Future Development of Renewable Energy in Russia: A Case of Solar Power

Currently, there is a growing number of studies related to assessing the cost-effectiveness of renewable energy projects around the world. This topic is also very relevant for the Russian energy market that is otherwise dominated by oil and gas. The Russian Ministry of Energy forecasts that local power plants running on the renewable energy sources (RES) may not become economically efficient until 2025 or later. However, a research question arises: Is it possible to effectively implement RES projects in Russia without any state support? In order to answer this question, the authors need to assess the economic feasibility of seven scenarios for the construction of a solar power plant in the Orenburg region of Russia. The methodological basis of this work is the widely used in the energy sector classic method of investment analysis based on the calculation of discounted indicators: net present value (NPV), payback period (DPP) and internal rate of return (IRR) of the project. All our calculations are based on industry-specific initial capital investment estimates, energy storage equipment costs, and related annual operating costs. This led to the development of the scenarios on the basis of an analysis of the features of electricity and capacity generation in the Orenburg region, the existing options for joining the trading system of the energy market, energy storage applications, as well as the availability of the Russian government support and funding for the solar energy projects. Our results demonstrate that the economic feasibility of the development of renewable energy in Russia can become a reality. Out of the seven scenarios, three yielded the positive economic outcome (among them there were the two project scenarios without government support). These two projects featured the sale of electricity in retail markets and the installation of an additional energy storage system, despite an almost twofold increase in capital investments. The projects in question achieved the best economic results according to the three calculated criteria. In particular, the scenario that provided for the work on the retail market directly to the energy consumer receives an NPV of more than 1.5 times higher than other projects, an IRR of 10% and pays off at least 3 years faster. Achieving a positive economic result in the wholesale market was possible only in case of state support for the project. In addition, this scenario of the project numerically reached almost identical indicators, as in the case of selling energy on the retail market in the region where the power facility operates: NPV is almost 127 million rubles, IRR is within 13.9%, and DPP is 15 years. Other scenarios that do not provide for the use of energy storage systems or do not have state support for working in the wholesale market are not self-sustaining even during the 25-year life of energy equipment. These results might have practical significance and will be used in developing an approach to creating a profile of regions in terms of the advancements of renewable energy, as well as in developing strategies for the incentives of this sector in Russia. Copyright © 2022 Rausser, Chebotareva, Smutka, Strielkowski and Shiryaeva.Government Council on Grants, Russian Federatio

Mitochondrial Phenotypes in Purified Human Immune Cell Subtypes and Cell Mixtures

Using a high-throughput mitochondrial phenotyping platform to quantify multiple mitochondrial features among molecularly defined immune cell subtypes, we quantify the natural variation in mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNAcn), citrate synthase, and respiratory chain enzymatic activities in human neutrophils, monocytes, B cells, and naïve and memory T lymphocyte subtypes. In mixed peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from the same individuals, we show to what extent mitochondrial measures are confounded by both cell type distributions and contaminating platelets. Cell subtype-specific measures among women and men spanning four decades of life indicate potential age- and sex-related differences, including an age-related elevation in mtDNAcn, which are masked or blunted in mixed PBMCs. Finally, a proof-of-concept, repeated-measures study in a single individual validates cell type differences and also reveals week-to-week changes in mitochondrial activities. Larger studies are required to validate and mechanistically extend these findings. These mitochondrial phenotyping data build upon established immunometabolic differences among leukocyte subpopulations, and provide foundational quantitative knowledge to develop interpretable blood-based assays of mitochondrial health

Management of Hazardous Waste and Contaminated Land

Regulation of hazardous waste and cleanup of contaminated sites are two major components of modern public policy for environmental protection. We review the literature on these related areas, with emphasis on empirical analyses. Researchers have identified many behavioral responses to regulation of hazardous waste, including changes in the location of economic activity. However, the drivers behind compliance with these costly regulations remain a puzzle, as most research suggests a limited role for conventional enforcement. Increasingly sophisticated research examines the benefits of cleanup of contaminated sites, yet controversy remains about whether the benefits of cleanup in the U.S. exceed its costs. Finally, research focusing on the imposition of legal liability for damages from hazardous waste finds advantages and disadvantages of the U.S. reliance on legal liability to pay for cleanup, as opposed to the government-financed approaches more common in Europe

Rational exaggeration and counter-exaggeration in information aggregation games

We study an information aggregation game in which each of a finite collection of “senders” receives a private signal and submits a report to the center, who then makes a decision based on the average of these reports. The integration of three features distinguishes our framework from the related literature: players’ reports are aggregated by a mechanistic averaging rule, their strategy sets are intervals rather than binary choices, and they are ex ante heterogeneous. In this setting, players engage in a “tug-of-war,” as they exaggerate and counter-exaggerate in order to manipulate the center’s decision. While incentives to exaggerate have been studied extensively, the phenomenon of counter-exaggeration is less well understood. Our main results are as follows. First, the cycle of counter-exaggeration can be broken only by the imposition of exogenous bounds on the space of admissible sender reports. Second, in the unique pure-strategy equilibrium, all but at most one player is constrained with positive probability by one of the report bounds. Our third and fourth results hold for a class of “anchored” games. We show that if the report space is strictly contained in the signal space, then welfare is increasing in the size of the report space, but if the containment relation is reversed, welfare is independent of the size of the space. Finally, the equilibrium performance of our heterogeneous players can be unambiguously ranked: a player’s equilibrium payoff is inversely related to the probability that her exaggeration will be thwarted by the report bounds

The Political Economy of European Wine Regulations

The EU wine market is heavily regulated. Despite the many distortions in the wine market as a consequence, refirming the regulations has proven difficult. This paper analyses the political economy mechanism that created the existing set of wine regulations. We document the historical origins of the regulations and relate these to political pressures that resulted from international integration, technological innovations and economic developments