IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v117y2018icp86-99.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How do learning externalities influence the evaluation of Ontario's renewables support policies?

Author

Listed:
  • Beck, Marisa
  • Rivers, Nicholas
  • Wigle, Randall

Abstract

Support programs for renewable electricity generation in Ontario have been in place since 2005, including feed-in-tariffs and a competitive procurement process. These programs have been criticized on a number of fronts. In particular, critics claim the level of support was excessive and creating surplus supply. However, prior studies have ignored one potential benefit of renewable energy support—that it can help to promote cost reductions in new technologies through learning-by-doing.

Suggested Citation

  • Beck, Marisa & Rivers, Nicholas & Wigle, Randall, 2018. "How do learning externalities influence the evaluation of Ontario's renewables support policies?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 86-99.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:117:y:2018:i:c:p:86-99
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2018.02.012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421518300806
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.02.012?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. Joshua S. Gans, 2012. "Innovation and Climate Change Policy," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 125-145, November.
    2. Wand, Robert & Leuthold, Florian, 2011. "Feed-in tariffs for photovoltaics: Learning by doing in Germany?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(12), pages 4387-4399.
    3. Wissema, Wiepke & Dellink, Rob, 2007. "AGE analysis of the impact of a carbon energy tax on the Irish economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 671-683, March.
    4. Till Requate, 2015. "Green tradable certificates versus feed-in tariffs in the promotion of renewable energy shares," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 17(2), pages 211-239, April.
    5. Böhringer Christoph & Rivers Nicholas J. & Rutherford Thomas F. & Wigle Randall, 2012. "Green Jobs and Renewable Electricity Policies: Employment Impacts of Ontario's Feed-in Tariff," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-40, June.
    6. Yatchew, Adonis & Baziliauskas, Andy, 2011. "Ontario feed-in-tariff programs," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 3885-3893, July.
    7. Neij, Lena, 2008. "Cost development of future technologies for power generation--A study based on experience curves and complementary bottom-up assessments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 2200-2211, June.
    8. Rasmussen, Tobias N., 2001. "CO2 abatement policy with learning-by-doing in renewable energy," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 297-325, October.
    9. Snorre Kverndokk & Knut Rosendahl & Thomas Rutherford, 2004. "Climate Policies and Induced Technological Change: Which to Choose, the Carrot or the Stick?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 27(1), pages 21-41, January.
    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. Wing, Ian Sue, 2006. "The synthesis of bottom-up and top-down approaches to climate policy modeling: Electric power technologies and the cost of limiting US CO2 emissions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(18), pages 3847-3869, December.
    12. Yeh, Sonia & Rubin, Edward S., 2012. "A review of uncertainties in technology experience curves," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 762-771.
    13. Fischer, Carolyn & Newell, Richard G., 2008. "Environmental and technology policies for climate mitigation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 142-162, March.
    14. Daniel T. Kaffine, Brannin J. McBee, and Jozef Lieskovsky, 2013. "Emissions Savings from Wind Power Generation in Texas," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    15. Abrell, Jan & Weigt, Hannes, 2008. "The Interaction of Emissions Trading and Renewable Energy Promotion," MPRA Paper 65658, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Karsten Neuhoff, 2005. "Large-Scale Deployment of Renewables for Electricity Generation," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 21(1), pages 88-110, Spring.
    17. Arthur van Benthem & Kenneth Gillingham & James Sweeney, 2008. "Learning-by-Doing and the Optimal Solar Policy in California," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 131-152.
    18. Tian Tang & David Popp, 2016. "The Learning Process and Technological Change in Wind Power: Evidence from China's CDM Wind Projects," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(1), pages 195-222, January.
    19. Gregory F. Nemet, 2012. "Subsidies for New Technologies and Knowledge Spillovers from Learning by Doing," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 601-622, June.
    20. Jaffe, Adam B. & Newell, Richard G. & Stavins, Robert N., 2005. "A tale of two market failures: Technology and environmental policy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2-3), pages 164-174, August.
    21. Söderholm, Patrik & Sundqvist, Thomas, 2007. "Empirical challenges in the use of learning curves for assessing the economic prospects of renewable energy technologies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(15), pages 2559-2578.
    22. Dolter, Brett & Rivers, Nicholas, 2018. "The cost of decarbonizing the Canadian electricity system," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 135-148.
