Who should pay to support renewable electricity? Exploring regressive impacts, energy poverty and tariff equity

P. Mastropietro

Energy Research & Social Science Vol. 56, pp. 101222-1 - 101222-7

Summary:

Even if the cost of producing electricity from non-conventional renewable resources has significantly decreased during the last decades, the cost of supporting these technologies is expected to grow worldwide until 2035. If these costs keep on being recovered through surcharges in electricity tariffs that are proportional to consumption, they will have a strong regressive impact that may intensify energy poverty issues. This short article analyses this regressive effect and presents some alternative methodologies to allocate renewable support costs within the society, promoting a just energy transition.

Keywords: Renewable energy; RES-E support; Electricity tariffs; Energy poverty; Energy transition

JCR Impact Factor and WoS quartile: 4,771 - Q1 (2019); 6,700 - Q1 (2022)

DOI reference: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2019.101222

Published on paper: October 2019.

Published on-line: June 2019.

Citation:
P. Mastropietro, Who should pay to support renewable electricity? Exploring regressive impacts, energy poverty and tariff equity. Energy Research & Social Science. Vol. 56, pp. 101222-1 - 101222-7, October 2019. [Online: June 2019]