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Can support policies promote the innovative diffusion of waste-to-energy technology?

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Abstract

Currently, China is facing severe pressure of environmental emission reduction. As a kind of clean energy, waste-to-energy technology has the advantages of renewability, low pollution, and stable supply. To establish an affordable, effective, and sustainable waste disposable method is critical for the low carbon society transition. Therefore, the innovation diffusion of waste incineration power technology is a problem worth studying. Based on this, in order to answer this question scientifically, this paper constructs a system dynamics model of innovative diffusion, and analyzes the internal mechanism of innovation diffusion. The results show that firstly, the government support policies have a positive influence on the innovation and diffusion of waste incineration power technology; secondly, compared with the R&D policy, feed-in tariffs policy is more efficient to expand the installed capacity of waste incineration power; At last, technological innovation caused by government support policies is the main driving force of waste incineration power industry investment cost reduction.

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Notes

  1. https://www.babcock.com/en/industry/waste-to-energy.

  2. National Development and Reform Commission, 2012. The Notice on Improving Price Policies of WTE Plants, Beijing, China. < http://www.nea.gov.cn/2014-09/29/c_133682178.htm > (in Chinese).

  3. Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission on the Improvement of Waste Incineration Power Generation Price Policy. http://www.nea.gov.cn/2014-09/29/c_133682178.htm

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Funding

This paper is supported by the Beijing Municipal Social Science Foundation (No. 16JDYJB031), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2020YJ008), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2018ZD14).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Changping, Beijing, 102206, China

    Wang Wei & Zhao Xin-gang

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory of New Energy and Low-Carbon Development (North China Electric Power University), Changping, Beijing, 102206, China

    Wang Wei & Zhao Xin-gang

  3. Faculty of Information Technology, Beijing University of Technology, Tongzhou, Beijing, 101101, China

    Wang Jieying

Authors
  1. Wang Wei
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  2. Zhao Xin-gang
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  3. Wang Jieying
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Contributions

Wang Wei: conceptualization, methodology, software, formal analysis, writing—original draft, visualization, resources, data curation.

Zhao Xin-gang: validation, investigation, funding acquisition, project administration, supervision.

Wang Jieying: conceptualization, methodology, software, formal analysis.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhao Xin-gang.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Appendix

Appendix

Nomenclature

   

WTE

waste-to-energy

\({\mathrm{IC}}_{{\text{newly}}-{\text{added}}}\)

newly added installed capacity

FIT

feed-in tariff

\(\mathrm{DP}\)

the depreciate capacity

R&D

Research and Development

\({\mathrm{IC}}_{\text{under construction}}\)

the installed capacity under construction

Mape

mean absolute percentage error

\(\mathrm{CP}\)

construction plan

Abbreviation

 

\({L}_{i}\)

lifetime of the equipment

NEA

National Energy Administrations

\({\text{InCost}}_{\text{per capacity}}\)

investment cost of per capacity

\(\mathrm{CIC}\)

cumulative installed capacity

\(TI\)

technology innovation

\(\mathrm{uh}\)

utilization hours

\(Re{\text{venue}}_{{\text{grid}}-\text{in electricity}}\)

the revenue of grid-in electricity

\({R}_{\text{Self consumption}}\)

self-consumption ratio

\({\mathrm{GC}}_{\mathrm{WTE}}\)

generation power of waste incineration

\({h}_{i}\)

investment cost per capacity

\({\mathrm{TC}}_{\mathrm{WTE}}\)

total cost of waste incineration power

\({\mathrm{Cost}}_{\text{operation}}\)

the cost of operation

\({\mathrm{Cost}}_{\text{fuel}}\)

the cost of fuels

MSW

municipal solid waste

  

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Wei, W., Xin-gang, Z. & Jieying, W. Can support policies promote the innovative diffusion of waste-to-energy technology?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 55580–55595 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19732-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19732-8

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