short term optimal wind power generation capacity in liberalized electricity markets mainly because of environmental concerns and fuel price uncertainties considerable amounts of wind based generation capacity are being added to some deregulated power systems the rapid wind development registered in some countries has essentially been driven by strong subsidizing programs since wind investments are commonly isolated from market signals installed wind capacity can be higher than optimal leading to distortions of the power prices with a consequent loss of social welfare in this work the influence of wind generation on power prices in the framework of a liberalized electricity market has been assessed by means of stochastic simulation techniques the developed methodology allows investigating the maximal wind capacity that would be profitably deployed if wind investments were subject to market conditions only for this purpose stochastic variables determining power prices are accurately modeled a test system resembling the size and characteristics of the german power system has been selected for this study the expected value of the optimal short term wind capacity is evaluated for a considerable number of random realizations of power prices the impact of dispersing the wind capacity over statistical independent wind sites has also been evaluated the simulation results reveal that fuel prices installation and financing costs of wind investments are very influential parameters on the maximal wind capacity that might be accommodated in a market based manner

wind power in the danish liberalised power market policy measures price impact and investor incentives wind power has a strong position at the danish electricity market mainly caused by high feed in tariffs in the 1990s investments in new wind power installations on land however have declined dramatically after the danish electricity market was liberalised in 1999 first the paper describes how policy measures directed towards wind power have been redesigned to match the liberalised market then we estimate the impact of the redesigned tariffs on the electricity prices finally we assess whether the new tariffs make an incentive to invest in wind power the paper concludes that the new tariffs not by itself make evidence for the actual danish recession in new wind power installations after the electricity reform the main causes could include a combination of problems in spatial planning high risk aversion of new wind turbine investors and perhaps more favourable support schemes in other countries

virtual special issue editorial essay the shitty rent business what s the point of land rent theory in this introduction to a virtual special issue on land rent we sketch out the history of land rent theory encompassing classical political economy marx s political economy the marginalist turn and subsequent foundations for urban economics and the marxist consensus around rent theory during geography s spatial turn we then overview some of the contemporary strands of literature that have developed since the break down of this consensus namely political economy approaches centred on capital switching institutionalism of various stripes and the rent gap theory we offer a critical urban political economy perspective and a particular set of arguments run through the review first land is not the same as capital but has unique attributes as a factor of production which require a separate theorisation second since the 1970s consensus around land rent and the city dissipated the critical literature has tended to take the question of why how the payment exists at all for granted and so has ignored the particular dynamics of rent arising from the idiosyncrasies of land amongst the talk of an anthropocene and planetary urbanisation it is surprising that the economic fulcrum of the capitalist remaking of geography has fallen so completely off the agenda it is time to bring rent back into the analysis of land cities and capitalism

computerizing industries and routinizing jobs explaining trends in aggregate productivity abstract complementarity across occupations and industries implies that the relative size of those with high productivity growth shrinks reducing their contributions toward aggregate productivity growth and thereby resulting in its slowdown this force especially the shrinkage of occupations with above average productivity growth through routinization was present since the 1980s through the end of the 1990s it was countervailed by the extraordinary productivity growth in the computer industry of which output became an increasingly more important input in all industries computerization it was only when the computer industry s productivity growth slowed that the negative effect of routinization on aggregate productivity became apparent

comment on computerizing industries and routinizing jobs explaining trends in aggregate productivity by sangmin aum sang yoon tim lee and yongseok shin abstract aum et al 2018 quantify the impact of production complementarities and differential productivity growth across occupations and sectors on the slowdown of aggregate productivity growth this note expands their work to study substitutability between new computer equipment and labor in individual occupations as opposed to all occupations combined preliminary empirical evidence suggests 1 significantly different elasticities of substitution between computers and labor across occupations and 2 a strong correlation between productivity growth of computers and labor in occupations where these two inputs are complementary when they are substitutes however their productivity growth rates appear uncorrelated these findings have the potential to amplify or weaken the magnitude of the aggregate productivity slowdown explained by aum et al 2018 making their approach a promising avenue for future research

economics of pooling small local electricity prosumers lcoe self consumption abstract the arrival of small scale decentralized energy installations coincides with the emergence of so called prosumers entities households that are producer and consumer of energy in one this research focuses on an electricity prosumer model in the context of the uk market levelized cost of electricity lcoe for photovoltaic pv and wind energy will be modeled for six uk sites additionally self consumption levels for two different load profiles and technologies will be estimated per site the simulations are modeled with homer software and multiple inputs will be varied including natural resource equipment cost maintenance cost equipment life expectancy cost of capital project life and load profiles the modeled self consumption levels show significant differences and varied between 31 and 72 depending on load profile itself and re technologies mixes modeled the pooling of prosumers implied by lower load profile volatility proved to be beneficial to self consumption levels in the modeled scenarios up to 17 6 lcoe showed significant ranges depending on the input parameters and their combination 10 55 p kw h for pv and 2 19 p kw h for wind the combination of these factors is decisive for the final lcoe and the negative effects of less benign factors can be compensated by other parameters when compared to current electricity retail prices of around 15 p kw h around 97 of wind sites and around 4 of pv scenarios implied lcoe reached grid parity the self consumption levels and lcoe analysis indicate the viability of electricity prosumer models

