Pablo Del Rio

• Spanish National Research Council

Renewable energy auctions have emerged globally as a primary tool for promoting electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E) by awarding operational support to projects that bid the lowest level of required support. While their widespread adoption reflects perceived efficiency advantages over other support mechanisms, such as administratively-...

Este artículo se centra en en un estudio comparativo sobre la gestión de programas de apoyo público para el desarrollo de ecosistemas de eco-innovación, con particular atención en la gobernanza y la financiación. En el presente análisis de casos se adopta un enfoque longitudinal para el análisis de los programas de eco-innovación, desde el diseño h...

There is a widespread agreement that the current linear economic system is unsustainable due to the physical boundaries of our planet and must be replaced by a circular one, that is, by a circular economy (CE). Previous studies have theoretically proposed that eco‐innovations (EIs), or innovations that reduce the environmental impacts of consumptio...

Geographically neutral renewable energy auctions incentivize investors to locate their plants in optimal locations to minimize their bid prices, but this concentration might result in substantial grid investments. Ultimately, maximizing the social welfare for consumers requires minimizing the sum of renewable energy auction subsidies and grid inves...

La innovación verde puede desempeñar un papel central en la transición a un nuevo modelo de desarrollo sostenible en la región de América Latina y el Caribe. Este documento desarrolla un marco conceptual para la intervención pública en este ámbito, considerando distintas tipologías de instrumentos y elaborando recomendaciones para la implementación...

La innovación verde puede desempeñar un papel central en la transición a un nuevo modelo de desarrollo sostenible en la región de América Latina y el Caribe. Este documento presenta una selección de estudios de casos de implementación de instrumentos de política pública que constituyen buenas prácticas internacionales. El análisis de cada programa...

Similarly to other countries in the EU, Spain has very ambitious renewable electricity targets for the 2030 timeframe. According to its National Climate and Energy Plan, 74% of electricity will have to be generated from renewable electricity sources. This means that around 60 GW of new renewable electricity capacity (mostly wind and solar PV) will...

An increase in market concentration (MC), which refers to a large share of few and large firms in a given sector, is a main concern for governments all over the world since it is believed to affect competition levels and, thus, lead to inefficiencies. It has also captured the attention of researchers in the past. A trend towards MC has been observe...

Innovation in general, and innovation in renewable electricity technologies (RETs) in particular, are a main element of the clean energy transition. Traditionally, policy measures to spur innovation have fallen into two main categories: supply-push and demand-pull. The latter category includes auctions, which are now the most popular scheme to supp...

Households play a very relevant role in energy demand in general and electricity demand in particular. Although electricity is an essential product in our daily life, reductions of electricity demand have generally been defended on environmental and energy security grounds. The aim of this paper is to analyse the level and the drivers of efficiency...

We apply an index decomposition analysis to investigate the main drivers of CO2 emissions in the electricity generation sector in Spain over the period 1991–2017. We quantify the impact of five different effects: carbonization, transformation, fossil intensity, electricity intensity, and production effects. Four subperiods are identified. The relev...

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the concept of the Circular Economy (CE), as well as an assessment of the drivers and barriers for circular practices by firms, and its implications for managers in firms and public policy makers. It includes proposals for policy frameworks and instruments that will encourage the uptake of CE practices....

Although the CE has emerged as an important concept in current debates about sustainability and also in policy-making at the public sector and company levels, it has certainly not emerged from scrap. On the contrary, it builds on several previous approaches and, in turn, overlaps, contributes and interacts with them.

The aim of this chapter is to discuss some of the managerial and public policy implications deriving from the analysis of the CE at the micro-level. The former refers to measures private decision makers in firms can take in order to facilitate the uptake of circular practices in-house. The latter includes framework conditions and specific policies...

This chapter provides a thorough literature review on existing definitions, classifications and taxonomies of the CE. This is a necessary exercise, as most researchers and practitioners recognize that the CE is an “umbrella concept”. There are different approaches to circularity, and a commonly agreed definition of the CE currently does not exist....

An appropriate analysis of the adoption of CE innovations (CEIs) should be based on the application of an analytical framework which takes into account the wide array of determinants which influence their uptake. As mentioned in a previous chapter, CE innovations are a subset of all eco-innovations which, in turn, are a subset of all innovations. T...

