IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/116963.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Municipal building codes and the adoption of solar photovoltaics

Author

Listed:
  • Carattini, Stefano
  • Figge, Béla
  • Gordan, Alexander
  • Löschel, Andreas

Abstract

Conflicting societal goals can lead to national and local policies that are at odds with each other. National policies promoting the adoption of solar photovoltaics may be counteracted by local policies defining the aesthetics of the built environment. As solar photovoltaic energy approaches grid parity globally, non-pecuniary barriers to the adoption of this important renewable energy source become increasingly salient. Using a unique survey of municipalities regarding such building codes and administrative data on all solar installations in Germany, a leader in solar adoption, we document the impact that municipalities amending their building codes to restrict solar installations, often with an eye toward preserving the historical nature of the town, has on solar adoption. We find that municipalities that implement solar policies have 10.4 percent less solar photovoltaic capacity than municipalities in the control group. We confirm our results when applying spatial techniques and analyzing the impact of such policies on regulated areas within municipalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Carattini, Stefano & Figge, Béla & Gordan, Alexander & Löschel, Andreas, 2022. "Municipal building codes and the adoption of solar photovoltaics," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 116963, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:116963
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/116963/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Germeshausen, Robert, 2016. "Effects of Attribute-Based Regulation on Technology Adoption - The Case of Feed-In Tariffs for Solar Photovoltaic," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145712, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    2. Jonathan E. Hughes & Molly Podolefsky, 2015. "Getting Green with Solar Subsidies: Evidence from the California Solar Initiative," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(2), pages 235-275.
    3. Lawrence H. Goulder & Robert N. Stavins, 2011. "Interactions between State and Federal Climate Change Policies," NBER Chapters, in: The Design and Implementation of US Climate Policy, pages 109-121, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Ashley Langer & Derek Lemoine, 2022. "Designing Dynamic Subsidies to Spur Adoption of New Technologies," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 9(6), pages 1197-1234.
    5. Fischer, Carolyn & Preonas, Louis, 2010. "Combining Policies for Renewable Energy: Is the Whole Less Than the Sum of Its Parts?," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 4(1), pages 51-92, June.
    6. Jonathan Roth & Pedro H. C. Sant’Anna, 2023. "Efficient Estimation for Staggered Rollout Designs," Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(4), pages 669-709.
    7. Eli Feinerman & Israel Finkelshtain & Iddo Kan, 2004. "On A Political Solution to the NIMBY Conflict," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 369-381, March.
    8. Kenneth Gillingham & Tsvetan Tsvetanov, 2019. "Hurdles and steps: Estimating demand for solar photovoltaics," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 10(1), pages 275-310, January.
    9. Imbens, Guido W & Angrist, Joshua D, 1994. "Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(2), pages 467-475, March.
    10. Krekel, Christian & Zerrahn, Alexander, 2017. "Does the presence of wind turbines have negative externalities for people in their surroundings? Evidence from well-being data," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 221-238.
    11. Harrison Fell & Daniel T. Kaffine & Kevin Novan, 2021. "Emissions, Transmission, and the Environmental Value of Renewable Energy," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 241-272, May.
    12. Sven Müller & Johannes Rode, 2013. "The adoption of photovoltaic systems in Wiesbaden, Germany," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(5), pages 519-535, July.
    13. Stefano Carattini & Simon Levin & Alessandro Tavoni, 2019. "Cooperation in the Climate Commons," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 13(2), pages 227-247.
    14. Olivier De Groote & Frank Verboven, 2019. "Subsidies and Time Discounting in New Technology Adoption: Evidence from Solar Photovoltaic Systems," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(6), pages 2137-2172, June.
    15. Böhringer, Christoph & Cuntz, Alexander & Harhoff, Dietmar & Asane-Otoo, Emmanuel, 2017. "The impact of the German feed-in tariff scheme on innovation: Evidence based on patent filings in renewable energy technologies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 545-553.
    16. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    17. Grant D. Jacobsen & Matthew J. Kotchen, 2013. "Are Building Codes Effective at Saving Energy? Evidence from Residential Billing Data in Florida," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(1), pages 34-49, March.
