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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.
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The sharing economy is not always greener: a review and consolidation of empirical evidence
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.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2203189
- PAR ID:
- 10588435
- Publisher / Repository:
- IOP Publishing LTD
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Environmental Research Letters
- Volume:
- 19
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1748-9326
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 013004
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad0f00