In order to illustrate the drivers and barriers to the adoption of CE innovations at the micro-(firm) level, in this chapter, we present case studies of firms in different sectors.

The CE is a multidimensional and multi-level concept. This multidimensionality is addressed by most authors in the CE literature.

The Horizon2020 project AURES II aims at ensuring the effective implementation of auctions for renewable energies in the EU Member States (MS). In recent years, auction schemes for the allocation of support for renewable electricity sources (RES) have been advancing rapidly across Europe. Auctions are considered to have brought down support levels...

Auctions have become the main instrument of choice to support renewable electricity around the world. This is probably due to their alleged virtues in terms of efficiency. However, whether auctions will meet their expectations and be successful will depend on the choice of design elements in particular settings. Although the analysis of the advanta...

The use of the European Union cooperation mechanisms for concentrated solar power (CSP) projects could kill two birds with one stone. First, CSP electricity can cover demand when variable renewables cannot generate. Second, CSP projects deployed under the cooperation mechanisms could contribute to a European-wide optimization of resource use and gr...

The reduction of equipment costs encourages the diffusion of photovoltaic micro-generation, however, proper regulatory measures should be implemented to facilitate self-production dissemination and to promote the emergence of new electricity markets which integrate prosumers. The specific form of these markets will depend on the level of prosumers’...

The circular economy (CE) and eco‐innovation (EI) are two concepts deemed instrumental in achieving a sustainable transition. They have been proposed in the academic literature and by practitioners and have acquired very high public policy relevance, being endorsed by policymakers and ultimately leading to regulations supporting them. It has been a...

We investigate whether political ideology has an observable effect on dec-arbonization ambition, renewable power aims, and preferences for power system balancing technologies in four European countries. Based on the Energy Logics framework, we identify ideologically different transition strategies (state-centered, market-centered, grassroots-center...

Global warming represents a serious challenge, which requires the adoption of renewable energy technologies worldwide. However, it can negatively affect the availability of renewable energy resources, such as wind, which are needed for electricity generation. In this context, there is an increasing need for more accurate evaluations of wind turbine...

It is often argued that a key feature of auctions is the competitive pressure created on the overall value chain, and indeed all actors of the renewable energy (RE) sector. Moreover, it is often argued that auctions can induce a reduction in the level of actor diversity (AD) in some segments of the value chain, and especially in the project develop...

The penetration of renewable energy sources for electricity generation is critical to decarbonize electricity systems, a main goal in the context of the energy transition. Among renewable energies capacity additions, wind energy has played a dominant role in the European Union and elsewhere, fuelled by technology cost reductions and public promotio...

In the light of the EU 2030 Climate and Energy framework, MUSTEC-Market uptake of Solar Thermal Electricity through Cooperation aims to explore and propose concrete solutions to overcome the various factors that hinder the deployment of concentrated solar power (CSP) projects in Southern Europe capable of supplying renewable electricity on demand t...

Auctions for renewable energy (RES) support are market-based, competitive bidding processes to identify the most appropriate RES projects to be constructed within a certain time frame and allocate support payments to these projects. Most EU Member States have introduced RES auctions that seem to have resulted in strong price decreases. The COVID-1...

Job creation is arguably an important socioeconomic benefit of renewable energy deployment. In turn, this employment creation may be contingent upon the influence of some key factors, including technology learning, trade effects and policies and may affect different renewable energy technologies and activities of the renewable energy value chain in...

Electrification policies are crucial to improve the welfare of rural populations worldwide. In this context, auctions for the deployment of stand-alone solar home systems (SASHS) are an appropriate alternative to facilitate access to electricity in rural areas. The aim of this paper is to analyze the design elements and functioning of the SASHS auc...

The fight against climate change will require the uptake of renewable energy technologies, including wind. However, as with any technological system, whether such deployment will effectively occur depends on the interactions of many variables, whose levels are subject to uncertainty. Therefore, identifying the set of technical, economic and politic...

The aim of this paper is to empirically identify and rank the drivers and barriers to the deployment of concentrated solar power (CSP) in the EU in the past and the future at two different levels of analysis: System/grid or macro level and project/investment or micro level. An expert elicitation and an investors’ survey were carried out for this pu...