    18. Anin Aroonruengsawat, Maximilian Auffhammer, and Alan H. Sanstad, 2012. "The Impact of State Level Building Codes on Residential Electricity Consumption," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1).
    19. Rode, Johannes & Weber, Alexander, 2016. "Does localized imitation drive technology adoption? A case study on rooftop photovoltaic systems in Germany," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 38-48.
    20. Claudio Marcantonini & A.Denny Ellerman, 2015. "The Implicit Carbon Price of Renewable Energy Incentives in Germany," The Energy Journal, , vol. 36(4), pages 205-240, October.
    21. Crago, Christine Lasco & Chernyakhovskiy, Ilya, 2017. "Are policy incentives for solar power effective? Evidence from residential installations in the Northeast," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 132-151.
    22. Frey, Bruno S & Oberholzer-Gee, Felix, 1997. "The Cost of Price Incentives: An Empirical Analysis of Motivation Crowding-Out," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(4), pages 746-755, September.
    23. Been, Vicki & Ellen, Ingrid Gould & Gedal, Michael & Glaeser, Edward & McCabe, Brian J., 2016. "Preserving history or restricting development? The heterogeneous effects of historic districts on local housing markets in New York City," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 16-30.
    24. Severin Borenstein, 2017. "Private Net Benefits of Residential Solar PV: The Role of Electricity Tariffs, Tax Incentives, and Rebates," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(S1), pages 85-122.
    25. Claudio Marcantonini, A. Denny Ellerman, 2015. "The Implicit Carbon Price of Renewable Energy Incentives in Germany," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    26. Frank M. Bass, 1969. "A New Product Growth for Model Consumer Durables," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(5), pages 215-227, January.
    27. Zhou, Yang, 2021. "The political economy of historic districts: The private, the public, and the collective," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    28. Matthew J. Kotchen, 2017. "Longer-Run Evidence on Whether Building Energy Codes Reduce Residential Energy Consumption," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(1), pages 135-153.
    29. Goulder, Lawrence H. & Jacobsen, Mark R. & van Benthem, Arthur A., 2012. "Unintended consequences from nested state and federal regulations: The case of the Pavley greenhouse-gas-per-mile limits," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 187-207.
    30. Knauf, Jakob & Wüstenhagen, Rolf, 2023. "Crowdsourcing social acceptance: Why, when and how project developers offer citizens to co-invest in wind power," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    31. Germeshausen, Robert & von Graevenitz, Kathrine & Achtnicht, Martin, 2022. "Does the stick make the carrot more attractive? State mandates and uptake of renewable heating technologies," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    32. Doruk Cengiz & Arindrajit Dube & Attila Lindner & Ben Zipperer, 2019. "The Effect of Minimum Wages on Low-Wage Jobs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(3), pages 1405-1454.
    33. Jos Sijm, 2005. "The interaction between the EU emissions trading scheme and national energy policies," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 79-96, January.
    34. Christoph Böhringer & Knut Rosendahl, 2010. "Green promotes the dirtiest: on the interaction between black and green quotas in energy markets," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 316-325, June.
    35. Luis E. Gonzales & Koichiro Ito & Mar Reguant, 2022. "The Dynamic Impact of Market Integration: Evidence from Renewable Energy Expansion in Chile," NBER Working Papers 30016, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    36. Grischa Perino & Maximilian Willner & Simon Quemin & Michael Pahle, 2022. "The European Union Emissions Trading System Market Stability Reserve: Does It Stabilize or Destabilize the Market?," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(2), pages 338-345.
    37. Rode, Johannes & Weber, Alexander, 2016. "Does localized imitation drive technology adoption? A case study on rooftop photovoltaic systems in Germany," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 38-48.
    38. Smith, V Kerry & Desvousges, William H, 1986. "The Value of Avoiding a Lulu: Hazardous Waste Disposal Sites," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 68(2), pages 293-299, May.
    39. Arik Levinson, 2016. "How Much Energy Do Building Energy Codes Save? Evidence from California Houses," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(10), pages 2867-2894, October.
    40. Richard S. J. Tol, 2009. "The Economic Effects of Climate Change," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 29-51, Spring.
    41. Baker, Andrew C. & Larcker, David F. & Wang, Charles C.Y., 2022. "How much should we trust staggered difference-in-differences estimates?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 370-395.
    42. Felix Creutzig & Peter Agoston & Jan Christoph Goldschmidt & Gunnar Luderer & Gregory Nemet & Robert C. Pietzcker, 2017. "The underestimated potential of solar energy to mitigate climate change," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 2(9), pages 1-9, September.
