IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v40y2012icp1-10.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategic choices for renewable energy investment: Conceptual framework and opportunities for further research

Author

Listed:
  • Wüstenhagen, Rolf
  • Menichetti, Emanuela

Abstract

This paper introduces the special issue on Strategic Choices for Renewable Energy Investment, which is a collection of best papers presented at an international research conference held in St. Gallen (Switzerland) in February 2010. Substantial private investment is needed if public policy objectives to increase the share of renewable energy and prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change are to be achieved. The aim of this paper, and the entire special issue, is to draw scholarly attention to the processes underlying strategic choices for renewable energy investment, and how they are influenced by energy policy. We disentangle the role of risk-return perceptions, portfolio effects and path dependence in explaining energy investment decisions, and suggest that the heterogeneous universe of investors requires a segmentation of policies. The paper outlines some of the rich opportunities for further research in this emerging area.

Suggested Citation

  • Wüstenhagen, Rolf & Menichetti, Emanuela, 2012. "Strategic choices for renewable energy investment: Conceptual framework and opportunities for further research," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-10.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:40:y:2012:i:c:p:1-10
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2011.06.050
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421511005064
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2011.06.050?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lakonishok, Josef & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1994. "Contrarian Investment, Extrapolation, and Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(5), pages 1541-1578, December.
    2. Hockerts, Kai & Wüstenhagen, Rolf, 2010. "Greening Goliaths versus emerging Davids -- Theorizing about the role of incumbents and new entrants in sustainable entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 481-492, September.
    3. Grubb, M. J., 1990. "The cinderella options : A study of modernized renewable energy technologies Part 2-Political and policy analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(8), pages 711-725, October.
    4. Verbruggen, Aviel, 2004. "Tradable green certificates in Flanders (Belgium)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 165-176, January.
    5. Unruh, Gregory C., 2002. "Escaping carbon lock-in," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 317-325, March.
    6. Morris, Michael & Schindehutte, Minet & Allen, Jeffrey, 2005. "The entrepreneur's business model: toward a unified perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 726-735, June.
    7. Grubb, M. J., 1990. "The cinderella options a study of modernized renewable energy technologies part 1-A technical assessment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(6), pages 525-542.
    8. Shimon Awerbuch, 2006. "Portfolio-Based Electricity Generation Planning: Policy Implications For Renewables And Energy Security," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 693-710, May.
    9. Wustenhagen, Rolf & Wolsink, Maarten & Burer, Mary Jean, 2007. "Social acceptance of renewable energy innovation: An introduction to the concept," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 2683-2691, May.
    10. Menanteau, Philippe & Finon, Dominique & Lamy, Marie-Laure, 2003. "Prices versus quantities: choosing policies for promoting the development of renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 799-812, June.
    11. Dinica, Valentina, 2006. "Support systems for the diffusion of renewable energy technologies--an investor perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 461-480, March.
    12. Sushil Bikhchandani & Sunil Sharma, 2001. "Herd Behavior in Financial Markets," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 47(3), pages 1-1.
    13. Jacobsson, Staffan & Lauber, Volkmar, 2006. "The politics and policy of energy system transformation--explaining the German diffusion of renewable energy technology," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 256-276, February.
    14. Palmer, Karen & Burtraw, Dallas, 2005. "Cost-effectiveness of renewable electricity policies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 873-894, November.
    15. Ringel, Marc, 2006. "Fostering the use of renewable energies in the European Union: the race between feed-in tariffs and green certificates," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 1-17.
    16. Christoph Zott & Raphael Amit, 2008. "The fit between product market strategy and business model: implications for firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 1-26, January.
    17. Daniel McFadden, 2001. "Economic Choices," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(3), pages 351-378, June.
    18. Lipp, Judith, 2007. "Lessons for effective renewable electricity policy from Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5481-5495, November.