    23. Mabee, Warren E. & Mannion, Justine & Carpenter, Tom, 2012. "Comparing the feed-in tariff incentives for renewable electricity in Ontario and Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 480-489.
    24. Lion Hirth, 2013. "The Market Value of Variable Renewables. The Effect of Solar and Wind Power Variability on their Relative Price," RSCAS Working Papers 2013/36, European University Institute.
    25. Lion Hirth, Falko Ueckerdt, and Ottmar Edenhofer, 2016. "Why Wind Is Not Coal: On the Economics of Electricity Generation," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3).
    26. Nemet, Gregory F., 2006. "Beyond the learning curve: factors influencing cost reductions in photovoltaics," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(17), pages 3218-3232, November.
    27. Joel Wood, 2015. "Is It Time to Raise the Gas Tax? Optimal Gasoline Taxes for Ontario and Toronto," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 41(3), pages 179-190, September.
    28. Kobos, Peter H. & Erickson, Jon D. & Drennen, Thomas E., 2006. "Technological learning and renewable energy costs: implications for US renewable energy policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(13), pages 1645-1658, September.
    29. Junginger, M. & Faaij, A. & Turkenburg, W. C., 2005. "Global experience curves for wind farms," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 133-150, January.
    30. Sue Wing, Ian, 2006. "Representing induced technological change in models for climate policy analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(5-6), pages 539-562, November.
    31. Kim, Kyoung-Kuk & Lee, Chi-Guhn, 2012. "Evaluation and optimization of feed-in tariffs," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 192-203.
    32. Melitz, Marc J., 2005. "When and how should infant industries be protected?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 177-196, May.
    33. Hirth, Lion, 2013. "The market value of variable renewables," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 218-236.
    34. Berry, David, 2009. "Innovation and the price of wind energy in the US," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4493-4499, November.
    35. Sue Wing, Ian, 2008. "The synthesis of bottom-up and top-down approaches to climate policy modeling: Electric power technology detail in a social accounting framework," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 547-573, March.
    36. Katja Schumacher & Michael Kohlhaas, 2007. "Learning-by-Doing in the Renewable Energy Equipment Industry or in Renewable Electricity Production: Why Does It Matter to Differentiate?," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 692, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    37. Lesser, Jonathan A. & Su, Xuejuan, 2008. "Design of an economically efficient feed-in tariff structure for renewable energy development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 981-990, March.
    38. Kverndokk, Snorre & Rosendahl, Knut Einar, 2007. "Climate policies and learning by doing: Impacts and timing of technology subsidies," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 58-82, January.
    39. van der Zwaan, Bob & Rivera-Tinoco, Rodrigo & Lensink, Sander & van den Oosterkamp, Paul, 2012. "Cost reductions for offshore wind power: Exploring the balance between scaling, learning and R&D," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 389-393.
    40. Nakata, Toshihiko & Sato, Takemi & Wang, Hao & Kusunoki, Tomoya & Furubayashi, Takaaki, 2011. "Modeling technological learning and its application for clean coal technologies in Japan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 330-336, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Lin, Boqiang & Jia, Zhijie, 2019. "Tax rate, government revenue and economic performance: A perspective of Laffer curve," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Majid Hashemi & Glenn Jenkins & Frank Milne, 2023. "Renewable Energy Support Through Feed-in Tariffs: A Retrospective Stakeholder Analysis," Working Paper 1514, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    3. Brown, David P., 2022. "Socioeconomic and demographic disparities in residential battery storage adoption: Evidence from California," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    4. Thomassen, Gwenny & Van Passel, Steven & Dewulf, Jo, 2020. "A review on learning effects in prospective technology assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    5. Hastings-Simon, Sara & Leach, Andrew & Shaffer, Blake & Weis, Tim, 2022. "Alberta's Renewable Electricity Program: Design, results, and lessons learned," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    6. Kuznetsova, Elizaveta & Anjos, Miguel F., 2020. "Challenges in energy policies for the economic integration of prosumers in electric energy systems: A critical survey with a focus on Ontario (Canada)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    7. Edouard Civel & Marc Baudry, 2018. "The Fate of Inventions. What can we learn from Bayesian learning in strategic options model of adoption ?," EconomiX Working Papers 2018-47, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    8. Lin, Boqiang & Jia, Zhijie, 2019. "How does tax system on energy industries affect energy demand, CO2 emissions, and economy in China?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).

