To Whom Should We Grant a Power Plant? Economic Effects of Investment in Nuclear Energy in Poland

Katarzyna Zawalińska, Jouko Kinnunen, Piotr Gradziuk and Dorota Celinska-Janowicz
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Jouko Kinnunen: Statistics and Research Åland (ÅSUB), Ålandsvägen 26, AX-22100 Mariehamn, Åland, Finland

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-26

Abstract: Poland is the most coal-dependent economy and one of the biggest polluters in the EU. In order to alleviate this problem, meet CO 2 emission requirements set by EU, and improve the country’s energy security, Poland decided to introduce nuclear power to its energy mix. So far, several potential locations for nuclear power plants have been officially proposed, mainly based on technical parameters, but no comparisons of the economic impact of such locations have been considered. Consequently, the main goal of this paper is to compare the national and regional economic effects of investments in nuclear power plants—for both the construction and exploitation phases—in the four most probable locations, which are similarly beneficial from a technical point of view. In order to simulate these effects, the spatial recursive dynamic Computable General Equilibrium model was calibrated until 2050 including agglomeration effects and featuring the regional economies of all Polish regions. The results show that although the construction phase is beneficial for economic development in all four regions, the exploitation phase is good for only one. The economies of the other regions suffer, to a greater or lesser extent, from the Dutch disease. The paper argues that the regional economic effects of such an investment differ significantly, due to differences in the regions’ economic structures; hence, they should always be taken into account in the final decisions on the power plants’ locations.

Keywords: nuclear power station; location; national and regional economic effects; spatial Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modelling; agglomeration effects; energy policy; Poland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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