IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v52y2015icp523-533.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Costs and benefits of renewables portfolio standards in the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Barbose, Galen
  • Bird, Lori
  • Heeter, Jenny
  • Flores-Espino, Francisco
  • Wiser, Ryan

Abstract

Most state renewables portfolio standard (RPS) policies in the United States have five or more years of implementation experience. Understanding the costs and benefits of these policies is essential for RPS administrators tasked with implementation and for policymakers evaluating changes to existing or development of new RPS policies. This study estimates and summarizes historical RPS costs and benefits, and provides a critical examination of cost and benefit estimation methods used by utilities and regulators. We find that RPS compliance costs constituted less than 2% of average retail rates in most U.S. states over the 2010–2013 period, although substantial variation exists, both from year-to-year and across states. Compared to RPS costs, relatively few states have undertaken detailed estimates of broader societal benefits of RPS programs, and then only for a subset of potential impacts, typically some combination of avoided emissions and human health benefits, economic development impacts, and wholesale electricity market price reductions. Although direct comparison to RPS cost estimates is not possible, the available studies of broader RPS benefits suggest that in many cases these impacts may at least be of the same order of magnitude as costs, highlighting a need for more refined analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Barbose, Galen & Bird, Lori & Heeter, Jenny & Flores-Espino, Francisco & Wiser, Ryan, 2015. "Costs and benefits of renewables portfolio standards in the United States," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 523-533.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:52:y:2015:i:c:p:523-533
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2015.07.175
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032115008229
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2015.07.175?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. Cory, Karlynn S. & Swezey, Blair G., 2007. "Renewable Portfolio Standards in the States: Balancing Goals and Rules," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 21-32, May.
    2. Thomas P. Lyon & Haitao Yin, 2010. "Why Do States Adopt Renewable Portfolio Standards?: An Empirical Investigation," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 133-158.
    3. Carley, Sanya, 2009. "State renewable energy electricity policies: An empirical evaluation of effectiveness," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 3071-3081, August.
    4. Shrimali, Gireesh & Kniefel, Joshua, 2011. "Are government policies effective in promoting deployment of renewable electricity resources?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 4726-4741, September.
    5. Stockmayer, Gabriella & Finch, Vanessa & Komor, Paul & Mignogna, Rich, 2012. "Limiting the costs of renewable portfolio standards: A review and critique of current methods," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 155-163.
    6. Bird, Lori & Chapman, Caroline & Logan, Jeff & Sumner, Jenny & Short, Walter, 2011. "Evaluating renewable portfolio standards and carbon cap scenarios in the U.S. electric sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2573-2585, May.
    7. Wiser, Ryan & Bolinger, Mark, 2007. "Can deployment of renewable energy put downward pressure on natural gas prices?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 295-306, January.
    8. Zhao, Yong & Tang, Kam Ki & Wang, Li-li, 2013. "Do renewable electricity policies promote renewable electricity generation? Evidence from panel data," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 887-897.
    9. Yin, Haitao & Powers, Nicholas, 2010. "Do state renewable portfolio standards promote in-state renewable generation[glottal stop]," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 1140-1149, February.
    10. Carolyn Fischer, 2010. "Renewable Portfolio Standards: When Do They Lower Energy Prices?," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 101-120.
    11. Delmas, Magali A. & Montes-Sancho, Maria J., 2011. "U.S. state policies for renewable energy: Context and effectiveness," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2273-2288, May.
    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. Basher, Syed Abul & Masini, Andrea & Aflaki, Sam, 2015. "Time series properties of the renewable energy diffusion process: Implications for energy policy design and assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1680-1692.
    2. Rountree, Valerie, 2019. "Nevada's experience with the Renewable Portfolio Standard," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 279-291.
    3. Kahia, Montassar & Ben Aissa, Mohamed Safouane & kadria, Mohamed, 2014. "Do renewable energy policies promote economic growth? A nonparametric approach," MPRA Paper 80751, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Barry D. Solomon & Shan Zhou, 2021. "Renewable Portfolio Standards: Do Voluntary Goals vs. Mandatory Standards Make a Difference?," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 38(2), pages 146-163, March.
    5. Ebers Broughel, Anna, 2019. "Impact of state policies on generating capacity for production of electricity and combined heat and power from forest biomass in the United States," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 1163-1172.
    6. Zhao, Xiaoli & Li, Shujie & Zhang, Sufang & Yang, Rui & Liu, Suwei, 2016. "The effectiveness of China's wind power policy: An empirical analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 269-279.
    7. 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.
    8. Karen Maguire & Abdul Munasib, 2013. "Do Renewables Portfolio Standards Increase Electricity Prices? A Synthetic Control Approach," Economics Working Paper Series 1403, Oklahoma State University, Department of Economics and Legal Studies in Business, revised Aug 2013.
    9. Escoffier, Margaux & Hache, Emmanuel & Mignon, Valérie & Paris, Anthony, 2021. "Determinants of solar photovoltaic deployment in the electricity mix: Do oil prices really matter?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    10. Karen Maguire & Abdul Munasib, 2015. "The Disparate Influence of State Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) on U.S. Renewable Electricity Generation Capacity," Economics Working Paper Series 1502, Oklahoma State University, Department of Economics and Legal Studies in Business, revised Feb 2015.
    11. Daniel J Pastor, 2020. "The effects of renewables portfolio standards on renewable energy generation," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(3), pages 2121-2133.
    12. Prasad, Monica & Munch, Steven, 2012. "State-level renewable electricity policies and reductions in carbon emissions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 237-242.
    13. Gosens, Jorrit & Hedenus, Fredrik & Sandén, Björn A., 2017. "Faster market growth of wind and PV in late adopters due to global experience build-up," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 267-278.
    14. Thomas, Pinky & Khurana, Ritika & Etienne, Xiaoli L. & Collins, Alan R., 2023. "The Impacts of State Policies on Renewable Energy Generation Capacity: A County-Level Spatial Panel Analysis," 2023 Annual Meeting, July 23-25, Washington D.C. 335717, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Karen Maguire & Abdul Munasib, 2016. "The Disparate Influence of State Renewable Portfolio Standards on Renewable Electricity Generation Capacity," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 92(3), pages 468-490.
    16. 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.
    17. Marques, António Cardoso & Fuinhas, José Alberto & Pereira, Diogo Santos, 2019. "The dynamics of the short and long-run effects of public policies supporting renewable energy: A comparative study of installed capacity and electricity generation," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 188-206.
    18. Gireesh Shrimali, Gabriel Chan, Steffen Jenner, Felix Groba and Joe Indvik, 2015. "Evaluating Renewable Portfolio Standards for In-State Renewable Deployment: Accounting for Policy Heterogeneity," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    19. Guillaume Bourgeois & Sandrine Mathy & Philippe Menanteau, 2017. "The effect of climate policies on renewable energies : a review of econometric studies [L’effet des politiques climatiques sur les énergies renouvelables : une revue des études économétriques]," Post-Print hal-01585906, HAL.
    20. Consolación Quintana-Rojo & Fernando-Evaristo Callejas-Albiñana & Miguel-Ángel Tarancón & Isabel Martínez-Rodríguez, 2020. "Econometric Studies on the Development of Renewable Energy Sources to Support the European Union 2020–2030 Climate and Energy Framework: A Critical Appraisal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-26, June.

    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:rensus:v:52:y:2015:i:c:p:523-533. 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/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    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.