on minimum rents part 1 marx and absolute rent marx suggests that land would not be rented to a tenant at less than some minimum rent which he calls absolute rent this concept and marx s arguments are analysed in this paper it has been argued by some that absolute rent in marxian economics derives from the fact that investment in agriculture is lower so that the organic composition of capital is lower it is argued here that the low organic composition of capital in the marxian schema is rather a consequence of the existence of absolute rent and this in turn results from the landlord tenant relationship marx himself stressed that if land were owner occupied absolute rent would not exist that it is a consequence of the system of land tenure but provides no explanation as to why it should have this consequence in an associated paper modern economic analysis is used to explain why minimum rents will occur

redistribution effects of energy and climate policy the electricity market abstract energy and climate policies are usually seen as measures to internalize externalities however as a side effect the introduction of these policies redistributes wealth between consumers and producers and within these groups while redistribution is seldom the focus of the academic literature in energy economics it plays a central role in public debates and policy decisions this paper compares the distributional effects of two major electricity policies support schemes for renewable energy sources and co2 pricing we find that the redistribution effects of both policies are large and they work in opposed directions while renewables support transfers wealth from producers to consumers carbon pricing does the opposite more specifically we show that moderate amounts of wind subsidies can increase consumer surplus even if consumers bear the subsidy costs co2 pricing in contrast increases aggregated producer surplus even without free allocation of emission allowances however not all types of producers benefit these findings are derived from an analytical model of electricity markets and a calibrated numerical model of northwestern europe our findings imply that if policy makers want to avoid large redistribution they might prefer a mix of policies even if co2 pricing alone is the first best climate policy in terms of allocative efficiency

windfall profits in the power sector during phase iii of the eu ets interplay and effects of renewables and carbon prices abstract since power utilities were originally grandfathered into the eu ets by way of a free allocation of carbon emission allowances eua the issue of windfall profits accruing to producers with carbon intensive generation portfolios has been the subject of critical analysis one of the chief aims of the switch to a predominantly auction based allocation system at the onset of phase iii of the eu ets was to negate the incidence of windfall profits the following analysis examines the merits of this policy aim drawing on economic theory of power markets a linear optimisation model covering the electricity market of the eu member states is deployed to investigate this question scenarios reflecting developments over a medium term horizon 10 years are developed with which carbon prices are endogenously determined their effects on the contribution margins of producers in the member states are subsequently evaluated the overall findings indicate that the incidence of windfall profits in the power sector remains prevalent in the overwhelming majority of eu countries the analysis suggests that the carbon intensiveness of the respective generation fleet is not the deciding factor as to whether producers earn windfall profits but rather the fundamental generation structure of the power plant fleet the results raise questions about the capacity of the current eu ets regime to provide the desired decarbonising effect on power producers generation portfolios in european power markets

establishing the role that wind generation may have in future generation portfolios assessing the correct future mix in generation portfolios has become more difficult given the introduction of emission trading schemes the recent fuel price rises and the increasing competitiveness of wind energy this paper combines analysis of generation economics load and wind generation characteristics generation adequacy and plant utilization to gain insight into the role of wind generation in desirable generation portfolios the unique characteristics of wind generation are accounted for in the analysis and sensitivity analysis is carried out with respect to discount rates carbon taxes and various fuel price scenarios results show that for a large range of future scenarios wind generation has a significant role to play in future generation portfolios in ireland mean variance portfolio theory is applied to examine the benefits of portfolio diversification in terms of avoiding exposure to volatile fuel prices analysis shows that wind generation has a further role to play in generation portfolios in this respect

economic and technical challenges of flexible operations under large scale variable renewable deployment abstract fundamental characteristics of solar and wind power have generated controversy about their economic competitiveness and appropriate techniques for assessing their value this research presents an approach to quantify the economic value of variable renewable capacity and demonstrates its dependence on renewable deployment levels regional resource endowments fleet flexibility and trade assumptions it assesses economic and technical impacts of large scale renewable penetration by linking two models representing electric sector investments and detailed operations model results for california and texas suggest that operational constraints and costs of dispatchable generators e g minimum load levels ramping limits startup costs can impact renewable integration costs but the temporal and spatial variability of solar and wind are larger determinants of their value restrictions on transmission and regional coordination in capacity planning and dispatch decrease the economic value of variable renewable energy highlighting the potential roles of market design and trade energy storage is shown to be a valuable balancing asset at higher solar and wind penetration levels but potential revenues diminish with increased storage deployment