The need for a sustainability transition is undisputed. Ecological innovation (eco-innovation) is a possible mechanism with which to reach a fully sustainable economy and society. Several types of eco-innovation exist, that is, end-of-pipe, efficiency or effectiveness related. While all contribute to the sustainability transition, they have differe...

Market-based, competitive bidding processes, i.e., auctions, are becoming a dominant policy instrument for securing future electricity production from renewable energy sources (RES) around the world. The rapid growth is striking: in 2005, only six countries employed RES auctions, and by 2017 at least 84 countries had adopted the mechanism. This art...

This paper describes and quantifies three different energy policy pathways for Spain’s energy transition: government-centred, represented by the socialist party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE); market-centred, represented by the conservative party (Partido Popular, PP); and grassroots, represented by Unidas Podemos.

CSP is a dispatchable renewable electricity technology which might contribute substantially to a sustainable energy transition everywhere, in tandem with an increasing penetration of variable renewable energy technologies.

This chapter deals with three important issues related to the history of CSP development, namely the early steps and pioneers of thermo-solar technology (Sect. 3.1), the CSP diffusion facts from 1980s to today (Sect. 3.2), and the drivers and barriers to its deployment (Sect. 3.3).

The CSP value chain comprises many activities ranging from the development, civil works, solar field, tower, receiver, control, piping/valves, steam generation, turbine, cooling system, electrical system, auxiliary system, assembling, and research [15]. As of today, Europe is still the technological leader in the CSP sector and, given that one of t...

Different CSP generation technologies can be distinguished depending on the type of collector’s optics and solar receiver. In particular, they differ according to the geometrical shape and spatial placement of the mirrors, which determine the degree of concentration of DNI in the solar collector.

Several national and regional governments have implemented incentive programs to promote CSP deployment around the world. These public promotion schemes have been the main driver of CSP deployment. Although Spain and USA have been the main leaders, other countries have recently emerged and have a presence in the CSP market and still others can be e...

This chapter addresses the issue of why support for research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) in CSP is needed (Sect. 5.1), what are the instruments out there to promote it (Sect. 5.2), what level of innovative activity in CSP has been achieved (Sect. 5.3), and what types of innovation can be expected to be performed in the future (Sect. 5.4)...

The drivers of eco‐innovation (EI) have been the focus of much research in the past. Some of these drivers have been external to the firm, such as regulation, whereas others have been internal, including its resources and capabilities and its environmental strategy. However, the analysis of the impact of those drivers on EI has too often been carri...

An abundant volume of literature has been devoted to the analysis of the drivers of renewable electricity capacity additions in general and wind energy in particular. Nevertheless, whereas the direct influence of several explanatory variables has been considered, indirect effects, which refer to impacts of explanatory variables on another explanato...

In the light of the EU 2030 Climate and Energy framework, MUSTEC- Market uptake of Solar Thermal Electricity through Cooperation aims to explore and propose concrete solutions to overcome the various factors that hinder the deployment of concentrated solar power (CSP) projects in Southern Europe capable of supplying renewable electricity on demand...

The literature on intermediaries faces challenges regarding how to conceptualise and empirically demonstrate the system-level impact of intermediaries. Thus, researchers and policy analysts may experience difficulties in grasping the potential contributions of intermediaries beyond individual projects and firms to aggregate levels of an innovation...

As a relatively high-cost gap technology, concentrating solar power (CSP) still needs to be supported if it is to contribute significantly to the energy transition. Within this context, auctions have emerged worldwide as a relevant instrument for the promotion of renewable energy in general, given their alleged advantages in terms of cost-effective...

Firms are influenced by internal factors (resources and capabilities) and external factors (e.g., regulation) when taking the decision to eco‐innovate. However, the analysis of the internal factors has received much less attention than the external ones. This paper aims to fill this gap in the literature by analyzing the role of resources, competen...

As an important first step in defining the framework for renewable energies (RE) within the European Union post 2020, a binding EU-wide target to achieve a renewables share of at least 27% of gross final energy demand by 2030 was adopted by the European Council and Parliament in October 2014. On 30 November 2016, the next step was taken: The Europe...

Cooperation on Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in Europe is expected to contribute to energy and climate policy goals and bring multiple benefits at the national, regional and European levels. For this reason, the Cooperation Mechanisms of the RES Directive 2009/28/EC were originally designed to encourage the collaboration of countries and contribut...

