilities are found to be more successful than larger utilities, and we find some evidence that providing private benefits to nonresidential participants can enhance success. Interestingly, we find little evidence that the cost of the green pricing product greatly impacts customer participation and renewable energy sales, at least over the narrow range of premiums embedded in our data set, and for the initial set of green power purchasers. Energy Laboratory (NREL) to the program managers of 90 known green pricing programs. Of these 90 programs, four were subsequently found to be no longer active, reducing the potential data pool to 86. After multiple contacts, including phone reminders, we received completed questionnaires for 66 green pricing programs in January 2003, for a response rate of 77%. 5 Utility green pricing programs: a statistical analysis of program effectiveness 49
Melbourne Water investigated a broad variety of biosolids reuse options, including energy, fuel, chemical, nutrient, and metal recovery and reuse; use of biosolids as a geotechnical fill or building material extender; and for carbon sequestration. This paper focuses on those technologies capable of recovering energy, fuels, or non-nutrient chemicals from biosolids. Recognizing the higher energy content of other feedstocks and the potential benefits from taking advantage of capital installations' economies of scale, Melbourne Water also considered receiving foreign biomass at a potential future energy recovery plant, and hauling their biosolids to off-site facilities. Technologies investigated ranged from the most established, with hundreds of installations, to the most embryonic, that have only been tested in university laboratories. Maturity, scale, feedstock suitability, costs of facilities and market conditions for products were identified for each technology.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.