Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Carbon Policy: How robust measurement and verification can improve policy effectiveness
    Carbon Policy: How robust measurement and verification can improve policy effectiveness
    Carbon Policy: How robust measurement and verification can improve policy effectiveness
    Ebook168 pages1 hour

    Carbon Policy: How robust measurement and verification can improve policy effectiveness

    By Bruce Rowse

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Around the world, over 1000 carbon policy measures to reduce carbon emissions have been implemented, with varying degrees of effectiveness. In many cases the level of carbon abatement achieved as a result of a policy is unknown and unquantifiable because it simply has not been measured. The consequence of failing to measure savings is wasted energy efficiency investments of up to billions of dollars globally. Moreover, the actual carbon abatement may be much lower than if a methodological approach had been employed based on a rigorous Measurement and Verification (M&V) plan.

    With the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide now around 400 parts per million (ppm) and rising at close to 3 ppm per annum understanding the efficiency and effectiveness of carbon abatement policy is ever more critical, particularly in a world with considerable economic uncertainty.

    Carbon Policy - How robust measurement and verification can improve policy effectiveness, puts forward the case for incorporating more robust M&V (also known as Measurement Reporting and Verification,MRV) – in the synthesis and assessment of carbon abatement policy. The focus of this book is on policies that aim to reduce the energy use and resultant carbon emissions of buildings, but the principle of rigorous M&V can and should be applied to all carbon abatement policies. It examines a range of policy types, provides case studies, and shows how to incorporate robust measurement and verification into policy design and management.

    Get the book for free up to 21 August 2013 with coupon code CQ24Z. Can I ask you a favour in return? Could you please post a comment at this site about the book.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBruce Rowse
    Release dateJul 2, 2013
    ISBN9780987604712
    Carbon Policy: How robust measurement and verification can improve policy effectiveness
    Author

    Bruce Rowse

    Bruce Rowse is the founder and director of CarbonetiX, a company that specialises in reducing energy use and thus carbon emissions in existing buildings. A mechanical engineer, he is accredited by the Australian Institute of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heating (AIRAH) as a commercial energy auditor. He is a Certified Energy Manager and a Certified Measurement and Verification Professional. Bruce can be contacted via bruce at the carbonetix website domain carbonetix.com.au.

    Related to Carbon Policy

    Related ebooks

    Economics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for Carbon Policy

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Carbon Policy - Bruce Rowse

      Carbon Policy

      How robust measurement and verification can improve policy effectiveness

      Bruce Rowse

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2013 Bruce Rowse

      License Notes: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      CarbonetiX Pty Ltd, Level 1, 9 Station Street, P.O. Box 590, Frankston, VIC, 3199, Australia

      Web: http://www.carbonetix.com.au/resources/the-undervalued-benefit-of-mv-to-carbon-policy/

      Email: bruce@carbonetix.com.au

      ISBN 978-0-9876047-0-5 (e-book, Kindle)

      ISBN 978-0-9876047-1-2 (e-book, epub)

      Copy editor: Sundari Ganapathy

      Cover design: Rita Toews

      Cover photo credit of tape measure: wwarby via photopin cc

      Cover photo credit for refinery: machinecodeblue via photopin cc

      Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com

      Table of Contents

      Acknowledgements

      A constructive contribution

      Introduction

      Overview

      Most certainly you can't manage what you don't measure

      Modelled savings versus actual savings - and why modelling should be treated as a hypothesis

      Why carbon policy effectiveness is important

      Overview of contents

      Part 1. The unknown results of policies that don't measure and verify carbon savings

      Common carbon abatement policies

      Policy: Mandatory labelling or rating of predicted energy performance

      Policy: Mandatory reporting or identification of actual energy use and carbon emissions

      Policy: Mandatory minimum predicted energy performance.

      Policy: Mandatory identification of energy savings opportunities

      Policy: Renewable energy targets

      Policy: Certificate schemes (also known as quota-based systems or utility schemes)

      Policy: Grants or subsidies

      Policy: Low-cost finance

      Policy: Feed in Tariffs

      Policy: Emissions trading scheme

      Policy: Policies to reduce government's own consumption

      Policy: Technology/industry development

      Policy: Information provision

      Policy examples

      Home energy ratings - the Victorian example

      White certificate schemes with deemed savings

      Standby power controllers in the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target (VEET) Scheme

      Grants or subsidies

      The Australian National Solar in Schools Program (NSSP)

      Summary and conclusion

      Part 2. How certain are the savings from various technologies for reducing emissions from the use of fossil fuels?

