Adoption Of Renewable Portfolio Standards Research Articles

After the adoption of Renewable Portfolio Standards: Go greener or back to grey?

Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) is a state-level policy that mandates renewable energy supply or sales goals in the U.S. In some states like California, Hawaii, and Oregon, renewable energy production goals have become more stringent since adoption and 50% or more electricity is projected to come from renewable energy sources in these states. In contrast, Ohio, Kansas, and West Virginia retracted or even repealed their RPS policies. Less is known, however, about the determinants of post-RPS adoption decisions relative to the amount of empirical and theoretical knowledge accumulated on the drivers of RPS policy adoption. Accordingly, this study conducted a cross-case analysis in order to explore the drivers of RPS repeal in West Virginia and RPS expansion in Oregon through semi-structured interviews of state legislators, secondary data, and literature review. Findings indicate that state government ideology frames views about environmental and economic issues and the effectiveness of RPS, and ultimately guide the directions of policy revisions. More specifically, West Virginia’s RPS repeal effort was initiated by Republican state legislators who were determined to terminate RPS since the beginning of the new legislative session. On the other hand, RPS expansion in Oregon was the output of strategic negotiation between two parties and largely driven by a bottom-up effort from cities and counties, citizens, and environmental organizations.

Renewable energy requirements on the ballot: An analysis of county-level voting results

National polling data consistently find a large, bipartisan group of Americans support state renewable portfolio standards (RPS), policies which mandate generation of electricity from renewable sources. However, when such policies are actually put before voters on the ballot, they have been met with mixed success: out of seven RPS ballot initiatives, only four have been approved. From a newly compiled dataset of county-level voting results, we use ordinary least-squares regression to investigate the determinants of public support for RPS ballot proposals. Two models are constructed based on literature related to legislative adoption of RPS and, separately, public support of pro-renewable policies. Consistent with previous studies, political, economic, and demographic variables are found to be significant in predicting voter behavior. State-level fixed effects, however, are the largest contributors to both models. A synthesis model, combining elements from both the legislative adoption and public acceptance literatures, performs best when fixed effects are removed. As climate advocates increasingly call for policies to more quickly transition the electricity sector to renewable energy sources, this research provides greater insight into the prospects of successfully achieving that aim through a ballot initiative. It also, however, reveals insights applicable to legislature-driven RPS policies.

Information and coercive regulation: The impact of fuel mix information disclosure on states’ adoption of renewable energy policy

This study examines whether the publicly provided information performs the role of a procedural policy expediting the adoption of a more coercive and substantive regulation by heightening public awareness and political legitimacy. Under the assumption this role of procedural policy may be critical, especially for the policy with distributed benefits and concentrated costs such as the renewable energy policy, this study examined the relationship between mandatory disclosure of the fuel mix information of electric utilities and states’ adoption of Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). Our event history analysis results show that existence of the mandatory information disclosure rule on fuel fix and greenhouse gas emissions significantly increases the probability of adoption of the coercive regulation (RPS). The findings indicate states’ appropriate mix of policy tools could play a vital role in initiating high-resistance policy adoption.

How Incentives Affect the Adoption of Anaerobic Digesters in the United States

Various government incentives support the adoption of anaerobic digester systems to manage farm waste and serve as a source of renewable energy in the United States. We examine the effectiveness of US state-level incentives promoting the adoption of anaerobic digester systems. We find that performance-based incentives and adoption of renewable portfolio standards best promote anaerobic digester system adoption.

Renewable energy potential and adoption of renewable portfolio standards

Thirty states have adopted renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) that set targets for renewable energy generation by mandating electric power utilities obtain a minimum percentage of their retail load from renewable sources. To date, a number of studies have consistently found that political and economic factors impact RPS adoption. Studies have also examined the impact of renewable energy potential in a state on the probability of RPS adoption, but results have largely been statistically weak and inconclusive. After controlling for political and economic factors, we estimate that a one standard deviation increase in wind potential is associated with an approximately 4.2 percentage point increase in the probability of having an RPS, and a one standard deviation increase in solar potential is associated with a 6.1 percentage point increase in the probability of having an RPS.

