BIODIESEL AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR PETROLEUM DIESEL IN A STOCHASTIC ENVIRONMENT

Policy makers should consider price volatility effects when determining appropriate spending levels for alternative fuel programs.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

BIODIESEL AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR PETROLEUM DIESEL IN A STOCHASTIC ENVIRONMENT

The objective of the research presented in this paper is the development of a stochastic adoption threshold. The option pricing approach for modeling investment under uncertainty is extended for the case of comparing two stochastic input prices associated with inputs that are perfect substitutes in a production process. Based on this methodology, a threshold decision rule influenced by the drift and volatility of these two input prices is developed. Theoretical results established an empirical link for measuring the tradeoff of a relatively more expensive input (biodiesel) with lower price drift and volatility compared with a lower but more volatile priced input (petroleum diesel).option pricing, production, renewable fuels, technology adoption under uncertainty, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

BIODIESEL AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR PETROLEUM DIESEL IN A STOCHASTIC ENVIRONMENT

Policy makers should consider price volatility effects when determining appropriate spending levels for alternative fuel programs

Estimating Irrigated Acres with Missing Data

Proceedings of the 2001 Georgia Water Resources Conference, April 26 and 27, 2001, Athens, Georgia.Irrigation for agriculture is a major component for water use planning in the state of Georgia. Despite its imporance in planning, little credible information is available on current water consumption patterns and future demand. The ongoing water rights battle between Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, where the other two states contend that Georgia is wrongfully taping into the waters that belong to them, has necessitated a better understanding of water needs over the next several years. Policy makers are often limited by information available to them which may be lacking due to missing or highly aggregated data. The main problem caused by missing data is that estimators of population characterisitics are assumed to be biased unless evidence to the contrary is provided. Also, the mean square of errors of such estimators are likely to be larger than those obtained from complete data. The challenge, therefore, lies in being able to estimate the missing values in an unbiased and consistent manner. These estimates may then be used to make forecasts. The first objective of the study was to derive a method to disaggregate the available information for the state of Georgia to a county and commodity level. The second objective is to use the disaggregated data to forecast irrigation water demand for the counties by commodity. This analysis focuses on seven commodity groups: corn, cotton, peanuts, rye, sorghum, soybeans, and tobacco for 1970 through 1998.Sponsored and Organized by: U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Natural Resources Conservation Service, The University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of TechnologyThis book was published by the Institute of Ecology, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2202. The views and statements advanced in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent official views or policies of The University of Georgia, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Georgia Water Research Institute as authorized by the Water Resources Research Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-397) or the other conference sponsors

SLIPPAGE IN FORECASTING IRRIGATION WATER DEMAND: AN APPLICATION TO THE GEORGIA FLINT RIVER BASIN

This study identifies the presence of slippage and the pitfalls associated with not considering economic substitution and expansion effects in measuring changes in water demand. Based on estimates from the Georgia Flint River Basin, the analysis indicates a 13% slippage caused by disregarding the role of economic determinants

Forecasting Irrigation Water Demand: A Case Study on the Flint River Basin in Georgia

Southeast drought conditions have accentuated the demand for irrigation in the face of restricted water supply. For allocating this supply, Georgia held an auction for withdrawing irrigated acreage. This auction withdrew 33,000 acres from irrigation, resulting in a physical estimate of a 399 acre-feet daily increase in water flow. The actual reduction is driven by crop distributional changes on the basis of economic substitution and expansion effects. In contrast to the physical estimates, an econometric model that considers these effects is developed. The differences between the physical and econometric models result in an increase in the estimate of water savings of around 19% to 24%

Effect of Temperature on Structure and Electronic Properties of Nanometric Spinel-Type Cobalt Oxides

International audienceTemperature is shown to have a huge influence on the electronic properties of nanometric spinel-type cobalt oxides precipitated at low temperature in alkaline media. The initial phase, with formula HxLiyCo3−δO4, contains hydrogen, lithium, cobalt vacancies, and a mixed valence Co4+/Co3+ within the structure, leading to an electronic conductivity higher than that of stoichiometric Co3O4. Its structural evolution under thermal treatment was studied by X-ray diffraction and chemical analysis, which reveal modifications in structure and compositions, involving water release, increase of the Co/O atomic ratio, and modification of the Co4+/Co3+ ratio. The RT to 300 °C range is particularly interesting as a single-phase domain and the materials obtained in this temperature range were investigated by chemical analysis, electronic conductivity and specific surface area measurements. Upon increasing temperature, the enhancement of the Co4+/Co3+ ratio, together with cationic redistribution in the spinel framework, results in an improvement of the electronic conductivity (more than 2 orders of magnitude for materials heated above 150 °C). Finally, the systematic thermal study of electronic conductivity and specific surface area of the materials allows to determine an optimal heat-treatment temperature leading to an optimized active electrode material for electrochemical energy storage applications, especially in supercapacitors. Such a solid state chemistry approach combining many material characterization techniques to reach a complete knowledge of the material is quite rare in the literature concerning oxides for supercapacitors