windfall profits under pollution permits and output based allocation this paper analyzes the implementation of pollution permits it focuses on the distributional impacts linked with the stringency of output based allocation when two sectors are covered by the market for permits and the total cap is held constant a new type of profit increase in sectors that are not exposed to international competition when energy intensive trade exposed eite sectors are granted output based allocations is demonstrated theoretically the paper also illustrates a profit increase in the electricity sector in a possible fourth phase of the european union emission trading scheme in which output based allocation will be granted to eite sectors compared with the case in which all permits are auctioned

on the market impact of wind energy forecasts this paper presents an analysis of how day ahead electricity spot prices are affected by day ahead wind power forecasts demonstration of this relationship is given as a test case for the western danish price area of the nord pool s elspot market impact on the average price behaviour is investigated as well as that on the distributional properties of the price by using a non parametric regression model to assess the effects of wind power forecasts on the average behaviour the non linearities and time variations in the relationship are captured well and the effects are shown to be quite substantial furthermore by evaluating the distributional properties of the spot prices under different scenarios the impact of the wind power forecasts on the price distribution is proved to be considerable the conditional price distribution is moreover shown to be non gaussian this implies that forecasting models for electricity spot prices for which parameters are estimated by a least squares techniques will not have gaussian residuals hence the widespread assumption of gaussian residuals from electricity spot price models is shown to be inadequate for these model types the revealed effects are likely to be observable and qualitatively similar in other day ahead electricity markets significantly penetrated by wind power

the polarization of the u s labor market this paper analyzes a marked change in the evolution of the u s wage structure over the past fifteen years divergent trends in upper tail 90 50 and lower tail 50 10 wage inequality we document that wage inequality in the top half of distribution has displayed an unchecked and rather smooth secular rise for the last 25 years since 1980 wage inequality in the bottom half of the distribution also grew rapidly from 1979 to 1987 but it has ceased growing and for some measures actually narrowed since the late 1980s furthermore we find that occupational employment growth shifted from monotonically increasing in wages education in the 1980s to a pattern of more rapid growth in jobs at the top and bottom relative to the middles of the wage education distribution in the 1990s we characterize these patterns as the u201cpolarization u201d of the u s labor market with employment polarizing into high wage and low wage jobs at the expense of middle wage work we show how a model of computerization in which computers most strongly complement the non routine abstract cognitive tasks of high wage jobs directly substitute for the routine tasks found in many traditional middle wage jobs and may have little direct impact on non routine manual tasks in relatively low wage jobs can help explain the observed polarization of the u s labor market this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

impact of renewables on electricity markets do support schemes matter abstract rising renewable shares influence electricity markets in several ways among others average market prices are reduced and price volatility increases therefore the missing money problem in energy only electricity markets is more likely to occur in systems with high renewable shares nevertheless renewables are supported in many countries due to their expected benefits the kind of support instrument can however influence the degree to which renewables influence the market while fixed feed in tariffs lead to higher market impacts more market oriented support schemes such as market premiums quota systems and capacity based payments decrease the extent to which markets are affected this paper analyzes the market impacts of different support schemes for this purpose a new module is added to an existing bottom up simulation model of the electricity market in addition different degrees of flexibility in the electricity system are considered a case study for germany is used to derive policy recommendations regarding the choice of support scheme

tacking stock of the eu power target model and steering its future course abstract the european union took more than 20 years to start defining a common market design for its internal electricity market a european power target model and a further 10 years to fully implement it meanwhile the reference generation set of that model has shifted from ccgt burning gas to res plants transforming intermittent natural resources could the existing eu target model continue to work well for the short term operation and long term investment if not can the existing eu institutions easily produce an res resilient new power target model

older and slower the startup deficit s lasting effects on aggregate productivity growth abstract declining firm entry and the aging incumbent firms have meaningful implications for sluggish u s aggregate productivity growth we provide a framework to characterize the contributions to industry productivity growth across the firm age distribution then apply it to firm level census data several findings emerge the relationship between firm age and productivity growth is downward sloping and convex the magnitudes are substantial but fade quickly selection and reallocation predominantly drive higher productivity growth of young firms our results suggest a cumulative drag on aggregate productivity of 3 1 since 1980 and are expanded upon with an iv strategy and standard model of firm dynamics

electricity and markets over the last fifteen years an increasing number of electricity industries have replaced vertical integration with markets as the main method of organising production electrical energy is traded in many european and us markets while the us also has markets for generating capacity us generators can reduce the cost of complying with environmental regulations by trading emissions of sulphur dioxide while europe has just started a carbon dioxide emissions trading scheme this article discusses the way in which these markets put economic principles into practice in particular it shows that several different market designs can provide theoretically equivalent incentives for generators to build capacity and that emissions trading may have unexpected impacts upon electricity prices

