Renewable energy alternatives for developed countries

This paper critically examines renewable energy alternatives in developed c ountries: environmental mechanisms; future energy alternatives,, green elec tricity marketing and its potential; pricing; and limitations on the eve of open access. It discusses objectives in electricity restructuring; the rol e of resources planning in forming long range energy environmental policies ; feasibility of electricity trading mechanisms; green marketing in the Uni ted States and Australia; green energy offers in Canada; and the results of green pricing programs in Europe and the United States. It Is based on pre sentations that were made on Renewable Energy in Developed Countries at the IEEE PES 1997 Summer Meeting in Berlin by M, Eraser (Canada), S, Conners ( USA), M. Davies (UK), E. Holt (USA), M, Ellis (Austraila), J, Boyer (Canada ), and J, Markard (Germany). At the outset, the role of existing and planned mechanisms to achieve envir onmental benefits in restructured electricity markets are reviewed. Technol ogical and institutional challenges of achieving real, long-term reductions in carbon dioxide and other emissions from the electric sector are discuss ed. Factors associated with infrastructure turnover together with technolog y development and deployment are addressed, where attention is given to pol icies which promote highly integrated and coordinated reductions in emissio ns. The paper then focuses on the green pool and trends in power marketing where status of competitive markets, green pricing programs for franchise c ustomers, green power products for contestable customers, credibility of gr een power marketing, and public policy for renewable energy technologies in competitive markets are discussed. It then reviews green energy in Ontario on the eve of open access, and show s there is a market for green energy if customers have a choice. Discussed are market analyzes and feasibility studies based on customer research, ana lysis of secondary sources and learning from experiences in US pilot market s. Results of green pricing programs in Europe and USA obtained by applying comparable success metering criteria where opinion polls and needs for ren ewables are discussed. Green pricing additional benefits compared with othe r programs together with potential and limitations of relying on customer c hoice to support renewables are also discussed.