Heterogeneous policies, heterogenous technologies : the case of renewable energy

Francesco Nicolli (1) , Francesco Vona (1)

1 Facoltà di Economia (Faculty of Economics)

This paper investigates empirically the effect of market regulation and renewable energy policies on innovation activity in different renewable energy technologies. For the EU countries and the years 1980 to 2007, we built a unique dataset containing information on patent production in eight different technologies, proxies of market regulation and technology-specific renewable energy policies. Our main findings show that lowering entry barriers is a more significant driver of renewable energy innovation than privatisation and unbundling, but its effect varies across technologies, being stronger in technologies characterised by the potential entry of small, independent power producers. Additionally, the inducement effect of renewable energy policies is heterogeneous and more pronounced for wind, which is the only technology that is mature and has high technological potential. Finally, the ratification of the Kyoto protocol – determining a more stable and less uncertain policy framework - amplifies the inducement effect of both energy policy and market liberalisation.

Mots clés: renewable energy certificates

Domaines: Economies et finances

Francesco Nicolli, Francesco Vona. Heterogeneous policies, heterogenous technologies : the case of renewable energy. 2014. ⟨hal-01087864⟩