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Assessing the costs of photovoltaic and wind power in six developing countries

Author

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  • Tobias S. Schmidt

    (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Technology, and Economics, Chair of Sustainability and Technology)

  • Robin Born

    (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Technology, and Economics, Chair of Sustainability and Technology)

  • Malte Schneider

    (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), Technology, and Economics, Chair of Sustainability and Technology)

Abstract

To support developing countries in greenhouse-gas emission abatement the 2010 Cancún Agreement established various institutions, among others a financial mechanism administered by the Green Climate Fund. However, the instruments for delivering the support and the magnitude of different countries’ financial needs are strongly debated. Both debates are predominantly underpinned by rather aggregate and strongly varying top-down cost estimates. To complement these numbers, we provide a more fine-grained bottom-up approach, comparing the cost of the renewable-energy technologies photovoltaics and wind in six developing countries with those of conventional technologies. Our results unveil large cost variations across specific technology–country combinations and show to what extent fossil-fuel subsidies can negatively affect the competitiveness of renewable-energy technologies. Regarding the instrument debate, our results indicate that to foster transformative changes, nationally appropriate mitigation actions are often more suited than a reformed clean development mechanism. Regarding the debate on financial needs, our results highlight the need for a decision on a fair baseline calculation methodology. To this end, we propose a new methodology that incentivizes changes in the baseline through subsidy phase-out. Finally, we contribute to the debate on domestic versus international support for these measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Tobias S. Schmidt & Robin Born & Malte Schneider, 2012. "Assessing the costs of photovoltaic and wind power in six developing countries," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 2(7), pages 548-553, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:2:y:2012:i:7:d:10.1038_nclimate1490
    DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1490
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    Cited by:

    1. D'Adamo, Idiano & Gastaldi, Massimo & Morone, Piergiuseppe, 2020. "The post COVID-19 green recovery in practice: Assessing the profitability of a policy proposal on residential photovoltaic plants," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    2. Spiros Papaefthimiou, Manolis Souliotis, and Kostas Andriosopoulos, 2016. "Grid parity of solar energy: imminent fact or future's fiction," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Bollino-M).
    3. Huang, Zhe & Lu, Lu & Jiang, Daqian & Xing, Defeng & Ren, Zhiyong Jason, 2017. "Electrochemical hythane production for renewable energy storage and biogas upgrading," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 595-600.
    4. Ondraczek, Janosch, 2014. "Are we there yet? Improving solar PV economics and power planning in developing countries: The case of Kenya," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 604-615.
    5. Labordena, Mercè & Patt, Anthony & Bazilian, Morgan & Howells, Mark & Lilliestam, Johan, 2017. "Impact of political and economic barriers for concentrating solar power in Sub-Saharan Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 52-72.
    6. Erick López & Carlos Valle & Héctor Allende & Esteban Gil & Henrik Madsen, 2018. "Wind Power Forecasting Based on Echo State Networks and Long Short-Term Memory," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-22, February.
    7. Schmidt, Tobias S. & Battke, Benedikt & Grosspietsch, David & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2016. "Do deployment policies pick technologies by (not) picking applications?—A simulation of investment decisions in technologies with multiple applications," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 1965-1983.
    8. Hoppmann, Joern & Volland, Jonas & Schmidt, Tobias S. & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2014. "The economic viability of battery storage for residential solar photovoltaic systems – A review and a simulation model," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1101-1118.
    9. Blum, Nicola U. & Sryantoro Wakeling, Ratri & Schmidt, Tobias S., 2013. "Rural electrification through village grids—Assessing the cost competitiveness of isolated renewable energy technologies in Indonesia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 482-496.
    10. Battke, Benedikt & Schmidt, Tobias S. & Grosspietsch, David & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2013. "A review and probabilistic model of lifecycle costs of stationary batteries in multiple applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 240-250.
    11. Lang, Tillmann & Gloerfeld, Erik & Girod, Bastien, 2015. "Don׳t just follow the sun – A global assessment of economic performance for residential building photovoltaics," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 932-951.
    12. Tobias Schmidt & Sandeep Dabur, 2014. "Explaining the diffusion of biogas in India: a new functional approach considering national borders and technology transfer," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 16(2), pages 171-199, April.
    13. George A. Gonzalez, 2016. "Transforming Energy: Solving Climate Change with Technology Policy . New York : Cambridge University Press . 360 pages. ISBN 9781107614970, $29.99 paperback. Anthony Patt , 2015 ," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 33(1), pages 111-113, January.
    14. Huenteler, Joern, 2014. "International support for feed-in tariffs in developing countries—A review and analysis of proposed mechanisms," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 857-873.
    15. Ondraczek, Janosch & Komendantova, Nadejda & Patt, Anthony, 2015. "WACC the dog: The effect of financing costs on the levelized cost of solar PV power," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 888-898.
    16. Luis Ramirez Camargo & Judith Franco & Nilsa María Sarmiento Babieri & Silvina Belmonte & Karina Escalante & Raphaela Pagany & Wolfgang Dorner, 2016. "Technical, Economical and Social Assessment of Photovoltaics in the Frame of the Net-Metering Law for the Province of Salta, Argentina," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-21, February.
    17. Aquila, Giancarlo & Nakamura, Wilson Toshiro & Junior, Paulo Rotella & Souza Rocha, Luiz Celio & de Oliveira Pamplona, Edson, 2021. "Perspectives under uncertainties and risk in wind farms investments based on Omega-LCOE approach: An analysis in São Paulo state, Brazil," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    18. Sweerts, Bart & Longa, Francesco Dalla & van der Zwaan, Bob, 2019. "Financial de-risking to unlock Africa's renewable energy potential," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 75-82.
    19. Elie, Luc & Granier, Caroline & Rigot, Sandra, 2021. "The different types of renewable energy finance: A Bibliometric analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    20. Tao, Jacqueline Yujia & Finenko, Anton, 2016. "Moving beyond LCOE: impact of various financing methods on PV profitability for SIDS," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 749-758.
    21. Kayser, Dirk, 2016. "Solar photovoltaic projects in China: High investment risks and the need for institutional response," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 144-152.
    22. Luo, Shunjun & Zhang, Shaohui, 2022. "How R&D expenditure intermediate as a new determinants for low carbon energy transition in Belt and Road Initiative economies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 101-109.
    23. David Ockwell & Ambuj Sagar & Heleen Coninck, 2015. "Collaborative research and development (R&D) for climate technology transfer and uptake in developing countries: towards a needs driven approach," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 401-415, August.

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