IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v83y2019icp144-155.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Welfare evaluation of subsidies to renewable energy in general equilibrium: Theory and application

Author

Listed:
  • Johansson, Per-Olov
  • Kriström, Bengt

Abstract

While support schemes to renewable energy are ubiquitous around the world today, there are few systematic welfare evaluations of their social benefits and costs in an economy-wide setting. We develop a general equilibrium cost–benefit rule to assess changes in quantity based subsidy schemes, “green” certificates, that support renewable electricity generation. An advantage to large-scale numerical models of the same issue is that we can go “into the black box” and uncover key economic mechanisms. We study a second-best economy with distorting taxes and pollution, so that a perturbation of the certificate scheme causes both benefits and costs; these items can be uncovered and estimated using our framework. To this end, we provide a user-friendly approximation for empirical implementation, which means that data requirement is modest relative to a typical computable general equilibrium model. We apply the theory to a currently existing scheme in Sweden taking into account “trickle-down” effects, including e.g. a loss of value-added tax income in the rest of the economy and environmental costs (i.e. externalities from electricity generation not currently internalized). We first present an ex post estimate, i.e. the welfare consequences of having scrapped the existing system 2003–2017 and then an ex ante analysis of extending the system to 2045. The latter includes a systematic sensitivity analysis based on Monte-Carlo simulation. Overall, we find net present value gains from removing the subsidy scheme, taking into account externalities, “trickle-down” and public finance repercussions.

Suggested Citation

  • Johansson, Per-Olov & Kriström, Bengt, 2019. "Welfare evaluation of subsidies to renewable energy in general equilibrium: Theory and application," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 144-155.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:83:y:2019:i:c:p:144-155
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2019.06.024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988319302117
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2019.06.024?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jeyhun I. Mikayilov & Shahriyar Mukhtarov & Hasan Dinçer & Serhat Yüksel & Rıdvan Aydın, 2020. "Elasticity Analysis of Fossil Energy Sources for Sustainable Economies: A Case of Gasoline Consumption in Turkey," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-15, February.
    2. Yan Gao & Long Gao & Pei Zhang & Qiang Wang, 2023. "Two-Stage Optimization Scheduling of Virtual Power Plants Considering a User-Virtual Power Plant-Equipment Alliance Game," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-28, September.
    3. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Ho, Shan-Ju, 2022. "Impacts of export diversification on energy intensity, renewable energy, and waste energy in 121 countries: Do environmental regulations matter?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 1510-1522.
    4. Yu, Chin-Hsien & Wu, Xiuqin & Lee, Wen-Chieh & Zhao, Jinsong, 2021. "Resource misallocation in the Chinese wind power industry: The role of feed-in tariff policy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    5. Saiful Badli & Raja Masbar & Nazamuddin Nazamuddin & Muhammad Nasir & T. Zulham & Jumadil Saputra & Syahril Syahril & Helmi Noviar, 2020. "Investigating the Efficiency of Government Expenditure on Energy Consumption (Fuel) Subsidy Policy in Indonesia: An Application of Stochastic Frontier Model," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(4), pages 161-165.
    6. Wadim Strielkowski & Dalia Streimikiene & Alena Fomina & Elena Semenova, 2019. "Internet of Energy (IoE) and High-Renewables Electricity System Market Design," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-17, December.
    7. Marcin Dębowski & Izabela Świca & Joanna Kazimierowicz & Marcin Zieliński, 2022. "Large Scale Microalgae Biofuel Technology—Development Perspectives in Light of the Barriers and Limitations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-23, December.
    8. Li, Jianglong & Huang, Jiashun, 2020. "The expansion of China's solar energy: Challenges and policy options," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    9. Tsimopoulos, Evangelos G. & Georgiadis, Michael C., 2021. "Nash equilibria in electricity pool markets with large-scale wind power integration," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    10. Wang, Qunwei & Zhou, Bo & Zhang, Cheng & Zhou, Dequn, 2021. "Do energy subsidies reduce fiscal and household non-energy expenditures? A regional heterogeneity assessment on coal-to-gas program in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    11. Hou, Zheng & Roseta-Palma, Catarina & Ramalho, Joaquim J.S., 2024. "Can operational efficiency in the Portuguese electricity sector be improved? Yes, but..," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Cost–benefit analysis; Green certificates; Swedish certificate scheme; Renewable energy; Second-best;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q21 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q28 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Renewable Resources and Conservation - - - Government Policy
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:83:y:2019:i:c:p:144-155. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.