where do all the windmills go influence of the institutional setting on the spatial distribution of renewable energy installation abstract promoting renewable energy sources is one policy response to climate change not only is there currently a debate over the best policy instrument it is also discussed whether the renewable energy production should be expanded centralized at locations with the highest production potential or decentralized close to load it is yet not fully understood what influences the spatial distribution of renewable energy installation i assess the effect of subsidy scheme and market design on the spatial distribution of wind energy installations by comparing a feed in tariffs versus market premiums and b uniform versus nodal pricing the analysis is based on theoretical considerations and using a six node test model that reflects the consumption and renewable resource distribution in several countries and regions the institutional setting has great influence on the spatial distribution and resulting system costs with uniform pricing a market premium only leads to a more decentralized expansion of renewable energy production than a tariff when sites share similar wind conditions spatially more distributed expansion of wind power performs better in terms of total costs and share of wind power in final demand when networks are restricted

on the economics of renewable energy sources abstract with the global expansion of renewable energy re technologies the provision of optimal re policy packages becomes an important task we review pivotal aspects regarding the economics of renewables that are relevant to the design of an optimal re policy many of which are to date unresolved we do so from three interrelated perspectives that a meaningful public policy framework for inquiry must take into account first we explore different social objectives justifying the deployment of re technologies and review model based estimates of the economic potential of re technologies i e their socially optimal deployment level second we address pivotal market failures that arise in the course of implementing the economic potential of re sources in decentralized markets third we discuss multiple policy instruments curing these market failures our framework reveals the requirements for an assessment of the relevant options for real world decision makers in the field of re policies this review makes it clear that there are remaining white areas on the knowledge map concerning consistent and socially optimal re policies

testing between competing models of sharecropping the marshallian approach assumes a prohibitively high cost of monitoring the sharecropper s activities while the monitoring approach argues that landlords stipulate and effectively monitor sharecroppers activities i present new evidence using detailed data collected from eight indian villages most tenants own some land of their own this provides a controlled environment in studying the impact of contractual arrangements the differences in input and output intensities on owned minus sharecropped land of the same household are found to be sizable and significant suggesting a rejection of the monitoring approach and supporting the notion of the marshallian productive inefficiency of sharecropping

how does germany s green energy policy affect electricity market volatility an application of conditional autoregressive range models abstract based on a dynamic model for the high low range of electricity prices this article analyses the effects of germany s green energy policy on the volatility of the electricity market using european energy exchange data from 2000 to 2015 we find rather high volatility in the years 2000 2009 but also that the weekly price range has significantly declined in the period following the year 2009 this period is characterised by active regulation under the energy industry law enwg the eu emissions trading directive etd and the renewable energy law eeg in contrast to the preceding period price jumps are smaller and less frequent especially for day time hours implying that current policy measures are effective in promoting renewable energies while simultaneously upholding electricity market stability this is because the regulations strive towards a more and more flexible and market oriented structure which allows better integration of renewable energies and supports an efficient alignment of renewable electricity supply with demand

large scale wind power integration and wholesale electricity trading benefits estimation via an ex post approach abstract the integration of large scale wind power has brought about a series of challenges to the power industry but at the same time a number of benefits are being realized among those the ability of wind power to cause a decline in the electricity market prices has been recognized in quantifying this effect some models used in recent years are based on simulations of the market supply side and the price clearing process the accuracy of the estimates depend on the quality of the input data the veracity of the adopted scenarios and the rigorousness of the solution technique in this work a series of econometric techniques based on actual ex post wind power and electricity price data are implemented for the estimation of the impact of region wide wind power integration on the local electricity market clearing prices and the trading savings that stem from this effect the model is applied to the case of spain where the estimated savings are compared against actual credit and bonus expenses to ratepayers the implications and extent of these results for current and future renewable energy policy making are discussed

impacts of a common green certificate market on electricity and co2 emission markets in the nordic countries abstract the purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of introducing a common nordic system for tradable green certificates tgcs on the electricity market and a future market for tradable co 2 emission permits teps in the analysis the energy system model generator markal was used to model the electricity and district heating supply systems in the four nordic countries sweden norway finland and denmark it is shown that the introduction of tgc quotas reduces wholesale electricity and tep prices the impact on the latter is very pronounced retail electricity prices may become lower or higher depending on the tgc quota than if obligations to fulfill tgc quotas were absent the tgc scheme s efficiency in reducing a specific amount of co 2 emissions is also compared to the corresponding efficiency of a tep scheme involving a broader range of technologies furthermore obligations to fulfill tgc quotas affect investment incentives for new non renewable electricity supply this seems especially true for gas fired power plants finally it is indicated that electricity supply based on biomass combustion dominates the tgc scheme at least in the short run

distributional costs of wind energy production in portugal under the liberalized iberian market regime abstract wind generation in portugal and spain has grown due to a decrease in technology cost and the availability of renewables electricity generation incentives there is a strong interconnection between spain s and portugal s transmission systems resulting in common prices in both countries however portuguese and spanish producers receive the incentives for producing wind based electricity that are specified in their own national policies resulting in different costs to rate payers in this paper we estimate the costs to portuguese rate payers associated with the current market design and policy incentives to do so we regress hourly spot electricity market prices as a function of hourly wind generation and estimate the resulting feed in tariff costs distributional effects over the various rate payer categories total costs for rate payer are at the minimum level if joint wind generation in portugal and spain increases by 5 5 from what it is today if wind generation increases much further then the costs increase due to the fit overcost increase if wind generation decreases from current levels then costs also increase due to the merit order effect furthermore we find that rate payer categories will endure different portions of the costs with an increase in wind generation penalizing predominantly 20 7 kva rate payers