    19. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Hirshleifer, David & Welch, Ivo, 1992. "A Theory of Fads, Fashion, Custom, and Cultural Change in Informational Cascades," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(5), pages 992-1026, October.
    20. repec:zbw:rwirep:0040 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Bergek, Anna & Jacobsson, Staffan, 2010. "Are tradable green certificates a cost-efficient policy driving technical change or a rent-generating machine? Lessons from Sweden 2003-2008," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1255-1271, March.
    22. Ans Kolk & Jonatan Pinkse, 2008. "A perspective on multinational enterprises and climate change: Learning from “an inconvenient truth”?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 39(8), pages 1359-1378, December.
    23. Toke, David & Breukers, Sylvia & Wolsink, Maarten, 2008. "Wind power deployment outcomes: How can we account for the differences?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 1129-1147, May.
    24. Jensen, S. G. & Skytte, K., 2002. "Interactions between the power and green certificate markets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 425-435, April.
    25. Unruh, Gregory C., 2000. "Understanding carbon lock-in," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 817-830, October.
    26. Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky, 2013. "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Leonard C MacLean & William T Ziemba (ed.), HANDBOOK OF THE FUNDAMENTALS OF FINANCIAL DECISION MAKING Part I, chapter 6, pages 99-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    27. Henry Chesbrough & Richard S. Rosenbloom, 2002. "The role of the business model in capturing value from innovation: evidence from Xerox Corporation's technology spin-off companies," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 11(3), pages 529-555, June.
    28. Gross, Robert & Blyth, William & Heptonstall, Philip, 2010. "Risks, revenues and investment in electricity generation: Why policy needs to look beyond costs," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 796-804, July.
    29. Herbert A. Simon, 1955. "A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 69(1), pages 99-118.
    30. Awerbuch, Shimon, 2000. "Investing in photovoltaics: risk, accounting and the value of new technology," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(14), pages 1023-1035, November.
    31. Froot, Kenneth A & Scharftstein, David S & Stein, Jeremy C, 1992. "Herd on the Street: Informational Inefficiencies in a Market with Short-Term Speculation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1461-1484, September.
    32. Philippe Menanteau & Dominique Finon & Marie-Laure Lamy, 2003. "Prices versus quantities :environmental policies for promoting the development of renewable energy," Post-Print halshs-00480457, HAL.
    33. Harry Markowitz, 1952. "Portfolio Selection," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 7(1), pages 77-91, March.
    34. Harri Laurikka, 2008. "A case study on risk and return implications of emissions trading in power generation investments," Springer Books, in: Ralf Antes & Bernd Hansjürgens & Peter Letmathe (ed.), Emissions Trading, pages 133-147, Springer.
    35. Frondel, Manuel & Ritter, Nolan & Schmidt, Christoph M., 2008. "Germany's solar cell promotion: Dark clouds on the horizon," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 4198-4204, November.
    36. Samuelson, William & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1988. "Status Quo Bias in Decision Making," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 7-59, March.
    37. Mitchell, C. & Bauknecht, D. & Connor, P.M., 2006. "Effectiveness through risk reduction: a comparison of the renewable obligation in England and Wales and the feed-in system in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 297-305, February.
    38. Breukers, Sylvia & Wolsink, Maarten, 2007. "Wind power implementation in changing institutional landscapes: An international comparison," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 2737-2750, May.
    39. Goldstein, Daniel G. & Gigerenzer, Gerd, 2009. "Fast and frugal forecasting," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 760-772, October.
    40. Rowlands, Ian H., 2005. "Envisaging feed-in tariffs for solar photovoltaic electricity: European lessons for Canada," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 51-68, February.
    41. Daniel Kahneman, 2003. "Maps of Bounded Rationality: Psychology for Behavioral Economics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(5), pages 1449-1475, December.
    42. Jacobsson, Staffan & Bergek, Anna & Finon, Dominique & Lauber, Volkmar & Mitchell, Catherine & Toke, David & Verbruggen, Aviel, 2009. "EU renewable energy support policy: Faith or facts?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2143-2146, June.
    43. Jerome A. Katz, 1992. "A Psychosocial Cognitive Model of Employment Status Choice," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 17(1), pages 29-37, October.
    44. Christoph Zott & Raphael Amit, 2007. "Business Model Design and the Performance of Entrepreneurial Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(2), pages 181-199, April.
    45. James H. Barnes, 1984. "Cognitive biases and their impact on strategic planning," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 129-137, April.
