IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v157y2021ics0301421521003827.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

All for sun, sun for all: Can community energy help to overcome socioeconomic inequalities in low-carbon technology subsidies?

Author

Listed:
  • Stewart, Fraser

Abstract

Can community energy help to overcome inequalities in who benefits from low-carbon technologies? Research has shown that the distribution of low-carbon technology subsidies and their associated benefits can be highly uneven across socioeconomic groups, revealing a persistent inequality issue. Yet this research has tended to focus almost exclusively on adoption of technologies at the household-level, with limited insights into whether and how this distribution might differ in the case of community energy. To address this, this paper quantitatively investigates the distribution of payments to household- and community-level energy systems across socioeconomic groups in Scotland under the UK government feed-in-tariff. Analysis is conducted on a novel dataset of 26,218 household and community wind and solar installations across 6,976 micro-level data-zones using a combination of distributional analysis and random effects within-between regression. It finds that feed-in-tariff payments for household-level wind and solar PV systems have heavily benefitted more affluent socioeconomic groups, while payments to community energy projects have flowed more consistently into areas of higher deprivation, particularly in the case of community solar. These findings suggest that community energy has been successful in bringing the benefits of low-carbon technologies to areas of lower income and higher deprivation, with important lessons for policymakers concerned with a just transition going forward.