the private and public economics of renewable electricity generation generating electricity from renewable sources is more expensive than conventional approaches but reduces pollution externalities analyzing the tradeoff is much more challenging than often presumed because the value of electricity is extremely dependent on the time and location at which it is produced which is not very controllable with some renewables such as wind and solar likewise the pollution benefits from renewable generation depend on what type of generation it displaces which also depends on time and location without incorporating these factors cost benefit analyses of alternatives are likely to be misleading other common arguments for subsidizing renewable power green jobs energy security and driving down fossil energy prices are unlikely to substantially alter the analysis the role of intellectual property spillovers is a strong argument for subsidizing energy science research but less persuasive as an enhancement to the value of installing current renewable energy technologies

estimating the value of wind energy using electricity locational marginal price abstract there is an increasing interest in adding renewables such as wind to electricity generation portfolios in larger amounts as one response to concern about atmospheric carbon emissions from our energy system and the resulting climate change most policies with the aim of promoting renewables e g rps fit do not explicitly address siting issues which for wind energy are currently approached as the intersection of wind resource land control and transmission factors this work proposes the use of locational marginal price lmp the location and time specific cost of electricity on the wholesale market to signal locations where generation can address electricity system insufficiency after an examination of the spatial and temporal behavior of lmp in michigan over the first two years of wholesale market operation this work combines lmp with wind speed data to generate a value metric high value sites in michigan tend to be sites with higher wind speeds with the bulk of value accruing in the fall and winter seasons

gas generation and wind power a review of unlikely allies in the united kingdom and ireland no single solution currently exists to achieve the utopian desire of zero fossil fuel electricity generation until such time it is evident that the energy mix will contain a large variation in stochastic and intermittent sources of renewable energy such as wind power the increasing prominence of wind power in pursuit of legally binding european energy targets enables policy makers and conventional generating companies to plan for the unique challenges such a natural resource presents this drive for wind has been highly beneficial in terms of security of energy supply and reducing greenhouse gas emissions however it has created an unusual ally in natural gas this paper outlines the suitability and challenges faced by gas generating units in their utilisation as key assets for renewable energy integration and the transition to a low carbon future the single electricity market of the republic of ireland and northern ireland and the british electricity transmission trading agreement market are the backdrop to this analysis both of these energy markets have a reliance on gas generation matching the proliferation of wind power the unlikely and mostly ignored relationship between natural gas generation and wind power due to policy decisions and market forces is the necessity of gas to act as a bridging fuel this review finds gas generation to be crucially important to the continued growth of renewable energy additionally it is suggested that power market design should adequately reward the flexibility required to securely operate a power system with high penetrations of renewable energy which in most cases is provided by gas generation

the merit order effect a detailed analysis of the price effect of renewable electricity generation on spot market prices in germany the german feed in support of electricity generation from renewable energy sources has led to high growth rates of the supported technologies critics state that the costs for consumers are too high an important aspect to be considered in the discussion is the price effect created by renewable electricity generation this paper seeks to analyse the impact of privileged renewable electricity generation on the electricity market in germany the central aspect to be analysed is the impact of renewable electricity generation on spot market prices the results generated by an agent based simulation platform indicate that the financial volume of the price reduction is considerable in the short run this gives rise to a distributional effect which creates savings for the demand side by reducing generator profits in the case of the year 2006 the volume of the merit order effect exceeds the volume of the net support payments for renewable electricity generation which have to be paid by consumers

revisiting the techno economic analysis process for building mounted grid connected solar photovoltaic systems part two application part one in this two part paper identified monte carlo analysis as an improved approach over traditional deterministic techno economic methods for solar pv prosumers in deregulated markets in this

the stochastic city abstract this paper analyzes a simple model of an urban area with growth and uncertainty household income rents and prices for land follow stochastic processes even though investors are risk neutral uncertainty affects both land rents and land prices in equilibrium because the conversion of land from agricultural to urban use is irreversible growth on the other hand affects urban and agricultural land prices but not the level of rents we show that uncertainty i delays the conversion of land from agricultural to urban use ii imparts an option value to agricultural land iii causes land at the boundary to sell for more than its opportunity cost in other uses and iv reduces equilibrium city size

