Peer-reviewed journal articles, working papers, and other publications apply Stanford’s interdisciplinary strengths in engineering, economics, business, and energy policy to increase global knowledge of low-carbon energy technologies.
Dynamic Natural Monopoly Regulation: Time Inconsistency, Asymmetric Information, and Political Environments
This paper quantitatively assesses time inconsistency, moral hazard, and political ideology in monopoly regulation of electricity distribution. We specify and estimate a dynamic model of utility regulation featuring investment and moral hazard.…
The U.S. Investment Tax Credit for Solar Energy: Alternatives to the Anticipated 2017 Step-Down
Solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in the United States have been deployed at a rapid pace in recent years, a development that is attributed in significant part to the federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC). Yet, this credit is scheduled to step-…
Economic Value of Flexible Hydrogen-Based Polygeneration Energy Systems
Polygeneration energy systems (PES) have the potential to provide a flexible, high-efficiency, and low-emissions alternative for power generation and chemical synthesis from fossil fuels. This study aims to assess the economic value of fossil-…
Sustainable Investing at Generation Investment Management
In 2015, Generation Investment Management celebrated the successful 10-year track record of its flagship Global Equity Fund, which outperformed its benchmark index by over 500 basis points per year. A mainstream investment firm whose founders…
Levelized Product Cost: Concept and Decision Relevance
We examine a life-cycle cost concept that applies to both manufacturing and service industries in which upfront capacity investments are essential. Borrowing from the energy literature, we refer to this cost measure as the Levelized Product Cost…
Are the Recent Declines in Solar PV Module Prices Sustainable?
Once dismissed as unrealistically expensive, solar photovoltaic (PV) power has been on a remarkable run lately: according to Bloomberg Professional Service, in comparison to the start of the decade, the annual installations of new solar PV…
Time of Day Pricing and the Levelized Cost of Intermittent Power Generation
An important characteristic of most renewable energy sources is intermittency in their ability to generate electricity. Yet, intermittency is usually ignored in life-cycle cost calculations intended to assess the competitiveness of electric power…
Incentives for Early Adoption of Carbon Capture Technology
We analyze a policy proposal for regulating the next generation of baseload electricity generation facilities in the United States. The cornerstone of this regulation is a (hypothetical) EPA mandate for an emission standard of 80 kg of CO2 per…
The Effectiveness of Domestic Content Criteria in India's Solar Mission
Often, a goal of renewable energy policies is the development of domestic renewable energy technology manufacturing capacity. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (NSM) in India is an example; besides targeting an installation of 20 GW of…
The Prospects for Cost Competitive Solar PV Power
New solar Photovoltaic (PV) installations have grown globally at a rapid pace in recent years. We provide a comprehensive assessment of the cost competitiveness of this electric power source. Based on data available for the second half of 2011,…