Economic and regulatory uncertainty in renewable energy system design: a review

Renewable energy is increasingly mobilizing more investment around the globe. However, there has been little attention to evaluating economic and regulatory (E&R) uncertainties, despite their enormous impact on the project cashflows. Consequently, this review analyzes, classifies, and discusses...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Alonso Travesset, Alexandre|||0000-0002-1862-6824, Coppiters, Diederik, Martín Cañadas, María Elena|||0000-0002-9905-7837, Hoz Casas, Jordi de la|||0000-0001-7796-4535
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/386202
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/386202
https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/en16020882
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Energy policy
Uncertainty
Renewable energy
Electricity price
Real options
Optimization
Política energètica
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Energies::Aspectes econòmics
Descripción
Sumario:Renewable energy is increasingly mobilizing more investment around the globe. However, there has been little attention to evaluating economic and regulatory (E&R) uncertainties, despite their enormous impact on the project cashflows. Consequently, this review analyzes, classifies, and discusses 130 articles dealing with the design of renewable energy projects under E&R uncertainties. After performing a survey and identifying the selected manuscripts, and the few previous reviews on the matter, the following innovative categorization is designed: sources of uncertainty, uncertainty characterization methods, problem formulations, solution methods, and regulatory frameworks. The classification reveals that electricity price is the most considered source of uncertainty, often alone, despite the existence of six other equally influential groups of E&R uncertainties. In addition, real options and optimization arise as the two main approaches researchers use to solve problems in energy system design. Subsequently, the following aspects of interest are discussed in depth: how modeling can be improved, which are the most influential variables, and potential lines of research. Conclusions show the necessity of modeling E&R uncertainties with currently underrepresented methods, suggest several policy recommendations, and encourage the integration of prevailing approaches.