variable renewable energy technologies in the turkish electricity market quantile regression analysis of the merit order effect abstract the share of variable renewable energy sources in power supply has increased significantly in many countries however this increase has also created problems in electricity markets while the average day ahead market price has declined in several markets the merit order effect the remuneration mechanisms in some countries have to be revised due to the surge in financial costs yet further research is needed to understand the implications of the merit order effect for remuneration mechanisms thoroughly accordingly this study aims to contribute to the literature through employing a quantile regression model to analyze the merit order effect and discuss its implications for the remuneration mechanism in turkish electricity market model results show significant negative merit order effect for both wind and run of river hydro technologies however this effect varies with respect to demand price level and technology moreover the contribution of these technologies to the total welfare in the turkish electricity market does not favor fixed price payments in conclusion it is recommended that the remuneration mechanism is revised to include the temporal value of variable renewable energy sources and electricity market design should reflect the locational value of variable renewable energy sources in turkey

the market value of variable renewables the effect of solar wind power variability on their relative price this paper provides a comprehensive discussion of the market value of variable renewable energy vre the inherent variability of wind speeds and solar radiation affects the price that vre generators receive on the market market value during windy and sunny times the additional electricity supply reduces the prices because the drop is larger with more installed capacity the market value of vre falls with higher penetration rate this study aims to develop a better understanding on how the market value with penetration and how policies and prices affect the market value quantitative evidence is derived from a review of published studies regression analysis of market data and the calibrated model of the european electricity market emma we find the value of wind power to fall from 110 of the average power price to 50 80 as wind penetration increases from zero to 30 of total electricity consumption for solar power similarly low value levels are reached already at 15 penetration hence competitive large scale renewable deployment will be more difficult to accomplish than as many anticipate

the race between man and machine implications of technology for growth factor shares and employment we examine the concerns that new technologies will render labor redundant in a framework in which tasks previously performed by labor can be automated and new versions of existing tasks in which labor has a comparative advantage can be created in a static version where capital is fixed and technology is exogenous automation reduces employment and the labor share and may even reduce wages while the creation of new tasks has the opposite effects our full model endogenizes capital accumulation and the direction of research towards automation and the creation of new tasks if the long run rental rate of capital relative to the wage is sufficiently low the long run equilibrium involves automation of all tasks otherwise there exists a stable balanced growth path in which the two types of innovations go hand in hand stability is a consequence of the fact that automation reduces the cost of producing using labor and thus discourages further automation and encourages the creation of new tasks in an extension with heterogeneous skills we show that inequality increases during transitions driven both by faster automation and introduction of new tasks and characterize the conditions under which inequality is increasing or stable in the long run

the merit order effect of wind and solar power volatility and determinants abstract the investment in renewable energy sources power generation is coming into a stall in face of the removal of incentives in most of the european countries the technological maturity of wind and solar power generation is the justification basis and market integration of extensive amounts of renewable energy is seen with concern by electricity systems stakeholders given the low marginal cost of renewable power generation the available load in the spot electricity market for conventional and dispatchable power plants is diminishing the so called merit order effect in this study we estimate the value of the merit order effect due to wind and solar power generation in the iberian electricity market with historical bid supply and demand offers from 2008 to 2017 the estimated values are then used to value determinants and volatility through garch econometric modelling results demonstrate that the merit order effect in iberia is influenced negatively by the residual load and positively by demand wind power and solar power additionally the high merit order effect volatility found mirrors the behavior of spot electricity market

when renewable portfolio standards meet cap and trade regulations in the electricity sector market interactions profits implications and policy redundancy emission trading programs c t and renewable portfolio standards rps are two common tools used by policymakers to control ghg emissions in the energy and other energy intensive sectors little is known however as to the policy implications resulting from these concurrent regulations especially given that their underlying policy goals and regulatory schemes are distinct this paper applies both an analytical model and a computational model to examine the short run implications of market interactions and policy redundancy the analytical model is used to generate contestable hypotheses while the numerical model is applied to consider more realistic market conditions we have two central findings first lowering the co2 c t cap might penalize renewable units and increasing the rps level could sometimes benefit coal and oil and make natural gas units worse off second making one policy more stringent would weaken the market incentive which the other policy relies upon to attain its intended policy target

on minimum rents part 2 a modern interpretation summary the idea that there might be some minimum rent below which a land owner would not let to any tenant was put forward by marx but with little supporting argument in this paper it is shown that the modern concepts and analysis of transaction costs and monitoring costs can explain why such a minimum rent might exist further that risk and uncertainty coupled with the fact that tenancies are usually for some years also provide an explanation for the reluctance of land and property owners to let at minimal rents some empirical evidence is cited particularly the substantial rents which have to be paid to lay telecommunication cables across private land

transaction costs risk aversion and the choice of contractual arrangements publisher summary this chapter discusses transaction costs risk aversion and the choice of contractual arrangements every transaction involves a contract and the transactions conducted in the marketplace entail outright or partial transfers of property rights among individual contracting parties the contractual arrangements through which these transfers are negotiated are several and varied the chapter presents a theory that states that economic efficiency is the same under various land tenure arrangements subject to the constraint of private property rights although transaction costs exist in the real world the theory enables the understanding of much of the farming behavior however the presence of a variety of contractual arrangements under the same constraint of competition poses the question of the choice of these arrangements if a firm can increase efficiency in production by employing productive resources of more than one resource owner a contract to combine the resources will be obtained the formation of the contract involves partial transfers of property rights in one form or another such as leasing hiring or mortgaging

