IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v65y2017icp343-354.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of wind power support schemes on technology choices

Author

Listed:
  • May, Nils

Abstract

In energy systems with large shares of variable renewable energies, electricity generation is lower during unfavorable weather conditions. System-friendly wind turbines (SFTs) rectify this by producing a larger share of their electricity at low wind speeds. This paper analyzes to what extent SFTs' benefits out-weigh their additional costs and how to incentivize investments into them. Using a wind power investment model for Germany, I show that SFTs indeed deliver benefits for the energy system that over-compensate for their cost premium. Floating market premium schemes incentivize their deployment only where investors bear significant price risks and possess sufficient foresight. Alternatively, a new production value-based benchmark triggers investors to install SFTs that meet the requirements of power systems with increasing shares of variable renewable energies.

Suggested Citation

  • May, Nils, 2017. "The impact of wind power support schemes on technology choices," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 343-354.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:65:y:2017:i:c:p:343-354
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2017.05.017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988317301810
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2017.05.017?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cludius, Johanna & Hermann, Hauke & Matthes, Felix Chr. & Graichen, Verena, 2014. "The merit order effect of wind and photovoltaic electricity generation in Germany 2008–2016: Estimation and distributional implications," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 302-313.
    2. Würzburg, Klaas & Labandeira, Xavier & Linares, Pedro, 2013. "Renewable generation and electricity prices: Taking stock and new evidence for Germany and Austria," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(S1), pages 159-171.
    3. Ueckerdt, Falko & Hirth, Lion & Luderer, Gunnar & Edenhofer, Ottmar, 2013. "System LCOE: What are the costs of variable renewables?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 61-75.
    4. Hirth, Lion & Müller, Simon, 2016. "System-friendly wind power," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 51-63.
    5. Hirth, Lion, 2013. "The market value of variable renewables," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 218-236.
    6. Sensfuß, Frank & Ragwitz, Mario & Genoese, Massimo, 2008. "The merit-order effect: A detailed analysis of the price effect of renewable electricity generation on spot market prices in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 3076-3084, August.
    7. Paul L. Joskow, 2011. "Comparing the Costs of Intermittent and Dispatchable Electricity Generating Technologies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 238-241, May.
    8. Butler, Lucy & Neuhoff, Karsten, 2008. "Comparison of feed-in tariff, quota and auction mechanisms to support wind power development," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1854-1867.
    9. Gawel, Erik & Purkus, Alexandra, 2013. "Promoting the market and system integration of renewable energies through premium schemes: A case study of the German market premium," UFZ Discussion Papers 4/2013, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    10. Grothe, Oliver & Müsgens, Felix, 2013. "The influence of spatial effects on wind power revenues under direct marketing rules," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 237-247.
    11. Schmidt, J. & Lehecka, G. & Gass, V. & Schmid, E., 2013. "Where the wind blows: Assessing the effect of fixed and premium based feed-in tariffs on the spatial diversification of wind turbines," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 269-276.
    12. Gawel, Erik & Purkus, Alexandra, 2013. "Promoting the market and system integration of renewable energies through premium schemes—A case study of the German market premium," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 599-609.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Odeh, Rodrigo Pérez & Watts, David, 2019. "Impacts of wind and solar spatial diversification on its market value: A case study of the Chilean electricity market," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 442-461.
    2. Pechan, A., 2017. "Where do all the windmills go? Influence of the institutional setting on the spatial distribution of renewable energy installation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 75-86.
    3. Auer, Benjamin R., 2016. "How does Germany's green energy policy affect electricity market volatility? An application of conditional autoregressive range models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 621-628.
    4. Meus, Jelle & De Vits, Sarah & S'heeren, Nele & Delarue, Erik & Proost, Stef, 2021. "Renewable electricity support in perfect markets: Economic incentives under diverse subsidy instruments," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    5. Eising, Manuel & Hobbie, Hannes & Möst, Dominik, 2020. "Future wind and solar power market values in Germany — Evidence of spatial and technological dependencies?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    6. Zipp, Alexander, 2017. "The marketability of variable renewable energy in liberalized electricity markets – An empirical analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1111-1121.
    7. Zipp, Alexander, 2015. "Revenue prospects of photovoltaic in Germany—Influence opportunities by variation of the plant orientation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 86-97.
    8. Bernath, Christiane & Deac, Gerda & Sensfuß, Frank, 2021. "Impact of sector coupling on the market value of renewable energies – A model-based scenario analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    9. Karsten Neuhoff & Nils May & Jörn C. Richstein, 2018. "Renewable Energy Policy in the Age of Falling Technology Costs," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1746, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    10. Brown, T. & Reichenberg, L., 2021. "Decreasing market value of variable renewables can be avoided by policy action," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    11. Ruhnau, Oliver, 2020. "Market-based renewables: How flexible hydrogen electrolyzers stabilize wind and solar market values," EconStor Preprints 227075, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    12. Jägemann, Cosima, 2014. "An illustrative note on the system price effect of wind and solar power - The German case," EWI Working Papers 2014-10, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    13. Klie, Leo & Madlener, Reinhard, 2020. "Concentration Versus Diversification: A Spatial Deployment Approach to Improve the Economics of Wind Power," FCN Working Papers 2/2020, E.ON Energy Research Center, Future Energy Consumer Needs and Behavior (FCN), revised May 2021.
    14. Engelhorn, Thorsten & Müsgens, Felix, 2018. "How to estimate wind-turbine infeed with incomplete stock data: A general framework with an application to turbine-specific market values in Germany," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 542-557.
    15. Javier L'opez Prol & Wolf-Peter Schill, 2020. "The Economics of Variable Renewables and Electricity Storage," Papers 2012.15371, arXiv.org.
    16. Ruhnau, Oliver, 2022. "How flexible electricity demand stabilizes wind and solar market values: The case of hydrogen electrolyzers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    17. Ederer, Nikolaus, 2015. "The market value and impact of offshore wind on the electricity spot market: Evidence from Germany," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 805-814.
    18. Csereklyei, Zsuzsanna & Qu, Songze & Ancev, Tihomir, 2019. "The effect of wind and solar power generation on wholesale electricity prices in Australia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 358-369.
    19. Thao Pham & Killian Lemoine, 2020. "Impacts of subsidized renewable electricity generation on spot market prices in Germany : Evidence from a GARCH model with panel data," Working Papers hal-02568268, HAL.
    20. Klie, Leo & Madlener, Reinhard, 2022. "Optimal configuration and diversification of wind turbines: A hybrid approach to improve the penetration of wind power," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Renewable energy; Wind power technology; Feed-in tariff; Project finance; Market premium; Policy evaluation; Market value;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • Q55 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Technological Innovation
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:65:y:2017:i:c:p:343-354. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.