Equity of Incentives: Agent-Based Explorations of How Social Networks Influence the Efficacy of Programs to Promote Solar Adoption
Authored by Heike I Brugger, Adam Douglas Henry
Date Published: 2019
DOI: 10.1155/2019/4349823
Sponsors:
No sponsors listed
Platforms:
R
Model Documentation:
Other Narrative
Flow charts
Mathematical description
Model Code URLs:
Model code not found
Abstract
Agent-based models are used to explore how social networks influence the
effectiveness of governmental programs to promote the adoption of solar
photovoltaics (solar PV) by residential households. This paper examines
how a common characteristic of social networks, known as network
segregation, can dampen the indirect benefits of solar incentive
programs that arise from peer effects. Peer effects cause an agent to be
more likely to adopt a technology if they are socially connected to
other adopters. Due to network segregation, programs that target
relatively affluent agents can generate rapid increases in overall
adoption levels but at the cost of increasing disparities in access to
solar technology between rich and poor communities. These dynamics are
explored through theoretical agent-based models of solar adoption within
hypothetical social systems. The effectiveness of three types of solar
incentive programs, the feed-in tariff, leasing programs, and seeding
programs, is explored. Even though these programs promote rapid adoption
in the short term, results demonstrate that network segregation can
create serious distributional justice problems in the long term for some
programs. The distributional justice effects are particularly severe
with the feed-in tariff. Overall, this paper provides an illustration of
how agent-based models may be used to evaluate and experiment with
policy interventions in a virtual space, which enhances the scientific
basis of policymaking.
Tags
Segregation
Market
diffusion
Policy
Model
Japan
Wales
Photovoltaics
Scheme
Energy system transformation