06.10.2025
12:30-13:30

The Power of Place: Do Local Government Interventions Accelerate Solar PV Adoption in Germany?

WIFO Research Seminar
Organised by: Austrian Insitute of Economic Research
  • Speaker:
  • Susanna Bolz (Universität Bremen)
Language: English
WIFO, Helene-Lieser-Saal or online via MS-Teams
Federal states and county authorities have agency in implementing measures in addition to the nation-wide regulative and legislative framework to accelerate the energy transition. This paper takes a closer look at two different county-level measures and explores the effects on solar solar PV adoption in Germany of households and companies at the NUTS-3 level.
Participation via MS-Teams

Two specific interventions are selected as they are similar in scale and scope for the counties across Germany: the implementation of sustainability managers the foundation of energy agencies. Both interventions show varying degrees of embeddedness: different strategies are utilised to address the energy transition, and the foundation of energy agencies or sustainability managers are interpreted as a means to embed renewable energy production within a region.

The estimation strategy utilises a difference-in-differences estimation with heterogeneous treatment effects to account for the different timing of the establishment of the county measures. Preliminary results suggest that neither county measure is effective in increasing solar installation by households or companies, but that such county measures are rather implemented in counties which already have a higher level of solar adoption.

Please be aware that this seminar will be recorded and published digitally.