The importance of using renewable energy (RE) sources has increased significantly in recent times, especially considering the growing concerns about climate change problems and rising fossil fuel prices, which pose a significant threat to the national economies. Therefore, empirical studies that can be used both domestically and internationally in harmony can be created in line with rising investments in RE. However, there has no more analysis of RE investments from the viewpoint of investors in the literature up to this point, and it is crucial to highlight the best investor practices when deploying RE. This research provides theoretical and empirical support for the factors influencing RE investments; used in this analysis are newly constructed panel data on 34 OECD countries and the 5 BRICS countries that range from 2000 to 2020. Specifically, the generalized moment method (GMM), robustness check, fixed and random effects models, panel unit testing, and other panel regression techniques were employed in the study to analyze the determinants of RE investment. The main findings of this paper suggest that economic growth, RE policy, and R&D expenditures all have a statistically significant and positive relationship with RE capacity. Furthermore, RE investment is inversely relative to energy use, electricity use, and carbon (CO
2
) emissions. As a result, rigorous governmental or state regulation (policy, R&D) is essential for RE investment.
One of the key pressing challenge the Russian electric power industry faces today in its development and performance is the problem of the cross subsidization between consumer groups. The volume of the cross subsidization in Russia has increased 4 times for 15 years. The conditionally acceptable level of the cross subsidization is estimated based on the additional tariff burden on industrial consumers associated with the implementation of the cross subsidization mechanism. In order to reduce the cross subsidization, it is recommended to increase electricity tariffs for the house-holders by 6% annually. At the transition stage to the target model should be based on the marginal tariff burden on industrial consumers; retail electricity prices for similar consumers in Europe can serve as a “standard” for such a limit (a possible increase in electricity tariffs for industrial consumers on average in Russia is 1.4 times the level of 2016). Options for reducing the cross subsidization and recommendations on how to determine the appropriate volumes are proposed, that is important in the current conditions of the absence of a single adopted methodology for assessing both the value of cross-subsidization and economically justified tariffs.The mechanism of the cross subsidization in the target model of electric energy pricing should be completely excluded, for which the indicator “growth of regulated (final) tariffs for the population” should be included in the forecast of social and economic development of Russia (return to the existing practice until 2017), providing for faster growth rates compared to other consumers.
For the last several years, the Russian Federation has been artificially restraining the growth of tariffs for the services of natural monopolies. A simple decision, which is taken hastily a few years ago as a short-term anti-crisis measure, has every chance of becoming a "solution" for many years to come. The authors attempt to analyze the short-term and long-term effects of the tariff regulation and present the results obtained in the framework of the basic research program of the Higher School of Economics on the impact of tariffs in the energy sector on the main macroeconomic indicators, most often used as arguments in favor of tariff restraint. It is shown that tariffs, including the ones for electricity networks, should cover all efficient costs of regulated companies in full which enables reliable and safe power supply for sustainable and efficient development of industries and wellbeing of the population. The authors present for the first time the results of the estimations of the efficiency of the operational costs of electric networks in Russia obtained on the models developed by the Institute of Pricing and Regulation of Natural Monopolies. The models are based on the data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique, one of the most advanced and most common methods in contemporary tariff setting.
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