Energy Economics of the Green Transition

After completing the course, the student should be able to:

Knowledge:

• Account for the structure of the main energy markets and the differences between them.
• Account for the key pathways in the transitition to renewable energy, including direct and indirect electrification.
• Account for the main technical challenges for an energy system that increasingly relies on intermittent renewable energy.
• Identify and discuss the economic effects of expanding generating capacity based on intermittent energy sources.
• Account for the potential technologies aimed at solving the challenges of intermittent energy supply and assess their potential for mitigating the costs of intermittency.
• Discuss the price responsiveness of short-run energy demand along with its determinants and evaluate the corresponding policy implications of making energy demand more elastic.
• Discuss the concept of network effects and asses the implications for green technology adoption.
• Discuss the energy efficiency gap and identify the corresponding optimal policy to foster investments in green technologies. Discuss and evaluate optimal and second-best policies for reducing energy related emissions, including a discussion of the main European and Danish energy- and climate policies.

Skills:

• Characterize and formulate models of the electricity system with/without intermittency, cross-border trade, energy storage, coupled energy markets (e.g. hydrogen and district heating systems), and long-run planning of generation capacity.
• Solve various electricity system models that include static and dynamic models with/without variability, cross-border trade, district heat markets, and long-run planning of generation capacity.
• Evaluate the cost-effectivenes of energy- and climate policies such as carbon taxes, cap-and-trade systems, technology subsidies, feeed-in-tariffs, and renewable energy targets.

Competencies:

• Perform advanced model analyses of the energy system.
• Perform a comprehensive critical evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of energy market designs,

• Evaluate and suggest energy- and climate policies targeting the energy sector.