    43. Roth, Jonathan & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Bilinski, Alyssa & Poe, John, 2023. "What’s trending in difference-in-differences? A synthesis of the recent econometrics literature," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 2218-2244.
    44. Levinson, Arik, 1999. "NIMBY taxes matter: the case of state hazardous waste disposal taxes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 31-51, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Carattini, Stefano & Gillingham, Kenneth & Meng, Xiangyu & Yoeli, Erez, 2024. "Peer-to-peer solar and social rewards: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 340-370.
    2. Axel Gautier & Julien Jacqmin, 2020. "PV adoption: the role of distribution tariffs under net metering," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 53-73, February.
    3. Germeshausen, Robert, 2016. "Effects of Attribute-Based Regulation on Technology Adoption - The Case of Feed-In Tariffs for Solar Photovoltaic," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145712, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    4. Sébastien Houde & Wenjun Wang, 2022. "The Incidence of the U.S.-China Solar Trade War," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 22/372, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    5. Arnold, Fabian & Jeddi, Samir & Sitzmann, Amelie, 2022. "How prices guide investment decisions under net purchasing — An empirical analysis on the impact of network tariffs on residential PV," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    6. Stefan Lamp, 2023. "Sunspots That Matter: The Effect of Weather on Solar Technology Adoption," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 84(4), pages 1179-1219, April.
    7. De Groote, Olivier & Gautier, Axel & Verboven, Frank, 2024. "The political economy of financing climate policy — Evidence from the solar PV subsidy programs," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    8. Brown, David P. & Muehlenbachs, Lucija, 2024. "The value of electricity reliability: Evidence from battery adoption," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    9. Bruno Moreno Rodrigo de Freitas, 2020. "Quantifying the effect of regulated volumetric electriciy tariffs on residential PV adoption under net metering scheme," Working papers of CATT hal-02976874, HAL.
    10. Andrea Baranzini, Stefano Carattini, Martin Peclat, 2017. "What drives social contagion in the adoption of solar photovoltaic technology," GRI Working Papers 270, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    11. Bruno Moreno Rodrigo de Freitas, 2020. "Quantifying the effect of regulated volumetric electriciy tariffs on residential PV adoption under net metering scheme," Working Papers hal-02976874, HAL.
    12. Best, Rohan & Chareunsy, Andrea, 2022. "The impact of income on household solar panel uptake: Exploring diverse results using Australian data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    13. Petrovich, Beatrice & Carattini, Stefano & Wüstenhagen, Rolf, 2021. "The price of risk in residential solar investments," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    14. Brown, David P. & Muehlenbachs, Lucija, 2023. "The Value of Electricity Reliability: Evidence from Battery Adoption," Working Papers 2023-5, University of Alberta, Department of Economics, revised 26 Jul 2024.
    15. Davis, Lucas & Martinez, Sebastian & Taboada, Bibiana, 2018. "How Effective is Energy-efficient Housing?: Evidence From a Field Experiment in Mexico," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 8767, Inter-American Development Bank.
    16. Abajian, Alexander & Pretnar, Nick, 2023. "Subsidies for Close Substitutes: Evidence from Residential Solar Systems," MPRA Paper 118171, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. San-Martín, Enrique & Elizalde, Patxi, 2024. "Determinants of rooftop solar uptake: A comparative analysis of the residential and non-residential sectors in the Basque Country (Spain)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    18. Sun, Bixuan & Sankar, Ashwini, 2022. "The changing effectiveness of financial incentives: Theory and evidence from residential solar rebate programs in California," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    19. Hjalmarsson, Linn & Kaiser, Boris & Bischof, Tamara, 2023. "The impact of physician exits in primary care: A study of practice handovers," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    20. Zhang, Jianhua & Ballas, Dimitris & Liu, Xiaolong, 2023. "Neighbourhood-level spatial determinants of residential solar photovoltaic adoption in the Netherlands," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 1239-1248.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    building codes; solar photovoltaics; policy evaluation; NIMBY;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • R52 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Land Use and Other Regulations

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ehl:lserod:116963. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    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.