The most effective way to stimulate renewable energy: An empircal analysis on current policy instruments

Governments around the world have started to realize their role is needed for a future which relies more on renewable energy. Currently there is no joint agreement what policy would be most effective. Therefore different governments use different renewable energy policies. In general six policies are used. These are feed-in tariffs, investment subsidies, obligations, covenants, R&D subsidies and taxis on polluting energy forms. In this thesis the effectiveness of these policies is evaluated. Data are from the 26 OECD countries over a period from 1978 until 2006. In the main model taxes on polluting energy forms have a positive effect on solar and wind energy combined and a negative effect on biomass. In the model without autonomous technological developments the investment subsidy is found to be effective for solar and wind energy combined and the obligation policy is found to be effective for all types of renewable energy.