Environmental Policies and Innovation in Renewable Energy Technologies

• Main Author: DELIGIANNIDIS, MARIOS
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: KTH, Nationalekonomi 2016
• Subjects: Environmental policy; innovation; patents; renewable energy
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-199208

This thesis examines the effects of different environmental policies on renewable energy technology innovation. Previous empirical and theoretical studies done on the field of environmental and innovation economics agree that the presence of environmental regulations positively affect innovation. This paper uses patent applications to the EPO in order to measure the effectiveness of the different policy measures to induce innovation in renewable energy technologies. Patent data from 20 European countries was used for the period 1977-2013. The empirical model was estimated using the Poisson fixed-effects model. The results indicate that tax measures are necessary for renewable energy innovation but is unlikely that taxes alone are sufficient to induce innovation without other policy support to tackle the market inefficiencies. The price of electricity and the growth of the electricity consumption were also found to be significant determinants of innovation to renewable energy technologies, suggesting that the conditions of the energy market play an important role in energy innovation.