Wind Power Development in the United States: Effects of Policies and Electricity Transmission Congestion

In this dissertation, I analyze the drivers of wind power development in the United States as well as the relationship between renewable power plant location and transmission congestion and emissions levels. I first examine the role of government renewable energy incentives and access to the electricity grid on investment in wind power plants across counties from 1998-2007. The results indicate that the federal production tax credit, state-level sales tax credit and production incentives play an important role in promoting wind power. In addition, higher wind power penetration levels can be achieved by bringing more parts of the electricity transmission grid under independent system operator regulation. I conclude that state and federal government policies play a significant role in wind power development both by providing financial support and by improving physical and procedural access to the electricity grid. Second, I examine the effect of renewable power plant location on electricity transmission congestion levels and system-wide emissions levels in a theoretical model and a simulation study. A new renewable plant takes the effect of congestion on its own output into account, but ignores the effect of its marginal contribution to congestion on output from existing plants, which results in curtailment of renewable power. Though pricing congestion removes the externality and reduces curtailment, I find that in the absence of a price on emissions, pricing congestion may in some cases actually increase system-wide emissions. The final part of my dissertation deals with an econometric issue that emerged from the empirical analysis of the drivers of wind power. I study the effect of the degree of censoring on random-effects Tobit estimates in finite sample with a particular focus on severe censoring, when the percentage of uncensored observations reaches 1 to 5 percent. The results show that the Tobit model performs well even at 5 percent uncensored observations with the bias in the Tobit estimates remaining at or below 5 percent. Under severe censoring (1 percent uncensored observations), large biases appear in the estimated standard errors and marginal effects. These are generally reduced as the sample size increases in both N and T

The impact of a feed-in tariff on wind power development in Germany

We estimate the impact of a feed-in tariff for renewable power on wind power investment in Germany at the county level from 1996-2010 controlling for windiness and access to the electricity transmission grid. After the Renewable Energy Law (EEG) was passed in 2000, the feed-in tariff became linked to wind power potential, such that more windy locations received a lower incentive per unit of output. We find that a 1 e-cent/kWh increase in the feed-in tariff rate would increase additions to capacity at the national level by 764MWper year from 1996- 2010 or 1,528 MW per year from 2005-2010. We analyze counterfactual scenarios, in which a uniform incentive is offered instead of the wind-dependent EEG incentive. Significantly more wind power plants are installed along the northern coastal counties in the uniform incentive scenario. We find that while the uniform incentive results in greater total wind power output per installed capacity, the EEG is ultimately more efficient by achieving 1% greater wind power output per euro and 3.7% greater reductions in power sector emissions per euro. In addition, we find a significant response from investors to an EEG provision that shifted the cost of transmission system upgrades from wind power developers to grid operators in 2000. The lack of a signal on scarcity of transmission capacity has likely resulted in a distribution of wind power plants that makes suboptimal use of existing infrastructure, necessitating investment in new transmission corridors

What can we learn about shale gas development from land values? Opportunities, challenges, and evidence from Texas and Pennsylvania

We study farm real estate values in the Barnett Shale (Texas) and the northeastern part of the Marcellus Shale (Pennsylvania and New York). Shale gas development caused appreciation in both areas but the effect was much larger in the Marcellus, suggesting broader ownership of oil and gas rights by surface owners. In both regions, most appreciation occurred when land was leased for drilling, not when drilling and production boomed. We find evidence that effects vary by farm type, which may reflect a correlation between farm type and the presence of oil and gas rights

What can we learn about shale gas development from land values? Opportunities, challenges, and evidence from Texas and Pennsylvania

We study farm real estate values in the Barnett Shale (Texas) and the northeastern part of the Marcellus Shale (Pennsylvania and New York). Shale gas development caused appreciation in both areas but the effect was much larger in the Marcellus, suggesting broader ownership of oil and gas rights by surface owners. In both regions, most appreciation occurred when land was leased for drilling, not when drilling and production boomed. We find evidence that effects vary by farm type, which may reflect a correlation between farm type and the presence of oil and gas rights

Nachhaltige Ernährung und agrarökologische Lebensmittelproduktion: Die Rolle des Lebensmittelsektors beim Übergang Luxemburgs zur CO2-Neutralität bis 2050

Eine agrarökologische Lebensmittelproduktion gemeinsam mit einer flexitarischen, nachhaltigen Ernährung kann die CO2-Emissionen aus dem Lebensmittelsektor in Luxemburg um 40 % reduzieren. Gemeinsam mit Agrivoltaik und der Reduktion von Abfällen reduzieren die Maßnahmen die Emissionen um 53 %

Farm Operators Owned 19.1BillioninOilandGasRights,WhichGenerated19.1 Billion in Oil and Gas Rights, Which Generated 3.8 Billion in Payments in 2014

From 2005 to 2014, high energy prices and innovation in extraction methods enabled U.S. production of oil and gas to grow by 69 percent—with almost 67 percent of overall production in 2014 occurring on farmland. That year, farm operators owned $19.1 billion in oil and gas rights that generated$3.8 billion in payments through leases with energy firms

Trends in U.S. Agriculture's Consumption and Production of Energy: Renewable Power, Shale Energy, and Cellulosic Biomass

Changing energy policy and market conditions are affecting agriculture as both a consumer and producer of energy. This study analyzes how the Renewable Fuel Standard, which mandates a biofuel component in U.S. transportation fuels, the shale energy revolution, and the Clean Power Plan could affect the agricultural sector