An official website of the United States government
This paper studies rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) investment decisions of households. Two cases are considered: (a) the status quo of net-metering, and (b) a new sharing economy model. Under net-metering, households can sell back their excess generation to the utility at their retail tariff subject to the prevalent constraint that they cannot be net producers of electricity on an annual basis. In our sharing economy model, households can pool their excess PV generation and trade it in a spot market among themselves, but the collective cannot sell electricity back to the utility. Our objective in studying these two cases is that net-metering programs are under threat and being phased out, which places future residential PV investment at risk. In the event of this contingency, we argue that the sharing economy model offers a pathway to preserve and even accelerate residential PV investment. We derive expressions for the optimal investment decisions in each case assuming that households are rational and wish to minimize their costs. We characterize the random clearing price in the spot market for excess PV generation under the sharing model. We show that the optimal investment decisions are determined by a simple threshold policy. Households whose PV productivity metric exceeds this threshold invest the maximum possible, while those that fall below the threshold do not invest. We offer a convergent algorithm to compute this threshold. We close with a small-scale simulation study that reveals the favorable properties of the sharing economy model for residential PV investments.
more »
« less
The Sharing Economy for the Electricity Storage
The sharing economy has upset the market for housing and transportation services. Homeowners can rent out their property when they are away on vacation, car owners can offer ridesharing services. These sharing economy business models are based on monetizing under-utilized infrastructure. They are enabled by peer-to-peer platforms that match eager sellers with willing buyers. Are there compelling sharing economy opportunities in the electricity sector? What products or services can be shared in tomorrow’s Smart Grid? We begin by exploring sharing economy opportunities in the electricity sector, and discuss regulatory and technical obstacles to these opportunities. We then study the specific problem of a collection of firms sharing their electricity storage. We characterize equilibrium prices for shared storage in a spot market. We formulate storage investment decisions of the firms as a non-convex non-cooperative game. We show that under a mild alignment condition, a Nash equilibrium exists, it is unique, and it supports the social welfare. We discuss technology platforms necessary for the physical exchange of power, and market platforms necessary to trade electricity storage. We close with synthetic examples to illustrate our ideas.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1646612
- PAR ID:
- 10076772
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid
- ISSN:
- 1949-3053
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 1
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
The recent framework for tiered spectrum sharing in the 3.5 GHz band establishes rules in which multiple firms called Environment Sensing Capability operators (ESCs) may measure spectrum occupancy and sell these measurements to other firms to help facilitate spectrum access. Motived by this we consider a scenario in which two spectrum access firms (SAs) seeks to access a shared band of spectrum and must in turn purchase spectrum measurements from one of two ESCs. Given the measurements they purchase, the SA firms then compete on price to serve customers in a shared band of spectrum. We study how differences in the quality and price of the spectrum measurements impact the resulting market equilibrium between the SAs and find that having different qualities of measurements available to different SAs can lead to better economic welfare.more » « less
-
The digital sharing economy is commonly seen as a promising circular consumption model that could potentially deliver environmental benefits through more efficient use of existing product stocks. Yet whether sharing is indeed more environmentally benign than prevalent consumption models and what features shape platforms’ sustainability remains unclear. To address this knowledge gap, we conduct a systematic literature review of empirical peer reviewed and conference proceeding publications. We screen over 2200 papers and compile a dataset of 155 empirical papers, and consolidate reported results on the environmental impacts of the sharing economy. We find that sharing is not inherently better from an environmental perspective. The type of resource shared, logistic operations, and the ways in which sharing influences users’ consumption more broadly affect environmental outcomes. Sharing goods is generally associated with better environmental outcomes compared to shared accommodations or mobility. Within mobility, shared scooters and ride-hailing emerge as particularly prone to negative environmental outcomes. Contrary to previous suggestions, peer-to-peer sharing (vs. centralized ownership) does not seem to be a good proxy for environmental performance. As sharing becomes intertwined with urbanization, efforts to steer digital sharing towards environmental sustainability should consider system levels effects and take into account platform operations as well as potential changes in consumer behavior.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Abstract This article introduces a general equilibrium model of endogenous technical change through basic and applied research. Basic research differs from applied research in the nature and the magnitude of the generated spillovers. We propose a novel way of empirically identifying these spillovers and embed them in a framework with private firms and a public research sector. After characterizing the equilibrium, we estimate our model using micro-level data on research expenditures by French firms. Our key finding is that uniform research subsidies can accentuate the dynamic misallocation in the economy by oversubsidizing applied research. Policies geared towards public basic research and its interaction with the private sector are significantly welfare-improving.more » « less
-
We study the coevolution of the fall in the US corporate-sector labor share and the rise of business activity in tax-preferred pass-throughs. We find that reallocating activity to the form it would have taken prior to the Tax Reform Act of 1986 accounts for one-third of the decline in the corporate-sector labor share between 1978 and 2017. Our adjustments are concentrated among mid-market firms in services, magnifying the role of the manufacturing sector and superstar firms in driving the remaining decline in the labor share. Our findings highlight the importance of tax policy when measuring factor shares. (JEL D22, E25, H25, K34, L60, L80)more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/TSG.2017.2748519