Renewable Energy Potential and Renewable Portfolio Standard Adoption

Thirty states have adopted renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) that set targets for renewable energy generation by mandating electric power utilities obtain a minimum percentage of their power from renewable sources. To date, there have been a number of studies that have consistently found that political and economic factors impact RPS adoption. There have also been studies that examine the impact of the amount of renewable energy potential in a state on the probability of RPS adoption, but results have largely been statistically weak and inconclusive. After controlling for political and economic factors, we estimate that a one standard deviation increase in wind potential is associated with an approximately 5.4-6.4 percentage point increase in the probability of having an RPS, and a one standard deviation increase in solar potential is associated with a 6.1-6.8 percentage point increase in the probability of having an RPS.

Driving energy: the enactment and ambitiousness of state renewable energy policy

AbstractU.S. states have led the federal government in instituting policies aimed at promoting renewable energy. Nearly all research on renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) has treated RPS adoption as a binary choice. Given the substantial variation in the renewable energy goals established by RPSs, we propose a new measure of RPS ambition that accounts for the amount of additional renewable energy production needed to reach the RPS goal and the number of years allotted to reach the standard. By measuring RPS policy with more precision, our analysis demonstrates that many factors found to affect whether a state will adopt an RPS do not exert a similar effect on the policy’s ambitiousness. Most notably, our analysis demonstrates that Democratic control of the state legislature is the most consequential factor in determining the ambitiousness of state RPS policies.

The Effects of Renewable Portfolio Standards on Carbon Intensity in the United States

US state carbon intensities are highly heterogeneous, and few studies have been aimed at identifying the causes of these differences among states. Determining the factors that enable certain states to develop their economies on a less carbon-intensive trajectory can give us insight into how those state characteristics or policies can be replicated to achieve lower carbon intensities in other economies. Our study finds that renewable portfolio standards (RPS) have already had a negative and significant impact on carbon intensities through their influence on state electricity prices. Additionally, we show that the adoption of RPS reduced overall US carbon emissions by 4 percent by 2010.

Utilizing GIS to Examine the Relationship Between State Renewable Portfolio Standards and the Adoption of Renewable Energy Technologies

In the United States, there is no comprehensive energy policy at the federal level. To address issues as diverse as climate change, energy security, and economic development, individual states have increasingly implemented Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPSs), which mandate that utility providers include a specified amount of electricity from renewable energy sources in their total energy portfolios. Some states have included incentives for individual energy technologies in their RPS, such as solar electric (also called photovoltaic or PV technology). Here, we use GIS to visualize adoption of RPSs and electricity generation from renewable energy sources in the US and examine changes in renewable electricity and solar electric generation over time with the goal of informing future policies aimed at promoting the adoption of renewable energy technologies.

The Impact of Private Interest Contributions on RPS Adoption

In the last two decades, many U.S. states introduced policies to promote electricity generation from renewable energy sources (RES‐E). Renewable portfolio standards (RPS) are considered to be the key RES‐E policy tool to date. This article tackles the question on why some state legislators were front‐running the trend of RPS implementation whereas others adopted policies just recently, and why others have not adopted them at all. We compile data on financial contributions of conventional energy interest groups (CEI) and renewable energy interest groups (REI) to state‐level policy‐makers between 1998 and 2010. By means of hazard and tobit regressions, we test the effect of these financial contributions on the probability of RPS adoption and on RPS stringency. The article provides evidence in favor of interest group theory. First, CEI have donated more to state‐level legislators affiliated with the Republican Party than to Democrats while contributions from REI went largely to the latter. Second, there are statistically significant links between the likelihood of RPS adoption and private interest contributions. Contributions from CEI have a negative effect on the likelihood of RPS adoption whereas REI contributions have a positive effect.

