Accelerating technology growth through policy interventions: the case of onshore wind in Germany
L.Nacke, A.Cherp, J.Jewell (pre-print). Accelerating technology growth through policy interventions: the case of onshore wind in Germany. POLET Working Paper Series 24-3
ABSTRACT
Climate change mitigation requires sustained and rapid growth of renewables such as wind and solar PV to decarbonise electricity systems. This is mirrored in recent policy commitments, such as the goal to triple global renewabels deployment, or national targets such as Germany’s ambition to triple the speed of renewables deployment. A natural question following from such targets is: How difficult (or easy) is it to achieve and sustain such rapid renewables growth – what type and strength of policy interventions are required? Through a combined analysis of technology growth models and policy interventions we show that the number and diversity of policy interventions increases with increased deployment of wind power in Germany. We also show that the financial compensation for new wind power has not been declining as fast as costs of wind power technology. This indicates that prolonged growth of mature low-carbon technologies may require increasing rather than decreasing policy effort in spite of technological innovation and cost decline.