JGCRI/gcam-core

Calibrating fuel preference elasticity in the building sector

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rongqizhu commented

Hi GCAM team,

I would like to discuss fuel preference elasticity in the building sector. I found the file A44.fuelprefElasticity.csv in the ./input/gcamdata/inst/extdata/energy directory in different versions of GCAM. I have two questions:

  1. What are the sources of the fuel preference elasticity data and the different coal (traditional biomass) preference elasticity values for various SSP scenarios in GCAM v7.0 or older versions?

  2. In GCAM v7.1, traditional fuel demand is modeled as independent, and the fuel preference elasticity for coal (traditional biomass) is set to 0. Given this, how is fuel switching characterized? In other words, how can I further reduce the demand for traditional fuels in a baseline scenario?

Thank you for your guidance!
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pkyle commented

The approach for exogenously shifting fuel demands from solid fuels to the others in GCAM 7.0 and prior editions involves this GCAM-specific parameter, fuelPrefElasticity, which shouldn't be interpreted too literally, but allows for a per-capita-GDP-driven reduction or increase in the market share of a given fuel (subsector). As incomes increase, and the time and other costs of obtaining, handling, and burning solid fuels increases, this parameter can drive a shift away from such fuels that is independent of the respective fuel prices. The values assumed were just selected from iterative model runs and model inter-comparison exercises over the years, analyzing the model output.
The approach in GCAM 7.1, which represents these shifts more structurally, is documented here: https://jgcri.github.io/gcam-doc/cmp/362-Multiple_consumers_in_residential_buildings.pdf