Do deployment policies pick technologies by (not) picking applications?—A simulation of investment decisions in technologies with multiple applications

Schmidt, Tobias S.; Battke, Benedikt; Grosspietsch, David; Hoffmann, Volker H.

doi:10.1016/j.respol.2016.07.001

Cited by 48 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 103 publications

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“…Our insights can be extended to other multi-purpose technologies, such as battery storage (Battke and Schmidt 2015, Schmidt et al 2016, Stephan et al 2016.…”

Section: Discussion and Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Technology specificity is the key design feature analysed in the literature about technology selection and lock-in (del Río González 2008, Azar and Sandén 2011, Kalkuhl et al 2012, Lehmann and Gawel 2013, Schmidt et al 2016, Gawel et al 2017, Schmidt and Sewerin 2018. Technology-specific policy instruments directly foster the deployment of an individual technology or groups of technologies (Gawel et al 2017).…”

Section: Design Features Of Deployment Policiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lock-in may be undesirable in early-stage technologies for two reasons. First, it can result in long-term inefficiencies (Schmidt et al 2016). These arise from locking out technologies which, though more expensive at the outset, would offer superior learning rates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, long-term economic cost of deployment would be higher because faster learning technologies would not have been deployed in their early stage. As predicting future learning curves of early-stage technologies is difficult, encouraging technological diversity is regarded a viable alternative to achieve long-term economic efficiency (Arthur 1989, Sandén and Azar 2005, del Río González 2008, Schmidt et al 2016. Second, premature technological lock-in, all else equal, inherently reduces long-term diversity and hence the resilience of the energy system against external shocks (van den Bergh et al 2006, Stirling 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, in case the superior technology becomes dominant early on, societal costs are reduced. However, since it is difficult to predict future developments-whether of economic, environmental, or technological nature-it may be preferential to foster competition between different technological choices at least at the outset in order to avoid locking in inferior technologies (van den Bergh 2008, Schmidt et al 2016). In any case, policymakers should be aware of deployment policies' potential consequences in terms of lock-in.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Supporting energy technology deployment while avoiding unintended technological lock-in: a policy design perspective

Haelg

Waelchli

Schmidt

2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Technology deployment policies can play a key role in bringing early-stage energy technologies to the market and reducing their cost along their learning curves. Yet deployment policies may drive unintended and premature lock-in of currently leading technologies. Here we develop an empirically calibrated agent-based model to analyse how deployment policy design influences which technologies are selected by investors. We focus on Germany's solar photovoltaics feed-in tariff policy between 2003 and 2011 and analyse two design features, technology specificity and application specificity. Our results show that both features are highly important in technology selection and that spillover effects between applications exist. Policies that fail to consider these effects can unintendedly lock in or lock out technologies. To avoid this, policymakers can leverage the fact that different technologies are competitive in different applications and, by designing application-specific deployment policies, effectively offer a level playing field for competing technologies.

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“…Our insights can be extended to other multi-purpose technologies, such as battery storage (Battke and Schmidt 2015, Schmidt et al 2016, Stephan et al 2016.…”

Section: Discussion and Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Design Features Of Deployment Policiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Supporting energy technology deployment while avoiding unintended technological lock-in: a policy design perspective

Haelg

Waelchli

Schmidt

2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

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The Design of the Swiss Feed-In Tariff

Haelg¹,

Schmidt²,

Sewerin³

2021

Swiss Energy Governance

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In light of climate change mitigation and the transformation of the energy sector, many jurisdictions have adopted deployment policies for renewable energy (RE) technologies. Several RE deployment policy instruments have diffused from frontrunner countries to other jurisdictions. Switzerland implemented its first comprehensive RE support policy with the adoption of a cost-covering and technology-specific feed-in tariff in 2009, following Germany’s example. Yet, policy designs look very different in the two countries and, importantly, also result in different policy outcomes. In this chapter, we examine the reasons for these policy design differences. We unpack the design of the Swiss feed-in tariff and analyze which of the policy’s elements were directly adopted from Germany and which were accommodated to the Swiss context and why. In particular, we compare the specific instrument designs for two renewable power generation technologies, solar photovoltaics (PV) and biomass, and study the role of technology-related actors in shaping these policy designs. We draw from the policy diffusion and policy transfer literatures and offer important extensions to the literature by showing that, instead of entire policies, it is possible that only certain design elements of a policy diffuse from one jurisdiction to another. Additionally, we find that the composition of the existing technology-related actor bases in the donor and recipient countries is important in determining whether the accommodation of the design elements to the domestic context occurs.

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The innovation effects of renewable energy policies and their interaction: the case of solar photovoltaics

Palage

Lundmark

Söderholm

2018

Environ Econ Policy Stud

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The objective of this paper is to examine the innovation impacts of renewable energy support policies, and their interaction in the empirical context of solar photovoltaics (PV) technology. This is achieved using data on patent applications for 13 countries over the period 1978-2008, and unconditional negative binomial estimators. The analysis addresses one technology-push instrument, public R&D support, and two demand-pull instruments, feed-in tariffs (FIT), and renewable energy certificate (REC) schemes. The results indicate that: (a) both FIT and REC schemes induce solar PV patenting activity, but the impact of the former policy appears to be more profound; (b) public R&D support has overall been more influential than FIT and REC schemes in encouraging solar PV innovation; (c) policy interaction exists in that the impact of public R&D support on innovation is greater at the margin if it is accompanied by the use of FIT schemes for solar PV. A corresponding interaction effect is harder to detect for public R&D support and REC schemes, possibly due to the stronger technology selection pressure under the latter policy. The results following several robustness tests support the existence of a positive interaction effect between public R&D and FIT schemes.

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Do deployment policies pick technologies by (not) picking applications?—A simulation of investment decisions in technologies with multiple applications

Cited by 48 publications

References 103 publications

Supporting energy technology deployment while avoiding unintended technological lock-in: a policy design perspective

Supporting energy technology deployment while avoiding unintended technological lock-in: a policy design perspective

The Design of the Swiss Feed-In Tariff

The innovation effects of renewable energy policies and their interaction: the case of solar photovoltaics

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