IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/use/tkiwps/1918.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How to fill the ‘financing gap’ for the transition to low-carbon energy in Europe?

Author

Listed:
  • F.H.J. Polzin
  • M.W.J.L. Sanders

Abstract

In models exploring energy transition pathways, existing investment flows are contrasted with predictions for investments needs to indicate a ‘financing-gap’ for the European energy transition. The authors draw on an in-depth analysis and comparison of the main scenarios being employed to forecast investments until 2050 as well as an analysis of the literature on the sources of finance for renewable energy. Long-term projections do not capture the supply or demand of specific sources of finance needed to cover the whole innovation chain. Our analysis reveals that under the individual investment and lending criteria/mandates the money is available. However, policy uncertainty strongly distorts investment decision making. Especially institutional investors and lenders such as pension funds and banks shy away from investments in the energy transition because of expected (policy) discontinuities and the risk of stranded assets. Moreover, more risk-bearing equity capital to finance the early stages of innovative clean energy technologies is needed to complement existing large-scale investments in existing technologies to allow for an effective and efficient mitigation that is in line with the major scenarios. Based on the analysis we develop a matrix that indicates the role for different sources of finance and new intermediation channels in the energy transition and how they need to be engaged..

Suggested Citation

  • F.H.J. Polzin & M.W.J.L. Sanders, 2019. "How to fill the ‘financing gap’ for the transition to low-carbon energy in Europe?," Working Papers 19-18, Utrecht School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:use:tkiwps:1918
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/394042/19_18.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dirk Röttgers & Aayush Tandon & Christopher Kaminker, 2018. "OECD Progress Update on Approaches to Mobilising Institutional Investment for Sustainable Infrastructure," OECD Environment Working Papers 138, OECD Publishing.
    2. Campiglio, Emanuele, 2016. "Beyond carbon pricing: The role of banking and monetary policy in financing the transition to a low-carbon economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 220-230.
    3. Farrell, Katharine N. & Löw Beer, David, 2019. "Producing the ecological economy: A study in developing fiduciary principles supporting the application of flow-fund consistent investment criteria for sovereign wealth funds," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Nirjhar Nigam & Sondes Mbarek & Cristiane Benetti, 2018. "Crowdfunding to finance eco-innovation : case studies from leading renewable energy platforms," Post-Print hal-01809953, HAL.
    5. Christopher Kaminker & Fiona Stewart, 2012. "The Role of Institutional Investors in Financing Clean Energy," OECD Working Papers on Finance, Insurance and Private Pensions 23, OECD Publishing.
    6. Jean-Francois Mercure & Florian Knobloch & Hector Pollitt & Leonidas Paroussos & S. Serban Scrieciu & Richard Lewney, 2019. "Modelling innovation and the macroeconomics of low-carbon transitions: theory, perspectives and practical use," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(8), pages 1019-1037, September.
    7. 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.
    8. Michael Flaherty & Arkady Gevorkyan & Siavash Radpour & Willi Semmler, 2016. "Financing Climate Policies Through Climate Bonds," SCEPA working paper series. 2016-03, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), The New School.
    9. Oecd, 2017. "Green Investment Banks: Innovative Public Financial Institutions Scaling up Private, Low-carbon Investment," OECD Environment Policy Papers 6, OECD Publishing.
    10. Lena Kitzing & Christoph Weber, "undated". "Support mechanisms for renewables: How risk exposure influences investment incentives," EWL Working Papers 1403, University of Duisburg-Essen, Chair for Management Science and Energy Economics, revised Aug 2014.
    11. Geraldine Ang & Dirk Röttgers & Pralhad Burli, 2017. "The empirics of enabling investment and innovation in renewable energy," OECD Environment Working Papers 123, OECD Publishing.
    12. Nirjhar Nigam & Sondes Mbarek & Cristiane Benetti, 2018. "Crowdfunding to finance eco-innovation: case studies from leading renewable energy platforms," Journal of Innovation Economics, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(2), pages 195-219.
    13. Florian Egli & Bjarne Steffen & Tobias S. Schmidt, 2018. "A dynamic analysis of financing conditions for renewable energy technologies," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(12), pages 1084-1092, December.
    14. Alfredo Sirkis & J.C Hourcade & Dipak Dasgupta & Rogério Studart & Kevin Gallagher & B Perrissin-Fabert & José Eli da Veiga & Etienne Espagne & Michele Stua & Michel Aglietta, 2015. "Moving the trillions a debate on positive pricing of mitigation actions," Post-Print hal-01692638, HAL.
    15. Jacobson, Mark Z. & Delucchi, Mark A. & Cameron, Mary A. & Mathiesen, Brian V., 2018. "Matching demand with supply at low cost in 139 countries among 20 world regions with 100% intermittent wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) for all purposes," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 236-248.