    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. Paul Lehmann & Patrik Söderholm, 2018. "Can Technology-Specific Deployment Policies Be Cost-Effective? The Case of Renewable Energy Support Schemes," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 71(2), pages 475-505, October.
    2. Felix Groba & Barbara Breitschopf, 2013. "Impact of Renewable Energy Policy and Use on Innovation: A Literature Review," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1318, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Lehmann, Paul & Gawel, Erik, 2013. "Why should support schemes for renewable electricity complement the EU emissions trading scheme?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 597-607.
    4. Marisa Beck, Randall Wigle, 2014. "Carbon Revenue: Recycling versus Technological Incentives," LCERPA Working Papers 0079, Laurier Centre for Economic Research and Policy Analysis, revised 13 Jan 2014.
    5. Lehmann, Paul, 2013. "Supplementing an emissions tax by a feed-in tariff for renewable electricity to address learning spillovers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 635-641.
    6. Rubin, Edward S. & Azevedo, Inês M.L. & Jaramillo, Paulina & Yeh, Sonia, 2015. "A review of learning rates for electricity supply technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 198-218.
    7. Sascha Samadi, 2016. "A Review of Factors Influencing the Cost Development of Electricity Generation Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-25, November.
    8. Antweiler, Werner, 2017. "A two-part feed-in-tariff for intermittent electricity generation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 458-470.
    9. Samadi, Sascha, 2018. "The experience curve theory and its application in the field of electricity generation technologies – A literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 2346-2364.
    10. Schauf, Magnus & Schwenen, Sebastian, 2021. "Mills of progress grind slowly? Estimating learning rates for onshore wind energy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    11. del Río, Pablo, 2012. "The dynamic efficiency of feed-in tariffs: The impact of different design elements," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 139-151.
    12. 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.
    13. Sijm, Jos & Lehmann, Paul & Chewpreecha, Unnada & Gawel, Erik & Mercure, Jean-Francois & Pollitt, Hector & Strunz, Sebastian, 2014. "EU climate and energy policy beyond 2020: Are additional targets and instruments for renewables economically reasonable?," UFZ Discussion Papers 3/2014, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    14. Edenhofer, Ottmar & Hirth, Lion & Knopf, Brigitte & Pahle, Michael & Schlömer, Steffen & Schmid, Eva & Ueckerdt, Falko, 2013. "On the economics of renewable energy sources," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(S1), pages 12-23.
    15. Reinhard Haas & Marlene Sayer & Amela Ajanovic & Hans Auer, 2023. "Technological learning: Lessons learned on energy technologies," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), March.
    16. Lancker, Kira & Quaas, Martin F., 2019. "Increasing marginal costs and the efficiency of differentiated feed-in tariffs," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 104-118.
    17. Tang, Tian, 2018. "Explaining technological change in the US wind industry: Energy policies, technological learning, and collaboration," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 197-212.
    18. Elia, A. & Kamidelivand, M. & Rogan, F. & Ó Gallachóir, B., 2021. "Impacts of innovation on renewable energy technology cost reductions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    19. Wu, X.D. & Yang, Q. & Chen, G.Q. & Hayat, T. & Alsaedi, A., 2016. "Progress and prospect of CCS in China: Using learning curve to assess the cost-viability of a 2×600MW retrofitted oxyfuel power plant as a case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1274-1285.
    20. Dechezlepretre, Antoine & Martin, Ralf & Mohnen, Myra, 2014. "Knowledge spillovers from clean and dirty technologies," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60501, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    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:117:y:2018:i:c:p:86-99. 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.