Date of Graduation
2015
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
PhD
College
College of Business and Economics
Department
Economics
Committee Chair
Stratford Douglas
Committee Co-Chair
Wesley Burnett
Committee Member
Brian Cushing
Committee Member
John Deskins
Committee Member
Donald Lacombe
Abstract
In this dissertation, I investigate the effectiveness of renewable policies and consider their impact on electricity markets. The common thread of this research is to understand how renewable policy incentivizes renewable generation and how the increasing share of generation from renewables affects generation from fossil fuels. This type of research is crucial for understanding whether policies to promote renewables are meeting their stated goals and what the unintended effects might be. To this end, I use econometric methods to examine how electricity markets are responding to an influx of renewable energy. My dissertation is composed of three interrelated essays. In Chapter 1, I employ recent scholarship in spatial econometrics to assess the spatial dependence of Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), a prominent state-based renewable incentive. In Chapter 2, I explore the impact of the rapid rise in renewable generation on short-run generation from fossil fuels. And in Chapter 3, I assess the impact of renewable penetration on coal plant retirement decisions.
Recommended Citation
Bowen, Eric, "Three Essays on Renewable Energy Policy and its Effects on Fossil Fuel Generation in Electricity Markets" (2015). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 5242.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/5242