Photovoltaic demand-side generation (PV-DSG), defined as the production of electricity by means of panels or arrays which are installed on the customer's side of the meter, has received much attention lately by academics and policy-makers all over the world. Some countries have promoted this form of generation, whereas others have lagged behind. Th...

Retail electricity prices have substantially increased in the last decade in the European Union (EU) as a result of different regulations, raising the concern of policy makers. The growth in the support costs for electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E) has often been singled out as a main driver of the increase in these prices. The aim of...

A complex regulatory package implementing a new support scheme for renewable electricity was adopted in Spain in 2013 as a response to escalating support costs, which have mostly been related to solar PV promotion. A lot has been written about the retroactivity of the new Spanish regulation and its negative impact on investors’ confidence and futur...

The electricity consumption of non-residential productive sectors represents a significant share of the overall energy consumption in the Member States of the European Union. Therefore, determining the main factors affecting the intensity of such consumption (defined as the ratio of the electricity consumed by the productive system of a given count...

ABSTRACT: Eco-innovations, or innovations which reduce the environmental impact of production and consumption activities, are generally considered key in the transition towards more sustainable economies and societies and help mitigate the traditional dichotomy between competitiveness and sustainability. There are different types of eco-innovation,...

Abstract The aim of this article is to identify the most relevant drivers and barriers for the deployment of concentrated solar power (CSP) in the EU in a 2030 horizon, based on a thorough literature review and interviews with key stakeholders in the sector. The results of our interviews show that the higher “value” of CSP compared to other renewab...

Auctions have recently been regarded as a useful alternative to other support schemes for the setting of the remuneration of renewable electricity (RES-E) worldwide. However, whether auctions will fulfill the expectations depends on the choice of design elements. The aim of this article is to analyze the advantages and drawbacks of different design...

Auctions have recently been regarded as a useful alternative to other support schemes for setting the remuneration of renewable electricity (RES-E) worldwide. They have also been increasingly adopted in the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region, mostly due to their promise to support the deployment of RES-E projects cost-effectively. The aim of this arti...

The European Climate and Energy mix of targets and policies has been criticised by many economists. In particular, it is often argued that the renewable energy targets do not make economic sense, because they represent an expensive option to reduce CO2 emissions within a cap-and-trade scheme such as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU E...

Despite a high academic interest in eco-innovation, a clearly defined common understanding of the characteristics of eco-innovations is largely missing. Existing research on this topic is still mostly qualitative, fragmented, difficult to compare or aggregate and generally specialised on certain aspects. Quantitative research is deemed necessary to...

Multifaceted problems such as sustainable development typically involve complex arrangements of institutions and instruments and the subject of how best to design and operate such 'mixes', 'bundles' or 'portfolios' of policy tools is an ongoing issue in this area. One aspect of this question is that some mixes are more difficult to design and opera...

This paper assesses challenges arising for renewable energy technologies that have achieved a certain maturity level in terms of technology development, costs and market penetration. We identify these challenges, which diverge from challenges for less mature technologies and, based on three case studies, we analyse how some of the challenges have m...

The EU climate and energy policy landscape is characterized by a combination of instruments to achieve the EU 2020 and 2030 targets. In this paper, some of the most relevant interactions between RES-E support and a wide array of other climate and energy policies including the EU ETS, the Energy Taxation Directive and the Effort Sharing Directive in...

A comparative analysis of electricity and gas demand in the industrial sector over a long period of time appears to be absent in the literature. In fact, unlike electricity demand, natural gas demand in the industrial sector has not been well researched. Our paper aims to cover this gap. It analyses electricity and gas consumption patterns by the S...

The energy sector is undeniably undergoing a critical period, faced with multiple challenges, whether economic, political or technological. These challenges are related to the requirements set on the sector to meet a wide range of social demands associated with the three traditional dimensions of a sustainable energy system, i.e., environmental sus...

The aim of this paper is to assess several pathways of a harmonised European policy framework for supporting renewable electricity (RES-E) in a 2030 horizon according to different criteria. The pathways combine two main dimensions: degrees of harmonisation and instruments and design elements. A quantitative model-based analysis with the Green-X mod...

