Introduction to the Handbook on the Economics of Renewable Energy

Renewable electricity technologies bring many benefits: they help to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases and local pollutants, provide economic development, employment and investment opportunities, reduce fossil fuel dependency and mitigate the risks related to the security of energy supply. In addition to those benefits, there are costs, however. The aim of this book is to provide a comprehensive vision on the "economics of renewable energy". It applies economic analysis techniques to identify the costs and benefits of renewable electricity development and deployment, inferring policy implications for the future. It does so by adopting a systemic and dynamic perspective on costs; it addresses theoretical, methodological and empirical aspects of renewable energy deployment with a clear policy-oriented philosophy, and it encompasses different economic approaches and disciplines. It provides a sufficiently broad coverage of topics and perspectives which is deemed useful for researchers, policy makers and practitioners.