Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/107752 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
Nota di Lavoro No. 1.2015
Publisher: 
Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM), Milano
Abstract: 
Expert elicitations of future energy technology costs can improve energy policy design by explicitly characterizing uncertainty. However, the recent proliferation of expert elicitation studies raises questions about the reliability and comparability of the results. In this paper, we standardize disparate expert elicitation data from five EU and US studies, involving 65 experts, of the future costs of photovoltaics (PV) and evaluate the impact of expert and study characteristics on the elicited metrics. The results for PV suggest that in-person elicitations are associated with more optimistic 2030 PV cost estimates and in some models with a larger range of uncertainty than online elicitations. Unlike in previous results on nuclear power, expert affiliation type and nationality do not affect central estimates. Some specifications suggest that EU experts are more optimistic about breakthroughs, but they are also less confident in that they provide larger ranges of estimates than do US experts. Higher R&D investment is associated with lower future costs. Rather than increasing confidence, high R&D increases uncertainty about future costs, mainly because it improves the base case (low cost) outcomes more than it improves the worst case (high cost) outcomes.
Subjects: 
Photovoltaic Costs
Energy R&D
Expert Elicitation
Survey Design
Heuristics
JEL: 
O32
Q40
Q55
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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