Michael Roberts
Variable Pricing and the Cost of Renewable Energy
On a levelized-cost basis, solar and wind power generation are now competitive with fossil fuels, and still falling. But supply of these renewable resources is variable and intermittent, unlike traditional power plants. As a result, the cost of using flat retail pricing instead of dynamic, marginal-cost pricing–long advocated by economists–will grow. We evaluate the potential […]
Read MoreShould regulators fear bond-rating agencies?
By Michael Roberts It seems that our political and administrative leaders worry about the bond rating agencies. Their fear is understandable. The cost of capital looms large in all manner of infrastructure projects, and the cost of that capital depends on how risky investors perceive repayment to be. The cost of capital also looms large […]
Read MoreMichael Roberts Receives Agricultural & Applied Economics Association’s Quality of Research Discovery Award
UHERO congratulates Michael Roberts, recipient of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association’s Quality of Research Discovery Award for his article, “Who Really Benefits from Agricultural Subsidies? Evidence from Field-level Data.” Michael will be recognized during the AAEA 2017 Annual Meeting this summer in Chicago. Michael Roberts is a UHERO Research Fellow, Professor of Economics and co-founder of […]
Read MoreWhat a Difference a Rate Makes
By Michael Roberts UHERO’s Energy Planning and Policy Group has been writing about how variable pricing of electricity, both wholesale and retail, can lower the cost of intermittent renewables. Get the rates right, and facilitate easy open-access to the grid for both buyers and sellers, and amazing things can happen. The idea is that variable […]
Read MoreIncentives for the Utility
By Michael Roberts *This post follows up on two previous installments in the Sustainable Energy Blog Series: Embrace Policy Experiments for Demand Response and Four Years to Improve Renewable Energy. Perhaps the greatest obstacle to a renewable-energy future is that our utility, Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI), has little or no incentive to transform its operation into a […]
Read MoreEmbrace Policy Experiments for Demand Response
By Michael Roberts *This post follows up on the previous post in the Sustainable Energy Blog Series: Four Years to Improve Renewable Energy. HECO has recently proposed new time-of-use rates and is developing pricing for various kinds of demand response programs. The proposed programs are a long ways from the open-access, marginal-cost pricing, but they […]
Read MoreFour Years to Improve Renewable Energy
By Michael Roberts Without the debt-ceiling hijinks of earlier years, the federal budget bill passed at the end of last year with a lot less drama and press coverage. But little news turned out to be good news, at least for Hawai`i and renewable energy interests. The spending bill included an extension of the 30% […]
Read MoreResearch Driven Energy Policy
By Carl Bonham, Makena Coffman, and Michael Roberts Hawaii is in the midst of transforming its electricity system into one with a lot more renewable energy. It’s an exciting time, but also a challenging one that is forcing the State to make tough decisions amid many uncertainties. There appears to be confusion about who bears […]
Read MoreNet Metering Agreements in Hawaii
By Makena Coffman and Michael Roberts In Hawaii, like most U.S. states, households installing rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems receive special pricing under net-metering agreements. These agreements allow households with rooftop solar to buy and sell electricity at the retail rate, effectively using the larger grid to store surplus generation from their panels during sunny […]
Read More