A Study on effectiveness of transition of policy instruments for renewable energy: In the case of shift from FIT to RPS in Korea

While the policy intervention of each country for the promotion of renewable energy is strengthened, Korea introduced Feed-in Tariff (FIT) in 2002 to directly support the development of renewable energy. But in 2012, the shift of policy instrument that from FIT to Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is occurred. This is a unique background that is currently found only in Korea, and new answers that focus on the outcomes of the shift of policy instruments are needed in addition to the existing discussion of comparison of FIT and RPS. Therefore, this study analyzed the change of policy efficiency after the shift to RPS using Data Envelopment Analysis(DEA) and Malmquist Index. In the result of analysis, a difference in the improvement of policy efficiency after in shift to RPS is found among each renewable energy source. This result is because renewable energy companies voluntarily entered the market only for energy sources that have secured technology or price competitiveness, and this indicates that the performance of renewable energy after the RPS shift has been concentrated on specific energy sources. As a result of this study, considering that the goal of renewable energy policy is to expand distribution and to drive growth engines, multi-faceted analysis is required in consideration of technology and market in selecting policy instruments.