Adoption of solar and wind energy: The roles of carbon pricing and aggregate policy support

Rohan Best*, Paul J. Burke

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

75 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the roles of policies and preferences in national adoption of solar and wind energy technologies. We use cross-sectional and panel regressions for both the European Union and a broader international sample. We find that countries that price carbon emissions have gone on to adopt more solar and wind energy. The aggregate level of policy support, measured in euros per megawatt hour, appears to have been important for solar energy adoption. We also find that solar energy adoption has been larger in countries with higher proportions of people concerned about climate change. In addition, we assess the effects of other key explanators including financial system size and income levels.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)404-417
Number of pages14
JournalEnergy Policy
Volume118
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2018

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