Case Studies on the Effectiveness of State Financial Incentives for Renewable Energy PDF Download

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Languages : en
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September 2002 · NREL/SR-620-32819 Case Studies on the Effectiveness of State Financial Incentives for Renewable Energy S. Gouchoe, V. Everette, and R. Haynes North Carolina State University Raleigh, North Carolina National Renewable Energy Laboratory 1617 Cole Boulevard Golden, Colorado 80401-3393 NREL is a U.S. Department of Energy Laboratory Operated by Midwest Research Institute · Battelle · Bechtel Contract No. DE-AC36-99-GO10337 September 2002 · NREL/SR-620-32819Case Studies on the Effecti.

Author: Susan M. Gouchoe
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Energy policy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Publisher:
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Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 82

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Scientist and policy makers alike have identified renewable energy technologies as a means to reduce global greenhouse gas admissions and remediate some of the negative effects of climate change. The global campaign to promote renewables is particularly strong among European countries, where policymakers have acknowledged global environmental changes at the national level, and responded by creating comprehensive national renewable energy policies to meet this challenge. However, in the United States, climate change appears to be a lower priority to the general electorate and to political leaders. This low level of public concern, paired with the fragmented design of US political structures and engrained political culture, provides a unique set of challenges to the development of more effective national renewable energy policies. The lack of a defined national policy also creates a variety of individual incentive-based policies administrated at the state and local jurisdictional levels with varying results in terms of policy effectiveness towards renewable energy. To address this problem, the existing literature argues that policies promoting financial incentives and subsidies have a direct causal relationship with the growth in the renewable energy sector. This literature points to the growth in solar photovoltaic permitting activity in California (from 2009 – 2015) as evidence of the effectiveness of incentives and subsidies in shaping citizen behavior towards renewable energy. Through area statewide analysis, the existing literature infers that rational actors are generally likely to respond to financial incentives in a clear and direct way. This thesis examines the effectiveness and efficiency of financial incentive- and subsidy-based public policy in the promotion of the renewable energy sector. This thesis maps existing environmental philosophies and examines domestic renewable energy policies, focusing particularly at the state and local jurisdictional level. I use four intentional match comparisons to compare similar local jurisdiction policies promoting incentives against those local jurisdictions without incentive policies to isolate and determine whether local level financial incentive programs have a direct causal relationship with the growth of renewable energy markets.

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Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 9780821342831
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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The World Bank is providing assistance to the Government of China to help develop recommendations for changes to China's present system of financial incentives for commercial renewable energy development. This book reports on a Bank workshop that examined international experience with financial incentives for grid-connected wind power systems and off-grid photovoltaic systems in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, the United States (California), India, and China. The collective experiences of the countries were further examined to indicate other directions for developing financial incentives for market-based renewable energy development, as well as the underlying reasons for these tendencies.

Author: Peter Meier
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464803145
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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This study provides economic models of the sustainability and affordability of renewable energy support schemes alongside operational advice on how the regulatory design may need to be modified to minimize the impact on the budget and be affordable to the poor, as well as how to identify and fill the financing gap.

Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Technology. Subcommittee on Energy Development and Applications
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Category : Energy tax credits
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Author: Eric Lantz
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Category : Energy policy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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As a policy tool, state tax incentives can be structured to help states meet clean energy goals. Policymakers often use state tax incentives in concert with state and federal policies to support renewable energy deployment or reduce market barriers. This analysis used case studies of four states to assess the contributions of state tax incentives to the development of renewable energy markets. State tax incentives that are appropriately paired with complementary state and federal policies generally provide viable mechanisms to support renewable energy deployment. However, challenges to successful implementation of state tax incentives include serving project owners with limited state tax liability, assessing appropriate incentive levels, and differentiating levels of incentives for technologies with different costs. Additionally, state tax incentives may result in moderately higher federal tax burdens. These challenges notwithstanding, state tax incentives that consider certain policy design characteristics can support renewable energy markets and state clean energy goals.The scale of their impact though is directly related to the degree to which they support the renewable energy markets for targeted sectors and technologies. This report highlights important policy design considerations for policymakers using state tax incentives to meet clean energy goals.