      Considerations when evaluating the effectiveness of carbon abatement technologies

      Technologies that generate energy locally at lower carbon intensity than grid-sourced energy

      Solar PV

      Solar Thermal (i.e. solar hot water)

      Wind power

      Cogeneration

      Summary of generation technologies (in or on building)

      Technologies that make more efficient use of the energy supplied to buildings

      Energy-efficient lighting

      Improved HVAC

      Improvements to the building envelope

      Voltage optimisation

      More efficient hot water

      More efficient refrigeration

      High-efficiency motors and pumps

      Compressed air and steam improvements.

      Energy saving sensors and controls

      Summary of technologies that make more efficient use of the energy supplied to buildings

      Questions that aid in determining certainty

      Exponential technological change, policy, and certainty

      Section summary and conclusion

      Part 3. M&V to improve carbon abatement policy

      What is M&V and how can it be applied to carbon policy?

      Measurement tools for use in M&V

      Physical measurement tools

      Analytical tools and methods

      Verification tools

      The cost of M&V - the SPC example

      Measuring SPC savings

      Verifying SPC performance

      Lessons from the SPC example

      Guidance on the incorporation of M&V into carbon abatement policies

      White certificate scheme M&V flow chart

      Grant M&V flow chart

      Energy performance standards M&V flowchart

      Delayed deeming

      M&V resources for policy makers

      How much money should be allocated to M&V?

      Measuring total costs to determine policy cost-effectiveness

      Performance data made public

      Section summary and conclusion

      Part 4. Counter arguments

      M&V is too expensive

      Achieving high certainty slows down the rate of emissions abatement

      Conclusion

      About the author

      Notes

      Acknowledgements

      My heartfelt thanks and gratitude to Lou Bonadio, CEO of CarbonetiX, for his support and suggestions for improvement, particularly in the third section of the book, based on his deep understanding and considerable practical experience in measurement and verification (M&V). Thanks are also due to Lou and the CarbonetiX team for giving me the opportunity to work on this book.

      Linton Hartfield is gratefully acknowledged for his review and contribution to the discussion on policy effectiveness and other insights and for contributing his perspective from the United Kingdom.

      I had the fortune of studying M&V under Steve Kromer, the father of the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol, who has great passion for valuing energy efficiency and the contribution it can make. This book would not have happened without Steve.

      Muito obrigado Dr. Julie Cliff for your inspiration and gentle encouragement over many years to put pen to paper.

      The support and trust of wife Janti and affection of my children Maya and Julian have made this exercise much easier than it may otherwise have been. Thank you.

      Rita Toews, thank you for the amazingly quick turn around on the cover design. Sundari Ganapathy and the team of editors at SpiralUp Solutions, India, thank you for improving my writing.

      A constructive contribution

      This book aims to make a constructive contribution to improved carbon abatement policy. In its examination of a number of policies this book has the value of hindsight, which provides the opportunity to learn and improve.

      While I have endeavoured to ensure all assertions are reasonable, I have relied solely on publicly available data. Should any reader have additional information, divergent or convergent opinions, or other examples, I would urge that these be made on the website for this book.

      Readers are invited to visit the book's website to check for additional updates that may have been made since its first publication and to see what others might be saying about carbon policy, M&V, certainty of outcomes and policy effectiveness.

      Introduction

      Around the world, over 1000[1] carbon policy measures to reduce carbon emissions have been implemented, with varying degrees of effectiveness. In many cases, the actual carbon abatement achieved by the policy is unknown because it hasn't been measured. The consequence of failing to measure results is that many billions of dollars are possibly being wasted. Moreover, the actual carbon abatement may be much lower than it would be had it been rigorously measured and verified.

      With the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide now around 400 parts per million (ppm) and rising at close to 3 ppm per annum understanding the efficiency and effectiveness of carbon abatement policy is ever more critical, particularly in a world with considerable economic uncertainty.

      This short book puts forward the case for incorporating more robust measurement and verification (M&V) - also known as Measurement Reporting and Verification (MRV) - in carbon abatement policy as a way of achieving greater certainty in policy effectiveness and the amount of carbon abatement achieved. The focus of this book is on policies that aim to reduce the energy use and resultant carbon emissions of buildings, but the principle of rigorous M&V can and should be applied to all carbon abatement policies.

      Emissions trading schemes are widely perceived as providing the least cost abatement. However, there are a range of other policy measures that may also provide abatement at low cost. The reasons for choosing technology-specific policies, rather than technology-agnostic policies (such as emissions trading) include the following:

      - National interest concerns that

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1