IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2205.01436.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Potential gains of long-distance trade in electricity

Author

Listed:
  • Javier L'opez Prol
  • Karl W. Steininger
  • Keith Williges
  • Wolf D. Grossmann
  • Iris Grossmann

Abstract

Electrification of all economic sectors and solar photovoltaics (PV) becoming the lowest-cost electricity generation technology in ever more regions give rise to new potential gains of trade. We develop a stylized analytical model to minimize unit energy cost in autarky, open it to different trade configurations, and evaluate it empirically. We identify large potential gains from interhemispheric and global electricity trade by combining complementary seasonal and diurnal cycles. The corresponding high willingness to pay for large-scale transmission suggests far-reaching political economy and regulatory implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Javier L'opez Prol & Karl W. Steininger & Keith Williges & Wolf D. Grossmann & Iris Grossmann, 2022. "Potential gains of long-distance trade in electricity," Papers 2205.01436, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2205.01436
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2205.01436
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brian R. Copeland & M. Scott Taylor, 1994. "North-South Trade and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(3), pages 755-787.
    2. Paul L. Joskow, 2011. "Comparing the Costs of Intermittent and Dispatchable Electricity Generating Technologies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 238-241, May.
    3. Donald R. Davis & David E. Weinstein, 2001. "An Account of Global Factor Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1423-1453, December.
    4. David McCollum & Volker Krey & Peter Kolp & Yu Nagai & Keywan Riahi, 2014. "Transport electrification: A key element for energy system transformation and climate stabilization," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 651-664, April.
    5. Yang, Yuting, 2022. "Electricity interconnection with intermittent renewables," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    6. Andrew B. Bernard & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2007. "Comparative Advantage and Heterogeneous Firms," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 74(1), pages 31-66.
    7. Hirth, Lion, 2013. "The market value of variable renewables," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 218-236.
    8. Grossman, Gene M. & Helpman, Elhanan, 1991. "Trade, knowledge spillovers, and growth," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(2-3), pages 517-526, April.
    9. Heymi Bahar & Jehan Sauvage, 2013. "Cross-Border Trade in Electricity and the Development of Renewables-Based Electric Power: Lessons from Europe," OECD Trade and Environment Working Papers 2013/2, OECD Publishing.
    10. Schill, Wolf-Peter, 2020. "Electricity Storage and the Renewable Energy Transition," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 4(10), pages 2059-2064.
    11. Aghahosseini, Arman & Bogdanov, Dmitrii & Barbosa, Larissa S.N.S. & Breyer, Christian, 2019. "Analysing the feasibility of powering the Americas with renewable energy and inter-regional grid interconnections by 2030," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 187-205.
    12. Bachner, Gabriel & Steininger, Karl W. & Williges, Keith & Tuerk, Andreas, 2019. "The economy-wide effects of large-scale renewable electricity expansion in Europe: The role of integration costs," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 1369-1380.
    13. Churkin, Andrey & Pozo, David & Bialek, Janusz & Korgin, Nikolay & Sauma, Enzo, 2019. "Can cross-border transmission expansion lead to fair and stable cooperation? Northeast Asia case analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    14. Trefler, Daniel, 1995. "The Case of the Missing Trade and Other Mysteries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1029-1046, December.
    15. Fabian Feger & Nicola Pavanini & Doina Radulescu, 2022. "Welfare and Redistribution in Residential Electricity Markets with Solar Power [Residential Consumption of Gas and Electricity in the US: The Role of Prices and Income]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(6), pages 3267-3302.
    16. Ueckerdt, Falko & Hirth, Lion & Luderer, Gunnar & Edenhofer, Ottmar, 2013. "System LCOE: What are the costs of variable renewables?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 61-75.
    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. López Prol, Javier & Steininger, Karl W. & Williges, Keith & Grossmann, Wolf D. & Grossmann, Iris, 2023. "Potential gains of long-distance trade in electricity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    2. Javier L'opez Prol & Wolf-Peter Schill, 2020. "The Economics of Variable Renewables and Electricity Storage," Papers 2012.15371, arXiv.org.
    3. Ruhnau, Oliver, 2020. "Market-based renewables: How flexible hydrogen electrolyzers stabilize wind and solar market values," EconStor Preprints 227075, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    4. Ruhnau, Oliver, 2022. "How flexible electricity demand stabilizes wind and solar market values: The case of hydrogen electrolyzers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    5. Martin Kittel & Wolf-Peter Schill, 2021. "Renewable Energy Targets and Unintended Storage Cycling: Implications for Energy Modeling," Papers 2107.13380, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2021.
    6. Arezki, Rabah & Fetzer, Thiemo & Pisch, Frank, 2017. "On the comparative advantage of U.S. manufacturing: Evidence from the shale gas revolution," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 34-59.
    7. Emblemsvåg, Jan, 2022. "Wind energy is not sustainable when balanced by fossil energy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    8. Klie, Leo & Madlener, Reinhard, 2022. "Optimal configuration and diversification of wind turbines: A hybrid approach to improve the penetration of wind power," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    9. Ruhnau, Oliver & Hirth, Lion & Praktiknjo, Aaron, 2020. "Heating with wind: Economics of heat pumps and variable renewables," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    10. Auer, Raphael & Fischer, Andreas M., 2010. "The effect of low-wage import competition on U.S. inflationary pressure," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(4), pages 491-503, May.
    11. Lion Hirth, 2015. "The Optimal Share of Variable Renewables: How the Variability of Wind and Solar Power affects their Welfare-optimal Deployment," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    12. May, Nils, 2017. "The impact of wind power support schemes on technology choices," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 343-354.
    13. Morrow, Peter M., 2010. "Ricardian-Heckscher-Ohlin comparative advantage: Theory and evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 137-151, November.
    14. Matsuo, Yuhji & Endo, Seiya & Nagatomi, Yu & Shibata, Yoshiaki & Komiyama, Ryoichi & Fujii, Yasumasa, 2020. "Investigating the economics of the power sector under high penetration of variable renewable energies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    15. Schill, Wolf-Peter, 2014. "Residual Load, Renewable Surplus Generation and Storage Requirements in Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 73, pages 65-79.
    16. Crozet, Matthieu & Trionfetti, Federico, 2011. "Comparative Advantage and Within-Industry Firms Performance," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 1101, CEPREMAP.
    17. Crozet, Matthieu & Trionfetti, Federico, 2013. "Firm-level comparative advantage," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 321-328.
    18. Coe, Ryan G. & Ahn, Seongho & Neary, Vincent S. & Kobos, Peter H. & Bacelli, Giorgio, 2021. "Maybe less is more: Considering capacity factor, saturation, variability, and filtering effects of wave energy devices," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    19. Romeiro, Diogo Lisbona & Almeida, Edmar Luiz Fagundes de & Losekann, Luciano, 2020. "Systemic value of electricity sources – What we can learn from the Brazilian experience?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    20. Peter Egger & Sergey K. Nigai, 2016. "World-Trade Growth Accounting," CESifo Working Paper Series 5831, CESifo.

    More about this item

    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:arx:papers:2205.01436. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.