Feed-in Tariffs for Renewable Energies in Germany: An efficient Instrument to promote Economic Development?

摘要

Renewable energies have become more and more important for electricity production in Germany. They contributed 15.1 percent to Germany's electricity supply in 2008. The system of feed-in tariffs which provides de facto subsidies for producers of electricity from renewable sources is responsible for this development. Mitigation of greenhouse gases and higher independence of energy imports have been the main reasons to implement these incentives. Lately, economic reasons like creation of new jobs and growing markets started to play a more important role in justifying subsidies of several billion Euros each year.This analysis evaluates the economic effects of the feed-in tariffs, not taking into account climate and energy policy reasons. The economic effects for every Euro spent within the system of feed-in tariffs for renewable energies will be compared with the effects of other instruments to promote economic growth: subsidies for research and development and investment subsidies for certain less developed regions, especially in Eastern Germany. We will focus on direct effects of the subsidies, assuming that negative effects of taxes to finance these instruments are similar in each case. Therefore, our main indicator to measure success is the private investment initiated with every Euro of subsidies.So far, hardly any empirical research has been done to evaluate various instruments to promote economic growth. Based on the theoretical analysis, an empirical assessment of these instruments will be conducted.