IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ucp/jaerec/doi10.1086-713249.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Setting with the Sun: The Impacts of Renewable Energy on Conventional Generation

Author

Listed:
  • James Bushnell
  • Kevin Novan

Abstract

Policies supporting investment in renewable electricity have been a cornerstone of climate policy in many parts of the world. While previous empirical work explores the economic and environmental impacts of renewable production, the focus has been on the short-run impacts of expanding renewable supply. In this paper, we shed light on the potential longer-run impacts of renewable expansions. Focusing on California’s electricity market, we estimate how wholesale electricity prices have responded to a dramatic increase in utility-scale solar capacity. While an overall decline in daily average prices can be attributed to the solar expansion, this reduction in the average price masks a substantial decrease in midday prices combined with an increase in shoulder hour prices. These results imply that short-term power markets are responding to the renewable expansion in a fashion that could sustain more flexible conventional generation, while undermining the economic viability of traditional baseload generation technologies.

Suggested Citation

  • James Bushnell & Kevin Novan, 2021. "Setting with the Sun: The Impacts of Renewable Energy on Conventional Generation," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(4), pages 759-796.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jaerec:doi:10.1086/713249
    DOI: 10.1086/713249
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/713249
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/713249
    Download Restriction: Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1086/713249?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.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Paul Simshauser & Tim Nelson & Joel Gilmore, 2022. "The sunshine state: implications from mass rooftop solar PV take-up rates in Queensland," Working Papers EPRG2219, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    2. Harding, Matthew & Kettler, Kyle & Lamarche, Carlos & Ma, Lala, 2023. "The (alleged) environmental and social benefits of dynamic pricing," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 574-593.
    3. Paul Simshauser & Farhad Billimoria & Craig Rogers, 2021. "Optimising VRE plant capacity in Renewable Energy Zones," Working Papers EPRG2121, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    4. Paige Weber & Matt Woerman, 2022. "Intermittency or Uncertainty? Impacts of Renewable Energy in Electricity Markets," CESifo Working Paper Series 9902, CESifo.
    5. Simshauser, P. & Newbery, D., 2023. "Non-Firm vs. Priority Access: on the Long Run Average and Marginal Cost of Renewables in Australia," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2363, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    6. Glenk, Gunther & Reichelstein, Stefan, 2021. "Intermittent versus dispatchable power sources: An integrated competitive assessment," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-065, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Simshauser, Paul, 2022. "Rooftop solar PV and the peak load problem in the NEM's Queensland region," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    8. Glenk, Gunther & Reichelstein, Stefan, 2022. "The economic dynamics of competing power generation sources," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    9. Nathaly M Rivera & Cristobal Ruiz Tagle, Elisheba Spiller, 2021. "The Health Benefits of Solar Power Generation: Evidence from Chile," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2021_04, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    10. Marshman, Daniel & Brear, Michael & Ring, Brendan, 2022. "Impact of unit commitment and RoCoF constraints on revenue sufficiency in decarbonising wholesale electricity markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    11. Ricardo Gonçalves & Flávio Menezes, 2022. "Market‐wide impact of renewables on electricity prices in Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 98(320), pages 1-21, March.
    12. Borenstein, Severin & Bushnell, James, 2021. "Issues, Questions, and a Research Agenda for the Role of Pricing in Residential Electrification," RFF Working Paper Series 21-35, Resources for the Future.
    13. Simshauser, P., 2021. "Rooftop Solar PV and the Peak Load Problem in the NEM’s Queensland Region," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2180, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    14. Ekaterina Alekhanova, 2023. "Summertime Sadness: Time Sensitivity of Electricity Savings from a Behavioral Nudge," Carleton Economic Papers 23-01, Carleton University, Department of Economics, revised 11 Nov 2023.
    15. Leslie, Gordon W. & Pourkhanali, Armin & Roger, Guillaume, 2022. "Electricity consumption, ethnic origin and religion," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    16. Gugler, Klaus & Haxhimusa, Adhurim & Liebensteiner, Mario, 2023. "Carbon pricing and emissions: Causal effects of Britain's carbon tax," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    17. Mwampashi, Muthe Mathias & Nikitopoulos, Christina Sklibosios & Rai, Alan & Konstandatos, Otto, 2022. "Large-scale and rooftop solar generation in the NEM: A tale of two renewables strategies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    18. Gonçalves, Ricardo & Menezes, Flávio, 2022. "The price impacts of the exit of the Hazelwood coal power plant," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    19. Lamp, Stefan & Samano, Mario, 2022. "Large-scale battery storage, short-term market outcomes, and arbitrage," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    20. Petersen, Claire & Reguant, Mar & Segura, Lola, 2024. "Measuring the impact of wind power and intermittency," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    21. Simshauser, Paul & Billimoria, Farhad & Rogers, Craig, 2022. "Optimising VRE capacity in Renewable Energy Zones," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    22. Blonz, Joshua & Palmer, Karen & Wichman, Casey & Wietelman, Derek C., 2021. "Smart Thermostats, Automation, and Time-Varying Prices," RFF Working Paper Series 21-20, Resources for the Future.
    23. Liebensteiner, Mario & Haxhimusa, Adhurim & Naumann, Fabian, 2023. "Subsidized renewables’ adverse effect on energy storage and carbon pricing as a potential remedy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).

    More about this item

    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:ucp:jaerec:doi:10.1086/713249. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Journals Division (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JAERE .

    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.