    16. Shikhar Ghosh & Ramana Nanda, 2010. "Venture Capital Investment in the Clean Energy Sector," Harvard Business School Working Papers 11-020, Harvard Business School.
    17. Florian Schock & Jan Mutl & Florian Taübe & Paschen von Flotow, 2015. "VC financing and market growth – Interdependencies between technology-push and market-pull investments in the US solar industry," Working Papers TIMES² 2015-13, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    18. Olmos, Luis & Ruester, Sophia & Liong, Siok-Jen, 2012. "On the selection of financing instruments to push the development of new technologies: Application to clean energy technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 252-266.
    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. Polzin, Friedemann & Sanders, Mark, 2020. "How to finance the transition to low-carbon energy in Europe?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    2. Polzin, Friedemann & Sanders, Mark & Serebriakova, Alexandra, 2021. "Finance in global transition scenarios: Mapping investments by technology into finance needs by source," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    3. Deleidi, Matteo & Mazzucato, Mariana & Semieniuk, Gregor, 2020. "Neither crowding in nor out: Public direct investment mobilising private investment into renewable electricity projects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    4. Christian Haas & Karol Kempa, 2023. "Low-Carbon Investment and Credit Rationing," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 86(1), pages 109-145, October.
    5. 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.
    6. Egli, Florian, 2020. "Renewable energy investment risk: An investigation of changes over time and the underlying drivers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    7. Bourcet, Clémence & Bovari, Emmanuel, 2020. "Exploring citizens' decision to crowdfund renewable energy projects: Quantitative evidence from France," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    8. Emanuele Campiglio & Alessandro Spiganti & Anthony Wiskich, 2023. "Clean Innovation and Heterogeneous Financing Costs," CAMA Working Papers 2023-25, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, revised Oct 2023.
    9. Joëlle Noailly & Roger Smeets, 2022. "Financing Energy Innovation: Internal Finance and the Direction of Technical Change," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 83(1), pages 145-169, September.
    10. Lone Werner & Bert Scholtens, 2017. "Firm Type, Feed-in Tariff, and Wind Energy Investment in Germany: An Investigation of Decision Making Factors of Energy Producers Regarding Investing in Wind Energy Capacity," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 21(2), pages 402-411, April.
    11. Leonidas Paroussos & Kostas Fragkiadakis & Panagiotis Fragkos, 2020. "Macro-economic analysis of green growth policies: the role of finance and technical progress in Italian green growth," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 160(4), pages 591-608, June.
    12. Eftichios S. Sartzetakis, 2021. "Green bonds as an instrument to finance low carbon transition," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 755-779, August.
    13. Soh Young In & Ashby H. B. Monk & Janelle Knox-Hayes, 2020. "Financing Energy Innovation: The Need for New Intermediaries in Clean Energy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-25, December.
    14. Sarah Hafner & Olivia James & Aled Jones, 2019. "A Scoping Review of Barriers to Investment in Climate Change Solutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-19, June.
    15. Bergmann, Ariel & Burton, Bruce & Klaes, Matthias, 2021. "European perceptions on crowdfunding for renewables: Positivity and pragmatism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    16. Céline Merlin-Brogniart & Simon Nadel, 2021. "Specificities of environmental innovation dynamics in service firms: the French case," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 451-473, April.
    17. Dafermos, Yannis & Nikolaidi, Maria, 2021. "How can green differentiated capital requirements affect climate risks? A dynamic macrofinancial analysis," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    18. Friedemann Polzin & Mark Sanders & Bjarne Steffen & Florian Egli & Tobias S. Schmidt & Panagiotis Karkatsoulis & Panagiotis Fragkos & Leonidas Paroussos, 2021. "The effect of differentiating costs of capital by country and technology on the European energy transition," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 167(1), pages 1-21, July.
    19. Joelle Noailly; Roger Smeets, 2021. "Financing Energy Innovation: Internal Finance and the Direction of Technical Change," CIES Research Paper series 69-2021, Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute.
    20. Steffen, Bjarne, 2020. "Estimating the cost of capital for renewable energy projects," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Clean energy investments; mitigation pathways; sources of finance; financial system; empirical review;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:use:tkiwps:1918. 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: Marina Muilwijk (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eiruunl.html .

    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.