determining commercially viable two way and one way contract for difference strike prices and revenue receipts abstract in this article we investigate the role that a contract for difference cfd might play in increasing investment in renewable energy in australia two cfd schemes are investigated two way and one way cfd a financial model is developed that determines commercially viable cfd strike prices account is taken of revenue from wholesale electricity market and renewable energy certificate sales capital and operational costs of the project including distribution of funds to holders of equity and debt are also included findings based on analysis of the solar array located at the university of queensland gatton campus in australia is presented employing a typical meteorological year framework the major finding was that government will prefer a two way cfd scheme and single axis tracking solar pv array technology in contrast project proponents will strongly prefer a one way cfd design

do support systems for res e reduce eu ets driven electricity prices abstract support systems for electricity from renewable energy sources res e can reduce electricity prices which have also been influenced by a co2 emission trading scheme ets additional res e substitutes electricity from fossil fuels and thus co2 emissions are reduced the demand for emission reductions is lowered as a result the co2 price is also reduced consequently the wholesale price for electricity decreases however most res e support systems are financed via the electricity market which increases the retail electricity price an assessment for germany shows that retail electricity prices in the first trading period of the eu ets 2005 2007 are lowered by 2 6 euro mwh due to additional res e considering the complete eu the effect is substantially higher this paper describes the effect and the influence of different policy designs it develops an approach for assessing the effect and applies it for the case of germany and roughly estimates the effect for the eu

the wage distribution in a model of the assignment of skills to jobs this paper discusses a general equilibrium model of the assignment of heterogeneous workers to heterogeneous jobs both jobs and workers are measured along a continuous one dimensional scale the c

comparative advantage relative wages and the accumulation of human capital i apply ricardo s principle of comparative advantage to a theory of factor substitutability in a model with a continuum of worker and job types highly skilled workers have a comparative advantage in complex jobs the model satisfies the distance dependent elasticity of substitution dides characteristic substitutability between types declines with their skill distance i analyze changes in relative wages due to human capital accumulation the concept of a complexity dispersion parameter or compression elasticity is introduced empirical studies suggest its value to be equal to two a 1 percent increase in the stock of human capital reduces the mincerian return by 2 percent

on monopoly rent many different authors moreover a thorough study of the literature suggests that there is little continuity and therefore little sense of cumulative progress every twenty years or so the idea of monopoly rent surfaces and is discussed by one or two authors but these discussions are unrelated to earlier work of which the authors seem mostly to be unaware the aims of this paper are therefore twofold the first is to provide a survey of the different ways in which economists have conceived and treated the idea of monopoly rent and so to bring together and systematize the scattered opinions to which samsonoff referred so long ago the second is to present the kind of accurate and precise statement of the theory of monopoly rent for which samsonoff asked in 1912 one which would allow monopoly rent to be regarded as a genuine scientific doctrine it must be admitted however that the thorough study of the literature mentioned above leaves one with a pessimistic view of progress in economic science with respect to monopoly rent at least given that the concept seems to be rediscovered every twenty or thirty years and that the discoverers seem to refer very little if at all to previous literature there seems no reason why the cycle of discovery and oblivion should not go on for another two hundred years despite the fact that the literature gives no grounds for any such expectation it is still the author s faint hope that this paper may still assist the progress of economic thought because the theory of monopoly rent has never been properly formalized the concept remains shadowy and amorphous because different authors appear to have meant different things by it analysis of the writings of the various authors suggests three possible ways in which the term is intended to be understood the first we call class monopoly after the usage by harvey 1974 here the class of land owners by definition own all the land and the rent of the land is monopoly rent this usage seems to be frequent in the writings of the classical economists in the nineteenth cen

the policy implications of the different interpretations of the cost effectiveness of renewable electricity support abstract the cost effectiveness of support for renewable electricity is a main criterion to assess the success of policy instruments together with effectiveness the costs of support are also a source of significant concern for governments all over the world however significant confusion exists in the literature on the cost effectiveness of public support for renewable electricity while some authors define the concept of cost effectiveness as that which complies with the equimarginality principle many others including documents from relevant organisations european commission international energy agency intergovernmental panel on climate change define it as the lowest costs of support generally equating it with the minimisation of consumer costs the aim of this paper is to clarify the differences between both approaches and their policy implications regarding the choice of instruments and design elements it is shown that they partly overlap and that their policy implications clearly differ leading to very different policy prescriptions while the former favours technology neutral instruments and design elements the minimisation of consumer costs approach favours instruments and design elements which adjust support levels to the costs of the technologies