Suggested Citation

  • Stewart, Fraser, 2021. "All for sun, sun for all: Can community energy help to overcome socioeconomic inequalities in low-carbon technology subsidies?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:157:y:2021:i:c:s0301421521003827
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112512
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421521003827
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112512?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. Takanobu Kosugi & Yoshiyuki Shimoda & Takayuki Tashiro, 2019. "Neighborhood influences on the diffusion of residential photovoltaic systems in Kyoto City, Japan," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 21(4), pages 477-505, October.
    2. Peters, Michael & Fudge, Shane & High-Pippert, Angela & Carragher, Vincent & Hoffman, Steven M., 2018. "Community solar initiatives in the United States of America: Comparisons with – and lessons for – the UK and other European countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 355-364.
    3. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Lipson, Matthew M. & Chard, Rose, 2019. "Temporality, vulnerability, and energy justice in household low carbon innovations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 495-504.
    4. Andrew Bell & Malcolm Fairbrother & Kelvyn Jones, 2019. "Fixed and random effects models: making an informed choice," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 1051-1074, March.
    5. Ortzi Akizu & Gorka Bueno & Iñaki Barcena & Erol Kurt & Nurettin Topaloğlu & Jose Manuel Lopez-Guede, 2018. "Contributions of Bottom-Up Energy Transitions in Germany: A Case Study Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-21, April.
    6. Winter, Simon & Schlesewsky, Lisa, 2019. "The German feed-in tariff revisited - an empirical investigation on its distributional effects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 344-356.
    7. Sommerfeld, Jeff & Buys, Laurie & Vine, Desley, 2017. "Residential consumers’ experiences in the adoption and use of solar PV," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 10-16.
    8. Walters, Ryan & Walsh, Philip R., 2011. "Examining the financial performance of micro-generation wind projects and the subsidy effect of feed-in tariffs for urban locations in the United Kingdom," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 5167-5181, September.
    9. van der Waal, Esther C., 2020. "Local impact of community renewable energy: A case study of an Orcadian community-led wind scheme," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    10. Castaneda, Monica & Zapata, Sebastian & Cherni, Judith & Aristizabal, Andres J. & Dyner, Isaac, 2020. "The long-term effects of cautious feed-in tariff reductions on photovoltaic generation in the UK residential sector," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 1432-1443.
    11. Rai, Varun & Reeves, D. Cale & Margolis, Robert, 2016. "Overcoming barriers and uncertainties in the adoption of residential solar PV," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 498-505.
    12. Joseph L Dieleman & Tara Templin, 2014. "Random-Effects, Fixed-Effects and the within-between Specification for Clustered Data in Observational Health Studies: A Simulation Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(10), pages 1-17, October.
    13. Mirzania, Pegah & Ford, Andy & Andrews, Deborah & Ofori, George & Maidment, Graeme, 2019. "The impact of policy changes: The opportunities of Community Renewable Energy projects in the UK and the barriers they face," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 1282-1296.
    14. Hitaj, Claudia & Löschel, Andreas, 2019. "The impact of a feed-in tariff on wind power development in Germany," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 18-35.
    15. Lekavičius, V. & Bobinaitė, V. & Galinis, A. & Pažėraitė, A., 2020. "Distributional impacts of investment subsidies for residential energy technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    16. Bates, Douglas & Mächler, Martin & Bolker, Ben & Walker, Steve, 2015. "Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 67(i01).
    17. Coffman, Makena & Wee, Sherilyn & Bonham, Carl & Salim, Germaine, 2016. "A policy analysis of Hawaii's solar tax credit," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 1036-1043.
    18. Deborah A. Sunter & Sergio Castellanos & Daniel M. Kammen, 2019. "Disparities in rooftop photovoltaics deployment in the United States by race and ethnicity," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(1), pages 71-76, January.
    19. Dolter, Brett D. & Boucher, Martin, 2018. "Solar energy justice: A case-study analysis of Saskatchewan, Canada," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 225(C), pages 221-232.
    20. Lukanov, Boris R. & Krieger, Elena M., 2019. "Distributed solar and environmental justice: Exploring the demographic and socio-economic trends of residential PV adoption in California," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    21. Jenn Richler, 2017. "Solar PV adoption: Incentives and behaviour," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 2(4), pages 1-1, April.
    22. Allan, Grant J. & McIntyre, Stuart G., 2017. "Green in the heart or greens in the wallet? The spatial uptake of small-scale renewable technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 108-115.
    23. Bauwens, Thomas & Devine-Wright, Patrick, 2018. "Positive energies? An empirical study of community energy participation and attitudes to renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 612-625.
    24. Lacey-Barnacle, M. & Bird, C.M., 2018. "Intermediating energy justice? The role of intermediaries in the civic energy sector in a time of austerity," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 71-81.
    25. Berka, Anna L. & Creamer, Emily, 2018. "Taking stock of the local impacts of community owned renewable energy: A review and research agenda," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 3400-3419.
    26. Fikru, Mahelet G., 2020. "Determinants of electricity bill savings for residential solar panel adopters in the U.S.: A multilevel modeling approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    27. Grover, David & Daniels, Benjamin, 2017. "Social equity issues in the distribution of feed-in tariff policy benefits: A cross sectional analysis from England and Wales using spatial census and policy data," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 255-265.
