Khatam University, Building No2.
Address: Mollasadra Blvd., North Shirazi St., East Daneshvar St., No.17.
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Dr. Saed Alizamir
Assistant Professor of Operations at Yale School of Management
Overview
Governments around the world use a variety of different incentive mechanisms to promote renewable energies. Among these policies, Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) has been one of the most widely adopted (including in Iran) and proven to be the most successful of all, accounting for a bigger share of renewables than any other policy. Feed-in-tariff policies aim at driving down the cost of renewable energy by fostering learning and accelerating the diffusion of green technologies. Under FIT mechanisms, governments purchase green energy at tariffs that are set above market price. The success or failure of FIT policies, in turn, critically depend on how these tariffs are determined and adjusted over time. The recent implementations of FIT in different countries, however, have produced mixed results. While some countries such as Germany have successfully used FIT to harness solar and other renewable sources of power, some others such as Spain have faced unexpected challenges and had to drastically change course. In this research, we provide insights into designing cost-efficient and socially optimal FIT programs. Our modeling framework captures key market dynamics such as technological learning and social learning as well as investors’ strategic behavior. We draw contrast between our findings and the current implementations of FIT, and provide normative recommendations to inform policy decisions.
Biography
Saed Alizamir is an assistant professor of operations at Yale University’s School of Management. He received his PhD degree in Decision Sciences from Duke University, and a masters degree in Operations Research from University of Florida. Prior to that, he finished his undergraduate education at Sharif University of Technology in Industrial Engineering
Saed is interested in studying managerial problems that involve private-public interactions and/or have social dimensions. In particular, he is interested in applying advanced OR techniques to study public policy problems that arise in the area of energy and environment. He has done some work on government incentive policies for renewable energies, price and revenue subsidies in the agriculture industry, and public agency’s inspection policies to enforce compliance with environmental and labor standards. In a different stream of research, Saed has also done some work on optimal control of diagnostic service systems which has application in healthcare as well as quality control