extended policy mix in the power sector how a coal phase out redistributes costs and profits among power plants abstract with the phase out of coal power plants the existing mix of instruments aimed at decarbonising electricity sectors is getting more complex this paper contributes to its understanding by highlighting the impact of coal phase out co2 price and increasing capacity of variable renewable energies on contribution margins of power plants by visualizing these three instruments in a brownfield screening curves model scm their fundamental effects on plant operation electricity price and margins become apparent at a glance moreover the scm allows to derive generic statements about winners and losers on the supply side results are then quantified within a case study for germany using the power sector model e2m2 the high resolution regarding time and generation system permits a realistic simulation of electricity prices and thus of margins at plant level we conclude that 1 margins between technologies and plants within the same technology vary significantly in extreme cases by 9 5 times period 2020 2050 and 2 the impact of a coal phase out declines when the other two policies become more stringent e g for an old lignite plant a coal phase out in a moderate political environment causes a loss in margin of 47 whereas the loss is only 16 in an ambitious environment

system friendly wind power how advanced wind turbine design can increase the economic value of electricity generated through wind power abstract previous studies find that the economic value of electricity usd mwh generated by wind power drops with increasing market share different measures can help mitigate the value drop including electricity storage flexible conventional plants expansion of transmission and demand response this study assesses another option a change in design of wind power plants advanced wind turbines that are higher and have a larger rotor compared to rated capacity lower specific rating generate electricity more constantly than classical turbines recent years have witnessed a significant shift towards such advanced technology our model based analysis for northwestern europe shows that such design can substantially increase the spot market value of generated electricity at a 30 penetration rate the value of 1 mwh of electricity generated from a fleet of advanced turbines is estimated to be 15 higher than the value of 1 mwh from classical turbines the additional value is large whether compared to wind generation costs to the value drop or to the effect of alternative measures such as electricity storage extensive sensitivity tests indicate that this finding is remarkably robust the increase in bulk power value is not the only advantage of advanced turbines additional benefits might accrue from reduced costs for power grids and balancing services to fully realize this potential power markets and support policies need to be appropriately designed and signal scarcity investors

how market design shapes the spatial distribution of power plant curtailment costs abstract when multiple power plants are curtailed at the same time and in the same region electricity system costs rise if transmission lines are congested these costs might be amplified and spatially more concentrated because there are less spatial spill overs we study how such costs and their distribution depend on the market design nodal pricing or uniform pricing we extend the literature on curtailment by considering space and market design and the literature on market design by considering curtailment we expose a dc load flow model for germany to severe correlated curtailment scenarios we find that additional costs are moderate for the simulated week curtailment of 9 3 non renewable capacity reduces welfare by 2 7 uniform pricing with nodal pricing welfare loss can be reduced by 1 5 distributional differences are multiple times larger for nodal pricing producer surplus rises more and costs are spatially more concentrated at the curtailed power plants consumer surplus becomes lower the difference is unlikely to justify changes of the current market design if also wind or photovoltaic feed in is unavailable economic impacts can decrease or increase but remain in the same order of magnitude the spatial electricity system structure matters more than the volume of curtailment

comparing the costs of intermittent and dispatchable electricity generating technologies economic evaluations of alternative electric generating technologies typically rely on comparisons between their expected life cycle production costs per unit of electricity supplied the standard life cycle cost metric utilized is the levelized cost per mwh supplied this paper demonstrates that this metric is inappropriate for comparing intermittent generating technologies like wind and solar with dispatchable generating technologies like nuclear gas combined cycle and coal levelized cost comparisons are a misleading metric for comparing intermittent and dispatchable generating technologies because they fail to take into account differences in the production profiles of intermittent and dispatchable generating technologies and the associated large variations in the market value of the electricity they supply levelized cost comparisons overvalue intermittent generating technologies compared to dispatchable base load generating technologies they also overvalue wind generating technologies compared to solar generating technologies integrating differences in production profiles the associated variations in the market value of the electricity supplied and life cycle costs associated with different generating technologies is necessary to provide meaningful comparisons between them this market based framework also has implications for the appropriate design of procurement auctions created to implement renewable energy procurement mandates the efficient structure of production tax credits for renewable energy and the evaluation of the additional costs of integrating intermittent generation into electric power networks

the merit order effect of wind and photovoltaic electricity generation in germany 2008 2016 estimation and distributional implications abstract generation from renewable energy sources in germany has experienced a considerable uptake in recent years mainly responsible for this development is the german renewable energy sources act erneuerbare energien gesetz eeg this paper considers redistributive implications of the eeg for different electricity consumers using time series regression analysis we show that electricity generation by wind and pv has reduced spot market prices considerably by 6 mwh in 2010 rising to 10 mwh in 2012 we use these results to build a near term forecasting tool for merit order effects projected to reach 14 16 mwh in 2016 on the other hand the costs of the eeg are passed forward to consumers in the form of a surcharge our findings highlight significant redistributive transfers under the current design of the eeg in particular some energy intensive industries are benefiting from lower wholesale electricity prices whilst being largely exempted from contributing to the costs of the scheme we also highlight implications of our results for other areas for reform of the eeg such as adequate remuneration mechanisms that ensure efficient operation and investment decisions are made under the scheme more generally these findings suggest that policy makers need to integrate distributional assessments into policy design and implementation