The aim of this paper is to estimate fuel demand behaviour related to car use by households with different income levels in Spain using micro-level panel data in order to infer public policy implications. Our results show that the income elasticity of fuel demand is highest for the lowest income group and diminishes monotonically for the others. Th...

The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of several “international” drivers on firms developing or adopting eco-innovation (i.e., eco-innovators), with the help of a bivariate probit model with sample selection and using a database of Spanish innovators. We test how the eco-innovative behaviour of innovative firms is affected by international...

During the work in the AURES project, we have found evidence that auctions can be a suitable instrument for allocating support under budget and volume limitations and can achieve significant short-term efficiency gains, but it has not been proven that auctions in general are better suited to support renewable energy than other support instruments....

The large increase in renewable energy sources (RES-E) penetration in the European Union (EU) has raised the concern of policy makers about the costs of public promotion of RES-E, in spite of the commitment of the European Commission to the deployment of RES-E in the last years. This paper is focused on wind energy, because it is the renewable tech...

The large increase in renewable energy sources (RES-E) penetration in the European Union (EU) has raised the concern of policy makers about the costs of public promotion of RES-E, in spite of the commitment of the European Commission to the deployment of RES-E in the last years. This paper is focused on wind energy, because it is the renewable tech...

The deep economic crisis and the sharp rise in electricity prices have reduced electricity demand by Spanish households. This paper aims to analyse the responsiveness of household electricity demand and the welfare effects related to both factors in the 2006-2012 period by applying a demand model estimated with the quantile regression method. The r...

This paper analyses the main determinants influencing different types of eco-innovations and eco-innovators in Spain. We differentiate between two types of eco-innovations (process vs. product and new-to-the-market (NTM) vs. new-to-the-firm (NTF)) and two different types of ecoinnovators (large vs. small and old vs. new firms). Our findings show th...

Renewable energy sources (RES) play a critical role in the low-carbon energy transition. Although there is quite an abundant literature on the barriers to RES, the analysis of the electricity generation overcapacity as a barrier to further RES penetration has received scant attention. This paper tries to cover this gap. Its aim is to analyse the ca...

This book provides an up-to-date, rigorous analysis of the state of the art of solar photovoltaic (PV) generation. It focuses on the economic analysis of solar PV generation technologies as well as the policies that have been devised and implemented around the globe to support it. It provides the main theoretical tools for understanding the cost of...

Policy makers in the Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU) face a difficult task: how to support renewable electricity deployment successfully (i.e., effectively and efficiently) in the short and medium terms and, in particular, in a 2030 horizon. Within renewable electricity, wind energy is a crucial energy source, expected to substantiall...

This article draws from two bodies of literature, innovation intermediaries and technological innovation systems, to develop an approach for analysing the functions of intermediaries in eco-innovation. The link between the functions of innovation intermediaries and the functions of technological innovation systems has seldom been explicitly establi...

Policies increasingly come in complex packages and understanding the nature of design criteria for such portfolios is increasingly important. However, existing studies of policy mixes fail to carefully define the dependent variable of the inquiry. As a result, theorization of policy design has lagged, the cumulative impact of empirical studies has...

This paper analyzes the main determinants influencing environmental innovators (i.e. firms developing or adopting environmental innovations) in Spain with respect to non-environmental innovators. Similarly to other contributions in the literature, our results show that Spanish environmental innovators respond to regulatory stimulus in the form of d...

The aim of this paper is to provide a critical review of the literature on the econometric analyses of firm-level determinants to eco-innovation. The review reveals some gaps in knowledge. First, an integrated theoretical framework which merges the insights from different approaches is missing. Second, the influence of some variables is still unset...

Given the alleged environmental and socioeconomic benefits of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E), their public promotion has become a policy priority for governments all over the world in the past. However, in those countries with an already large penetration of renewable energy in their electricity mix, there is substantial concern...

Concerns about climate change, diminishing social acceptance of traditional fuels, and technological innovations have led several countries to pursue energy transition strategies, typically by massive diffusion of renewable electricity supplies. The German 'Energiewende' has been successful so far in terms of deploying renewable power, mainly by ap...

This paper analyses the determinants of household electricity demand with a panel data, partial adjustment model of the Spanish regions between 1998 and 2009. We find that electricity demand is positively and significantly related to several variables (electricity demand in the previous year, income, temperature range, penetration of electric water...