IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/slucer/2011_014.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Profitability of Power Generating Firms and Policies Promoting Renewable Energy

Author

Abstract

With policies to promote power generation from renewable energy sources (RES) becoming important part of climate and energy policy worldwide, there is now considerable interest in understanding how these different market-based mechanisms affect power generating firms in practice. The existing theory provides conflicting guidance regarding profitability of Tradable Green Certificates (TGC) over Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) based policies. Thus, the main goal of this study is to empirically assess the performance of power generating firms operating in the TGC scheme environment relative to the performance of power generating firms operating under alternatives RES support mechanisms. The main finding of this study is that, in Europe, TGC schemes are associated with higher returns for power generating firms. This supports the hypothesis that higher investment uncertainty induced by the TGC policy nature coupled with some market imperfections lead to higher profits for electricity producers operating in TGC schemes.

Suggested Citation

  • Kažukauskas, Andrius & Jaraite, Jurate, 2011. "The Profitability of Power Generating Firms and Policies Promoting Renewable Energy," CERE Working Papers 2011:14, CERE - the Center for Environmental and Resource Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:slucer:2011_014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-sekon.slu.se/~gbost/CERE_WP2011-14.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. António Marques & José Fuinhas & José Manso, 2011. "A Quantile Approach to Identify Factors Promoting Renewable Energy in European Countries," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 49(3), pages 351-366, July.
    2. Rathmann, M., 2007. "Do support systems for RES-E reduce EU-ETS-driven electricity prices?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 342-349, January.
    3. G. Urga & P. A. Geroski & S. Lazarova & C. F. Walters, 2003. "Are differences in firm size transitory or permanent?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(1), pages 47-59.
    4. Philippe Menanteau & Dominique Finon & Marie-Laure Lamy, 2003. "Prices versus quantities :environmental policies for promoting the development of renewable energy," Post-Print halshs-00480457, HAL.
    5. Verbruggen, Aviel, 2004. "Tradable green certificates in Flanders (Belgium)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 165-176, January.
    6. Stern,Nicholas, 2007. "The Economics of Climate Change," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521700801.
    7. Mitchell, C. & Bauknecht, D. & Connor, P.M., 2006. "Effectiveness through risk reduction: a comparison of the renewable obligation in England and Wales and the feed-in system in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 297-305, February.
    8. Mundlak, Yair, 1978. "On the Pooling of Time Series and Cross Section Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 69-85, January.
    9. Agnolucci, Paolo, 2007. "The effect of financial constraints, technological progress and long-term contracts on tradable green certificates," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 3347-3359, June.
    10. G. M.P. Swann, 2009. "The Economics of Innovation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13211.
    11. Amundsen, Eirik S. & Mortensen, Jorgen Birk, 2001. "The Danish Green Certificate System: some simple analytical results," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 489-509, September.
    12. Jos Sijm & Karsten Neuhoff & Yihsu Chen, 2006. "CO 2 cost pass-through and windfall profits in the power sector," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 49-72, January.
    13. 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.
    14. Dinica, Valentina, 2006. "Support systems for the diffusion of renewable energy technologies--an investor perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 461-480, March.
    15. Nick Johnstone & Ivan Haščič & David Popp, 2010. "Renewable Energy Policies and Technological Innovation: Evidence Based on Patent Counts," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 45(1), pages 133-155, January.
    16. Lorenzoni, Arturo, 2003. "The Italian Green Certificates market between uncertainty and opportunities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 33-42, January.
    17. Abrell, Jan & Weigt, Hannes, 2008. "The Interaction of Emissions Trading and Renewable Energy Promotion," MPRA Paper 65658, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Fouquet, Doerte & Johansson, Thomas B., 2008. "European renewable energy policy at crossroads--Focus on electricity support mechanisms," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 4079-4092, November.
    19. Goddard, John & Tavakoli, Manouche & Wilson, John O.S., 2009. "Sources of variation in firm profitability and growth," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 495-508, April.
    20. Amundsen, E.S. & Mortensen, J.B., 2001. "The Danish Green Certificate System: Some Simple Analytical Results," Norway; Department of Economics, University of Bergen 226, Department of Economics, University of Bergen.
    21. Christoph Heinzel & Thomas Winkler, 2011. "Economic functioning and politically pragmatic justification of tradable green certificates in Poland," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 13(2), pages 157-175, June.
