Energy Selection Analysis Framework In Regional Scale And The Development Of Renewable Energy Application

The main purpose of this thesis is to study the mechanism of the energy choice decisions made by residents and enterprises in the regional scale, especially how enterprises decide on their prior energy. The thesis establishes a holistic conceptual framework on energy selections in a specific region. It focuses on the renewable energy and explores how the residents and the enterprises could treat them as priorities. Since tourism and leisure industries are very suitable for renewable energy and these industries are critical to Qingdao's economy, this study is to answer how the Qingdao's local policies could be made to boost the use of renewable energy.In contrast with traditional macroeconomic analysis, microeconomic methods are widely used in this paper. The analyses on residents depend on the assumption of utility maximization; the analyses on enterprises rely on the assumptions of profit maximization and cost minimization. Following factors are considered in the analyses: energy prices, market structure, market size, industry energy intensity, expectations of risks, negative externalities of fossil energy, learning effects, and etc. The policy-making analyses are based on the microeconomic paradigm, as well as some regional perspectives. A case study of the city of Qingdao is applied and the potentials of using renewable energy in the Qingdao's tourism and leisure industry (including the tourism attractions and activities, the transportation industry, and the hospitality industry) are explored. The analyses of the tourism attractions and the activities use the classification framework created by Susanne Becken, a researcher in Lincoln University of New Zealand. These analyses incorporate the energy choice conceptual framework as well, which is developed in this thesis. Other analyses on the transportation and the hospitality industries are applied the energy choice conceptual framework as well. An empirical study is designed for Qingdao's hospitality industry to create indices for making and evaluating policies. The data are from Statistical Bureau of Qingdao. A survey is also designed to obtain exclusive data. However, the empirical study stops at the theoretical stage due to the limits of time and budget. The empirical study may be fulfilled in the future ongoing studies.Most kinds of Renewable energy have high fixed costs; however, they have low average costs when the outputs of an enterprise are high. When the market structure in a region is monopolistic, or an enterprise's outputs are high, or the industry which the enterprise is in has high energy intensity, renewable energy has great potentials to be used. Other factors also affect the potentials of using renewable energy such as the costs of connecting to power grids, the popularity of renewable energy in the industry. Propaganda policies, fiscal and tax policies, financial policies, and industry policies can be applied to promote renewable energy. In all the tourism attractions of Qingdao, the attractions with steady market status like the Zhanqiao Pier and the May 4th Square are suitable for renewable energy while the attractions like the Governor's House are not suitable. Bio-fuels can be introduced into public transportations. Some biggest enterprises in the hospitality industry are suitable for renewable energy as well. Due to the potentials of applying renewable energy, the policies can be designed as early-phase policies, middle-phase policies and late-phase policies. The early-phase policies are made for the enterprises especially suitable for renewable energy; the middle-phase policies are made for the enterprises less suitable for renewable energy; the late-phase policies are made for the enterprises least suitable for renewable energy.