Skip to main content
About HEC About HEC
Summer School Summer School
Faculty & Research Faculty & Research
Master’s programs Master’s programs
Bachelor Programs Bachelor Programs
MBA Programs MBA Programs
PhD Program PhD Program
Executive Education Executive Education
HEC Online HEC Online
About HEC
Overview Overview
Who
We Are
Who
We Are
Égalité des chances Égalité des chances
HEC Talents HEC Talents
International International
Sustainability Sustainability
Diversity
& Inclusion
Diversity
& Inclusion
The HEC
Foundation
The HEC
Foundation
Campus life Campus life
Activity Reports Activity Reports
Summer School
Youth Programs Youth Programs
Summer programs Summer programs
Online Programs Online Programs
Faculty & Research
Overview Overview
Faculty Directory Faculty Directory
Departments Departments
Centers Centers
Chairs Chairs
Grants Grants
Knowledge@HEC Knowledge@HEC
Master’s programs
Master in
Management
Master in
Management
Master's
Programs
Master's
Programs
Double Degree
Programs
Double Degree
Programs
Bachelor
Programs
Bachelor
Programs
Summer
Programs
Summer
Programs
Exchange
students
Exchange
students
Student
Life
Student
Life
Our
Difference
Our
Difference
Bachelor Programs
Overview Overview
Course content Course content
Admissions Admissions
Fees and Financing Fees and Financing
MBA Programs
MBA MBA
Executive MBA Executive MBA
TRIUM EMBA TRIUM EMBA
PhD Program
Overview Overview
HEC Difference HEC Difference
Program details Program details
Research areas Research areas
HEC Community HEC Community
Placement Placement
Job Market Job Market
Admissions Admissions
Financing Financing
FAQ FAQ
Executive Education
Home Home
About us About us
Management topics Management topics
Open Programs Open Programs
Custom Programs Custom Programs
Events/News Events/News
Contacts Contacts
HEC Online
Overview Overview
Executive programs Executive programs
MOOCs MOOCs
Summer Programs Summer Programs
Youth programs Youth programs
Article

What’s the Best Way for Governments to Support Renewable Energy?

Energy
Published on:
5 minutes

Though nations agree that they must speed the creation and use of renewable energy solutions in order to avert climate disaster, there is less consensus on what government policies would most effectively serve this end. New research by HEC Paris Professors Sam Aflaki and Andrea Masini, and East West University Professor Syed Abul Basher of Economics offers insight into the best use of public investment.

Three ways to support Renewable Energy in a nutshell:

  1. Technology-push: Fiscal incentives for R&D stimulate radical innovation. 
  2. Demand-pull: Downstream interventions like feed-in tariffs (subsidizing households) encourage the use of existing technologies like photovoltaic systems.
  3. Economic stimulus: Overall economic stimulation, such as lowering taxes, assuming wealthier countries are more likely to adopt renewables. 
     
pollution cover

Photo by Maxim Tolchinskiy on Unsplash

The COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference that concluded in mid-November resulted in the commitment of billions of dollars to climate finance, to advance environmental sustainability and phase out the use of coal. The COP26 Energy Transition Council stated the aim of doubling the rate of investment in clean power by 2030.

The urgency of these issues was underlined by John Kerry, the US’s climate envoy, who called COP26 “the last best hope” to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.

However, there has been a longstanding debate on how policy affects the creation and diffusion of innovations. How exactly should public money be spent? 

We sought to examine this question, looking specifically at how to best stimulate renewable energy innovation and diffusion, using data from 15 European countries.

Three options

Suppose a country, Germany, for example, had $200 million euros to invest in promoting the adoption of renewable energy systems, such as photovoltaics. Such a budget could be spent in different ways. One option is that the government could provide fiscal incentives to companies investing in innovation — i.e., in the research and development of more efficient solutions that would eventually be brought to market and possibly adopted. But this “technology-push” option might bear fruit only a few years down the line, once the new technology had been developed and commercialized.

Germany could also use its money to subsidize households willing to install photovoltaic systems already available on the market, and guarantee an advantageous price for the sale of excess electricity back to the grid — called feed-in tariffs (something that Germany did, in fact, implement). This “demand-pull” mechanism obviously favors existing technology, already on the market, and it does not necessarily incentivize the development of radical innovation that would become available only after a few years.

