cl.clement.leblanc@gmail.com

This fall, EnergyEcoLab is highly pleased to welcome Francesco Scarazzato as a visiting PhD student. Francesco Scarazzato is a PhD student at the Department of Economics, Vienna University of Economics and Business. He earned his Master’s at the University of Bologna, and before starting his PhD he spent some time as a visiting researcher at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, in Berlin. His main research interests are energy markets, environmental economics and industrial economics.

On November 14, 2024, the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) organize an event in Milano and invited Natalia Fabra as Keynote Speaker. The topic of this event will be: “Phasing in renewable energies, Phasing out coal: The local labour market effects”.

Natalia will present evidence on the local economic impacts of coal plant closures and renewable energy plant openings in Spain. For the coal phase-out, she examines the closure of 16 out of 21 coal power plants in a short timeframe, which has nearly eliminated coal-based power generation in the country. Her findings suggest modest effects on local employment and unemployment, with significant variation across regions. For the renewable energy phase-in, she analyzes data from over 3,900 Spanish municipalities from 2017 to 2021, when renewable energy investments occurred at different times and scales. The results show stronger employment and unemployment impacts from solar projects compared to wind, likely due to differing task and skill requirements. In addition to labor market effects, these investments have modestly boosted public spending and per capita income, with more noticeable benefits in areas with larger projects.

Next October 22nd, members and external collaborators of EnergyEcoLab will participate in the Energy Workshop organized at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. The workshop will cover various topics related to the energy transition and the mitigation of carbon emissions. Natalia Fabra, Gerard Llobet and Mar Reguant, among others, will present their ongoing work.

Clément Leblanc participated in a workshop organized by the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME) on the design of tenders for industrial decarbonization. The question raised was: “How to induce cost disclosure while complying with EU guidelines on state aid? “. Clément was invited to share his expertise on risk management in the design of tenders for renewable energy, which also applies to these new types of tenders aimed at decarbonization projects in the industrial sector.

The paper “Do Renewable energy investments create local jobs”, co-authored by Natalia Fabra, Eduardo Gutiérrez, Aitor Lacuesta dn Roberto Ramos, has been accepted for publication at the Journal of Public Economics. The paper analyzes data from over 3,900 Spanish municipalities (2017-2021), and finds that new jobs frequently do not remain in the host communities. Solar projects show stronger employment and unemployment multipliers compared to wind, reflecting differing task and skill requirements. Beyond the labor market impacts, residents benefit from the investments through greater public spending and increased per capita income. However, these effects are modest, particularly in the case of small to medium-sized plants. 

The paper is published as an EEL Discussion paper, and it is available here.

After two years as President of the European Association of Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE), Natalia Fabra delivered the Presidential Address at its Annual Congress in Amsterdam. The lecture title was “Electricity Market Design in Transition.”

Natalia provided an overview of the market failures that challenge the achievement of the renewable energy goals in electricity markets, and she described her research project (co-authored with Gerard Llobet) on “The Costs of Counterparty Risk in Long-Term Contracts.”

The slides are available here.