Author: Dianne Rahm
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 078642768X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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With America's dependence on fossil fuels painfully apparent due to world events and the resultant sharply rising gas prices, the search for renewable energy sources has never been more important. Still, the quest for sustainable energy is far from new. Since passage of the National Energy Act of 1978, states and the federal government have encouraged technological advances designed to make the United States self-sufficient when it comes to energy production. Government incentives and global-minded policymakers encourage development of alternative energy sources. While addressing the national issues of global climate change and energy security, the idea of sustainable energy must also find a way to appeal to an increasingly competitive market. Through nine case studies, this volume explores the roles which politics, market forces and leadership play as barriers or facilitators in the development of sustainable energy sources. Beginning with an overview of energy-related programs and legislation including the National Energy Act of 1978 and the Energy Policy acts of 1992 and 2005, the book discusses the various financial programs and policy mechanisms used by the states. Each of the nine essays examines sustainable energy development within a particular state or region. The importance of the political climate, the impact of free markets and the value of effective leadership with regard to this particular technological development remains a common thread. Topics such as the perceived effectiveness of state and federal governmental efforts and prevalent attitudes regarding renewable energy are also discussed. Each essay includes an in-depth bibliography with many website resources to encourage further research. Statistical tables are also provided. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Author: Oxana Yurievna Petritchenko
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Human ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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This thesis evaluates whether state-level solar energy incentives and regulations promote the market growth of small-scale photovoltaic (PV) technologies in commercial and residential sectors. The results of this analysis are important for effective design and implementation of policies intended to achieve the increased deployment of small-scale solar energy technologies. A fixed effects model is used to assess effectiveness of solar policies while controlling for unobservable time-invariant factors that affect the deployment of PV system installations unique to each state. In particular, the capacity of PV technologies installed per 100,000 people during a period of 2000 through 2010 across twenty-four states and the District of Columbia was regressed against a variety of state policies directed at promoting PV technologies. Specifically, feed-in tariffs, rebates, solar and distributed generation (DG) carve-outs in states' renewable portfolio standards, solar renewable energy credits (SREC), net metering as well as sales, residential, commercial and personal tax exemptions were evaluated. The results of this analysis support claims that feed-in tariffs are significantly more effective than any other policy in promoting the deployment of solar energy technologies. Establishment of a SREC market and solar or DG carve-outs are also found to be effective in promoting the growth of PV installations. Although rebates are found to be ineffective during the first year of their implementation, observing the policies' effect several years later reveals that they become significant with time. However, net metering and tax incentives are found to be ineffective in promoting deployment of PV technologies regardless of taking into account the effect of the time lag of policy implementation.

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Languages : en
Pages : 109

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Many state regulatory commissions and policymakers want utilities to aggressively pursue energy efficiency as a strategy to mitigate demand and energy growth, diversify the resource mix, and provide an alternative to building new, costly generation. However, as the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency (NAPEE 2007) points out, many utilities continue to shy away from aggressively expanding their energy efficiency efforts when their shareholder's fundamental financial interests are placed at risk by doing so. Thus, there is increased interest in developing effective ratemaking and policy approaches that address utility disincentives to pursue energy efficiency or lack of incentives for more aggressive energy efficiency efforts. New regulatory initiatives to promote increased utility energy efficiency efforts also affect the interests of consumers. Ratepayers and their advocates are concerned with issues of fairness, impacts on rates, and total consumer costs. From the perspective of energy efficiency advocates, the quid pro quo for utility shareholder incentives is the obligation to acquire all, or nearly all, achievable cost-effective energy efficiency. A key issue for state regulators and policymakers is how to maximize the cost-effective energy efficiency savings attained while achieving an equitable sharing of benefits, costs and risks among the various stakeholders. In this study, we modeled a prototypical vertically-integrated electric investor-owned utility in the southwestern US that is considering implementing several energy efficiency portfolios. We analyze the impact of these energy efficiency portfolios on utility shareholders and ratepayers as well as the incremental effect on each party when lost fixed cost recovery and/or utility shareholder incentive mechanisms are implemented. A primary goal of our quantitative modeling is to provide regulators and policymakers with an analytic framework and tools that assess the financial impacts of alternative incentive approaches on utility shareholders and customers if energy efficiency is implemented under various utility operating, cost, and supply conditions. We used and adapted a spreadsheet-based financial model (the Benefits Calculator) which was developed originally as a tool to support the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency (NAPEE). The major steps in our analysis are displayed graphically in Figure ES- 1. Two main inputs are required: (1) characterization of the utility which includes its initial financial and physical market position, a forecast of the utility?s future sales, peak demand, and resource strategy to meet projected growth; and (2) characterization of the Demand-Side Resource (DSR) portfolio? projected electricity and demand savings, costs and economic lifetime of a portfolio of energy efficiency (and/or demand response) programs that the utility is planning or considering implementing during the analysis period. The Benefits Calculator also estimates total resource costs and benefits of the DSR portfolio using a forecast of avoided capacity and energy costs. The Benefits Calculator then uses inputs provided in the Utility Characterization to produce a?business-as usual? base case as well as alternative scenarios that include energy efficiency resources, including the corresponding utility financial budgets required in each case. If a decoupling and/or a shareholder incentive mechanism are instituted, the Benefits Calculator model readjusts the utility?s revenue requirement and retail rates accordingly. Finally, for each scenario, the Benefits Calculator produces several metrics that provides insights on how energy efficiency resources, decoupling and/or a shareholder incentive mechanism impacts utility shareholders (e.g. overall earnings, return on equity), ratepayers (e.g., average customer bills and rates) and society (e.g. net resource benefits).