    28. Nordensvärd, Johan & Urban, Frauke, 2015. "The stuttering energy transition in Germany: Wind energy policy and feed-in tariff lock-in," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 156-165.
    29. Noll, Daniel & Dawes, Colleen & Rai, Varun, 2014. "Solar Community Organizations and active peer effects in the adoption of residential PV," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 330-343.
    30. Balta-Ozkan, Nazmiye & Yildirim, Julide & Connor, Peter M., 2015. "Regional distribution of photovoltaic deployment in the UK and its determinants: A spatial econometric approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 417-429.
    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. Álvaro Manso-Burgos & David Ribó-Pérez & Manuel Alcázar-Ortega & Tomás Gómez-Navarro, 2021. "Local Energy Communities in Spain: Economic Implications of the New Tariff and Variable Coefficients," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-18, September.
    2. Martens, Katrin, 2022. "Investigating subnational success conditions to foster renewable energy community co-operatives," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    3. Veronica Lupi & Chiara Candelise & Merce Almuni Calull & Sarah Delvaux & Pieter Valkering & Wit Hubert & Alessandro Sciullo & Nele Ivask & Esther van der Waal & Izaskun Jimenez Iturriza & Daniele Paci, 2021. "A Characterization of European Collective Action Initiatives and Their Role as Enablers of Citizens’ Participation in the Energy Transition," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-17, December.
    4. Lacey-Barnacle, M. & Smith, A. & Foxon, T.J., 2023. "Community wealth building in an age of just transitions: Exploring civil society approaches to net zero and future research synergies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 172(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. Stewart, Fraser, 2022. "Friends with benefits: How income and peer diffusion combine to create an inequality “trap” in the uptake of low-carbon technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    2. Wang, Jianjun & Liu, Fang & Li, Li & Zhang, Jian, 2022. "More than innovativeness: Comparing residents’ motivations for participating renewable energy communities in different innovation segments," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 552-563.
    3. Palm, Alvar & Lantz, Björn, 2020. "Information dissemination and residential solar PV adoption rates: The effect of an information campaign in Sweden," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    4. Fabian Scheller & Isabel Doser & Daniel Sloot & Russell McKenna & Thomas Bruckner, 2020. "Exploring the Role of Stakeholder Dynamics in Residential Photovoltaic Adoption Decisions: A Synthesis of the Literature," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-31, November.
    5. Best, Rohan, 2022. "Energy inequity variation across contexts," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    6. Gao, Xue & Zhou, Shan, 2022. "Solar adoption inequality in the U.S.: Trend, magnitude, and solar justice policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    7. Hirsh Bar Gai, Dor & Shittu, Ekundayo & Attanasio, Donna & Weigelt, Carmen & LeBlanc, Saniya & Dehghanian, Payman & Sklar, Scott, 2021. "Examining community solar programs to understand accessibility and investment: Evidence from the U.S," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    8. Lan, Haifeng & Gou, Zhonghua & Lu, Yi, 2021. "Machine learning approach to understand regional disparity of residential solar adoption in Australia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    9. Jan Paul Baginski & Christoph Weber, "undated". "Coherent estimations for residential photovoltaic uptake in Germany including spatial spillover effects," EWL Working Papers 1902, University of Duisburg-Essen, Chair for Management Science and Energy Economics.
    10. Fabian Scheller & Isabel Doser & Emily Schulte & Simon Johanning & Russell McKenna & Thomas Bruckner, 2021. "Stakeholder dynamics in residential solar energy adoption: findings from focus group discussions in Germany," Papers 2104.14240, arXiv.org.
    11. 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.
    12. Bauwens, Thomas & Schraven, Daan & Drewing, Emily & Radtke, Jörg & Holstenkamp, Lars & Gotchev, Boris & Yildiz, Özgür, 2022. "Conceptualizing community in energy systems: A systematic review of 183 definitions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    13. Reeves, D.C. & Rai, V., 2018. "Strike while the rebate is hot: Savvy consumers and strategic technology adoption timing," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 325-335.
    14. Chelsea Schelly & James C. Letzelter, 2020. "Examining the Key Drivers of Residential Solar Adoption in Upstate New York," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-13, March.
    15. Yuehong Lu & Zafar A. Khan & Manuel S. Alvarez-Alvarado & Yang Zhang & Zhijia Huang & Muhammad Imran, 2020. "A Critical Review of Sustainable Energy Policies for the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-31, June.
    16. Palm, A., 2020. "Early adopters and their motives: Differences between earlier and later adopters of residential solar photovoltaics," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    17. Zhang, Jianhua & Ballas, Dimitris & Liu, Xiaolong, 2023. "Neighbourhood-level spatial determinants of residential solar photovoltaic adoption in the Netherlands," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 1239-1248.
    18. Lekavičius, V. & Bobinaitė, V. & Galinis, A. & Pažėraitė, A., 2020. "Distributional impacts of investment subsidies for residential energy technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    19. Alipour, M. & Irannezhad, Elnaz & Stewart, Rodney A. & Sahin, Oz, 2022. "Exploring residential solar PV and battery energy storage adoption motivations and barriers in a mature PV market," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 684-698.
    20. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Barnacle, Max Lacey & Smith, Adrian & Brisbois, Marie Claire, 2022. "Towards improved solar energy justice: Exploring the complex inequities of household adoption of photovoltaic panels," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).

    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:157:y:2021:i:c:s0301421521003827. 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.