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Stepwise Green Investment under Policy Uncertainty

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  • Michail Chronopoulos, Verena Hagspiel, and Stein-Erik Fleten

Abstract

We analyse how market price and policy uncertainty, in the form of random provision or retraction of a subsidy, interact to affect the optimal time of investment and the size of a renewable energy (RE) project that can be completed in either a single (lumpy investment) or multiple stages (stepwise investment). The subsidy takes the form of a fixed premium on top of the electricity price, and, therefore, investment is subject to electricity price uncertainty. We show that the risk of a permanent retraction (provision) of a subsidy increases (decreases) the incentive to invest, yet lowers (raises) the amount of installed capacity, and that this result is more pronounced as the size of the subsidy increases. Additionally, we show that increasing the number of policy interventions lowers the expected value of a subsidy and the size of the project. Furthermore, we illustrate that, although an increase in the size of a subsidy lowers the relative value of the stepwise investment strategy, the expected value of a lumpy investment strategy is still lower than that of stepwise investment.

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  • Michail Chronopoulos, Verena Hagspiel, and Stein-Erik Fleten, 2016. "Stepwise Green Investment under Policy Uncertainty," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    • Handle: RePEc:aen:journl:ej37-4-chronopoulos
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    10. Zhouchun Huang & Qipeng P. Zheng & Andrew L. Liu, 2022. "A Nested Cross Decomposition Algorithm for Power System Capacity Expansion with Multiscale Uncertainties," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 34(4), pages 1919-1939, July.
    11. Detemple, Jerome & Kitapbayev, Yerkin, 2020. "The value of green energy under regulation uncertainty," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
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    13. Boqiang Lin & Siquan Wang, 2023. "Mechanism analysis of the influence of oil price uncertainty on strategic investment of renewable energy enterprises," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 4176-4193, October.
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    18. Sendstad, Lars Hegnes & Chronopoulos, Michail, 2016. "Sequential Investment in Emerging Technologies under Policy Uncertainty," Discussion Papers 2016/10, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    19. Bigerna, Simona & Hagspiel, Verena & Kort, Peter M. & Wen, Xingang, 2023. "How damaging are environmental policy targets in terms of welfare?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(1), pages 354-372.
    20. Bigerna, Simona & Wen, Xingang & Hagspiel, Verena & Kort, Peter M., 2019. "Green electricity investments: Environmental target and the optimal subsidy," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 279(2), pages 635-644.
    21. Sendstad, Lars Hegnes & Chronopoulos, Michail, 2020. "Sequential investment in renewable energy technologies under policy uncertainty," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    22. Haikel Khalfallah & Bibata Sagnon, 2023. "Coordination séquentielle des investissements dans la production d'électricité et dans le réseau électrique : le rôle des incitations renouvelables," Working Papers 2023-04, Grenoble Applied Economics Laboratory (GAEL).

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