In this paper, we evaluate the costs for collecting, handling, and hauling corn stover to an ethanol conversion facility. We estimate costs for a conventional baling system at varying levels of feedstock demand or conversion facility size. Our results generally indicate that stover can be...

The viability of small energy systems, primarily photovoltaic systems, is discussed as an alternative for rural electrification via traditional grid extension. A dissemination model that incorporates financing to allow access to a much larger population of users and technology support (e.g.,...

This study was conducted in response to Section 1205 of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPACT), requiring the U.S. Department of Energy in conjunction with state regulatory commissions to determine if conventional tax measures and ratemaking procedures provide economic barriers to or incentives...

This report describes various options that are now available for retail electric customers, or that may become available during the next few years as the electric utility industry restructures. These options include different ways of meeting demand for energy services, different providers of...

With the coming changes in the electrical industry, there is a broad need to understand the impacts of restructuring on customers, existing utilities, and other stakeholders. Retail wheeling; performance-based regulation; unbundling of generation, transmission, and distribution; and the impact...

Performance-Based Ratemaking (PBR) is a form of utility regulation that strengthens the financial incentives to lower rates, lower costs, or improve nonprice performance relative traditional regulation, which the authors call cost-of-service, rate-of-return (COS/ROR) regulation. Although the...

This study identifies a strategy that (1) provides future energy services for Hainan in the least environmentally degrading way, (2) eliminates the need to build significant amounts of new fossil-fueled, electric generating capacity, saving capital to invest in other development projects, (3)...