Bending the learning curve

Jan Witajewski-Baltvilks, Elena Verdolini and Massimo Tavoni ()

Energy Economics, 2015, vol. 52, issue S1, S86-S99

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to improve the application of the learning curve, a popular tool used for forecasting future costs of renewable technologies in integrated assessment models (IAMs). First, we formally discuss under what assumptions the traditional (OLS) estimates of the learning curve can deliver meaningful predictions in IAMs. We argue that the most problematic of them are the absence of any effect of technology cost on its demand (reverse causality) and the ability of IAMs to predict all determinants of cumulative capacity. Next, we show that these assumptions can be relaxed by modifying the traditional econometric method used to estimate the learning curve. The new estimation approach presented in this paper is robust to the two problems identified but preserves the reduced form character of the learning curve. Finally, we provide new estimates of learning curves for wind turbines and PV technologies which are tailored for use in IAMs. Our results suggest that the learning rate should be revised upward for solar PV. Our estimate of learning rate for wind technology is almost the same as the traditional OLS estimates.

Keywords: Learning Rate Estimation; Technological Innovation; Renewable Energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C26 C55 Q42 Q55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988315002601
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Bending The Learning Curve (2015)
Working Paper: Bending The Learning Curve (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:52:y:2015:i:s1:p:s86-s99

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2015.09.007

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Economics is currently edited by R. S. J. Tol, Beng Ang, Lance Bachmeier, Perry Sadorsky, Ugur Soytas and J. P. Weyant

More articles in Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().