Promoting Renewable Energy in Europe: A Hybrid Computable General Equilibrium Approach

We illustrate the use of a large-scale computable general equilibrium model to investigate the economic and environmental effects of renewable energy promotion within the European Union. Our hybrid model incorporates the technological explicitness of bottom-up energy system models for the electricity sector while production possibilities in other sectors are described at an aggregate level through top-down constant-elasticities-of-substitution (transformation) functions. The discrete activity analysis of technology options within conventional top-down computable general equilibrium models is possible when adopting the so-called mixed complementarity problem approach Ð a flexible mathematical representation of market equilibrium conditions which accommodates weak inequalities and complementary slackness.