    22. Wang, Yan, 2006. "Renewable electricity in Sweden: an analysis of policy and regulations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 1209-1220, July.
    23. Bergek, Anna & Jacobsson, Staffan, 2010. "Are tradable green certificates a cost-efficient policy driving technical change or a rent-generating machine? Lessons from Sweden 2003-2008," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1255-1271, March.
    24. Christoph Böhringer & Knut Rosendahl, 2010. "Green promotes the dirtiest: on the interaction between black and green quotas in energy markets," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 316-325, June.
    25. Verbruggen, Aviel, 2009. "Performance evaluation of renewable energy support policies, applied on Flanders' tradable certificates system," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1385-1394, April.
    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. Jaraitė, Jūratė & Kažukauskas, Andrius, 2013. "The profitability of electricity generating firms and policies promoting renewable energy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 858-865.
    2. Darmani, Anna & Rickne, Annika & Hidalgo, Antonio & Arvidsson, Niklas, 2016. "When outcomes are the reflection of the analysis criteria: A review of the tradable green certificate assessments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 372-381.
    3. Nicolini, Marcella & Tavoni, Massimo, 2017. "Are renewable energy subsidies effective? Evidence from Europe," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 412-423.
    4. Lüthi, Sonja & Wüstenhagen, Rolf, 2012. "The price of policy risk — Empirical insights from choice experiments with European photovoltaic project developers," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 1001-1011.
    5. 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.
    6. Li, Jinke & Liu, Guy & Shao, Jing, 2020. "Understanding the ROC transfer payment in the renewable obligation with the recycling mechanism in the United Kingdom," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    7. del Río, Pablo & Bleda, Mercedes, 2012. "Comparing the innovation effects of support schemes for renewable electricity technologies: A function of innovation approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 272-282.
    8. 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.
    9. Pablo del Río, 2007. "The Impact of Market Power on the Functioning of Tradable Green Certificates Schemes," Energy & Environment, , vol. 18(2), pages 207-231, March.
    10. Agnolucci, Paolo, 2007. "The effect of financial constraints, technological progress and long-term contracts on tradable green certificates," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 3347-3359, June.
    11. Bersalli, Germán & Menanteau, Philippe & El-Methni, Jonathan, 2020. "Renewable energy policy effectiveness: A panel data analysis across Europe and Latin America," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    12. Verbruggen, Aviel & Lauber, Volkmar, 2009. "Basic concepts for designing renewable electricity support aiming at a full-scale transition by 2050," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5732-5743, December.
    13. Paul Koutstaal & Michiel Bijlsma & Gijsbert Zwart & X. van Tilburg, 2009. "Market performance and distributional effects on renewable energy markets," CPB Document 190.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    14. Reinhard Madlener & Weiyu Gao & Ilja Neustadt & Peter Zweifel, 2008. "Promoting renewable electricity generation in imperfect markets: price vs. quantity policies," SOI - Working Papers 0809, Socioeconomic Institute - University of Zurich.
    15. Mulder, Peter & de Groot, Henri L.F., 2013. "Dutch sectoral energy intensity developments in international perspective, 1987–2005," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 501-512.
    16. Youhyun Lee & Inseok Seo, 2019. "Sustainability of a Policy Instrument: Rethinking the Renewable Portfolio Standard in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-19, May.
    17. Wüstenhagen, Rolf & Menichetti, Emanuela, 2012. "Strategic choices for renewable energy investment: Conceptual framework and opportunities for further research," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-10.
    18. Nagl, Stephan, 2013. "Prices vs. Quantities: Incentives for Renewable Power Generation - Numerical Analysis for the European Power Market," EWI Working Papers 2013-4, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    19. Escoffier, Margaux & Hache, Emmanuel & Mignon, Valérie & Paris, Anthony, 2021. "Determinants of solar photovoltaic deployment in the electricity mix: Do oil prices really matter?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    20. Valérie Mignon & Margaux Escoffier & Emmanuel Hache & Anthony Paris, 2019. "Determinants of investments in solar photovoltaic: Do oil prices really matter?," EconomiX Working Papers 2019-28, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    electricity; European Union; emission trading; feed-in-tariff; renewable energy; tradable green certificates;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy

    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:hhs:slucer:2011_014. 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: Mona Bonta Bergman (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.cere.se .

    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.