Conference Agenda

Knowing how long the average vehicle remains roadworthy before being scrapped is a crucial input into life cycle assessment (LCA) and total cost of ownership (TCO) studies of different vehicle powertrains. This study leverages a dataset of over 300 million MOT records from 2005 to 2022 for over 30 million vehicles registered in Great Britain and uses parametric survival analysis with interval-censored data to examine the longevity of various powertrains under real usage conditions. Our findings reveal that (plugin) hybrid electric vehicles have the longest expected longevity in terms of years and mileage, both of which are about 50% higher than those of an average fleet vehicle. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs), while initially showing lower reliability, have benefited from rapid technological improvements such that the latest BEVs in our sample match the lifespan of petrol vehicles despite being used more intensively. Longevity is also impacted by engine size, location, and make of vehicle. The results provide parameter estimates that can be used to update TCO and LCA models and also shed light on EV diffusion patterns, fleet replacement strategies, and end-of-life treatment planning, including the increasingly important debate around EV battery recycling and second-life options.

This paper studies the effects of utility-scale renewable energy expansion on local labor markets in the United States from 2005 to 2019. Utilizing exogenous solar and wind potentials from satellite data, we find a positive employment effect from solar and wind energy, and the effects are not short-lived. Also, solar energy contributes to wage growth. We find notable increases in jobs and business establishments in many sectors, particularly manufacturing in support of a local agglomeration effect. These gains are very localized, reflected in strong in-migration and weak local spillover. The gains are mostly concentrated among younger and lower-educated workers.

This study evaluates whether a residential solar mandate in the case of roof renovation is a useful complement to economic incentives for further photovoltaics (PV) adoption. Analyzing determinants affecting PV ownership and installation intentions among single-family homeowners, as well as factors influencing support for a solar mandate and perceptions of its effectiveness, our empirical results, based on a survey of German utility customers, show that a residential solar mandate is a rather unpopular policy measure among homeowners. However, a solar mandate addresses two important factors which, according to our results, increase the willingness to install PV: firstly, the perception that the personal environment expects more PV, and secondly, an upcoming roof renovation. Both social desirability and a favorable time window can be institutionalized through a solar mandate. In terms of support for a solar mandate, we find that the perceived effectiveness of such a mandate has a strong influence on homeowner support. Perceived effectiveness, in turn, is closely related to perceived cost savings and perceived environmental benefits of PV. Based on these results, we conclude that an active information policy regarding the environmental and cost implications of PV expansion is essential to increase the acceptance of a solar mandate.

This paper empirically examines whether proximity to power plants and work-related experience in the wind, coal, and nuclear energy sectors are correlated with the individual support for the expansion of regional power plants. The data for this analysis stem from a large-scale computer-based survey among more than 3,700 citizens in Germany. The econometric analysis with binary and ordered probit models reveals significantly positive correlations between work-related experience in a specific energy sector and the support for the regional expansion of the corresponding power plants, whereby work-related experience in the coal and nuclear energy sectors is of particular relevance. In addition, our estimation results also show a significantly positive correlation between proximity to wind turbines and the support for the regional expansion of wind turbines, but no clear relationship regarding coal and nuclear power plants. We discuss several energy policy implications. For example, it is extremely important to accompany measures of the energy transition with structural change measures to take into account the economic dependencies of the working force.