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Reconsidering growth in the greenhouse: the Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU) as a practical strategy for the twenty-first century

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  • Foundation for Renewable Energy & Environment (FREE)
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... It was established in 2007 to help promote sustainable energy use in the state of Delaware, and is the first agency of its kind established in the US. This SEU "promotes energy economy restructuring along principles of sufficiency, dialling back energy use where possible and using onsite renewable energy where needed" (Taminiau and Byrne, 2016). It was particularly innovative in issuing $70.2 million in muni bonds where the use of proceeds financed energy efficiency retrofitting in state-owned buildings. ...
... In line with the ESCO model (see Section 3.9.2), "debt service repayment is ensured through the guaranteed savings agreement with the ESCOs pledging contractual monetary savings to the public participant" (Taminiau and Byrne, 2016). ...
Conference Paper
Green municipal bonds are a novel way to help unlock finance for investment in sustainable and urban infrastructure in the US. However, issuance lags in the US market due to negative perceptions such as high cost, low returns, and greater risk. In this study we aim to demonstrate that US green municipal bond performance is consistent with the returns of general municipal bonds, which can improve investor confidence and increase demand. The performance of this bond sector is assessed through two different means: through the creation of a green municipal bond index and benchmarking its performance against an overall municipal bond index; and by looking for a price difference between green municipal bonds and their conven- tional counterparts through yield curve assessment. Increased investment in this sector could be triggered by showing that the green municipal bond sector performs similarly to, or better than, conventional municipal bonds. We found that an in- dex comprised of green muni bonds outperforms the closest equivalent S&P index from 2014-2017, and there is a statistically significant green premium (“greenium”) present in the secondary muni bond market of at least 3 basis points in 2017. There was no conclusive evidence for the presence of greenium at issue in the primary market, however there are some signs that this could change, and furthermore we do not observe that green muni bonds come to market at a discount. These results are key to encouraging growth in the green municipal bond market, which can help American cities to target ESG and SRI investors and unlock more capital for green and climate-aligned infrastructure projects.
... This Chapter focused on a localised solution. The SEU model has positive attributes [77][78][79][80][81]. It stresses energy efficiency and renewable energy services to residents, businesses and governments. ...
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The structure of the electricity system includes universal access to electricity that is adequate, available, reliable, affordable, legal, convenient, healthy, and safe and the efficient (inefficient) use of the electricity. Quality of access also influences clean energy technologies and electrical appliance purchase, ownership, use and perceived value (uptake, hereafter). Also, improved uptake assists in closing systemic gaps between rural and urban areas and grid and off-grid communities. Rwanda is projected to attain full electrification by 2024 (inclusive of all sectors: consumptive, productive and services). In this context, the East African country has articulated support mechanisms for off-grid market players through technical assessments and siting incentives. However, studies that focus on characterising diffusion and uptake of clean energy technologies and electrical appliances in mini-grid sites (market) are crucial to understand the emerging trends in off-grid rural electrification. This chapter contributes to this emerging discourse by proposing a four-fold demand side characterisation approach which (i) conducts a systemic review of literature to identify emerging off-grid themes as they relate to the multi-tier framework (MTF) and vice-versa, (ii) uses existing data to characterise the off-grid market (based on a typical village load), (iii) demonstrates the tariff regime changes using two payment methodologies (willingness to pay (WTP) and ability to pay (ATP)) and (iv) projects the 2024–2032 consumptive energy demand (using a simplified relation between appliance, it’s rating and duration of use). Results of this characterisation demonstrate global and local level (glo-cal) literature gaps meriting a localised MTF assessment. The purpose of the localised assessment reported in this Chapter was therefore to understand appliance uptake gaps at the user level. The typical village load is basic (implying low energy demand). Ceteris paribus, higher WTP and ATP by users yield higher tariffs. However, a high ATP is a business sustainability determinant than a high WTP. Because energy consumption is also dependent on how efficiently it is used by those with access, the Chapter discusses appliance efficiency as a partial definition of sustainable energy and also as an example of sustainable energy. Then, demand stimulation pathways addressing wider systemic opportunities at the intersection of the theory of change and the theory of agency and risk reduction in markets, investments and policy (derisking markets, investments and policy) are discussed. The first pathway focuses on women and youth participation in productive use activities. The second pathway highlights strategies for appliance financing such as cost-sharing and micro-credit. The final pathway considers economic activity stimulation which has multiplier effects on energy demand and consequently energy-using appliances uptake. The implications for Sustainable Citizens and markets, investments and policy innovations are contextualised in the Sustainable Energy Utility business model.
... In another example of alternative, the community-based energy utility pioneered in the state of Delaware, USA, represents an effort to move the energy sector away from the conventional approach of atomized households served by a distant centralized utility with energy mined from an externalized, commodified nature (Taminiau & Byrne, 2016). Teasing out the operative mechanism that grants the conventional energy-society relationship its daunting momentum, civil society has become reduced to a "consumer democracy" in which the ability of end-users of energy "to influence entrepreneurial and capitalistic activity is limited to their daily vote on the means of production through the global marketplace." ...
... The final analyses address potential alternatives to green growth. They span the articulation of stories of "radical ecological democracy" (RED) in India (Kothari, 2016) to a study of "sustainable energy utility" (SEU) in Delaware, United States (Taminiau & Byrne, 2016) and three cases of self-managed food production in India, Brazil and the United Kingdom (Bohm, Misoczky, Watson & Lanka, 2016). They illustrate the extraordinary energy and transformative vision that permeate local movements with the potential perhaps of challenging macroeconomic and political structures. ...
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'This thoughtful and original study throws important critical light on the dominant orthodoxies about sustainable development, and suggests a radically new direction. Foster argues compellingly that present approaches embody floating standards and bad faith, trapping societies into inaction. I suspect this is a seminal piece of work.' Professor Robin Grove-White, former Chair of Greenpeace UK "We all have a nagging concern that what international corporations and governments term 'sustainable' is not sustainable at all. John Foster’s clear and beautifully written text shows the deep flaws in current approaches and proposes a reassessment of what true sustainability really implies." Chris Goodall, Chair of Dynmark International and author of How to Live a Low-Carbon Life "This comprehensive and yet very readable book will go a long way towards puncturing some of the glib environmentalisms of our moment, and perhaps towards helping us imagine deeper and more thoroughgoing alternatives that might actually work!" Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy and The End of Nature 'Brilliantly and ironically written, this book shades a bright light on most foggy areas around the concept of sustainability. Those fastidious obscure points do not fit properly in the reassuring technical solutions to Climate Change. Foster puts a name on those shapeless shadows that inevitably induce the sensation of something being wrong.' Italian Insider Sustainable development thinking got environmental issues onto the agenda but it may now be stopping us from taking serious action on climate change and other crucial planetary issues. Sustainable development’s attempted deal between present and future will always collapse under the pressure of 'now' because the needs of the present always win out. Inevitably, this means movable targets and action that will always fall short of what we need. Ultimately, sustainable development is the pursuit of a mirage, the politics of never getting there. To escape the illusion, we must break through to a new way of understanding sustainability by focusing on the deep needs of the present, not slippery obligations to the future. Rising to the carbon challenge now, not trying to micro-manage the longer term. Looking to the science for orders of magnitude and direction, not a gameplan. Harnessing the short-term dynamics of capitalism to the cause of learning our way forward. This book outlines an alternative to the mainstream and offers the kind of bold new thinking on energy usage, governance, education and the role of enterprise that we need to win the coming war on climate change.
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