IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i11p3082-d235981.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability of a Policy Instrument: Rethinking the Renewable Portfolio Standard in South Korea

Author

Listed:
  • Youhyun Lee

    (East Asia Co-existence & Collaboration Research Center, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul 03063, Korea)

  • Inseok Seo

    (Department of Public Administration, Anyang University, Anyang 14028, Korea)

Abstract

The constant effectiveness of a policy instrument was a major lacuna in energy policy for a long time. However, selecting and mixing appropriate policy instruments has become crucial in the era of climate change. The aim of this paper is to investigate the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) system as a sustainable policy instrument for promoting new and renewable energy. To answer the research question, we utilized the latent growth model by applying the data on 27 types of new and renewable energy production from 2014, 2015, and 2016. Our empirical analysis concluded that the effectiveness of the RPS as a policy instrument decreased linearly each year, and its effectiveness is expected to decrease in the long term from 2017 to 2023. Profound debates and evidence from other RPS-adopting countries should be additionally conducted to bolster this theme of sustainable energy policy instruments

Suggested Citation

  • Youhyun Lee & Inseok Seo, 2019. "Sustainability of a Policy Instrument: Rethinking the Renewable Portfolio Standard in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-19, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:11:p:3082-:d:235981
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/11/3082/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/11/3082/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barry G. Rabe, 2008. "States on Steroids: The Intergovernmental Odyssey of American Climate Policy," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 25(2), pages 105-128, March.
    2. Cheng, Quan & Yi, Hongtao, 2017. "Complementarity and substitutability: A review of state level renewable energy policy instrument interactions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 683-691.
    3. Frondel, Manuel & Ritter, Nolan & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Vance, Colin, 2010. "Economic impacts from the promotion of renewable energy technologies: The German experience," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 4048-4056, August.
    4. Philippe Menanteau & Dominique Finon & Marie-Laure Lamy, 2003. "Prices versus quantities :environmental policies for promoting the development of renewable energy," Post-Print halshs-00480457, HAL.
    5. Lori Bennear & Robert Stavins, 2007. "Second-best theory and the use of multiple policy instruments," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 37(1), pages 111-129, May.
    6. Yi, Hongtao, 2015. "Clean-energy policies and electricity sector carbon emissions in the U.S. states," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 19-29.
    7. del Rio, Pablo & Gual, Miguel A., 2007. "An integrated assessment of the feed-in tariff system in Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 994-1012, February.
    8. Sun, Peng & Nie, Pu-yan, 2015. "A comparative study of feed-in tariff and renewable portfolio standard policy in renewable energy industry," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 255-262.
    9. Mitchell, C. & Bauknecht, D. & Connor, P.M., 2006. "Effectiveness through risk reduction: a comparison of the renewable obligation in England and Wales and the feed-in system in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 297-305, February.
    10. Hyungguen Park & Changhee Kim, 2018. "Do Shifts in Renewable Energy Operation Policy Affect Efficiency: Korea’s Shift from FIT to RPS and Its Results," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-14, May.
    11. Longo, Alberto & Markandya, Anil & Petrucci, Marta, 2008. "The internalization of externalities in the production of electricity: Willingness to pay for the attributes of a policy for renewable energy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 140-152, August.
    12. Kwon, Tae-hyeong, 2015. "Is the renewable portfolio standard an effective energy policy?: Early evidence from South Korea," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 46-51.
    13. Dong, C.G., 2012. "Feed-in tariff vs. renewable portfolio standard: An empirical test of their relative effectiveness in promoting wind capacity development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 476-485.
    14. Lau, Lee Chung & Lee, Keat Teong & Mohamed, Abdul Rahman, 2012. "Global warming mitigation and renewable energy policy development from the Kyoto Protocol to the Copenhagen Accord—A comment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(7), pages 5280-5284.
    15. Menanteau, Philippe & Finon, Dominique & Lamy, Marie-Laure, 2003. "Prices versus quantities: choosing policies for promoting the development of renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 799-812, June.
    16. Hongtao Yi & Richard C. Feiock, 2012. "Policy Tool Interactions and the Adoption of State Renewable Portfolio Standards," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 29(2), pages 193-206, March.