    46. Wustenhagen, Rolf & Bilharz, Michael, 2006. "Green energy market development in Germany: effective public policy and emerging customer demand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(13), pages 1681-1696, September.
    47. Wiser, Ryan H. & Pickle, Steven J., 1998. "Financing investments in renewable energy : the impacts of policy design," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 361-386, December.
    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. Lüthi, Sonja & Wüstenhagen, Rolf, 2012. "The price of policy risk — Empirical insights from choice experiments with European photovoltaic project developers," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 1001-1011.
    2. Nicolini, Marcella & Tavoni, Massimo, 2017. "Are renewable energy subsidies effective? Evidence from Europe," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 412-423.
    3. Paul Lehmann & Felix Creutzig & Melf-Hinrich Ehlers & Nele Friedrichsen & Clemens Heuson & Lion Hirth & Robert Pietzcker, 2012. "Carbon Lock-Out: Advancing Renewable Energy Policy in Europe," Energies, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-32, February.
    4. Grashof, Katherina, 2019. "Are auctions likely to deter community wind projects? And would this be problematic?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 20-32.
    5. Schallenberg-Rodriguez, Julieta, 2017. "Renewable electricity support systems: Are feed-in systems taking the lead?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1422-1439.
    6. Polzin, Friedemann & Egli, Florian & Steffen, Bjarne & Schmidt, Tobias S., 2019. "How do policies mobilize private finance for renewable energy?—A systematic review with an investor perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 1249-1268.
    7. Wiser, Ryan & Barbose, Galen & Holt, Edward, 2011. "Supporting solar power in renewables portfolio standards: Experience from the United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 3894-3905, July.
    8. Feurtey, Évariste & Ilinca, Adrian & Sakout, Anas & Saucier, Carol, 2016. "Institutional factors influencing strategic decision-making in energy policy; a case study of wind energy in France and Quebec (Canada)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1455-1470.
    9. Shen, Neng & Deng, Rumeng & Liao, Haolan & Shevchuk, Oleksandr, 2020. "Mapping renewable energy subsidy policy research published from 1997 to 2018: A scientometric review," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    10. Verbruggen, Aviel & Lauber, Volkmar, 2009. "Basic concepts for designing renewable electricity support aiming at a full-scale transition by 2050," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5732-5743, December.
    11. Karneyeva, Yuliya & Wüstenhagen, Rolf, 2017. "Solar feed-in tariffs in a post-grid parity world: The role of risk, investor diversity and business models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 445-456.
    12. Polzin, Friedemann, 2017. "Mobilizing private finance for low-carbon innovation – A systematic review of barriers and solutions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 525-535.
    13. Darmani, Anna & Rickne, Annika & Hidalgo, Antonio & Arvidsson, Niklas, 2016. "When outcomes are the reflection of the analysis criteria: A review of the tradable green certificate assessments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 372-381.
    14. Li, Jinke & Liu, Guy & Shao, Jing, 2020. "Understanding the ROC transfer payment in the renewable obligation with the recycling mechanism in the United Kingdom," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    15. Modhurima Dey Amin & Syed Badruddoza & Jill J. McCluskey, 2021. "Does conventional energy pricing induce innovation in renewable energy? New evidence from a nonlinear approach," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(2), pages 659-679, June.
    16. del Río, Pablo & Bleda, Mercedes, 2012. "Comparing the innovation effects of support schemes for renewable electricity technologies: A function of innovation approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 272-282.
    17. Stokes, Leah C., 2013. "The politics of renewable energy policies: The case of feed-in tariffs in Ontario, Canada," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 490-500.
    18. Pérez de Arce, Miguel & Sauma, Enzo & Contreras, Javier, 2016. "Renewable energy policy performance in reducing CO2 emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 272-280.
    19. Polzin, Friedemann & Migendt, Michael & Täube, Florian A. & von Flotow, Paschen, 2015. "Public policy influence on renewable energy investments—A panel data study across OECD countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 98-111.
    20. Feurtey, Evariste & Ilinca, Adrian & Sakout, Anas & Saucier, Carol, 2015. "Lessons learned in France and Quebec regarding financial and legal mechanisms to develop renewable energy: A hybrid model as an acceptable solution for onshore wind?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 34-45.

    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:enepol:v:40:y:2012:i:c:p:1-10. 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/enpol .

    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.