Featured result

Photovoltaic power plants

  

 

Photovoltaic power plants contribute to the introduction of renewable electricity in the energy mix. Hence, researchers have assessed their impact on the electricity supply curve in the Czech Republic.

The merit order effect is estimated as the elasticity of electricity spot price with respect to change in the supply of electricity from renewable sources. The analysis uses data for the Czech electricity spot market from 2010 to 2015, the period with the steepest increase in renewable electricity generation capacity.

The findings show a significant difference between these two groups. Based on hourly, daily, and weekly data, the energy produced by Czech solar power plants does not decrease electricity wholesale spot price, and creates a double cost to the end consumer.

However, the merit order effect based on averaged daily and weekly data is shown to exist for other renewable sources excluding solar. This contributes to the conclusion that the Czech renewables policy that prefers solar to other renewable sources may be considered as suboptimal.

 

Read further 

Luňáčková, Petra, Jan Průša, and Karel Janda (2017). "The merit order effect of Czech photovoltaic plants." Energy Policy, 106, 138-147.