Power to the people: local governments go green
Abstract Local governments could become important vehicles for green power by acting as community aggregators and offering consumers the opportunity to express local preferences for cleaner power sources through the purchase of renewable energy.
The role of public policy in emerging green power markets: an analysis of marketer preferences
Green power marketing has been heralded by some as a means to create a private market for renewable energy that is driven by customer demand for green products. This article challenges the premise -- sometimes proffered in debates over green markets -- that profitable, sizable, credible markets for green products will evolve naturally without supportive public policies. Relying primarily on surveys and interviews of US green power marketers, the article examines the role of specific regulatory and legislative policies in 'enabling' the green market, and searches for those policies that are believed by marketers to be the most conducive or detrimental to the expansion of the green market. We find that marketers: (1) believe that profitable green power markets will only develop if a solid foundation of supportive policies exists; (2) believe that establishing overall price competition and encouraging customer switching are the top priorities; (3) are somewhat leery of government-sponsored or mandated public information programs; and (4) oppose three specific renewable energy policies that are frequently advocated by renewable energy enthusiasts, but that may have negative impacts on the green marketers' profitability. The stated preferences of green marketers shed light on ways to foster renewables by means of the green market. Because the interests of marketers do not coincide perfectly with those of society, however, this study also recognizes other normative perspectives and highlights policy tensions at the heart of current debates related to green markets. By examining these conflicts, we identify three key policy questions that should direct future research: To what extent should price competition and customer switching be encouraged at the expense of cost shifting? What requirements should be imposed to ensure credibility in green products and marketing? How should the green power market and broader renewable energy policies interact?
Characterization of ceramic composite membrane filters for hot gas cleaning
Abstract Novel composite ceramic membrane filters suitable for hot gas cleaning operations have been prepared from fly ash and titania particles on stainless steel woven mesh substrates. Both membranes had a structure like a solid packed bed with a thickness of less than 100 μm. In the domain of laminar flow, significant differences in the pressure drop between experimental results and those predicted from the Kozeny-Carman relationship were found, particularly for flow through the titania membrane. Membrane filters with extremely small pores such as the titania membrane are greatly affected by slip up to 80% in permeability at elevated temperatures. Efficiencies of filtration of typical coal fired power station exhaust fly ashes were found to be greater than 909% for both titania and ash membranes, whilst there was greater variation in the pressure drops in the ash membrane than in the titania at typical gas flows.