Evaluating the case for supporting renewable electricity

David M Newbery

No 12700, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Renewable electricity, particularly solar PV and wind, creates external benefits of learning-by-doing that drive down costs and reduce COâ‚‚ emissions. The Global Apollo Programme called for collective action to develop enewable energy. This paper sets out a method for assessing whether a trajectory of investment that involves initial subsidies is justified by the subsequent learning-by-doing spillovers and if so, computes the maximum justifiable additional subsidy to provide, taking account of the special features of renewable electricity -- geographically dispersed and variable quality resource base and local saturation. Given current costs and learning rates, accelerating the current rate of investment appears globally socially beneficial for solar PV in most but not all cases, less so for on-shore wind. The optimal trajectory appears to involve a gradually decreasing rate of growth of installed capacity.

Keywords: Learning-by-doing; Pv; Wind; Subsidies; Cost-benefit analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C6 H23 H43 Q42 Q5 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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