Intended and unintended consequences of US renewable energy policies

• Published in: Renewable & sustainable energy reviews 2019-11, Vol.115, p.109385, Article 109385
• Main Authors: Herath, N., Tyner, W.E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biofuels; Energy policy; Policy cost; Solar; Unintended consequences; Wind
• ISSN: 1364-0321; 1879-0690
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2019.109385

Over the past four decades, the US has employed a range of policies to move the US energy mix towards more renewable and domestic resources. The purpose of this paper is to assess the employed policies using the following criteria: 1) Did the policy achieve the objective of increasing production and consumption of the targeted renewable energy? 2) Did the policy reduce US dependence on foreign energy? 3) What was the cost of the renewable energy increase, and how does it compare with the government estimated Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) around $40/ton ($0.04/kg) or with the implicit SSC often associated with achieving the aims of the Paris accord of $160/ton ($0.16/kg) or higher? 4) What were the unintended consequences of the policy? The important conclusions are: 1) Policy makers prefer regulation to pricing mechanisms; 2) The success in achieving quantitative targets is mixed; 3) The social cost of achieving the renewable penetration is generally higher than the SCC. With the renewable energy growth required to achieve the levels needed to achieve the Paris accord, the unintended consequence of costs rise significantly with scale. Most of the analysis done to date has only examined impacts and costs at low levels of penetration. •Renewable market penetration is boosted by policy incentives.•High levels of renewable energy penetration have additional challenges and systems costs than lower levels.•It is easier to quantify the costs of renewable energy policies than benefits.