    17. Nick Johnstone & Ivan Haščič & David Popp, 2010. "Renewable Energy Policies and Technological Innovation: Evidence Based on Patent Counts," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 45(1), pages 133-155, January.
    18. Yin, Haitao & Powers, Nicholas, 2010. "Do state renewable portfolio standards promote in-state renewable generation[glottal stop]," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 1140-1149, February.
    19. Menz, Fredric C. & Vachon, Stephan, 2006. "The effectiveness of different policy regimes for promoting wind power: Experiences from the states," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(14), pages 1786-1796, September.
    20. Michael Howlett, 2009. "Governance modes, policy regimes and operational plans: A multi-level nested model of policy instrument choice and policy design," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 42(1), pages 73-89, February.
    21. Kwon, Tae-hyeong, 2018. "Policy synergy or conflict for renewable energy support: Case of RPS and auction in South Korea," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 443-449.
    22. Jefferson, Michael, 2008. "Accelerating the transition to sustainable energy systems," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 4116-4125, November.
    23. Popp, David & Hascic, Ivan & Medhi, Neelakshi, 2011. "Technology and the diffusion of renewable energy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 648-662, July.
    24. Carley, Sanya, 2009. "State renewable energy electricity policies: An empirical evaluation of effectiveness," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 3071-3081, August.
    25. Bao, Xiongjiantao & Zhao, Wenhui & Wang, Xiaomei & Tan, Zhongfu, 2019. "Impact of policy mix concerning renewable portfolio standards and emissions trading on electricity market," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 761-774.
    26. Kwon, Tae-hyeong, 2015. "Rent and rent-seeking in renewable energy support policies: Feed-in tariff vs. renewable portfolio standard," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 676-681.
    27. Hess, Brian, 2000. "Assessing program impact using latent growth modeling: a primer for the evaluator," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 419-428, November.
    28. Lipp, Judith, 2007. "Lessons for effective renewable electricity policy from Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5481-5495, November.
    29. Haas, Reinhard & Resch, Gustav & Panzer, Christian & Busch, Sebastian & Ragwitz, Mario & Held, Anne, 2011. "Efficiency and effectiveness of promotion systems for electricity generation from renewable energy sources – Lessons from EU countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 2186-2193.
    30. Bergek, Anna & Jacobsson, Staffan, 2010. "Are tradable green certificates a cost-efficient policy driving technical change or a rent-generating machine? Lessons from Sweden 2003-2008," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 1255-1271, March.
    31. Jenny Lieu & Niki Artemis Spyridaki & Rocio Alvarez-Tinoco & Wytze Van der Gaast & Andreas Tuerk & Oscar Van Vliet, 2018. "Evaluating Consistency in Environmental Policy Mixes through Policy, Stakeholder, and Contextual Interactions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-26, June.
    32. Peng Bin & Marco Vassallo, 2016. "The Growth Path of Agricultural Labor Productivity in China: A Latent Growth Curve Model at the Prefectural Level," Economies, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-20, June.
    33. Lesser, Jonathan A. & Su, Xuejuan, 2008. "Design of an economically efficient feed-in tariff structure for renewable energy development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 981-990, March.
    34. Verbruggen, Aviel, 2009. "Performance evaluation of renewable energy support policies, applied on Flanders' tradable certificates system," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1385-1394, April.
    35. Langniss, Ole & Wiser, Ryan, 2003. "The renewables portfolio standard in Texas: an early assessment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 527-535, May.
    36. Yugo Tanaka & Andrew Chapman & Shigeki Sakurai & Tetsuo Tezuka, 2017. "Feed-in Tariff Pricing and Social Burden in Japan: Evaluating International Learning through a Policy Transfer Approach," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-16, October.
    37. Sanya Carley, 2011. "The Era of State Energy Policy Innovation: A Review of Policy Instruments," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 28(3), pages 265-294, May.
    38. Moore, Barry & Rhodes, John, 1973. "Evaluating the Effects of British Regional Economic Policy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 83(329), pages 87-110, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Dmitry Radoushinsky & Kirill Gogolinskiy & Yousef Dellal & Ivan Sytko & Abhishek Joshi, 2023. "Actual Quality Changes in Natural Resource and Gas Grid Use in Prospective Hydrogen Technology Roll-Out in the World and Russia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-31, October.
