Have State Renewable Portfolio Standards Really Worked?: Synthesizing Past Policy Assessments

Gireesh Shrimali, Steffen Jenner, Felix Groba (), Gabriel Chan and Joe Indvik

No 1258, Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin from DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research

Abstract: Renewable portfolio standards (RPS) are the most popular U.S. state-level policies for promoting deployment of renewable electricity (RES-E). While several econometric studies have estimated the effect of RPS on in-state RES-E deployment, results are contradictory. We reconcile these studies and move toward a definitive answer to the question of RPS effectiveness. We conduct an analysis using time series cross sectional regressions - including the most nuanced controls for policy design features to date - and nonparametric matching analysis. We find that higher RPS stringency does not necessarily drive more RES-E deployment. We examine several RPS design features and market characteristics (including REC unbundling, RPS in neighboring states, out-of-state renewable energy purchases) that may explain the gap between effective and ineffective policies. We also investigate other RES-E policies and technology-specific effects. Ultimately, we show that RPS effectiveness is largely explained by a combination of policy design, market context, and inter-state trading effects.

Keywords: Renewable energy; Renewable portfolio standards; Panel data models; Matching analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 H23 Q42 Q48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 p.
Date: 2012
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 (13)

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