Do feed-in tariffs promote environmental efficiency among wind farms?
It is generally known that wind power has an offsetting effect on emissions by crowding out fossil dependent energy sources. What has not been studied to any further extent is the variability in environmental impacts caused by wind turbine erection and manufacturing. Also, it is not known how eco...
| Autor principal: | |
|---|---|
| Formato: | Second cycle, A2E |
| Lenguaje: | sueco Inglés |
| Publicado: |
2020
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/16206/ |
| Sumario: | It is generally known that wind power has an offsetting effect on emissions by crowding out
fossil dependent energy sources. What has not been studied to any further extent is the
variability in environmental impacts caused by wind turbine erection and manufacturing. Also,
it is not known how economic incentives could affect these impacts. The argument made in this
thesis was that the Danish price-premium feed-in tariff system provides incentives for WF
operators to upscale, as this maximizes profit. Upscaling in turn is hypothesized to reduce the
environmental impacts of the Danish wind farm (WF) fleet. The aim was to investigate whether
the Danish wind subsidization policies indirectly have a positive effect on environmental
efficiency for WFs, and if so, what factors mediate this effect. An environmental and
operational two-stage LCA + DEA (SBM-I) efficiency analysis on a sample of 75 onshore and
offshore Danish WFs was performed. The second stage analysis showed a strong association
between environmental efficiency and feed-in tariffs per MW. There is suggestive evidence that
the main driving factors behind this association are upscaling related variables, as well as
production type. Such that Danish policy makers explicitly want to target environmental impact
reductions of the WF fleet, it is recommended to promote large-scale operations, and preferably
offshore. |
|---|