    2. Youhyun Lee & Bomi Kim & Heeju Hwang, 2020. "Which Institutional Conditions Lead to a Successful Local Energy Transition? Applying Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to Solar PV Cases in South Korea," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-19, July.
    3. Xu, Jie & Lv, Tao & Hou, Xiaoran & Deng, Xu & Liu, Feng, 2021. "Provincial allocation of renewable portfolio standard in China based on efficiency and fairness principles," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1233-1245.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Polzin, Friedemann & Egli, Florian & Steffen, Bjarne & Schmidt, Tobias S., 2019. "How do policies mobilize private finance for renewable energy?—A systematic review with an investor perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 1249-1268.
    2. Felix Groba & Barbara Breitschopf, 2013. "Impact of Renewable Energy Policy and Use on Innovation: A Literature Review," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1318, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    3. del Río, Pablo & Bleda, Mercedes, 2012. "Comparing the innovation effects of support schemes for renewable electricity technologies: A function of innovation approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 272-282.
    4. Nicolini, Marcella & Tavoni, Massimo, 2017. "Are renewable energy subsidies effective? Evidence from Europe," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 412-423.
    5. Kwon, Tae-hyeong, 2018. "Policy synergy or conflict for renewable energy support: Case of RPS and auction in South Korea," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 443-449.
    6. Shen, Neng & Deng, Rumeng & Liao, Haolan & Shevchuk, Oleksandr, 2020. "Mapping renewable energy subsidy policy research published from 1997 to 2018: A scientometric review," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. García-Álvarez, María Teresa & Cabeza-García, Laura & Soares, Isabel, 2017. "Analysis of the promotion of onshore wind energy in the EU: Feed-in tariff or renewable portfolio standard?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 256-264.
    8. Guillaume Bourgeois & Sandrine Mathy & Philippe Menanteau, 2017. "The effect of climate policies on renewable energies : a review of econometric studies [L’effet des politiques climatiques sur les énergies renouvelables : une revue des études économétriques]," Post-Print hal-01585906, HAL.
    9. Jenner, Steffen & Groba, Felix & Indvik, Joe, 2013. "Assessing the strength and effectiveness of renewable electricity feed-in tariffs in European Union countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 385-401.
    10. del Río, Pablo & Tarancón, Miguel-Ángel, 2012. "Analysing the determinants of on-shore wind capacity additions in the EU: An econometric study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 12-21.
    11. Bersalli, Germán & Menanteau, Philippe & El-Methni, Jonathan, 2020. "Renewable energy policy effectiveness: A panel data analysis across Europe and Latin America," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    12. Wang, Tan & Gong, Yu & Jiang, Chuanwen, 2014. "A review on promoting share of renewable energy by green-trading mechanisms in power system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 923-929.
    13. Kwon, Tae-hyeong, 2020. "Policy mix of renewable portfolio standards, feed-in tariffs, and auctions in South Korea: Are three better than one?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    14. Polzin, Friedemann & Migendt, Michael & Täube, Florian A. & von Flotow, Paschen, 2015. "Public policy influence on renewable energy investments—A panel data study across OECD countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 98-111.
    15. Kwon, Tae-hyeong, 2015. "Rent and rent-seeking in renewable energy support policies: Feed-in tariff vs. renewable portfolio standard," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 676-681.
    16. Kwon, Tae-hyeong, 2015. "Is the renewable portfolio standard an effective energy policy?: Early evidence from South Korea," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 46-51.
    17. Li, Jinke & Liu, Guy & Shao, Jing, 2020. "Understanding the ROC transfer payment in the renewable obligation with the recycling mechanism in the United Kingdom," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    18. Romano, Antonio A. & Scandurra, Giuseppe & Carfora, Alfonso & Fodor, Mate, 2017. "Renewable investments: The impact of green policies in developing and developed countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P1), pages 738-747.
    19. Sanya Carley & Elizabeth Baldwin & Lauren M. MacLean & Jennifer N. Brass, 2017. "Global Expansion of Renewable Energy Generation: An Analysis of Policy Instruments," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 68(2), pages 397-440, October.
    20. Wang, Yunfei & Li, Jinke & O'Leary, Nigel & Shao, Jing, 2024. "Excess demand or excess supply? A comparison of renewable energy certificate markets in the United Kingdom and Australia," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).

    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:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:11:p:3082-:d:235981. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.