Or, as a third option, governments could decide to stimulate the economy overall — by, for example, lowering taxes — based on the hypothesis that a richer country is more likely to adopt renewable energy solutions, especially if they are more expensive than fossil fuel technologies. (A parallel of this hypothesis on an individual level is that consumers are unlikely to buy an expensive electric vehicle unless they have a certain amount of disposable income.)

Diverse policy measures most effective

To understand which option would be most effective, we looked at data on renewable energy from 15 European countries across a 13-year period. We examined the extent to which R&D investment, public policy and gross domestic product per capita had an effect on renewable energy innovation (measured by the number of patents filed in the field) and diffusion (the ratio of renewable energy electricity to total electricity).

Our conclusions largely confirmed our hypotheses: The use of fiscal incentives for firms to invest in R&D stimulates radical innovation, while more downstream interventions, such as feed-in tariffs, encourage the use of available technologies.

 

Countries should implement a multifaceted approach to renewable energy policy and investment, to finance both short-term and long-term growth of the market.

 

Indeed, Germany’s actual feed-in tariff program, one of the first in Europe, produced permanent structural changes in the energy industry. The initial stimulus helped the renewable energy industry become cost-competitive to an extent that, when Germany recently dropped its feed-in tariff levels, the renewable energy market as a whole remained unaffected

Interestingly, we found that a high GDP per capita does not significantly affect innovation, but it does have a positive effect on the adoption of commercially available systems.

We therefore advocate that countries implement a multifaceted approach to renewable energy policy and investment: creating niche markets through demand-based policies, but also supporting R&D, to finance both short-term and long-term growth of the market. Policymakers should also not overlook the importance of affluence and GDP growth.

Extendibility of results

Our research should be interpreted with some caution because the correlation between policies and renewable energy diffusion can be overinflated, as we indicated in a separate research article on the limitations of panel data.

 

Companies leaders should also take note that a shortsighted focus on available technologies could backfire, to the advantage of those companies that have a long-term innovation strategy.

 

We should also emphasize that our study was limited to 15 European countries. However, because of the significant differences among these countries, it is likely that our results could be extended to other contexts with a reasonable level of accuracy.

 

Applications

To strengthen renewable energy innovation and adoption, policymakers should employ both upstream and downstream supports for renewable energy — mechanisms to boost both innovative research and such economic programs as feed-in tariffs. Different approaches have different effects, the former spurring innovation and the latter adoption. But it is also important not to underestimate the importance of the GDP, as a well-off, well-educated population is more likely to adopt renewable energy solutions. The three strategies to support renewable energy solutions work together synergistically and must be deployed simultaneously. Companies leaders should also take note that a shortsighted focus on available technologies could backfire, to the advantage of those companies that have a long-term innovation strategy.  

Methodology

We examined data for three different variables from 15 European Union countries from the period 1990-2012 for their influence on renewable energy creation and diffusion. These data include R&D spending, a renewable energy policy index and GDP per capita. Patent data stands as a measure of innovation, and the ratio of renewable energy to total electricity as a measure of renewable energy diffusion.
Based on an interview with Sam Aflaki and Andrea Masini and their article “Technology-push, demand-pull and endogenous drivers of innovation in the renewable energy industry” (Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, July 2021), co-written with Economics Professor Syed Abul Basher of East West University.  

Related content on Energy

photovoltaic panels on house roofs-thumbnail
Operations Management

How Can Communication Boost the Adoption of Renewable Energy?

By Andrea Masini, Sam Aflaki

Energy
Ukraine/Russia: The Energy Factor
Jean-Michel Gauthier HEC
Jean-Michel Gauthier
Energy & Finance Professor
House on a hill with renewable energy - ALDECAstudio-vignette
Energy

Optimizing Feed-In Tariffs to Boost Renewable Energy Production

By Sam Aflaki, Andrea Masini

Afshin Mehrpouya TedTalk
Regulation

The Rise of Rankings in Global Governance: How Can They Change the Regulation of Large Corporations?

By Afshin Mehrpouya