Feed-in tariffs, knowledge stocks and renewable energy technology innovation: The role of local government intervention

Abstract

This paper studies the moderating effect of local government intervention on transforming feed-in tariffs and knowledge stocks into renewable energy technology innovation. We examine the key intervention measures for the wind energy sector, using provincial panel data in China over the period 2008–2017. Our results show that local government intervention factors, such as policy count in renewables and R&D expenditure, are significant drivers for technology innovation. However, local green fixed industrial investment has negative implication. Moreover, we find that increasing local policy counts in renewables and augmenting local R&D investment can buffer feed-in tariffs’ effectiveness on innovation performance. Expanding renewable policies, and increasing local fund on R&D program and green fixed industries may enhance the relationship between knowledge stocks and technology innovation. It is suggested that the provinces with over-reliance subsidies should put more emphasis on local renewable development policies and increase the level of R&D expenditure.