The Impact of Political Factors on States’ Adoption of Renewable Portfolio Standards

RPS adoption is motivated chiefly by political factors, most importantly partisanship and political culture. A first step toward an event history analysis (EHA) helps determine that political culture is the most substantive factor influencing state RPS adoption.

What Drives States to Support Renewable Energy?

Why do states support electricity generation from renewable energy sources? Lyon/Yin (2010), Chandler (2009), and Huang et al. (2007) have answered this question for the adoption of renewable portfolio standards (RPS) at the U.S. state level. This article supplements their work by testing the core hypotheses on the EU27 sample between 1990 and 2010. Furthermore, the article asks why the majority of EU states rely on feed-in-tariffs (FIT). The study conducts logistic time series cross-section regression analyses that run on a hazard model. Evidence in support of private interest theory and public interest theory is provided. (a) The existence of a solar energy association increases the probability of a state to adopt regulation. (b) Solar radiation, and(c) the unemployment rate also increase the odds. (d) Electricity market concentration decreases the probability of transition.

Policy Tool Interactions and the Adoption of State Renewable Portfolio Standards

AbstractWe contribute to extant policy theory by focusing on interrelationships between existing policies and innovation. In particular, we call attention to the link between supply‐side incentives and demand‐side innovation, which has not been systematically investigated. Our research expectation is that supply‐side policies generally will complement demand‐side policy, leading to a positive impact on the adoption of demand‐side innovations. We test this idea by examining adoptions of renewable portfolio standards (RPS), a demand‐pull approach targeted to renewable energy generation by utilities, in the American states from 1991 to 2008. Event history models show that an index of supply‐side financial incentives has a strong positive influence on RPS adoption. We do not find support for the hypothesis that this effect is contingent on in‐state carbon‐based energy generation. In conclusion, we argue that the study of policy adoption needs to give greater consideration to the interrelationships among policy instruments.

Effects of Renewable Energy Policies on Wind Industry Development in the US

ABSTRACT To spur on renewable energy development, some US states have adopted Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) and related policies. Previous studies have examined the factors that lead to such policy adoption, but offer limited empirical evidence on the effects on renewable energy development. We intend to close this gap through empirical analysis. Results suggest that RPS adoption and the stringency of its inherent characteristics were dominant in spurring wind energy development, and that state wind energy potential, economic and market characteristics, energy portfolio, and political structure had significant impacts. Thus, policy and politics matter more than nature in driving wind energy deployment.

Why Do States Adopt Renewable Portfolio Standards?: An Empirical Investigation

Renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) for electricity generation are politically popular in many U.S. states although economic analysis suggests they are not first-best policies. We present an empirical analysis of the political and economic factors that drive state governments to adopt an RPS, and the factors that lead to the inclusion of in-state requirements given the adoption of an RPS. Although advocates claim an RPS will stimulate job growth, we find that states with high unemployment rates are slower to adopt an RPS. Local environmental conditions and preferences have no significant effect on the timing of adoption. Overall, RPS adoption seems to be driven more by political ideology and private interests than by local environmental and employment benefits, raising questions as to when environmental federalism serves the public interest.

Is the choice of renewable portfolio standards random?

This study investigated factors influencing the adoption or intention to adopt renewable portfolio standards (RPS) by individual states in the United States (U.S). Theory of adoption of innovation was applied as a conceptual framework. A logistic model was used to achieve the task. Gross state product (GSP), growth rate of population (GRP), political party dominancy, education level, natural resources expenditure, and share of coal in electricity generation were used as explanatory variables. Results indicated that the model predicts the dependent variable (state's choice of adopting or not adopting RPS) 82 times correctly out of 100. Results also suggested that education followed by political party dominancy, GSP and GRP are shown to have large impacts on the probability of RPS adoption.