UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENT IN BUILDINGS: ESSAYS ON THE IMPACTS, ADOPTION, AND BENEFITS(2021) Liang, Jing; Qiu, Yueming (Lucy); Public Policy; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Energy is essential for human development; however, energy consumption is also responsible for large air and greenhouse gas emissions. As the concerns about global climate change have increased, reducing energy demand has gained more importance. This dissertation focuses on energy consumption in the building sector, especially the residential building sector. Energy efficiency and conservation, as a key strategy for reducing energy demand in the building sector, is favored by advocates and policymakers because it can be a cost-effective approach to reduce energy demand. This dissertation takes a three-essay format and adds to the discussion on energy efficiency and the energy efficiency gap. Essay 1 evaluates energy efficiency retrofits. Many past estimations of energy efficiency performance are based on the predicted savings from simulation or engineering models, and they overestimate the actual savings. This essay evaluates the electricity savings from Energize Phoenix program in Arizona, which includes 201 residential buildings and 636 commercial buildings during 2008-2013. Fixed effects panel regression is applied, and the results show energy savings are 12% for commercial buildings and 8% for residential buildings. The realized energy savings are 30-50% lower than the predicted ones by engineering models, implying that policymakers need to rely more on the empirical evaluations. Heterogeneity also exists among retrofits for different buildings. Essay 2 investigates the adoption of energy efficiency. Although many market and behavioral factors have been proposed to explain the low adoption level of low-carbon technologies, the impact of one particular factor-electricity rate has not been fully discussed in the existing literature. Essay 2 investigates the association between time-of-use (TOU) electricity rate and the adoption of solar panels and energy-efficient air conditioners in residential buildings. The empirical evidence suggests that TOU consumers are associated with a 27% higher likelihood of solar panel installation, but they are not more likely to adopt energy-efficient air conditioners (ACs). Essay 3 examines the existence of the energy efficiency gap and compares the social and private benefits from energy efficiency under different rates (TOU and non-TOU rate). This essay applies data on energy efficiency retrofits and hourly electricity demand for about 16,000 households during 2013-2017. A combination of a matching approach and fixed effects panel regression is employed. The results show that the private benefits of energy efficiency exceed the social benefits under both TOU and non-TOU rates but by different degrees. These results indicate that there should be potentially different levels of policy interventions towards energy efficiency for consumers on different rates.Item Carbon Sequestration and Agents of Woody Encroachment in Southeastern Arizona Semi-arid Grasslands(2014) O'Neal, Kelley; Justice, Christopher; Geography; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Woody encroachment and proliferation within dryland ecosystems is potentially the second largest portion of the North American carbon sink and one of the largest areas of uncertainty. This dissertation examines a semi-arid grassland located in southeastern Arizona to better understand woody encroachment, agents of change, and the resultant carbon storage from 1984-2008. The objectives were to quantify changes in woody cover, rank agent importance, estimate carbon density, and calculate voluntary market value. The first objective of mapping changes in woody cover was addressed using a Landsat time-series to measure woody cover and calculate the change, rate of change, and change relative to initial cover over the 25-year time period. Results show the change in woody cover varies spatially and ranges from approximately -2 to 11% with most areas experiencing a 5% increase and 92% relative increase over initial cover, indicating woody cover nearly doubled in the region. The second objective of ranking the importance of agents was achieved using an ensemble classifier. Agents examined included grazing, number of times burned, soil texture, soil productivity, elevation, slope, aspect, and initial woody cover. Initial woody cover, number of times burned, elevation, and grazing were ranked as the most important agents of woody encroachment, indicating the importance of historical land management and disturbance, frequent fire, topography and correlated precipitation, and land use. The third objective of producing carbon estimates and calculating economic opportunity in the voluntary carbon markets was accomplished by applying cover to biomass, root:shoot, and carbon equations to the final woody plant cover maps to calculate carbon stocks, carbon density, and voluntary market value. Results show very low carbon density in the study area relative to similar ecosystems and other ecosystems in general. Given the insignificant annual accumulation of carbon on the small ownership parcels, current low carbon trading prices, and high beef prices, management for storage is not economically viable in the study area at this time.